Rev. David & Joyce Erber
The Rev. David and Joyce Erber serve the Lord through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in Africa. They live in Accra, Ghana.
David serves as a theological educator. He teaches at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Accra. He also serves as the field coordinator for the Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, online Master of Arts in Theology program. African pastors from Ghana, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda live at home and meet in classes using Zoom.
Joyce serves as the regional business manager for Africa. She manages the financial and accounting dynamics for LCMS missionaries and mission projects in 25 countries in Africa. In addition to serving the missionaries, Joyce also works closely with the other world area business managers and the office staff at the LCMS International Center.
David and Joyce have served as LCMS missionaries since 1986. Before Ghana, the Erbers lived in Nigeria for 25 years. David has served in various church planting, seminary instruction, advanced theological education and mission administration capacities over the years. David and Joyce have three grown children and a grandson.
The Michigan District has supported the Erbers since they began mission service in 1986.
Dr. Jim and Susan Kaiser
Dr. Jim and Susan Kaiser are excited to help translation teams finish their translations of the Bible. Jim serves as a translation consultant with teams in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Some of this work involves traveling to visit the teams, and some is done using video chat through the internet.
In the early 1980s, Susan helped establish a literacy program for the Loko people of Sierra Leone. Jim and Susan helped to translate the New Testament for the Kono people of Sierra Leone, and later assisted the Old Testament translation project for the Chaldean people of Iraq.
Jim and Susan live in Macomb, MI. They have three grown sons, all born in Sierra Leone, and ten grandchildren.
The Kaisers are thankful for your partnership in getting God’s Word into people’s hands and hearts.
Nora Léon
Nora Léon, Executive Director of Caribbean Children’s Foundation (CCF), lives and works in Les Cayes, Haiti for several months each year. CCF works to obtain sponsors for the education of children and young adults and to obtain medical care for critically ill children. They sponsor a feeding program for students each school day to assure they are getting one meal each of those days. They are also working in a remote community to construct a medical facility.
Rev. Steven and Martha Mahlburg
Rev. Steven and Martha Mahlburg serve the Lord through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) as missionaries in Sri Lanka. Steven partners with the Ceylon Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC) in Sri Lanka to share the hope we have in Jesus Christ. He provides administrative support, Christian education and mentoring for the pastors, evangelists and laypeople of the CELC. He travels to the CELC congregations around Sri Lanka to encourage a bold witness to Jesus Christ. Steven also assists Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Colombo by conducting the English service, teaching Sunday School and providing English-language pastoral care. In addition, Steven supports the regional director as a manager for other missionaries in the Asia region.
Steven grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Mich., in 1991, and his Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1995. He served for 20 years as a parish pastor before beginning his service as an international missionary. Steven enjoys reading, the performing arts, camping and the outdoors.
Martha also grew up in the Detroit suburbs and earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University. Martha’s hobbies include reading, cross-stitching and watching movies. Steven and Martha enjoy spending time with their five children — Autumn, Liberty, Skye, Rose and Duncan.
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James and Christel Neuendorf
The Rev. James and Deaconess Christel Neuendorf serve the Lord through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in Puerto Rico. Both have served as missionaries in this region since 2008, in Panama and the Dominican Republic.
James is a missionary pastor in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. His focus is on establishing a strong Lutheran presence in this city that will boldly proclaim the Gospel and meet the physical and spiritual needs of a community that is hungry for the Gospel and for hope.
As a deaconess, Christel works to establish a presence of Christ’s mercy through the Casa de Amparo y Respuesta al Desastre (House of Refuge and Disaster Response) mercy houses and through congregational activities. She is also engaged in assessing needs in the community and coordinating efforts to meet those needs as a congregation and mission.
James and Christel both grew up in Michigan and finished their studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Rev. Chuck and Karen Tessaro
Rev. Chuck and Karen Tessaro first set foot in Nigeria, where there are over 500 different language groups, in 1985. They serve with multiple local translation teams including the Old Testament teams for the Ikwerre, Yala, Kukele, and Gokana languages. These teams also promote literacy and serve in their local community as teachers and helpers.
The Tessaros met and married at Concordia College in Ann Arbor, MI. By the time Chuck had graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, their family had grown to four. Called to serve on a translation team in Nigeria, the Tessaros spent a year at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Texas before heading for Africa.
Since finishing the Eleme New Testament in 2002 and assisting with the consultant checking the Ikwerre New Testament in 2010, Chuck and Karen have been working with various Old Testament translation teams. Chuck has also been teaching in the Linguistics and Bible Translation Department in the Theological College of Northern Nigeria and Karen has been busy leading and participating in various Bible study groups.
Caitlin Worden de Ramirez
Deaconess Caitlin Ramírez serves the Lord through The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) as a career missionary in Latin America. In this role, she serves as a teacher and mentor for the formation of women as deaconesses around Latin America through the seminary in the Dominican Republic. Caitlin is instrumental in teaching these women so that they may spread the Gospel through Christian education, spiritual care and acts of mercy — both within their congregations and the greater community.
Caitlin also works with the VDMA project. This project facilitates the Spanish translation and distribution of Lutheran resources to Spanish-speaking pastors and deaconesses of our LCMS mission churches and partner churches in this region. The Lord uses Caitlin to support Latin American pastors and deaconesses so that they may faithfully proclaim God’s Word and Christ’s mercy to the lost and broken-hearted in their own contexts.
Caitlin’s home is in Battle Creek, Mich. She received a bachelor’s degree in social work and sociology from Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. She also received a master’s degree with deaconess certification from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. Caitlin has served as an LCMS missionary in Peru and the Dominican Republic since 2013. She enjoys traveling, baking, reading and spending time with her family. Caitlin and Jeancarlos have three children: Abraham, Eliana and Ian.
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Becky Grossman
Dr. Becky Grossmann began serving with Lutheran Bible Translators in 1985 as an assistant to the language program manager in Liberia, West Africa. She became the manager for a short time before being assigned as translation advisor to the Bandi people of Liberia in 1989 and the New Testament translation was completed in 1996. She facilitated the completion of the Gola New Testament in 2019.
After several years in the United States, Becky’s Lutheran Bible Translators service resumed in July 2012. Since then, she has completed a Doctor of Ministry degree to make the most of her gifts and raise her qualifications to standards compatible across the field of Bible translation.
Becky currently serves as a translation consultant for the Bandi, Dan, and Maan full Bible translation programs in Liberia and the Themne full Bible translation program in Sierra Leone. Becky assists translators via innovative technologies such as internet communications and teleconferencing, with periodic in-person visits.