LCMS missionary Edward Strohschein dies

Edward Strohschein, a longtime missionary for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, died April 24 in Seattle, Wash., after a battle with cancer. Strohschein was 56.

Strohschein

He was the son of missionaries to the Philippines, where he was born in 1957. According to information from his family, his father taught him about the priesthood of all believers and instilled in him a passion for the mission of the LCMS.

One of the passages that directed Strohschein’s life was Rom. 10:15: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

During his career, he returned to Asia in various roles.

From 1980 to 1982, he served in Taiwan in the Synod’s Volunteer Ministry Program. Later, while working China, Strohschein met Meng Xiao Hong (Shauna) of Beijing, and the two married in 1992. They have one son, John. Most recently, Strohschein served as the business manager for the LCMS Office of International Mission’s (OIM) Asia Pacific region, a position he held since 1999.

“Ed has finished his course in the faith, and a robust course it was!” wrote LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison and the Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver III, director of Regional Operations for the OIM, in a joint April 25 letter.

“Using his keen business sense,” they wrote in that letter, “Ed kept tabs on all things administrative and financial in that region, even assisting in the expansion of LCMS mission presence throughout the region. And so we mourn … even as we take joy in the promises of Christ: that we will receive Ed back on the final day and that we will spend eternity with him.”

Read the full letter from Harrison and Collver here.

Strohschein was a 1980 graduate of Valparaiso University in Indiana and he earned an MBA from the University of Missouri in St. Louis in 1989.

He is survived by his wife, Shauna; son, John; and five sisters.

“My father was always my greatest role model; a man who put the needs of others in front of his own,” John Strohschein wrote in an April 24 letter.

The Strohschein family will hold a memorial service at the Church of All Nations in Hong Kong in early June. Next year, they also plan to gather in Story City, Iowa, for the interment of Strohschein’s ashes next to the ashes of his parents.

Memorials may be directed to the orphanage at Concordia Children’s Services in the Philippines, a project that John Strohschein says was particularly close to his father’s heart. Donations from the U.S. may be made payable to Timothy Lutheran Church, care of the Rev. Ron Rall, 6704 Fyler Ave., St. Louis, MO 63139. Include a separate note with “For Concordia Children’s Services, in memory of Ed Strohschein” or write “Concordia Children’s Services (Strohschein memorial)” on the memo line.

Posted April 28, 2014