 LWML NEWS
by Patricia Kubicek
VP Leadership Development
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Delegates to the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League’s 32nd Biennial Convention adopted a $1.7 million mission goal for the 2007-09 biennium — the largest in the organization‘s 65-year history.
More than 5,000 people attended the convention, held in Sioux Falls, SD, June 21-24, under the theme “Rest On Christ the King” — “ROCK” — from Psalm 31:1-3.
The record mite goal is $75,000 more than the LWML‘s previous goal for 2005-07. Funds raised over the next two years will be used to support 18 mission grants to:
- train deaf-ministry leaders ($50,000);
- provide portable medical clinics in Sudan, East Africa ($70,000);
- build 10 Lutheran churches in India ($100,000);
- support a female missionary to Muslim people in Guinea, Africa ($100,000);
- help Lutheran Bible Translators provide transportation for missionaries ($60,000);
- open eight Lutheran Blind Mission Outreach Centers nationwide ($40,000);
- provide education to Muslims in Bangladesh ($75,000);
- support a “circuit rider” pastor in rural northwest South Dakota ($65,000);
- support an inner-city children’s ministry in Minneapolis-St. Paul ($50,000);
- send a female human-caremissionary to Africa ($100,000);
- support a Christian family counseling center in St. Petersburg, Russia ($36,000);
- expand mission work in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, Africa ($104,500);
- begin a Lutheran campus ministry at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS ($95,000);
- expand Internet streaming capabilities at KFUO-AM Radio in St. Louis ($50,000);
- support Concordia University Texas students preparing for child-welfare careers ($80,000);
- assist Lutheran City Ministries in its outreach to homeless and addicted people in Detroit ($49,000);
- support a soup kitchen at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Chicago ($33,000);
- support a cross-cultural urban ministry in Ohio ($32,500).
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The 600-plus delegates elected Janice (Jan) Wendorf of Grafton, WI, as president. Also elected to four-year terms were Sylvia Johnson of New Berlin, WI, vice president of Human Care; Eloise Kuhlmann of Amarillo, TX, vice president of Servant Resources; Helen Miller of Lake in the Hills, IL, treasurer; Rev. Michael J. Mattil of Sherman, TX, junior pastoral counselor.
Newly elected members of the LWML Nominating Committee are Linda Arnold of Woodridge, IL, who will serve as chairman; Martha Burke of Clemmons, NC; Claire Carlson of Hamburg, NY; Judy Lessmann of Scottsboro, AL; and Marilyn McClure of Tucson, AZ.
Delegates chose Des Moines, IA, as the site of the 2015 LWML convention.
Besides exceeding their last mission grant goal by more than $55,000 and adopting the LWML’s most ambitious mission goal ever, convention-goers gave daily offerings:
- $52,381.81, contributed during Thursday’s opening worship service, will go toward the 2007-09 mission goal.
- $57,268.50 given on Friday will be divided between the LWML endowment fund and LCMS World Mission for educating missionary children. Added to that figure will be offerings attendees brought to the convention from their districts of $24,906.91, for a total of $82,175.41.75
- A third offering brought in $47,831.54 to support seminary-student education.
- A fourth offering will be used to continue funding for the LWML’s “Heart to Heart” program, which serves women of different ethnic groups.
The convention featured daily Bible studies led by author and speaker Dr. Mary Manz Simon; processions with banners from all 40 LWML districts and the flags of 38 of the 50 countries that have received LWML mission grants; activities for children and members of the LWML group for teens; a “Mission Pledge Walk”; a talent show; a performance by jazz singer Erin Bode; and presentations by Lutheran missionaries.
 Outgoing LWML International President Linda Reiser with her successor Jan Wendorf.
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