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Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ

A beautiful and warm evening!

My wife and I sat outside today and crafted. I made this bowl thing, I will probably use it as a cup.

Ashley is out here spinning yarns. Both woolen and audible.

Resources are starting to arrive as we draw closer to offering service in Spanish!

This will be my last post from the Dominican Republic.

It's hard to believe, but my 5 weeks are about up! In a little over a day my flight leaves to bring me back to Minnesota.

I'm here in my apartment packing thinking about how wonderful this experience has been! I am prepared to return home and begin the new outreach into our community, I am ready, willing, and able to start telling people about Jesus in Spanish! (Or as Pastor Fritzler would say, 'en la verdadera idioma')

Today I again had opportunity to lead a worship service at the seminary. The men there are very welcoming, and more.than willing to make me practice Spanish.

Afterwards, mi professora Neli, took me to find some true Dominican chocolate to bring home to the kids.

Tomorrow is my final exam of sorts. I am going to do my best to not speak in English, at least until after lunch. (I lost a bet, we are having pizza.)

I have so many more stories and photos to share when I return.

Please keep the missionaries, seminarians, pastors, families, language teavhers, and all staff in your prayers. God is doing amazing things through all of them.

It's been a while since my last update! They are keeping me busy here!

Tonight, I'm falling asleep in Santo Domingo, the capital city. Tomorrow, I get to play tourist a little bit (after a zoom call with the LWML). I am going to explore the Zona Colonial. Its the original city Christopher Columbus founded all those years ago!

The statue of Christ is from the botanical gardens. La Republico Dominicana is a very religious country and seeing statues honoring Christ, in public parks sponsored by the government, is common.

Interestingly, they are the only nation to have an image of the Bible on their national flag.

My Spanish comprehension is improving greatly! Now to work more on the speaking part...

I will do my best to update again soon.

I was blessed to be able to participate in another installation today!

I was assigned the task of distributing wine during the Lord's Supper (Santa Cena en espanol). I am getting a lot of food, practical experience!

Made another friend today. This guy didn't want to come in through, he was just passing through.

The few days have been jam packed with adventures!

One of the congregations here supports a local volleyball program, and I was invited to attend a devotion with a seminarian and another pastor. I even had my first Uber ride!

After the devo, I was asked to pray, in English, as it was a meaningful thing for the kids.

My studies continue as I am practicing different services as well as role playing various situations I will probably encounter.

I have had a few classes on cultural differences and expectations. In one of those classes I learned the history of quincineras, and how we, as a church, can honor milestones in the lives of those around us.

I was blessed to participate in an installation service for Pastor Weber, who began serving the congregation as their pastor on Wednesday. I will participate in another installation tomorrow at a different congregation, for Pastor Shaver. Both missionaries are going to be huge blessinga for the people here.

Continue to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into His harvest.

Today, for most of the afternoon, there was a Regional (?) team meeting. The first part was business, which I was not required to attend.

I was blessed to participate in Bible Study and the rare treat of a church service in English! We even sang one of my favorite hymns, "Let all mortal flesh keep silent"

Afterwards, we had a potluck, and it was Octoberfest themed.

I finally had opportunity to meet the mission director, Pastor Krey who started me on this journey nearly a year and a half ago. He's even letting me borrow a stole for a pastor installation service tomorrow!

Tomorrow will be my busiest day yet!

A couple pictures of tasty food I ate today.

I am very blessed by the missionary team here in Santiago. They are working hard to go out of their way to make sure I am cared for and also, not alone.

I have been invited many times to join these men and women with their families for dinner or other activities. It's hard to express how joyous this is!

I'm class today we roleplayed a hospital visit in Spanish.bi am still working on building confidence in speaking. My new challenge now is to only speak Spanish, and not translate phrases into English as I go .

Also, as part of my homework I am reading a Spanish/English children's Bible with my daughter as we work on learning Spanish together.

Tomorrow, I will meet the whole team at the monthly team meeting. Should be a lot of fun!

I haven't posted in a while! I've been sick, but I am better now.

Here are some pictures of the last few days. That's me in Spanish class as well as helped Ng a missionary build a drawer for his cabinet.

Today I went to church in Lisey. I am getting better at participating in the Divine service in Spanish!

The closing hymn was a lot of fun to sing! It says, "let us walk in the light of God." We sang through it 3-4 times. It's super catchy. We will definitely sing it when I get back.

Here are some more pictures of my time at the seminary yesterday. I sat in and participated in a couple classes. It was fun to talk about Hebrew in Spanish! (I definitely need work on both languages)

Most of my day today was spent in Spanish classes. However, as part my theological currents class we visited a market.

At this market, among the vendors, we saw examples of synchrotism, that is a blending of other spiritual beliefs with Christianity.

I am all the more grateful for the work the missionaries, pastors, and seminarians are doing to proclaim Christ in their communities!

This morning I went to the Lutheran seminary here in Santiago.

I was blessed to worship with the seminarians in chapel. We sang Matins today. I was honored to be able to share the word of God and preach for the first time in Spanish!

I had a great first weekend here!

En Sabado, no hacé mucho. (On Saturday, I didn't do a lot). I had a quiet day in my house, doing laundry and resting.

Sunday, I was blessed to attend church at Pueblo Nuevo. There are three Lutheran churches in Santiago. In a couple weeks, I will attend again when their new pastor, a missionary is installed!

This morning, my Spanish tutor took me out for brunch at a local coffee shop! The food was delicious! I kept bumping my head against the lights!

Tomorrow, I preach my first sermon in Spanish!

All glory to God!

Another great day! Today, I practiced reading Spanish as I am preaching on Tuesday, en espanol!

This evening, the missionaries invited me over for dinner, burgers and beer, a taste of home.

The picture is of Pastor Shaver. He and his family serve as missionaries here. In conversation, we learned that we served as vicars at the same church in California!

Tomorrow is a day of rest. I will probably not post any updates.

The trees are from my walk to the office. There are so many beautiful plants in full bloom year round in this part of the world.

Another great day!

Today began as an excursion day. I blessed to be here as the missionaries are completing their trait, so I get to tag along for fun adventures!

The pictures and video are from a sky tram thing. It's a new public transportation system from the poorest part of town to the city center. It was built to be very affordable, and it is! It's also a great way to see the city. They are currently adding a public transportation hub at the other end of the line with elevated monorail lines which the locals call ,all, "the Disney train."

I also was blessed to be able to enter into the beautiful cathedral! I loved how they had the baptismal fount for the Easter vigil under the picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, reminding us of being baptized into Christ!

After lunch, I met with the president of the seminary here, and he is a very busy guy. Somehow, I am now preaching for chapel on Tuesday....

Anyway, as my schedule becomes more set, I am very excited about the opportunities that God is placing before me as He prepares me for cross-cultural ministry in Melrose!

Today was my first Spanish language class! I also learned more about what my schedule will look like.

Each day, I have 4 hours of formal language instruction, each morning. The afternoon schedule varies. I will job shadow a missionary once a week. I will have liturgy training twice a week, I will have some kind of thing at the seminary here once a week, and the other day I will take a cultural class, to learn culture.

Today was excellent and I am already learning a lot. Tomorrow, as part of the cultural acquisition, I am going on a field trip. I'm not sure where, but I was told to bring a hat and bug spray.

Interestingly, a home remedy for mosquito repellent is to rub vanilla extract instead! I may try that out.

The picture is of a friend I met in my shower this morning. I think he crawled in a window to get out of the rain last night. He's pretty chill.

Woke up to a beautiful day in Santiago!! It was wonderful to sleep in after the long day of travel.

The missionaries rent an apartment for "short to medium" term mission use, like me apparently, and it's super nice.

I really appreciated the welcoming gifts, including the mint on my pillow.

This is the view from the balcony.

I am super blessed that the bedroom has air-conditioning! This heat and humidity will take some adjusting l, especially for this northern Minnesota boy.

Today's high is 96 with 97% humidity.

Time to make some coffee....

Santiago!

After 16ish hours of traveling, I made it! The missionaries here are a blessing and I am now settling in.

I'm super tired from the day. I'll show more pictures later.

Tomorrow is a national holiday here, so it is a day of rest, which works well as I feel like i need that time to recover....

Then Wednesday, the work really begins.

Made it to my connection in New York City!

First thing to do in NYC? LEGO store!!

Only 3 more hours of layover....

Bonus points if you guess how much an airport salad costs.

First official day of summer!

Oak Station is open!

Today's presentations have been excellent!

We have focused on sharing hospitality.

A phrase struck home with me, "The one Holy Christian Church embraces people of all cultures, it is a place that offers hospitality in an inhospitable world."

Dr. Vogel presented on the demographic challenges facing the church. He gave a down to earth and honest assessment of the current situation.

He also proclaimed the good news and hope we have in embracing the Christian Church found in all demographics.

Beautiful stained glass in the seminary chapel for opening service today.

Christ is Risen from the dead! Alleluia!

I found Hogwarts!

Made it to the seminary. Symposium starts in about an hour. Time to find the old favorite coffee shop....

Safely landed in St Louis for the Multi-ethnic symposium at Concordia Seminary!

It's fun to be back!

It's a great day in God's creation to be outside!

Found some time to work on the boat again. I got the frame boards cut and mostly sanded.

The first photo is just piecing a frame together. It's too big for my workbench, which is probably a good thing, all things considered.

Boat building continues!

Today we finished cutting out all the plywood pieces. Thie big one in the second picture is the transom, or stern of the boat.

The rest of the wood are gussets, used to reinforce the corners of the frames.

The rest of the skeleton of the boat will be made from oak, and I'll start that later next week.

If the weather holds and the Lord is willing, I should have some frames built by the end of next weekend.

The bow is taking shape!

(Forgot to add this to the last post)

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Preaching Christ Crucified

A pastor is called to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments.

This website will serve as a collecting point for preaching and teaching.

The sermons found on these pages were delivered to a congregation. While the sermons have been tailored to a specific gathering of God's people, it is my prayer they may be of some blessing to you.

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