THE WORD AT WORK
Hmong language school plants seeds of faith
It was 1979. “Do we live for today, or do we live for tomorrow?” Doua Xiong’s father asked himself, as he planned his family’s treacherous journey across Laos’ steep terrain, through narrow river valleys and dense bamboo forests, and ultimately across the Mekong River, into the safety of Thailand’s refugee camps.
Like thousands of other Hmong soldiers who had fought alongside American forces in the Vietnam War, Doua’s father faced a near-certain fate if they stayed in Laos after the U.S. withdrawal: death. And so with their relatives, the Xiong family gathered what little possessions they had and made the dangerous journey into Thailand, where they lived in the refugee camp for eight years before coming to America.
Today, more than 300,000 Hmong call America their home, with most settling in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Many still embrace their old religious traditions of animism and shamanism, and still others are atheist.
But some have been introduced to the Savior, Jesus Christ - including Doua, who is now an LCMS pastor. Rev. Xiong and his wife, Sue, are committed to sharing the Good News with Hmong people in the United States, and they’ve found a unique way to do so: a Hmong language school, run out of their LCMS congregations in Merced and Fresno, California.
“I was nine years old when we came to the United States, and so my generation has easily blended into the American culture,” Rev. Xiong reflected. “But we are still
A young Hmong student learns how God created the world in LHF’s White Hmong edition of A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories. Hmong cont. on page 4
TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING DISTRIBUTING REFORMATION BIBLE-BASED CHRIST-CENTERED BOOKS TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING DISTRIBUTING REFORMATION BIBLE-BASED CHRIST-CEN TERED BOOKS TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING TRANSLATING REFORMATION BIBLE-BASED
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INSIDE: PAGE 2: LHF begins innovative teaching program in East Africa
PAGES 3-4: Join LHF’s new “Book-a-Month” Club!
BLE-BASED CHRIST-CENTERED BOOKS TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING DISTRIBUTING REFORMA
TION BIBLE-BASED CHRIST-CENTERED BOOKS TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING DISTRIBUTING
REFORMATION
PAGE 4: Matching gift opportunity DOUBLES new mission gifts
BIBLE-BASED CHRIST-CENTERED BOOKS TRANSLATING PUBLISHING INTRODUCING DISTRIB
Volume 30 Number 2 ■ March/April 2023
Lutheran Heritage Foundation:
LHF BEGINS INNOVATIVE TEACHING SEMINARS
After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He himself was about to go. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Luke 10:1-2
For nearly 30 years, LHF has faced a challenge in Africa:
“The challenge that we have faced with introducing our books to pastors and to lay people in Africa is that churches are growing fast, and they extend over vast geographical areas,” explained Rev. Tuomo Simojoki, coordinator of LHF’s Nairobi office. “We have very few workers, and even if we traveled every single day to a new place, we could only return to congregations every few years. That is not good enough!
“The level of theological training in Africa has been going up over the years; more and more church workers are receiving good training in seminaries,” he continued. “However, the challenge for these church workers is that after their studies finish, there are too few resources available. There are too few books, and almost no refresher courses after the studies. This means the workers find themselves often quite alone in their work.”
In an effort to help provide this much-needed continuing education, Rev. Simojoki and Rev. Dr. Dinku Bato (LHF’s coordinator for African projects) have established Project 72: Jesus
Sent Them Two by Two.
Under Project 72, visiting professors from Europe and the United States, as well as well-educated local pastors and professors, travel in pairs to regions throughout East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and more. In each region, they will conduct teaching seminars using LHF books.
From there, the students hometowns to Training Sunday Seminars said.
teachers care practices, dren, Lutheran “The cost of to bring in all the workers can go around to several congregations become stronger in their theology Lutheran teaching.”
If you or your congregation would contact the Lutheran Heritage Foundation
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Project 72: Jesus sent them two by two
SEMINARS IN AFRICA
students now become the teachers as they return to their own teach and distribute the very LHF materials they just learned. Training courses will be tailored separately for pastors, deaconesses, Sunday school teachers, church musicians and church leaders. Seminars will also be conducted for LHF translators, Dr. Bato said. “In these trainings, both veteran and novice translators from parts of Africa where Lutheranism is growing fast (Ethiopia, Tanzania, etc.) and from countries with budding Lutheran communities like Burundi and Malawi, come together to a central location to learn not only from experts in the field, but also from each other,” he explained.
The first Project 72 seminar was held in November 2022, taught by Rev. Kalle Väätäinen of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (pictured below, center). Eleven pastors and two lay people attended the sessions focused on Lutheran worship and the Book of Concord, especially the Augsburg Confession.
Six more Project 72 seminars are planned for 2023, with two teachers instructing 14 students at each. Topics will include pastoral practices, church administration, teaching and learning for chilLutheran hymnody and youth involvement in church activities. of holding small-scale, local seminars is a fraction of what it costs workers to a single location,” Rev. Simojoki said. “Two trained pastors congregations and hold seminars. This way the local churches will theology and doctrine, as more and more of their Christians get better would like to help fund one of these Project 72 seminars, please Foundation at (800)554-0723 or info@LHFmissions.org.
JOIN LHF’S “BOOKA-MONTH” CLUB!
For just $10 per month, you can share God’s Word with 2 dozen families per year!
Remember the days of the Record or Book-of-theMonth clubs? Each month, you eagerly awaited the newest arrival “personally selected for you.”
This Lenten season, we at LHF challenge you to join a new kind of book club - one where YOU provide Lutheran books to new Christians who eagerly await them!
How? By making regular, monthly gifts to LHF through the “Book-a-Month” Club.
On average, LHF prints 20,000 books per month at a cost of about $5 per book. This April, LHF’s featured Book of the Month is the Anyuak language Child’s Garden of Bible Stories. Having just been printed, these books will now go to South Sudanese families living in refugee camps in Ethiopia or to others who have immigrated to the United States and Canada.
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
When you enroll in the “Book-a-Month Club,” you indicate how much you’d like to send to the LHF mission each month. As an example, $10 per month may not sound like a lot...but by the end of the year, your LHF mission gifts will have combined to place Bible storybooks and Small Catechisms in the hands of 24 waiting children of God!
Your monthly, tax-deductible donation can either be a credit card charge or an automatic withdrawal from your bank account. You may cancel your enrollment in LHF’s Book-a-Month Club at any time.
Each month, your receipt will include an update on a new book that is being printed and distributed!
To join LHF’s “Book-a-Month” Club online, go to www.LHFmissions.org/Book-a-Month. Or, complete and mail the enrollment form on the back of this newsletter.
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HOLDING UP THE PROPHETS’ HANDS:
South Sudanese families living
First-time donors: The LHF Match is here!
If you’ve never given a mission gift to LHF before, now is the time! You are eligible for an exciting dollar-for-dollar matching gift opportunity, DOUBLING the impact of your mission gift without spending an extra dime. Here’s how it works:
■ Any gift up to $5,000 will be
MATCH $5 + $5 = $10 DOUBLE THE BOOKS!
matched, dollar-for-dollar, but only until the limit of $125,000 has been reached. This means your $25 gift (providing 5 new Christians with a book about Jesus) will double to $50 (10 people with books)!
Hmong cont. from page 1
connected to the older generation as we transition to the new generations, and we want to connect both groups of people together. While we now grow up speaking English, Hmong immigrants want their kids to learn their language, so they can talk to their grandmas and grandpas.”
Recognizing this desire and opportunity, LHF’s former Hmong translator Rev. Dr. Kou Seying (now deceased) started a Hmong language school, and then-Vicar Xiong and his wife learned from him. Today, their Hmong classes have 35 students ranging from pre-K to college age.
And their textbooks? LHF’s White and Blue Hmong translations of A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories.
“The students are from the community; most are not Christian yet,” said Rev. Xiong. “But we are planting the seeds of faith. In our classrooms, we read a Bible lesson in Hmong, perhaps about how God created the world. The goal is that when they go home, the parent will ask, ‘What did you learn today?’ So we are accomplishing two things: teaching the language and telling how God sent Jesus to be our Redeemer.”
Read more about Rev. Xiong’s story at www.LHFmissions.org.
■ Gifts from churches and organizations (i.e., women’s groups, Bible studies, Sunday schools, etc.) are also eligible for the LHF Match if they haven’t given to LHF before. Share this info with your congregation!
■ No extra paperwork is required; your gifts will automatically qualify for the match.
■ Grants and bequests are not eligible for the LHF Match.
LUTHERAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION
51474 Romeo Plank Rd. ■ Macomb, MI 48042 1-800-554-0723 ■ info@LHFmissions.org www.LHFmissions.org
“The Word at Work” is the official publication of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Permission is hereby granted to excerpt from this publication for not-forprofit purposes. The Lutheran Heritage Foundation is a Recognized Service Organization of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces confessional Lutheran materials throughout the world so that people can be brought to Christ. LHF is not subsidized by the LCMS or any other church body. It is entirely supported by individual donations and grants.
(“Word at Work” staff: Rev. Dr. Matthew Heise, executive editor; Jennifer Bagnall, managing editor and graphic design; Anna Irwin, staff writer.)
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