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. 

With the success of a first school, Gethsemane de Meube, established in a village in Chad, there has been an increasing desire for more schools in other villages. In response, the CLB has started a second school: Gethsemane de N’Djamena-Bousso.

In early October, a new chapter began for the Gethsemané de Meube school in Chad. The school held its first week of classes for the brand-new junior high class.

On the weekend of September 6-8, Lutheran Brethren International Mission (LBIM) hosted a retreat for former missionary kids at Inspiration Point Christian Camp & Retreat Center in Vining, Minnesota. This time away was meant for those who had spent a portion of their childhood as children of missionaries serving with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

As the air ambulance landed on the tarmac in Paris, France, I was placed on a gurney and rushed to a major hospital in downtown Paris. The icy February air bit at my cheeks, so different from the balmy warm air of Bokoro, Chad, where I’d been just a few days earlier.

In late 2023, LBIM was blessed to facilitate, for the first time ever, a global LBIM missionary retreat. Our missionary families from Chad, Japan, and Taiwan made their way to the Suan Bua resort outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In the past five months, we’ve both finished another semester of theological studies, both made long journeys to other countries to search out the future, both received and responded to a call to serve with Lutheran Brethren International Mission in Chad… and, oh yeah, we also got engaged!