Friday, June 10, Susan King; James and Kristi Geyer; Darrel Schmidt; Joan Primrose; and Monique and Clee Wolske (all members of St. Paul Lutheran, Buffalo Creek, of rural Tilden) made an excursion to Mapleton, IA, where Mission Central is located in the hills and cornfields. So what is happening here? Thousands of visitors and missionaries arrive here each year from throughout the United States and around the world. God has chosen Gary Theis, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, to run and maintain Mission Central. Gary has been in more than 57 countries from which he has returned with many artifacts. Mission Central has one of the largest collections of these artifacts found in the United States, thanks to Gary and many missionaries. If you would like to learn more about Mission Central and Gary’s work, Gary will be the guest speaker for Immanuel Lutheran’s Mission Fest in September.

   The members of St. Paul made this trip to learn more about Mission Central; but to also meet with former pastor and his wife, Pastor Wayne and Linda Braun, who are now serving at Trinity Lutheran in Frankfort, Germany. Their congregation, which is English speaking, is made up of several different nationalities. It is very common at Trinity for members to stay only two years and then move to a different nation. Mission work is needed because the average church attendance on a Sunday in Germany is less than one percent.

   St. Paul members are delighted to confirm that their guest speaker for the congregation’s 125th Anniversary to be held on August 6, 2017 will be Pastor Braun. St. Paul, part of a dual parish with St. Matthew,  was Pastor Braun’s first congregation he served after graduating from Concordia Seminary. Many people may also remember Linda, who helped start Little Lambs Preschool of Immanuel Lutheran of Tilden.

   As the group prepared to leave they walked away more aware of missionaries throughout the world and what takes place at Mission Central. Mission Central is operated totally by volunteers, which means that if someone supports a missionary, 100% of their support goes to the missionary (not to Mission Central).