The South Asian Lutheran Evangelical Mission (SALEM) is a sister church body comprised of ten congregations located in Hong Kong. This week, five members of SALEM visited our synod’s headquarters in Waukesha, Wis. They had attended the Lutheran Women’s Missionary Society convention and now were visiting various WELS sites in Wisconsin.

What made this visit especially interesting was the report this group shared about a new mission effort in New Zealand. Since 2020, about two dozen members of SALEM moved from Hong Kong to New Zealand. With the help of SALEM, they formed a new mission congregation called SALEM New Zealand Lutheran Church. In the three years since, their group has grown to about 40 Chinese-speaking members. They joyfully described the blessings of their fellowship in this new land, and they were very excited to be sharing the gospel with other Chinese-speaking people there. SALEM will be continuing its support of SALEM New Zealand in the coming years.

The WELS Board for World Missions has provided some modest funding to support their effort. In addition, Missionary Matt Doebler, located in Thailand, will also be providing additional guidance and encouragement to this group.

This is a beautiful reminder that our sister church bodies around the world are not content to keep the gospel for themselves but are also dedicating time and resources to take the gospel to new places and new people.

To get a small glimpse of their faith and mission zeal, you can watch a brief video introducing you to these brothers and sisters in Christ.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder