LCA’s ‘Growing’ goes to China

The LCA publication Growing as God’s People is now being used to encourage and foster the faith of Lisu believers in China, Myanmar and Thailand. There are about 730,000 Lisu living in Yunnan and Sichuan Province of China, 600,000 in Northern Myanmar and 55,000 in Northern Thailand.

Last month Bishop Terry Kee, of the Lutheran Church in Singapore (LCS), went through all the 40 lessons with four teachers in China, and they, in turn taught 800 church leaders to use the faith-learning resource for the Lisu language group.

Growing as God’s People, which is based on Luther’s Small Catechism, has previously been translated into Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian, and now is in the process of being translated into Burmese.

The resource was originally written by Pastor David Strelan and the late Pastor Noel Weiss, who through the church’s budget were employed as directors of the Board for Congregational Life. Published in 1981 by LCA’s Lutheran Publishing House, Growing as God’s People was subsequently re-edited by Pastor Strelan and republished in English in 2017. While this version retained the content of the original, it was redesigned with the aim of introducing the Christian faith to a new generation. The redesign and artwork were done in Singapore by LCS, with LCA funds from the sale of Openbook (formerly LPH).

Glenice Hartwich, LCA Assistant to the Bishop – International Mission, said, ‘Members of our church made the production of the original work possible through their offerings Sunday after Sunday all those years ago. In the same way they have also helped to make possible some of the new translations. We thank God for the amazing work of Pastor Strelan and Pastor Weiss in writing this book. Please pray that God will continue to use this resource to help many in other countries to grow as God’s people.’