By Jana Inglehart
This year marks 125 years since The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) first began doing mission work in 1900 in Brazil — work that was soon expanded into Argentina. Today, the LCMS has partnerships with nine Latin American Lutheran church bodies and supports missions in an additional 10 countries in the LCMS Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC).
A yearlong celebration (May 2025–May 2026) under the theme “Remember, Repent, Rejoice” is planned to honor these five generations of mission work in the region. As one highlight of the festivities, all LCMS missionaries who have served in the LAC region (career, VYM, GEO) are invited to gather Aug. 7–8 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, for an alumni event with current LAC missionaries. The event will feature mission speakers, worship, food and fellowship. Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) in St. Louis has planned a special social event for attendees. Find out more.
In addition, the celebration will include a historical display at CHI and an identical display, in Portuguese, at Concordia Seminary in São Leopoldo, Brazil, as well as a full issue of CHI Quarterly dedicated to the celebration.
CHI has spent an enormous amount of time gathering information about LCMS mission work in the LAC, documenting the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) and other LCMS missions in the region. The IELB, in collaboration with CHI, is producing a movie and a website to display historical information, documents and photos. In addition, the Rev. Albert Lehenbauer’s account of his first 20 years of missionary work in Brazil, Roughing It for Christ, has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and will be published by Concordia Publisher in Brazil.
Concordia the Reformer Seminary in the Dominican Republic is also celebrating the milestone at its 2025 symposium by emphasizing the history of mission work in the region.
Learn more and register for the LAC alumni event.
Posted April 4, 2024
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