In March, six members of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Iowa City spent two weeks on Mission Trip to Bishkek, Kyrgystan. Chris Schwarz, chairman of the Mission Committee, underwent training through LCMS World Missions in preparation to lead the group.
The trip grew out of IDE’s connections with missionaries Rev. Bob and Sue Pfeil. Pastor Pfeil was an assistant pastor at Our Redeemer and later was pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Riceville. They have been in this former Soviet Republic since 1998.
The Mission team saw how the Holy Spirit is growing the Church there through the use of a medical van, eyeglass clinics, ESL classes, and humanitarian aid to orphanages and old folks homes. Missionaries are using every opportunity to share the Gospel and a nucleus for a church has begun. Currently, there are over 30 stable congregational groups in Bishkek and the surrounding villages, with ten more groups in the beginning stages.
Not just tourist on t his trip, nurses Kathy Schweer and Denise Holida led health education classes and worked on the medical van. Rev. Zimmermann taught classes for seminary students and evangelists and preached at a number of worship services. Chris Schwarz, Marty Wenck and Carol Zimmermann interviewed and filmed activities in order to produce a video for use by the missionaries in sharing their work.
Rev. Pfeil wrote in his newsletter, “Last Friday a group of 6 volunteers arrived from Iowa City, Iowa. Sunday morning Pastor Zimmermann shared greetings from American brothers and sisters in Christ with the congregation in Bishkek and invited them to become a sister congregation with Our Redeemer. The banner shown in the picture is a gift from Iowa City to Bishkek. The heart and cross represents the love of God for all His people and in ‘Lifting High The Cross,’ we will be sharing our faith in Jesus our Savior, sharing our prayers for one another and sharing a ministry of caring and compassion with the Cross of Christ and the heart of Christ in the very center.”
One day, 82 women from 13 villages and cities, joined 3 women from Iowa City for one of the first ever LWML gatherings in Kyrgystan. Denise Holida led a Bible Study. Kathy Schweer, President of IDE LWML, shared the mission of LWML and extended an invitation to the ladies to be Sisters in Christ with LWML in America. Carol Zimmermann spoke concerning how the women in Iowa City work in mission and desire to connect with the ladies there.
It is the vision of our missionaries that by 2010 the Lutheran Church Concordia in the Kyrgyz Republic would be self-supporting, self-perpetuating, self-governing, and have its own seminary. Our Redeemer Lutheran Church looks forward to a growing relationship with its new sister church in Bishkek.
