We pray the Lord’s rich blessings upon Rev. Lange and look forward to working closely with him in his new capacity.

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At the direction of LCMS President Matthew Harrison, Rev. Peter Lange, District President of the Kansas District of the LCMS, has been asked to represent the LCMS in the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Lutheran Seminary in Tshwane (LTS). At recent meetings in the USA, the LTS in the persons of Rector C. Walter Winterle and Bishop Modise Maragelo of the LCSA had requested an LCMS representative to be appointed to the LTS BOD. The envisioned purpose of this appointment was to facilitate greater transparency and closer cooperation with the LCMS and other partner churches of the ILC in Africa.

The LTS is very grateful that President Lange has accepted the appointment and looks forward to working together closely with him and by extension with the LCMS leadership as a whole. President Lange’s daughter Kristin is the former director of the Old Latin School in the Lutherstadt Wittenberg in Germany, a joint project of the LCMS, the SELK (our partner church in Germany), and CPH (Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, MO, USA). Kristin is married to Vicar Christian Straeuli of the FELSISA. They currently reside in Wittenberg, South Africa, where Christian is serving his vicarage at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Wittenberg, one of the oldest congregations of the FELSISA.

President Lange himself has a great interest in the Lutheran Church of South Africa and is looking forward to making a positive contribution to the LTS. His appointment is a very welcome development and comes at a time when the LTS looks to work more closely together with the ILC churches in Africa, so as to adopt a more cohesive and geostrategically sound approach to serving the church in Africa. President Lange will also be instrumental in this regard in liaising with the LCMS Office of International Mission and its representatives in West and East Africa respectively. May the Lord of the Church bless this cooperation and the work accomplished together in His kingdom.

During the recent BOD meeting held on Wednesday, 7. November, Rev. Lange and BOD members and guests introduced themselves to each other via FaceTime.

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A special grant made by Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) President Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison and Rev. Dr. Albert B. Collver has been extended to the LTS and its students in the form of a very generous book donation. One of the key pillars of the LCMS is its own solid confessional Lutheran theological education, and many pastors and theologians from sister churches around the world have benefited tremendously from the LCMS seminaries by way of education. The current LCMS leadership has pledged to promote confessional Lutheran theological education around the world, and although funds are limited, the LCMS does whatever it can to help seminaries around the world provide solid theological education and to train men for the office of the Holy Ministry. To this end, the LTS is the beneficiary of such a grant extended in 2018. Several marvelous books published by Concordia Publishing House under the capable leadership of Dr. Bruce Kintz have recently been sent to the LTS in aid of theological education. The list includes:

Lutheran Worship, History and Practice – Fred Precht

Altar Guild Manual – LSB Book Edition – Lee Maxwell

The Lutheran Study Bible

Book of Concord

Concordia Popular Commentary: Revelation – Louis Brighton

A Lutheran Primer for Preaching – Edward Grimenstein

Hermann Sasse, Letters to Lutheran Pastors Vol 2

Servant Leadership: Setting Leaders Free – Jane Fryar

God’s Word for Today: Isaiah – Andrew Bartelt

Treasury of Daily Prayer

The Lutheran Difference – Reformation Anniversary Edition

The international shipment was delayed when South African customs officials decided to seize some of the boxes for auditing. Only after voluminous paperwork and lengthy correspondence vouching for the origin and purpose of the books was the shipment finally released. We pray that the customs officials spent many hours reading this wonderful literature and being enriched by it.

We at LTS are most grateful for these generous gifts and pray they will be put to good use in the academic year 2019 in training Lutheran pastors for Africa. Thanks be to God! And a sincere and heartfelt thank you to our brothers and sisters in the faith in the LCMS from all of us here at the LTS. May the Lord bless you richly.

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On May 22, 2018, a joint meeting was held between members of the Board of Directors and the Members’ Meeting (Board of trustees or shareholders), along with guests Rev. Shauen Trump, LCMS Area Director for East Africa and his colleague Mr. John Wolf and members of the LTS faculty. The purpose of the meeting was to take stock of the current situation and prayerfully to set the course for the future in dialogue with our coworkers in the field. We at LTS heartily welcome good cooperation with our ILC partners in Africa and look forward to following the call of our Lord together in confessional solidarity. May the Lord of the church and of the harvest continue to strengthen and bless our efforts.

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