Opportunities & Adjustments in LBIM
Adjustment can be disruptive and hard. New opportunities can be exciting and challenging to assess. In the midst of it all, it is good to rest in the promise of Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
LBIM finds itself in a challenging season of adjustment in the face of unforeseen circumstances, and at the same time, an exciting season of exploring opportunities. Following are some pertinent details that we ask you to pray about regarding these adjustments and opportunities.
The Chad Field Adjustment
In June of 2025, the US government imposed a sweeping visa ban to Chadian citizens seeking to enter the United States. The Chadian government then reacted with a reciprocal ban affecting citizens of the United States seeking to enter Chad. Our American families serving in Chad were allowed to remain in-country through the validity of their existing visas, but with no option to renew. In the ensuing months, all our American families serving in Chad were obligated to uproot and leave the place and people they have been called to, and return Stateside, uncertain of whether they will be allowed to return.
This is understandably disruptive and hard for families, for relationships, and for ministry. We continue to pray and hope that this is temporary; that the doors would open again to allow our American families to return to the place and peoples they have been called to. The weeks turned into months, turned into a year… It seems like this may last a while.
We rest in the knowledge that this is God’s mission, not ours. We are grateful for the investment in partnership in this mission and the resulting healthy team of Chadian and Taiwanese partners serving in Chad, ensuring that the gospel of the Kingdom will continue to go out among unreached peoples (See photo below).
In the interim, we are moving forward with contingency plans for our American families. They all hope and desire to return to Chad to continue in missionary service there, Lord willing. To serve that end, we have determined that it is best to keep them “in the field” serving in a cross-cultural capacity that will further equip and position them for an eventual return to Chad. Following is a summary of what this looks like for our LBIM-Chad families.
The Dave and Sonja Narvesen family deployed to France in mid-August, where Sonja is taking a refresher course in French. Sonja has also been pursuing some practical midwifery training applicable to cross-cultural contexts, which will further equip her for a medical ministry in the field. The family will deploy to Cameroon in January and will be stationed in N’gaoundéré, a city in north central Cameroon and a region well populated by Fulbe people, the same people group they were living and ministering among in Chad. Here they will work in partnership with a couple local evangelists in ministry to Fulbe people in the surrounding area.
The Matthias and Ellie Szobody family will serve the rest of this calendar year in an interim pastoral role at Bethany LB church in East Hartland, CT. In early January, they will deploy to N’gaoundéré, Cameroon, along with the Narvesens. We are grateful for the support these two families will be able to provide for each other in this transition. Matthias and Ellie will be plugging into ministry alongside EFLC partners (our sister Church in Cameroon). This ministry will likely involve teaching theology and mission in the context of a pastor/missionary training school in N’gaoundéré which is directed by a Cameroonian partner pastor/theologian.
The Nathanael and Carrie Szobody family will remain on home assignment in the States for the remainder of this calendar year, their ministry engagement including work on the Barma (Bagirmi) Bible translation, online Arabic language courses through the Lebanese American University, and assisting with the administration of Gethsemane de Meube school in Boudamasa, from a distance. If Chad does not open by early 2027, we will be considering options for international deployment for the family.
Jeremy and Sallee Stanton live in Neenah, WI. They continue to serve part-time with LBIM, assisting with the day-to-day financial and administrative management of the Welcome Center in N’djamena from a distance. Pastor Bassi, a Chadian LB pastor, remains our point person on the ground, and we are grateful for his faithful service.
The Todd and Leah Waldie family are our newest missionaries called to Chad, and are currently in France, diligently studying the French language, in preparation for a role in managing our Welcome Center in N’djamena, Chad’s capital. This role combines administration, hospitality, and field missionary support. They will remain in France through the end of the year, and possibly for an additional semester in the spring of 2027. If Chad does not open in the interim, we will consider sending them to Cameroon for a season to support and serve alongside our families and church partners there.
The Cameroon Opportunity
We have been invited by our sister LB Church in Cameroon (EFLC) to explore a mission partnership among an unreached hunter-gatherer people group (The Bakola-Bagyeli pygmies) that live in the forests of southern and eastern Cameroon. I made a short exploratory trip to visit the region and the people in February. In December, Nathanael Szobody and I will be joining a team of EFLC mission leadership for a second trip to further assess and discuss this possibility. We will also travel to the north visiting the EFLC headquarters in Garoua, the EFLC seminary in Kaele, and the city of N’gaoundéré, to finalize preparations for the arrival of Narvesens and Szobodys.
The Nepal Opportunity
And then there is Nepal. Why Nepal? I have long been intrigued by the possibility of mission in that part of the world, a region very strategic and largely unreached with the gospel. When I was last in Taiwan, I was invited by Dr. Michael Lockwood, professor of China Lutheran Seminary, to join him on a trip to Nepal. He has a connection with a small body of churches there called the Lutheran Church and Ministries of Nepal (LCAMN), a Church not affiliated with any other Lutheran organization, and a Church very active in church planting and evangelism in western Nepal. This fledgling Church has expressed a felt need for assistance with theological education and equipping for evangelism among the unreached peoples of Nepal and surrounding countries. LBS president Troy Tysdal and I will be joining Dr. Lockwood on an exploratory trip to Nepal in early 2027. We will be participating in a two-day seminar, providing some theological and missiological training to their lay pastors and evangelists, and will be traveling and visiting some of their churches, many of which are in isolated mountain villages. But we go with a prayerful and discerning mindset, seeking to be sensitive to whether the Lord may lead us into future mission engagement in this context.
A season of adjustments and opportunities indeed. Thank you, Church of the Lutheran Brethren, for being a Church sent!
Dan Venberg is the Director of Lutheran Brethren International Mission.