The Pacific Northwest District Mission Board is partnering with Grace Lutheran Church in Yakima, Wash., to help restart a WELS congregation in Ellensburg, Wash. More than one hundred years ago, several WELS congregations were established throughout central Washington. A mission-minded pastor in Yakima arrived by train to small cities and looked in the phone book for German-sounding last names to contact and start German Lutheran congregations. This was successful church planting in the early 1900s. Over time, there were seven or eight thriving churches scattered throughout the eastern range and valleys of the Cascade Mountains.

Sadly, many of these churches have either closed or are about to close their doors. This included Good Hope Lutheran Church in Ellensburg, which closed several years ago. But this is not the desire of three WELS families who have moved into the area. Together, they have formed a core group under the direction of Rev. Nathan Zastrow from Grace in Yakima, with prayerful intent to apply for and receive mission restart status from WELS Board for Home Missions.

The committed core group has spent the past year doing extensive work both inside and outside the existing church property. A WELS Mission Journeys team from Appleton, Wis., arrived to assist with landscaping, rebuild stairs to the entrance, and provide a fresh coat of paint. Recently, the interior of the church is slowly being transformed into an open space for worship and will be used as a meeting place for community groups. Currently, a home school co-op rents the facility two days per week. These have been major accomplishments, yet there is still plenty of work to be done.

This past spring, the core group received evangelism training and has completed extensive planning to define the core values and direction for the gospel ministries in Yakima and Ellensburg. The group members have put their training into action by going door-to-door, introducing themselves, and bringing the gospel message of what Christ has done to people both personally and digitally. People have been directed to their website, hopeinellensburg.com, to receive a message of true hope found only in Christ. In May, the core group was blessed with an adult baptism: the fiancée of one of the members.

This summer, two youth groups from Oconomowoc, Wis., and Fairfax, Minn., are arriving to help lead STEM camps. Andrew and Lauren Lindloff from Fount of Life in Colorado Springs, Colo., arrived in early June to spend four days going door-to-door to proclaim the gospel. Their WELS Mission Journeys experience was a part of celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary.

We don’t know how the Lord will bless these faithful efforts, and although there is hard work that still lies ahead, the core group members have embraced the concept that the Lord blesses gospel activity. While concentrating on making Christ known in the community of Ellensburg and on the campus of Central Washington University, they are “keeping good hope alive” by fully trusting that the power of God’s Word is at work whenever the gospel is proclaimed.

It is a great day to be God’s messengers. And we ask for your prayers that the Lord bless these efforts to rebuild a gospel presence in central Washington.

Written by Mr. Dave Malnes, Pacific Northwest District Mission Board member