EIIT students receive calls, vicarage assignments

ST. LOUIS — Twelve students in the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology (EIIT) program received calls or vicarage assignments during morning chapel Friday, Oct. 23, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

Among the eight Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology (EIIT) students receiving calls Oct. 23 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, are, from left, Saint-Luc Charelus, Deaconess Norma Polk and Chong Toua Vang. Also pictured is EIIT Director Rev. Dr. John Loum. (Concordia Seminary)

The students and their calls or assignments are:

EIIT pastoral students  — John Bakou, Trinity Lutheran Church, Sauk Rapids, Minn. ; Saint-Luc Charelus, Bethlehem Haitian Church, Immokalee, Fla. ; Yia Lor, Neej Tshiab Lutheran Church, Robbinsdale, Minn. (in process);  Falak Robson, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Baltimore (in process);  Chong Toua Vang, Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Saint Paul, Minn. (in process) ; Johnny Vang, Neej Tshiab Lutheran Church, Robbinsdale, Minn. (in process) ; Winston Wilson, Lutheran Indian Ministries, Neah Bay, Wash.

EIIT deaconess student — Norma Polk, Cross and Resurrection Lutheran Church, Ypsilanti, Mich.

EIIT vicarage assignments —  Henry Greenfield, Zion Praise Tabernacle Lutheran Mission and Trinity Lutheran Church, Bowie, Md. (in process);  Daniel Keah, Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Landover Hills, Md. (in process);  Peter Saie, Christ Assembly Lutheran Church, Philadelphia (in process); Wangdoua  Chang, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Tulsa, Okla. (in process).

The Rev. Dr. Robert Scudieri, president of Mission Nation Publishing Co. and former LCMS missions executive, delivered the sermon during the service.

“You’ve had a top-flight education at one of the most honored seminaries in the world,” Scudieri said while preaching from Ephesians 3. “But you don’t know what you don’t know. You do know His love that surpasses all understanding. That is all you need to know.”

The students receiving calls and vicarage assignments spent the week at an EIIT Pastoral Issues Seminar at the seminary, which culminated with the Friday service.   The EIIT is a specialized program leading to ordination for men engaged in pastoral-ministry contexts in ethnic immigrant and urban cultures in North America. EIIT also offers a program for women to become deaconesses.

“These students who graduate have a tremendous ability for mission work,” said the Rev. Dr. John Loum, director of the EIIT program. “They’re going forth into North America as missionaries from Africa and Asia, but yet they are in a newfound home, bringing the cross of Christ everywhere.”

Posted Oct. 29, 2015