Ministry Resources
In the African national ministry we are currently using close to 20 different languages. These are indigenous African languages used to reach first generation African immigrant to minister the Gospel of Jesus to them in their own languages.
The major challenge in this is finding worship and teaching resources in these languages. Some the nations out of which these immigrants came do not have a Lutheran church therefore we are adopting resources from our full communion ecumenical partners especially from the Episcopalian and Presbyterian churches.
In other cases we are importing some resources from Lutheran churches in Africa where there are resources such as Bibles, Hymnals, Sunday school resources and other materials produced in this languages. Thus far we have succeeded in doing these with the help of our nation consultants bringing some resources as they travel on mission trips to Africa.
European Lutheran mission agencies with strong connections to the African Lutheran churches have served in supplying some Bibles and hymnals with native languages of some of our mission congregation. Since these mission agencies have their distribution centers in Europe it was easier to import their resources directly from Europe.
In the near future our churches are also striving to start working on their own resource development either through original production or through translations of existing resources. These possibilities are still at the exploration stages and not at the level of execution or implementation.