Friday Field Notes

Newsroom

February 7, 2025

Check out the latest updates from our missionaries!

WHO ARE WE? – Rev. Dr. Glenn and Susan Fluegge

It was twenty-six years ago today – Jan 7, 1999. I remember the day quite vividly. We landed in Togo, West Africa, with two cranky kids and ten seventy-pound bags of personal belongings. Sleep-deprived and culturally disoriented, we stumbled through those first few weeks.

But we ended up staying eleven years in northern Togo as LCMS missionaries. During that time, I worked with the Centre Luthérien d’Etudes Théologiques, an international Lutheran seminary. We then spent three years in South Africa where I taught at a Lutheran seminary there.

In 2012, we transitioned back to the States to Concordia University Irvine in southern California. I’ve been serving as a theology professor and director of a seminary program at Concordia for the last thirteen years. Susan serves as administrative assistant to the school of arts and sciences.

Our work at Concordia has been quite fulfilling and living in southern California next to family has been refreshing. But I always wondered if God would someday call us back to Africa….

…Well, it seems He has. And in a way neither of us anticipated. A few months ago, Lutheran Bible Translators and Concordia University Irvine formed a partnership.

According to this unique partnership, I will be a theology professor at Concordia AND also a missionary with Lutheran Bible Translators. As a missionary, I’ll serve as Seminary Program Coordinator. My job is to help Lutheran Bible Translators collaborate with partner seminaries and institutions worldwide to train up local Bible translators.

fleugge PRAYER LETTER

I GRADUATED! – Amy Formella

Alongside the translation work, I completed my consultant-in-training workshops online and in person, in Kenya (for the Africa area CITs), and in Italy (for all regions). It was great!

I had the chance to meet with past participants and new ones, learning from both the facilitators and participants. I also travelled to the U.S in summer to spend time with family and attend the LBT Gathering, where I enjoyed reconnecting with Lutheran Bible Translators staff and missionaries with their families. Overall, I learned about the direction of the organization, spent quality time with people I don’t get to see very often, and had some fun in the sun. And…

I graduated! I’m thrilled to share that I passed my last class to complete and graduate with my Master of Arts in New Testament from the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. The journey was filled with learning, but it also reminded me how much there is to explore in theology, New Testament exegesis, and Greek of the New Testament period. I am currently a consultant-in[1]training alongside my role as a translation/technical advisor, and a doctoral program is required to become a consultant, but for now my educational journey is on pause to focus as the translation work in Sierra Leone continues to speed up.

formella PRAYER LETTER

WORDS MATTER – Rev. Tim and Deac. Erin Schulte

Rev. Baïguélé looked reverent but festive in his bright red cassock and miter. I watched him smile as he looked at the crowd of faces that had gathered to celebrate the dedication of the New Testament into their language— Mbum Pana…

…I clicked on one of my favorite church channels – checking out the faces of those around me. I wondered what they were thinking, what their lives were like, and why they didn’t seem to be paying close attention to the speaker. But as I looked around me, something started changing in those faces. Suddenly, they were all turning in the same direction, pulling their shoulders and bodies along. Instead of glazed-over thousand-yard stares or whispering glances to the conversation partner beside them, I saw eyes widening and focusing over o-shaped mouths.

Intrigued, I tuned back into whatever these people were hearing. Only this time, when I clicked back, I had no idea what the preacher was talking about. Figuring that my French had deserted me, I leaned over to senior LBT missionary Martin Weber and whispered, “What’s the bishop saying?” Martin whispered back, “The bishop is speaking in Mbum.”

Now, as an American English speaker enthusiastic about Bible translation, the bishop’s language choice activates a significant academic interest in me. It recalled all my conversations in my translation and scripture engagement classes about the difference it makes when people hear their language spoken. I remember thinking it certainly made sense that people would be more engaged if you engaged them in their mother tongue. But for the first time since I accepted the call to serve in Bible translation, I didn’t have to admit that this made sense because now I could see the faces.