From: "Rev. Robert Rahn (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: CLIMB: LHF Mission News Date: Friday, November 02, 2001 12:54 PM Subject: CLIMB: LHF Mission News Sent: 2/9/20 8:13 AM Received: 2/9/00 3:09 PM From: Rev. Robert Rahn, rrahn@lhfmissions.org To: Confessional Lutherans in Missionary Boldness, CLiMB@CAT41.org Enclosure: MIME file.139 LHF Mission News February 9, 2000 Dear Co-workers, My last report was issued on behalf of John Fehrmann and Tim Quill travelling in Nigeria. As you know, the LHF has had a strong presence in Nairobi with Dr. Anssi Simojoki. Anssi has been very instrumental in bringing the entire Ev. Lutheran Church of Kenya to a more confessional posture. This includes having his Assistant now serving as Acting Secretary to the Bishop while the person holding that office attends the St. Louis Seminary. We now face a problem. The LHF has come to be known as one of the most active Lutheran forces throughout Kenya and Tanzania. We are first to be asked for help when troubles arise. In Matongo there is a Lutheran compound established by a Finnish Mission Society that includes an orphanage, church, book store, school of theology, and a clinic in the "green hills of Africa," as called by Hemmingway. I visited there in August and everywhere we turned we were asked for help. The Doctor asked if we would provide money to make the clinic a full hospital. The book store asked if they could sell our Swahili books at a modest price as a source of income. The Matongo Lutheran Theological College asked if Anssi and Japhet Dachi, LHF Assistant to Simojoki, would do part time teaching. It happened to be one of the only conservative theological schools in all of Kenya (not under control of LWF). Anssi was on the faculty some years ago. We learned last week that the College was just closed for lack of funds. We have been approached and asked if we would re-open it under our auspices. We aren't sure about our decision. The fact that it is removed from Nairobi by several hundred miles makes us hesitate. I'm wondering if our seminaries couldn't establish an adjunct campus here in this beautiful spot and provide ELC of Kenya and beyond a strong theological presence. The latest conversation I had with John Fehrmann was from a hotel in Rwanda. He and Tim Quill had spent the day on Monday lecturing to a group of Pastors from Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo. The key word still being used by John is "unbelievable." He thought that this could very well become another Sudan with opportunities unlimited. There is a hunger for something that is real and genuine. These pastors have seen the shallowness of many other Christian churches and hunger for a strong Word and sacrament presence in their country in the midst of great chaos. Yesterday I was in to see a doctor who had just come back from Russia as part of a team that went for the Nazarene Church. They had a week long prayer seminar at their seminary 60 miles from Moscow. They have 350 students and 700 waiting to enroll. As I think about this I can't describe my feelings. I think about all the difficulties that were faced in the opening of the Novosibirsk Seminary. It isn't just a Nazarene Seminary operating in the heart of what once was Lutheranism, but a growing presence of Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons. I know numbers aren't the only thing but we have to know what others are doing in some of our common mission fields and continue to assess what we can do to better advance the Gospel and what can be done to remove those things that are hindering us. I have been invited to visit the Nazarene Seminary to learn about new potential problems for religious groups in face of the new political scene. The doctor also told me their group was jumped by the gypsies in St. Petersburg and he nearly lost the money he was carrying for the seminary. After having the same experience five years ago, I had not seen them around. Obviously they are still "operating." Robert Rahn