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.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, I want to express our profound gratitude to President Brad Hoganson and “the first lady of Hillcrest,” Traci Hoganson, for their faithful commitment and transformative service to our school.

March/April 2025 issue of Faith & Fellowship

The older I get, the more I realize how much Dave gave me during those two years. Beyond his words of wry wisdom, he gave me his time. I’m sure it was quite a few months before I contributed positively to his bottom line. But he patiently taught me a messy, dusty trade that most people do their best to avoid. And we had fun doing it!

Throughout history God’s spokespeople have proclaimed the works of God in order that his chosen would continue to place their trust in him. Our own history, both distant and recent, is set on a biblical foundation that calls for the activity of one generation to influence another for the furtherance of faith development. 

It’s beautiful to see a congregation sharing and celebrating the gospel across generations! A family who adopts an older couple with no kids as “grandparents,” gives the couple and their kids the opportunity to do life together. Families who welcome college students and newcomers to the community, give them a place to belong.

Over the past ten years working as a studio potter, I have travelled across the Upper Midwest with my small business, teaching, hosting pottery events, and sharing my testimony through my wheel demonstrations. During this time, the Lord began revealing to me some deep truths about his sovereignty, my relationship with him, and the transformative work he wanted to do in my life.

Dr. Joel Christenson (Lutheran Brethren Seminary) and I had the privilege to experience this when we participated in the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held in Seoul, South Korea, September 22-28, 2024.

What has helped us navigate biblical truths is taking part in an intergenerational Bible Study: an intentional practice that builds relationships and fosters learning between people of different age groups.

January/February 2025 issue of Faith & Fellowship

But Christmas is also a time for reflection on what Jesus actually did, in giving up his heavenly throne and becoming human: Jesus was God “with skin on!” As his kinfolk, can we follow his example in this season? Where do we see incarnational ministry―God’s love with skin on?

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.

Get to know the five new students of Lutheran Brethren Seminary, starting the Fall 2024 semester.

The Rooted Gap Year program is off and running and I couldn’t be more thankful for the way things have started. We have eight incredible young adults from all over the country who have come to be discipled, to live in community, and to serve the Lord.

Called by God to lead this infant nation, Moses had been extracted by God from a sheep tending career and pressed into leading this strange adventure. People who knew nothing but slavery journeyed into the wonders of freedom in a land that would be their very own.

John 1:14 describes “The Word” (Jesus) as dwelling among us “full of grace and truth.” As a pastor, I hope that I regularly dwell with others as Jesus did, in the fullness of his grace and truth, but I don’t.

I’m more inclined to lose myself in the urgent, but relatively comprehensible, demands of a Christmas shopping list than to lose myself in meditation on the incomprehensible truth that “the Word” ––the One who is God––would become a man to bring the grace and truth of God to humanity.

November/December 2024 issue of Faith & Fellowship

In many instances my clients were not just the children who had come to my office for help, but also the parents who came with them, most often mothers. Mothers who were exhausted, anxious, depressed, lost, and breaking under pressure―struggling to know how to help themselves and their children.