President Bugbee reports from Nigeria

Dear friends,

I greet you all this Friday morning from Lagos, Nigeria. I arrived here yesterday after lengthy flights from Winnipeg, Montreal and Paris. It’s the first time I’ve set foot on African soil, and I treasure this chance to bring encouragement from all of you to our ministry partners here.

Today I’ll fly another 90 minutes farther east and am scheduled to end up at Obot Idim, the site of the seminary and synod headquarters. The Lutheran Church of Nigeria (LCN) is marking its 75th Anniversary this weekend, and I have the honour to preach at the festival service set for Saturday, September 10. I am here by invitation of their Archbishop, The Rev. Christian Ekong, who serves with me on the Executive Committee of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). Bishop Ekong is the area representative for Africa, as I am for North America.

I read a good bit about Nigeria in the airplane on the way over. I’m amazed to learn its the most populous country in Africa, and seventh most populous in all the world. Analysts say the economy will grow at a rapid pace in the coming decades. And now the Nigerian film-making industry (called “Nollywood”) is the third-biggest in the world, after the Americans’ “Hollywood” and “Bollywood” in India!

Our churches in Nigeria, however, are the primary reason I’m here. They’ve grown to rival LCC’s size, and function in several hundred locations across the country. If I can manage Internet access throughout this anniversary weekend, I’ll write you again to tell you a bit more. We’re in the rainy season right now, and have had four power outages just in my first day here. None of them lasted very long, but I was awakened in the night several times by torrential rains.

In the meantime, if you are reading these lines, why not pause to pray that God would bless our partner church here, and not just as an organization. May He bless our friends to find ways to get the Good News of Jesus, crucified and raised again, into the hearts and homes of those who do not know Him. As I send this off, I’m pausing to pray that blessing for all 322 LCC congregations in Canada, too.

In Christ our dear Lord,

Robert Bugbee, President

From Ukraine to Canada via Germany to visit a partner church

by Rev. Dr. Robert Bugbee

After five memorable days in Ukraine attending the dedication of the new “Concordia” Seminary at Usatovo near Odessa, I paused for a few days in Germany to connect with some of our partners there from the Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (SELK, Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church), with whom LCC is in full pulpit-and-altar fellowship.

The centrepiece of this visit was two days in the northern German city of Hannover, where the SELK has its synodical headquarters. Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt and his wife, Christiane, graciously hosted me at their house, which is actually their synod’s “parsonage” for its bishops and their families. Bishop Voigt has led this church since 2006. A native of the former East Germany, he also served a congregation there for 13 years before his election to the synod’s top leadership post.

The SELK, like Germany in general, has worked hard to bring the two parts of the country closer together since reunification 20 years ago. In addition, Germany struggles with a growing secularism, indifference toward the Gospel, and the tensions that arise as the number of Muslim immigrants in the country continues to increase.

On September 1, Bishop Voigt becomes the new chairman of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), succeeding LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick, who was not re-elected this past summer to another term as his church’s president. Voigt and I serve together on the ILC’s Executive Council, in which Lutheran Church–Canada is the representative for the ILC’s North America world area. We conferred about how best to prepare for a number of changes coming to the ILC, not only in the area of leadership, but also as Lutheran churches in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe are attracted to the ILC’s strong commitment to Holy Scripture and its rejection of the same-gender blessings now causing so much turmoil within Lutheran churches in North America and Europe.

During a stop in Hermannsburg. (l-r) Rev. Hans-Heinrich Heine; Rev. Axel Wittenberg; President Robert Bugbee; SELK Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt; Rev. Markus Nietzke.

On one of my days in Germany, Bishop Voigt drove me out to the country north of Hannover to visit the SELK’s mission headquarters in the village of Bleckmar. There I met the executive secretary of the Bleckmar Mission Society, Pastor Martin Benhöfer, and toured of their mission centre. The Bleckmar Mission Society historically works in South Africa and Botswana, but is now also active in Europe and southeast Asia, where it has come into contact with LCC’s missionary ties in Thailand.

Just a few miles away from Bleckmar lies the historic town of Hermannsburg, where a spiritual revival movement in the mid-1800s caused many people to leave the liberal Lutheran state churches and to found very robust biblical Lutheran congregations which flourish to this day. Pastor Hans-Heinrich Heine (of the so-called “Big” Holy Cross Church in Hermannsburg) provided a walking tour of the town and told stories of the congregation’s intense commitment to missionary work both past and present. During our walking tour we also stopped off at the “Little” Holy Cross Church nearby, where we were welcomed by Pastor Markus Nietzke.

Though radically different from life in Ukraine, this brief stop in Germany was a great encouragement. Faithful German Christians, like their brothers and sisters in Canada, don’t have it easy confessing and serving Jesus in a society that seems to have lost its way. But their dedication to the Lord’s work is a reminder to us that it can be done! God give us the grace and the heart to keep busy, since He knows what He’s doing placing us in the time and place where we are!

Rev. Dr. Robert Bugbee is president of Lutheran Church–Canada