Meet the Waldie Family
Meet the Waldie family, LBIM’s most recent missionaries called to Chad! Todd and Leah have four children (Gabriella, Nathaniel, Jeriah, and Peter) and currently live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where they are members of Bethesda Lutheran Brethren Church. Todd attended the Association Free Lutheran Bible School for two years following high school and then pursued a Certificate of Theological Studies in Youth Ministry through Lutheran Brethren Seminary, followed by a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies through Faith Evangelical Seminary. Todd has a diverse vocational experience, including youth ministry, truck driving, and machine operator.
Leah has Bachelor of Science degrees in psychology and biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has extensive experience in administrative and managerial positions in the education and healthcare fields.
Todd and Leah have found themselves increasingly drawn into a calling to serve as missionaries with LBIM. This sense of calling has developed out of a shared desire and openness to serve the Lord wherever they can be used, and has been affirmed through the encouragement of friends and fellow members of Bethesda LBC. When they heard of Lutheran Brethren International Mission’s need to call a new family to manage the Lutheran Welcome Center in N’djamena, Todd and Leah felt that familiar stirring of a call, which was again affirmed by their local church.
In the Fall of 2024, the Waldie family traveled to Chad and spent two weeks with Jeremy and Sallee Stanton, familiarizing themselves not only with life in Chad, but to the daily workings of the Welcome Center. Upon their return, they affirmed with LBIM Director Venberg their desire to continue as candidates for service with LBIM-Chad.
In April of 2025, the Council of Directors of the CLB formally offered the call to Todd and Leah to serve with LBIM, a call they promptly accepted. They were scheduled to complete some additional pre-field training in May, but due to a knee injury to their son Nathaniel, and subsequent surgery and recovery, their timetable was delayed. They started on LBIM support in mid-August, attended a month-long pre-field training in Colorado that focused on language acquisition and cross-cultural adaptation, and are now back in Eau Claire. They will spend the last months of 2025 focusing on learning French, applying for French visas, and auditing some additional LBS coursework. They will deploy to France in December and start a year of full-time French language study at a school in Albertville (Western France) dedicated to teaching French to missionaries sent to the French speaking world. Once their French training is complete, the Waldies will deploy to Chad and begin the transition to their role of managing the Welcome Center. This is a vital administrative and support role for our Chad field. The Welcome Center is a guest house and conference center, used by both LBIM field missionaries and other mission and church organizations serving in Chad. Furthermore, as managers of this Center, the Waldies will provide logistical and administrative support to our field missionaries, manage the finances of the LBIM-Chad operating budget, and serve in a liaison role between LBIM field missionaries and national government offices, ensuring that all necessary and required paperwork is kept up to date.
Thank you for your prayers and support for the Waldie family in these next steps. This is a major transition for their family. Their commitment to this call is even more significant in light of the current uncertainty of the Chad visa situation (see back page of the printed November Daily Prayer Notes). May the Lord bless them as they take these steps of faith to serve in our Lord’s mission among the nations.
Dan Venberg is the Director of Lutheran Brethren International Mission in Fergus Falls, MN.