Global Mission
All Saints’ Global Mission Communication Team provides the congregation with information on the worldwide missionary work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and works to establish partnerships and improved communication with these missions.
Specifically, All Saints has established relationships with congregations and missionaries in the following countries:
India: Bible Faith Lutheran Church in Guntur
Japan: Rev. Callon Holloway III
Tanzania: Upendo Lutheran Church in Geita
Through its efforts, the team hopes that All Saints can be reminded of the worldwide nature of the church’s mission and our role in the global family of Christ, which includes brothers and sisters with different life experiences but the same hope and promise in our savior.
Each member of the team has taken on a special role in communicating with and supporting a specific ministry, and since October, each has written about what they have learned. Click here to find an archive of the articles.
For additional information, contact Pastor Mike Weaver.
Helping a daughter of All Saints
Editor’s Note: Erin (Quist) Vestal is a daughter of the congregation, who after her recent wedding, traveled to Malawi to begin a yearlong mission trip with her husband.
Congregation Council approved a $1,000 grant to aid their efforts in the country, where Erin will work with orphans and her husband, Phil, will work with seminarians.
In addition, our Vacation Bible School made a playground for the children in the area its mission over the summer. Including funds from Thrivent Financial, All Saints was able to send $3,800 to help fund the project, intended to help children whose current playground option is a rusted-out automobile.
Thrivent has also told All Saints that it will consider offering more funds when it reviews its finances at the end of the year.
Following is a note Erin e-mailed to friends and family in July, shortly after the couple’s arrival in Africa and before they reached Malawi.
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for all of your support over the last few months as we prepared to leave for Malawi. We had a safe flight into Cape Town, South Africa, and just finished spending a few days there. We were able to travel around and see some of the sights - such as baboons, penguins and a beautiful coast - thanks to Andre and his family who live there.
In a few hours we will be taking our last plane ride. It will be wonderful to not have to fly for a long time after this! The plan is to arrive on Grace Farm, where we will be living, around 11 p.m., which makes for a long day of traveling, but for a good cause. There will be a team of 18 people (mainly from America) with us for the first two weeks.
Some of the team, including Phil, will begin teaching at the Bible School tomorrow morning. An interesting fact - the Bible School is accredited through the University of Jacksonville in Florida, so Phil is now a professor as well as a missionary! The rest of the team are students from a college in North Carolina who are coming to work on the farm.
I (Erin) will be using these two weeks to learn the ropes of Grace Farm and start working with the orphans. I have been told that a good way to start forming relationships with them is by carrying water with older girls ... and yet I have also been told that carrying items on one's head is a distinctly African, non-caucasian skill! This will be an exciting adventure for both of us.
We have one prayer request - we just found out that the stand to hold our water tanks, which ensures that we have running water, has broken, and so we will need it fixed as soon as we arrive so that we can have clean water. Otherwise we only have running water when the pump works, which is at various times throughout the day. But we figure that the farming students should be able to fix it, God willing that we can get the right materials and such.
We have set up a blog at http://pevestal.wordpress.com where we will post and add pictures in addition to these e-mails.
We hope to post regularly starting in two weeks when the Internet is set up for us, although there may be a chance that we can post sooner. And we have been asked about how to see our wedding photos.
The best way, as of right now, is to look at http://www.pictage.com/870169, but if you want to buy a photo is will be much, much cheaper to call our parents, who have the copyrights.
Thank you for all of your prayers and blessings. We wish you could all be here with us!
Grace and Peace,
Phil & Erin Vestal
