New world mission fields
More than 7,000 people groups in the world live without access to the good news of Jesus Christ. With these unreached people groups and the Great Commission in mind, the Board for World Missions approved new locations to plant world mission fields and will be providing additional missionaries to support thriving world mission work.
London
More than 50 WELS-connected families have been identified for a potential new congregation in the capital of Great Britain. In addition, many members from WELS’ sister churches around the world have been moving to the U.K. Two world missionaries have been called to serve this new mission field. With the Lord’s blessing, it is the prayer that such a congregation could provide a springboard for further work on the continent.
Latin America
Online outreach efforts through Academia Cristo have connected the Latin America missions team with potential church planters in every Latin American country. 61 people have come into doctrinal agreement with WELS through Academia Cristo, with additional men and women being added to that number weekly. Five new position were added to the team in the past year to follow up with these contacts and continue training new Christians in grace-starved Latin America.
Bangladesh
A Christian young man from Bangladesh who recently became a member of a WELS congregation is now studying to be a pastor through the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI). When his father passed away, this man inherited two Bible schools in Bangladesh. He is now working with WELS to provide solid scriptural training to those two schools and is partnering with WELS in his outreach in his hometown in the Midwest.
Ethnic Thai in Thailand
While WELS has had a presence in Buddhist Thailand before, the Thai people have been largely unreached by previous efforts. Even most other missionary groups have focused on non-Thai, Hill Tribe people. The Thai are very proud of their language, history, culture, and religion, and leaving Buddhism for another religion is considered an abandonment of what it means to be Thai. WELS has a small foothold with the Thai people, something other mission groups cannot claim after decades of work. New missionary Mark Zondag was recently assigned to reach out to this new group and moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in September 2021.
New Native American Tribes
Missionary John and his wife Mindy Holtz (previously serving in Malawi) were welcomed to the Native American mission team in 2022. Missionary Holtz will be carrying on the important work of equipping Native American Christians to lead and serve God’s people through the Apache Christian Training School (ACTS).
The Native American mission team also looks forward to adding another missionary to help expand gospel reach to more locations. More than 500 tribes that are overwhelmingly not Christian are still waiting for the life-changing, future-changing seeds of the gospel to be planted in their fields.
Wolof people in Senegal
The country of Senegal in Western Africa has a population of almost 17 million people. The Wolof tribe makes up about 40 to 45 percent of the total population and is less than 0.01 percent Christian. Despite the fact that Senegal is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, the constitution staunchly defends freedom of religion and is a relatively peaceful and stable place.
Plans for exploratory trips to Senegal are currently on hold as World Missions responds to the many African contacts who are being connected to the One Africa Team through the TELL Network.
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PICTURES OF WORLD MISSION WORK
Browse through and share pictures of world mission work, taken by WELS missionaries and national workers.
