wfn.org | [LCMSNews] Groh, Mehl join missions staff

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	February 10, 2004 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 11

	Groh, Mehl begin work as missions directors

	LCMS World Mission has filled two of its four new regional
director positions.

	Dr. Jorge Groh and Rev. John Mehl began work in January as
regional directors for Latin America and Eurasia, respectively. Their
responsibilities include working with LCMS mission partners and partner
church bodies to set mission priorities, develop strategies and evaluate
the Synod's mission work and involvement in those world areas.

	The mission board is still seeking regional directors for Africa
and Asia. In the meantime, Rev. Kenneth Greinke, who was the board's
area secretary for Africa and the Middle East from 1996 until his
retirement in 2002, is serving as interim regional director for Africa,
and Rev. David Birner, associate executive director of the board's
international mission team, is overseeing work in Asia.

	Groh, a native of Argentina, most recently served as associate
pastor of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Ottawa, Ontario, working with
Spanish-speaking people. He received a doctorate in cross-cultural
missions from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, in 1989, and
served 10 years as a professor at Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. He also served as the seminary's president from 1992 to 1994.

	Mehl, a native of Lexington, Mo., has served LCMS World Mission
since 1993, first, as an evangelistic missionary and church planter in
Moscow, Russia, and most recently, as area director for the Commonwealth
of Independent States and the Baltics. He is a 1985 graduate of
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and former pastor of St. Paul Lutheran
Church in Lincoln, Kan.

	Groh and Mehl "bring a wealth of missionary experience to the
regional director positions and a sensitivity to relationships with
partner churches," said Birner. "We give thanks to God for their
willingness to accept this challenge to serve as regional directors, and
we pray that God will bless their work among us."

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or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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