from africa with god's love
Thank you to everyone who uplifted us with your encouragement, prayers, and gifts for our trip to South Africa and Ghana. We had excellent health and no problems during our travels. Praise God! As ambassadors for the Lutheran Education Association, we spoke nearly every day at meetings with teachers, students, professional church workers, and others. I also preached at Lutheran congregations in both countries. The Wind Symphony from Concordia Chicago provided the music for the 500th Anniversary Reformation Service in South Africa. See FULL PERFORMANCE video here.
(Alice) Why would two retirees consider flying to the other side of the world and agree to follow a rigorous daily schedule for fifteen days? It was because from the beginning of our careers as Lutheran teachers we a shared vision of linking, equipping, and affirming Christian educators, students, and others who are connected through Lutheran Education. We stand at an interesting pinnacle in our lives right now, able to look back and reflect on the historic past, look around us to observe the present scene, as well as gaze with curiosity toward the future. Our days as Lutheran Educators have been long and rich with adventure. We feel blessed by God and blessed to be a blessing to others.
Our awareness of the Lutheran Education Association goes back to our college days as students at Concordia Teacher’s College in River Forest, Illinois. Professors there encouraged us to stay attached to Lutheran educators through membership in this professional teacher’s organization that was founded in 1942 at CTC (now Concordia Chicago.) Benefits of membership in the LEA provided a subscription to the professional journal Lutheran Education with articles written by Lutheran Educators that focused on ongoing issues and ideas that emerged as the years passed. Information regarding professional conferences, book reviews, and other news relevant to Lutheran Education was also included. We enrolled, and have remained connected to the Lutheran Education Association since that time. Values and benefits of our membership compounded as we became seasoned teachers, resulting in opportunities for us to speak, write, and serve in leadership roles within the LEA.
During the years I served on the LEA Executive Board, the vision and mission of the LEA expanded to encompass Lutheran Teachers on other continents. In 2005, while we were serving in Indonesia, the first conference of the Asian Lutheran Education Association took place in Hong Kong, with representatives from Asian regions. Additional Asian conferences have followed.
Inspired by the positive outcomes of the USA and Asian gatherings of Lutheran educators, the members of the LEA board continued to dream and pray of additional conferences that could connect Lutheran teachers in the regions of Africa, Australia and other places around the globe.
The 2017 Lutheran Education Conference in South Africa sprang from these beginnings. I considered the African conference to be a vision that had become a reality. Prayerful dreams had actually come true! I had goose-bumps when the LEA Executive Director and personal friend Jon Laabs extended an invitation for my husband and me to join the conference as speakers.
What a privilege it was for both of us to be used as ambassadors for the Lutheran Education Association in South Africa and Ghana! Each of us presented a topic at meetings of teachers at various locations. Bob’s talk focused on Luther and Prayer. My topic was titled LUTHERAN EDUCATION From Germany to the Ends of the World. In South Africa, we stayed in hotels in Durbin and in Pretoria. We traveled in a 3-vehicle caravan to various meetings. We also spent a night at a large guest ranch near Thema, in the mountainous countryside. This ranch had been owned by the same German family for more than 100 years. Parts of three different wars were fought on various sections of the property. A Lutheran boarding school and a health counseling center borders the ranch. The members of the Concordia Wind Symphony spent the night at a Lutheran camp nearby. Their bus coaches could not drive on the rough road, so the students were transported by smaller vans to and from the camp, which was visible on the far-off hillside.
During the school days, we visited dozens of classrooms at various Lutheran schools where we interacted with the school children. After school, we met with teachers, administrators, pastors, and other leaders to hear of their programs and share the vision and mission of the Lutheran Education Association as it serves to link, equip and affirm Lutheran Educators. We discussed present and future challenges facing Lutheran Education in various settings, along with possibilities of connecting more Christian teachers and students throughout the world.
Our hosts in South Africa took us to tour the settlement of Hermmansburg, South Africa, were the early settlers from Germany established the first Lutheran community in the country. The church and school celebrates over 130 years of existence at this location. It rests in a picturesque setting surrounded by agricultural and lumbering operations. It was a surprise to discover so many German Lutherans, so many cows, horses, and sheep, and such an active forestry industry! In addition, South Africa is rich in natural resources, including gold, iron and diamonds.
The blessing of natural resources combined with the colonialization of parts of Africa by European countries plus plain and simple greed contributed to bittersweet social and economic problems for South Africa. A tour of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg opened our eyes to the great evils of the failed social experiment in South Africa to force all citizens to live in specific areas determined by skin color. While these laws are no longer in existence, the country continues to attempt to resolve civil rights issues.
Our second week in Africa came as an invitation from Lutheran Education leaders in Ghana who asked us to spend time with them while sharing the same information with Lutheran Schools in Ghana that we had used in South Africa.
Here, we stayed for the whole week at the same location in the capitol city of Accra and took day trips to four Lutheran schools in the surrounding area. Everywhere we went, the teachers and students welcomed us with Holy Hugs and welcoming gifts. A cross on each and every classroom wall identified it as a place where the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ is shared on a daily basis.
Bob and I were invited to interact with the students in all of the schools. We wanted to celebrate the fact that their Christian school is special. We wanted them to know that it is a place where they are learning more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. We took time to talk and sing with them about the love, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ. We shared the importance of Christian attributes and characteristics that can be ours by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us. These transformative behaviors can be recognized through the development of our Christian character, attitudes, habits and skills. Bob had fun teaching them to whistle with his hands. This usually created such a hit with the kids, it made it hard for us to leave!
After school, we spoke with the teachers and administrators and met with other Christian leaders. We were pleased to re-connect with LCMS missionaries David and Joyce Erber who now work in Accra. We have known them since our times in Nigeria. We were also privileged to spend time with Rev. Dr. Paul Flynn, the Bishop of the Lutheran Church of Ghana. He gave us a tour of the university he founded in Accra, spent an evening with us, and also led the church service where Bob preached on Sunday.
One of the saddest things we did in Ghana was to visit the Castle Museum, a former British fort along the southern coast that was used during the times of slavery to house African men and women before they were put aboard ship to be taken to the new world as slaves. The place echoed a sickening silence as one traced the steps of those whose freedom was taken from them in exchange for a forced life as a slave in an unknown land. Every area of the castle begged for God’s mercy on behalf of the evil things that occurred on this soil. The entire place and its true story is a stain forever on the history of mankind.
So our trip turned out to be a time of mountain top experiences combined with deep valleys of introspection. Life is like that…full of highs and lows; good and evil. We can find comfort and hope in the fact that even though our lives take us through mountains and valleys with “change” being the only thing constant throughout history, we still have a CHANGELESS GOD! To God be the glory!
Thank you for all of your prayers and support before, during, and after our trip. We had good health and safe travels for the entire journey. While we were in Africa, one of our team members brought it to our attention that between us, Bob and I have over 100 years of active experience as professional church workers. We had never thought about it in that way before, but are grateful to God for the privilege to be used by him in the restoration of this generation to be brought back under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – where ever that may happen in the world!
(Alice) Why would two retirees consider flying to the other side of the world and agree to follow a rigorous daily schedule for fifteen days? It was because from the beginning of our careers as Lutheran teachers we a shared vision of linking, equipping, and affirming Christian educators, students, and others who are connected through Lutheran Education. We stand at an interesting pinnacle in our lives right now, able to look back and reflect on the historic past, look around us to observe the present scene, as well as gaze with curiosity toward the future. Our days as Lutheran Educators have been long and rich with adventure. We feel blessed by God and blessed to be a blessing to others.
Our awareness of the Lutheran Education Association goes back to our college days as students at Concordia Teacher’s College in River Forest, Illinois. Professors there encouraged us to stay attached to Lutheran educators through membership in this professional teacher’s organization that was founded in 1942 at CTC (now Concordia Chicago.) Benefits of membership in the LEA provided a subscription to the professional journal Lutheran Education with articles written by Lutheran Educators that focused on ongoing issues and ideas that emerged as the years passed. Information regarding professional conferences, book reviews, and other news relevant to Lutheran Education was also included. We enrolled, and have remained connected to the Lutheran Education Association since that time. Values and benefits of our membership compounded as we became seasoned teachers, resulting in opportunities for us to speak, write, and serve in leadership roles within the LEA.
During the years I served on the LEA Executive Board, the vision and mission of the LEA expanded to encompass Lutheran Teachers on other continents. In 2005, while we were serving in Indonesia, the first conference of the Asian Lutheran Education Association took place in Hong Kong, with representatives from Asian regions. Additional Asian conferences have followed.
Inspired by the positive outcomes of the USA and Asian gatherings of Lutheran educators, the members of the LEA board continued to dream and pray of additional conferences that could connect Lutheran teachers in the regions of Africa, Australia and other places around the globe.
The 2017 Lutheran Education Conference in South Africa sprang from these beginnings. I considered the African conference to be a vision that had become a reality. Prayerful dreams had actually come true! I had goose-bumps when the LEA Executive Director and personal friend Jon Laabs extended an invitation for my husband and me to join the conference as speakers.
What a privilege it was for both of us to be used as ambassadors for the Lutheran Education Association in South Africa and Ghana! Each of us presented a topic at meetings of teachers at various locations. Bob’s talk focused on Luther and Prayer. My topic was titled LUTHERAN EDUCATION From Germany to the Ends of the World. In South Africa, we stayed in hotels in Durbin and in Pretoria. We traveled in a 3-vehicle caravan to various meetings. We also spent a night at a large guest ranch near Thema, in the mountainous countryside. This ranch had been owned by the same German family for more than 100 years. Parts of three different wars were fought on various sections of the property. A Lutheran boarding school and a health counseling center borders the ranch. The members of the Concordia Wind Symphony spent the night at a Lutheran camp nearby. Their bus coaches could not drive on the rough road, so the students were transported by smaller vans to and from the camp, which was visible on the far-off hillside.
During the school days, we visited dozens of classrooms at various Lutheran schools where we interacted with the school children. After school, we met with teachers, administrators, pastors, and other leaders to hear of their programs and share the vision and mission of the Lutheran Education Association as it serves to link, equip and affirm Lutheran Educators. We discussed present and future challenges facing Lutheran Education in various settings, along with possibilities of connecting more Christian teachers and students throughout the world.
Our hosts in South Africa took us to tour the settlement of Hermmansburg, South Africa, were the early settlers from Germany established the first Lutheran community in the country. The church and school celebrates over 130 years of existence at this location. It rests in a picturesque setting surrounded by agricultural and lumbering operations. It was a surprise to discover so many German Lutherans, so many cows, horses, and sheep, and such an active forestry industry! In addition, South Africa is rich in natural resources, including gold, iron and diamonds.
The blessing of natural resources combined with the colonialization of parts of Africa by European countries plus plain and simple greed contributed to bittersweet social and economic problems for South Africa. A tour of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg opened our eyes to the great evils of the failed social experiment in South Africa to force all citizens to live in specific areas determined by skin color. While these laws are no longer in existence, the country continues to attempt to resolve civil rights issues.
Our second week in Africa came as an invitation from Lutheran Education leaders in Ghana who asked us to spend time with them while sharing the same information with Lutheran Schools in Ghana that we had used in South Africa.
Here, we stayed for the whole week at the same location in the capitol city of Accra and took day trips to four Lutheran schools in the surrounding area. Everywhere we went, the teachers and students welcomed us with Holy Hugs and welcoming gifts. A cross on each and every classroom wall identified it as a place where the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ is shared on a daily basis.
Bob and I were invited to interact with the students in all of the schools. We wanted to celebrate the fact that their Christian school is special. We wanted them to know that it is a place where they are learning more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. We took time to talk and sing with them about the love, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ. We shared the importance of Christian attributes and characteristics that can be ours by allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us. These transformative behaviors can be recognized through the development of our Christian character, attitudes, habits and skills. Bob had fun teaching them to whistle with his hands. This usually created such a hit with the kids, it made it hard for us to leave!
After school, we spoke with the teachers and administrators and met with other Christian leaders. We were pleased to re-connect with LCMS missionaries David and Joyce Erber who now work in Accra. We have known them since our times in Nigeria. We were also privileged to spend time with Rev. Dr. Paul Flynn, the Bishop of the Lutheran Church of Ghana. He gave us a tour of the university he founded in Accra, spent an evening with us, and also led the church service where Bob preached on Sunday.
One of the saddest things we did in Ghana was to visit the Castle Museum, a former British fort along the southern coast that was used during the times of slavery to house African men and women before they were put aboard ship to be taken to the new world as slaves. The place echoed a sickening silence as one traced the steps of those whose freedom was taken from them in exchange for a forced life as a slave in an unknown land. Every area of the castle begged for God’s mercy on behalf of the evil things that occurred on this soil. The entire place and its true story is a stain forever on the history of mankind.
So our trip turned out to be a time of mountain top experiences combined with deep valleys of introspection. Life is like that…full of highs and lows; good and evil. We can find comfort and hope in the fact that even though our lives take us through mountains and valleys with “change” being the only thing constant throughout history, we still have a CHANGELESS GOD! To God be the glory!
Thank you for all of your prayers and support before, during, and after our trip. We had good health and safe travels for the entire journey. While we were in Africa, one of our team members brought it to our attention that between us, Bob and I have over 100 years of active experience as professional church workers. We had never thought about it in that way before, but are grateful to God for the privilege to be used by him in the restoration of this generation to be brought back under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – where ever that may happen in the world!
to africA with god's love | MAY 14-29, 2017
Dear friends and family,
After prayerful consideration, Alice and I have accepted invitations to join a team of Lutheran educators at the International Lutheran Education Conference in South Africa May 14 -22, 2017. In partnership with Lutheran Education Association of South Africa, LEA is hosting the conference to provide learning opportunities for international guests as well as to provide inspirational global perspectives for South Africa educators. Alice and I will be speaking at the meetings. Parts of the event will intersect with concerts performed by the Concordia University Chicago Wind Symphony on tour and a Reformation 500th Anniversary worship festival.
On May 22, we will fly to Ghana for a week to link with Lutheran pastors, teachers, LCMS missionaries, and other local Lutherans.
As a Lutheran pastor and teacher with a lifetime of shared experience in Christian education, we hope you can see the value in our presence at this conference and in Ghana to link, equip, and affirm Lutheran educators across the globe. Our desire is that you might choose to partner with us for this trip by becoming a member of our SENDING TEAM. There are two ways you can do this.
First, we invite you to pray for us:
Second, you can participate by contributing financially to our support:
Thank you for taking time to read this letter and to consider partnering with us as we prepare for this amazing adventure. We truly appreciate your support and love. More details after we return!
God bless you,
Rev. Bob and Alice Smith
After prayerful consideration, Alice and I have accepted invitations to join a team of Lutheran educators at the International Lutheran Education Conference in South Africa May 14 -22, 2017. In partnership with Lutheran Education Association of South Africa, LEA is hosting the conference to provide learning opportunities for international guests as well as to provide inspirational global perspectives for South Africa educators. Alice and I will be speaking at the meetings. Parts of the event will intersect with concerts performed by the Concordia University Chicago Wind Symphony on tour and a Reformation 500th Anniversary worship festival.
On May 22, we will fly to Ghana for a week to link with Lutheran pastors, teachers, LCMS missionaries, and other local Lutherans.
As a Lutheran pastor and teacher with a lifetime of shared experience in Christian education, we hope you can see the value in our presence at this conference and in Ghana to link, equip, and affirm Lutheran educators across the globe. Our desire is that you might choose to partner with us for this trip by becoming a member of our SENDING TEAM. There are two ways you can do this.
First, we invite you to pray for us:
- Pray for us daily from now throughout the days of our trip – good health, safety, and wisdom, and God’s blessing on every aspect of the conference and the Ghana trip with all glory to Him.
Second, you can participate by contributing financially to our support:
- Our combined cost for the trip is around $10,000.00
- Checks can be written to: St. Lorenz Lutheran Church; ATTN: SMITH MISSION FUND and sent to St. Lorenz Lutheran Church 140 Churchgrove Road 48734
- Questions? Contact us at: 989-652-3096 or [email protected] or at 535 W. Genesee Unit E; Frankenmuth, MI 48734
Thank you for taking time to read this letter and to consider partnering with us as we prepare for this amazing adventure. We truly appreciate your support and love. More details after we return!
God bless you,
Rev. Bob and Alice Smith
