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Some meet in buildings and some meet under mango trees, but all belong to the Body of Jesus Christ.LCMS.org

The Lutheran Church Mission in Uganda (LCMU) was established in 1994 when evangelists from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana, a partner church of the LCMS, were sent 2,500 miles east across Africa to Uganda. The LCMS became directly involved a year later as part of an overall mission to East Africa. Then there were no Lutheran Pastors in Uganda. Today there are nine: nine ordained pastors to serve 75 congregations throughout a country just a bit smaller than Colorado but with almost eight times as many people!

Because of this disparity, many congregations are led by lay people. These leaders receive monthly training, and those who excel in their training have the opportunity to advance into further theological training and become qualified to apply for seminary. In the past, these men have had to leave Uganda for Kenya and South Africa to attend seminary, but the seminary in Uganda will make is possible to train up pastors much nearer to where they live.

Kimberly Pepmiller and Nelly Sanford worked on a Mercy Medical Mission team in Uganda, eastern Africa, in August. In addition to their work in villages in the northeastern part of the country, they were able to visit the Lutheran Church Mission in Uganda seminary. They introduced the congregation to Mark and Megan Mantey, career missionaries in Uganda serving at the seminary, at their presentation a few weeks ago. Mark is the project manager of the seminary in Uganda and Megan teaches at the seminary. The Manteys discussed how the seminary works and some of the needs they have there in Uganda, including finishing buildings and purchasing library and classroom materials.

The Saint John’s Foundation, at their October meeting, generously designated $5,000 in matching funds for the seminary in Uganda. The Heseders are considering using $1,000 of their fund-raised dollars toward this match, and the Board of Human Needs will vote on whether to apply $1,000 from the congregation’s international mission budget for 2017 to this effort. This will leave an additional $3,000 for the congregation to provide either through special gifts or in the 2018 budget.

Just imagine: this could be $10,000 from Saint John’s to the seminary in Uganda! That money, channeled through the LCMS, would really go a long way toward finishing the seminary buildings.

Mark and Megan Mantey serve the Lord through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod as career missionaries in Uganda. Mark serves as the project manager for the seminary, and Megan is the seminary’s instructor of Christian education and counseling. You can follow their work at www.facebook.com/MissionMindedManteys.