Scholarships share reconciliation mission

LCA International Mission has teamed up with LCA Reconciliation Ministry to provide short-term scholarships for three Lutheran pastors from overseas LCA partner churches.

Rev Dr Jon Raihman Sipayung and Rev Rio Pendi Nababan from Indonesia were in Australia for eight weeks recently, while Rev Shigeo Sueoka from Japan visited for five weeks.

Dr Jon is a member of the Simalungun Protestant Christian Church (GKPS) and lectures at Abdi Sabda Theological College in Medan. Pastor Rio is a parish pastor in HKI, the (Huria Kristen Indonesia) Indonesian Christian Church, and is doing post-graduate studies at Abdi Sabda. Pastor Sueoka of the Kinki Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC) in Japan is pastor of two congregations and chairs KELC’s mission strategy and theological committees.

During their scholarship the three pastors visited congregations, parishes and schools which are engaged in reconciliation ministry. They also participated at the Western Australian District Pastors Conference, where the focus was biblical reconciliation in a pastor’s life.

The LCA’s Assistant to the Bishop – Reconciliation Ministry, Pastor Paul Kerber, said it was a joy to share the gift of biblical reconciliation ministry with the overseas visitors.

‘While we have similar situations to our mission partner churches, there is great blessing in learning about different cultures in connecting the gospel with people’, he said. ‘We thank God for building a network of people who nurture lifestyles of confession and forgiveness and proclaim the gospel.’