Four recent graduates of Concordia University, Nebraska begin work as long-term missionaries in Asia this month. All four completed their LCMS World Mission orientation earlier this summer through the Oswald Hoffmann School of Christian Outreach at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
Ben and Amy (Byer) Riley, married since June, have begun serving as long-term missionaries in Chai Yi, Taiwan. They are teaching English as a Foreign Language at Concordia English Language Academy. CELA is an after-school language learning center where first- through sixth-grade students enroll in daily classes of English immersion. For the next year the Rileys will teach a language arts curriculum which includes phonics, writing, reading and Bible.
The Rileys expect the year to be both trying and faith-building.
"We are going to learn how to trust God," wrote the couple by e-mail. "In the U.S. it is easy to get caught [thinking that we control] our own lives and pretending to trust in God when we are trusting in ourselves. In Taiwan, we do not know the area or the language or many people. Everything we found normal will be slightly not normal. Trusting that God is taking care of us will become more and more a reality."
Jessica Luebbe will leave the States this week to serve as a long-term missionary in Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China.
While in Macau, Luebbe will teach English classes at Concordia English Center, sharing the love of Christ with her students through these classes and other activities at the center. She also will do some one-on-one tutoring with students and help lead English Bible studies.
Carl Myhre has also begun serving in Southeast Asia as a long-term volunteer. He has started teaching English as a Foreign Language and will work to build relationships with his students through those classes.
Myhre has previously served cross-culturally through short-term opportunities in Jamaica and Mexico. He is faithfully confident about his work.
"As a Christian I am given a promise that when I do something to God's glory he will support me in my endeavors," Myhre said. "He has been preparing the work for me since before I was even born and with this in mind I would rather think I would be more afraid of not going."