wfn.org | [LCMSNews] Asian partners share 'Ablaze!' plans

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	December 12, 2005 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 79

	Asian partners share plans for 'Ablaze!'

	By Karin L. Semler

	HONG KONG -- Leaders from LCMS partner churches in Asia
described how they are embracing the vision of "Ablaze!" during the
first-ever Asia "Ablaze!" Summit, held here Nov. 25-27.

	More than 280 Lutheran workers -- including expatriate
missionaries and national leaders -- from 14 Asian countries, as well as
the United States and Germany, took part in the history-making
gathering. The event was initiated by the LCMS World Mission Asia
Management Team in collaboration with The Lutheran Church--Hong Kong
Synod and the Asia International Lutheran Council to motivate, embolden,
and better equip Lutherans working in Asia.

	"LCMS World Mission has never hosted something quite as
significant as this before," said Executive Director Robert Roegner.
"This Summit attempted to get everybody who is connected to the mission
of Asia around the Lutheran church and Lutheran confessions -- church
leaders, lay leaders, church-planting missionaries, leadership-training
missionaries, international educators, volunteer missionaries, teachers
of English-as-a-second-language -- together under the banner of
'Ablaze!' to focus this region on the purpose statement of reaching 100
million unreached or uncommitted people by 2017."

	"We are very much involved in 'Ablaze!'" said Bishop David Piso
of the Gutnius Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea. "We feel 'Ablaze!'
is ours. We are thankful for this opportunity and we are certain that we
can reach a lot of people in our country and outside as well, as the
Lord permits us to do."

	Piso said his church body plans to share the Good News of Jesus
with 300,000 people, baptizing 50,000. "But the way things are going
now," he said, "we might go well beyond those figures. That's how God
works. He has His own way. We are thankful to the Lord for the great
things He is doing in our midst."

	Rev. James Cerdenola, president of The Lutheran Church in the
Philippines, described the "Ablaze!" movement as "a great thing," an
"awakening to every Lutheran church, especially The Lutheran Church in
the Philippines."

	"Some congregations slept for maybe a decade," Cerdenola said.
"But now the awakening is coming." Cerdenola said he hopes to conduct a
similar "Ablaze!" gathering in the Philippines next year.

	"Ablaze!" fits the outreach vision of the Lutheran Church of
Korea because "Korean Christians are enthusiastic to evangelize and do
outreach," according to President Hyun Sub Um. "In my term [as
president] I would like to build two local congregations per year. By
our 100th anniversary [in 2057] I expect that reunification will have
happened and we will then have 500 congregations. So church planting
will happen in North Korea where there are now no Christian churches."

	S. Gunashekar, a layman from Peace Lutheran Church in Bangalore,
India, expressed his enthusiasm for involving laypeople in the
international "Ablaze!" gathering.

	"I am delighted to participate in this mission Asia 'Ablaze!'
Summit," Gunashekar said. "I want to meet with other laymen and discuss
[outreach] with them -- I'll take care of all the details to make sure
this happens in India!"

	Kenji Nagai worships at Takenotsuka Lutheran Church in northern
Tokyo and attended the summit with his pastor, Rev. Chuzo Kitazawa.
"Right after I return to Tokyo with Pastor Kitazawa, we will start
'Ablaze!' in every respect in our church," Nagai said. "Not only in our
church, but worldwide ... step by step."

	Pastor Richard "Karding" Salila, president of the Tagakaulo
Lutheran Church of Christ in the Philippines, said the highlight of the
summit for him was "to meet people from all the different churches and
all the different places and to be able to become friends with people
from all over Asia so that I can learn different ways to serve and I can
also use it in my church. Whatever I don't have, whatever I don't
understand, then I can learn from these people -- I can take it back and
use it in my church."

	While some of the world's strongest economies are found in Asia
-- such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong -- many Asian
nations have developing economies and impoverished citizens. Several
workshops, as well as the keynote address, "Word and Deed Ablaze!" by
Roegner and Dr. John Nunes, senior research associate in urban
ministries for Wheat Ridge Ministries, focused on human-care issues.

	"I recently saw a crucifix in a Lutheran cathedral in Finland,"
Nunes told the group. "It was strange because Jesus' body was on the
cross, but it had no arms. I wondered, 'Where are the arms of Jesus?'
They are here, in this room. You are the arms of Jesus -- to touch the
life of someone, to hug someone, to open the Word."

	Other speakers included Richard Mueller, head of school at Hong
Kong International School, site of the summit; U.S. Attorney Fred
Voigtmann; and Paula Voigtmann, executive director of Christian
Salvation Services in Taipei, Taiwan.

	Summit participants attended an opening worship service at the
Church of All Nations, Hong Kong, and more than 1,000 Lutherans attended
the closing bilingual service there. Rev. Ken Klaus, speaker of "The
Lutheran Hour," gave the sermon.

	Roegner described the Summit as "a rousing success."

	Seeing people "from all parts of Asia, in more than a dozen
different countries, you realize that hundreds of people all over Asia
are working in the same direction [and] it gives a significant sense of
purpose," he said.

	"The Summit was about lighting up -- and also linking up --
Asian Lutherans, connecting us in mission as never before," said Dr.
Allan Yung, president of The Lutheran Church--Hong Kong Synod. "Our
strength is in our unity. A new mission era has begun."

	Karin L. Semler, a writer for LCMS World Mission, lives in
Indonesia.

	****************************************

	Correction

	Last Friday's (Dec. 9) LCMSNews release No. 78, titled "LCEF
fall conference focuses on 'Ablaze!,'" incorrectly identified the state
in which Lee Brandt's home congregation is located.

	Brandt is a member of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Aurora,
Colo., not Aurora, Calif.

	LCMSNews regrets the error.

	****************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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