The Lutheran Church in Singapore (LCS) is a small church, with six congregations and a couple of thousand members. They do not break records when it comes to numbers. But God never worries about such things! Despite their size, LCS has enormous vision and commitment to mission, dedicating time and resources to outreach mission work […]

The Lutheran Church in Singapore (LCS) is a small church, with six congregations and a couple of thousand members. They do not break records when it comes to numbers. But God never worries about such things! Despite their size, LCS has enormous vision and commitment to mission, dedicating time and resources to outreach mission work in China, Cambodia, Thailand and Mongolia. It was our joy, therefore, to support them when they requested help to send a Mongolian student to seminary.

Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China and is still experiencing rapid change after their release from the Soviet bloc in the 1990s. The LCS has been supporting Mongolian Christians for many years, an involvement that predates the establishment of the Mongolian Evangelical Lutheran Church (MELC).

President Puje of the MELC writes, ‘MELC may be the youngest Lutheran church in the world in that it is established on Reformation Day 2017. We are functioning as a church little over three years. As a young church, we lack leadership with proper theological education. MELC consists of 6 main churches, 11 worship places, and 11 preaching stations. But there are three ordained pastors and 11 full and part-time church workers.

‘We are sending our candidates to three different levels of study. We encourage our believers to study at MELC Bible school to acquire basic knowledge of the Bible and the ministry. But those who would want to go further enter the Union Bible Theological College in Mongolia. But for those who are in the senior leadership position with an adequate level of English or other languages would be sent abroad.’

‘Nomyo is one of the candidates to study abroad. Since the church is young, we can’t support him financially but find a scholarship from somewhere. We appreciate LCA and LCS for helping MELC send our students and fulfill our mission to build the church on the solid ground of the word. Thank you very much.”

LCA International Mission and LSC are providing a scholarship for Nomyo to study at Lutheran Theological Seminary in the Philippines. Nomyo and his family are known within the LCA as they were members of St Paul’s in Sydney for three years. It was there that Nomyo says he ‘fell in love with Lutheran theology and sensed a call to be a pastor.’ As a civil engineer, Nomyo could pursue a path which guaranteed financial security for his family but having personally experienced the reality that ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,’ he is determined to spend his days proclaiming this good news to others.

Both the LCA and LCS are small churches by world standards, but God has never needed large numbers to accomplish his mission to seek and to save. Like young David before Goliath, or Elijah facing off against 450 prophets of Baal, God can use our small churches to accomplish mighty things in his mission to the world.

This story was also published in the August 2021 edition of Border Crossings, the magazine of LCA International Mission.

If you would like to know more about opportunities to personally support a scholarship recipient in your congregation during their stay in Australia, or ways in which you can financially and prayerfully support LCA International Mission’s scholarship program, you are invited to phone Nevin on (08) 8267 7300 or email nevin.nitschke@lca.org.au

Read more stories about LCA International Mission scholarships at https://www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/scholarships/