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MISSION UPDATE
Native American
The Native American missions field consists of five congregations and one preaching station on the northern White Mountain Apache Reservation and three congregations on the southern San Carlos Reservation. The 3,000 souls who belong to these congregations are served by three pastors, two Apache evangelists/pastors, and four dedicated lay evangelists. These evangelists are church leaders who are trained in counseling, teaching and ministering to other Apaches. They attend the Apache Christian Training School (or ACTS).
This program trains leaders and also provides ministerial education. Currently two students have graduated as evangelists/pastors and are serving in the field. About 30 students are in the Apache Christian Training School program, with four in serious studies in the pre-seminary pastoral program.

Hong Kong
Lutherans in Hong Kong recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of SALEM (Southeast Asia Lutheran Evangelical Mission). This church body consists of eight congregations and 750 souls. They own a college which uses Bible Stories to teach English and Christianity at the same time. In addition, Asia Lutheran Seminary has completed three years of operation and faithfully teaches the next generation of Chinese Lutheran Christians. Visiting professors on sabbatical complement the veteran faculty.

GARAGE SALE: Church hosts a garage sale once a year. There are several purposes. People can use their time and their unwanted things to support the non-budgetary work of our church. Items that might not normally be done, like helping our kids go to Bible Camp or shelving in our storerooms, can be taken care of. And, the sale gets people on our campus. One person came to church the following Sunday last year. If you would, please save your unwanted ‘treasures’ for the sale which will happen on June 5th.

BIBLE QUIZ on…   the Book of Acts, Ch. 1
    (First in a series of twelve.)

1.    Under God’s direction, Luke wrote the Book of Acts to Theophilus. The name Theophilus means
a.    Gift of God
b.    Place of Prayer
c.    God of Grace
d.    Hair of the Dog

2.    In the 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus gave many proofs he was alive and spoke about
a.    Why the Jewish leaders hated him
b.    How believers should live
c.    The Kingdom of God
d.    What’s wrong with Obama’s Health Care plan

3.    When the disciples asked Jesus if he was at this time going to restore the Kingdom of Israel, Jesus
a.    told them the story of the prodigal Son
b.    told them they were suppose to be His witnesses to all the earth
c.    told them to always be alert since the Judgment day could come at any time
d.    smacked them up the backside of their heads and said, “Haven’t you been listening to anything I said?!”

4.    Jesus then slowly rose up into Heaven. Two angels said to the disciples
a.    This same Jesus…taken up into Heaven will come back in the same way.
b.    Why do you look for the living among the dead?
c.    Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on Earth
d.    There is nothing to fear but fear itself

5.    How was Matthias chosen over Joseph to take Judas’ spot as a disciple?
a.    They cast lots (similar to dice)
b.    God told them which to choose
c.    They both made an offering and asked God to send down fire to burn it up
d.    They had them each sing a hymn on American Idol and the audience vote was used.

Kissing an Iguana

My brother Mark is an Emergency Medical Technician, or EMT. It is his job to go out to people in distress and give them aid. If necessary, he brings them to the hospital. He’s seen some pretty scary wrecks and injuries. And he’s seen some comical things too. There was one call that I especially remember hearing about. Mark received a call to go to a certain address one summer weekend. He immediately recognized it as the apartment complex that he lived at when he first got married. The majority of inhabitants there are Hmong. The dispatcher said the call was hard to understand but that there was someone at the bottom of the complex swimming pool. When they got there, Mark was met by one of his former neighbors and his ten year old son. But, instead of a person at the bottom of the pool, there was an Iguana. It seems this reptile was the boy’s pet and was even considered a good luck charm by many in the complex. It had gotten out the door, was chased up a tree by a dog, climbed out on a branch and then fell into the pool. They figured the Iguana’s heart couldn’t take the strain. So, Mark fishes the Iguana out of the pool. Now, what? This was the pet of the son of a good friend, and he had done CPR on some pretty gross-looking people, and even a dog once, but… Now, are Iguanas attractive pets? I imagine if there was a beauty contest for pets, certainly the iguana would come in last or very near to it. But, nonetheless, Mark decided to give the Iguana mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. And, amazingly, it worked! Now, can you imagine being the iguana? You’ve just been chased up a tree by a dog, your heart has nearly given out and you’ve fallen in a swimming pool. To top it all off, the first thing you see	when you open your eyes again is my ugly brother wrapping his lips around yours! (Just kidding about the ugly part, Mark.) Could that animal’s day get any worse? Well, there was a happy ending. The iguana recovered completely and Mark was the hero of the apartment complex. Guess what my friends? We’re iguanas! Is there anything about us that should or would appeal to God? Are we such beautiful people that God could overlook our sins? Are we so charming most of the time that we get a free pass to Heaven? Certainly not. But when we were drowning in our sin, Jesus dove in after us. He left the safety and glory of Heaven to come to rescue us ugly iguanas. Satan chased us up a spiritual tree. The strain was too much for us. We would have died forever---except that Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves and from our sins. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, Eph. 2:1 reminds us. We were spiritual corpses, unable to lift the tiniest pinky to save ourselves. Jesus came and breathed life into us. He didn’t care how ugly our sins made us. He loved us and gave Himself up for us. There are several things we need to remember from this story. First, if you are ever in Manitowoc Wisconsin and see my brother, don’t let him get a big head over this. Second, recognize the ugliness of your sin and your lostness in God’s swimming pool. Third, remember that Jesus came to be your EMT. He seeks you out to rescue you and has given us new life through his sacrifice in our behalf. He’s seen a lot of horrible spiritual wrecks that could have been avoided. And lastly, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Come celebrate that with us this Easter and every Sunday, my fellow iguanas!


Share His Love! Something to Think About … Why don’t you go to church? Why don’t you go to church?” The Barna Research Group asked that question of thousands of “unchurched” people. Only 12 percent said they don’t go to church because they don’t believe in God or aren’t sure he exists. Naturally, that would make church attendance pretty pointless, but it’s true of very few people. God strewed this world with evidence of his existence, his power, and his goodness. Thankfully, the people who can’t see that are few. Thirty-six percent said they don’t go because church services are “usually boring,” and 34 percent said they were “irrelevant to the way I live.” That seems funny to me. I wonder how people who don’t attend church know that the services are “usually boring.” If someone sees church as irrelevant, I wonder, too, whether it isn’t because in his own life he’s made it so. Isn’t this person really saying he/she decided not to let church influence the way he lives? Many people do that, and it’s too bad – but it’s hardly the church’s fault. Forty-eight percent said, “I don’t have the time.” Again, that’s odd. Ultimately, we decide for ourselves about how we’ll spend our time. “I don’t have time” really means “I choose to spend my time on other things.” In other words, this 48 percent was saying “I don’t take time for church because I’m not a churchgoer” – which doesn’t really get us anywhere. That’s the trouble with all these numbers. Research groups do surveys like this to help churches figure out how to get these people to come. But when we analyze the data with that purpose in mind, surveys never get us anywhere. The whole thing reminds me of a comment someone made about their search to determine why people commit crimes. “Wouldn’t it make more sense,” he said, “to study why some people don’t?” Rather than ask why some people don’t go to church, wouldn’t it be more helpful to ask why other people do?	I can’t tell you how every churchgoer in America would answer that question. But I know what God would say – or did. Grab a Bible, open it right around the middle, and read Psalm 95. God’s people come to church to worship him. We come because God is “the Lord our Maker, who holds “the depths of the earth” in his hands. We come because of who we are: “he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” We come because, frankly, we can’t help ourselves. What God has done for us in Christ makes us want to “shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation” and “extol him with music and song.” Jesus’ death in our place and His rising to life assures us of forgiveness and eternal life in Heaven through faith. We come to church because most of us would feel pretty silly doing these things at home alone in our living rooms. But singing God’s praises with other grateful Christians at church is the most natural thing in the world, and we wouldn’t miss a chance to do it. Not everyone feels that way. Many people find church very miss-able. But if you want an explanation for that – that makes good sense, don’t ask me. Don’t ask “unchurched” people, either. That’s the lesson of the Barna survey. By: Ken Cherney Prof. at Martin Luther College KIDS CHOIR will sing on Mother’s Day, May 9th. If you would like to have your child participate, they need to be in Sunday School to learn the song. APACHE MONEY JAR: Thanks to all who help support the Christian education of Apache students in Arizona. The spare change from people like you and many others gives the Apache children a chance for a Christian education. With the unemployment rate on the reservation at 78%, not many parents can afford it. OLD CELL PHONES are still being recycled. Place your old one in the box near the entrance. Church receives a small amount and we reuse some raw materials God has entrusted to us.