Volume 20/Number Two/Spring 2015

This year marks LPGM’s 20th anniversary! All LPGM friends and supporters are invited and encouraged to join us for a special observance of thanksgiving and hope at a 20th Anniversary Worship Service on October 10, 2015. We are also planning to celebrate this milestone anniversary by inviting all former travelers to reconnect with us and each other. How? A reunion! This LPGM Travelers’ Reunion will also take place on October 10, 2015.

We are currently confirming the venue and the timing of these special 20th anniversary events. We will post details on our website as soon as details are available and print more information in the next Newsletter, too. We hope that many of you will be able to join us in praising God for the abundant blessings shared with thousands of deserving people around the globe through Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry since 1995. Maybe you will share pictures. Maybe you’ll swap stories with someone you just met. Maybe you’ll answer questions from someone who wants to know

more about LPGM. Details are forthcoming, but we hope that you’ll mark your calendar today!

As participants on LPGM’s first mission trip to India in

1999, Melissa and I can certainly say it changed our lives. We met our first sponsored

students, in person, on that trip – a deaf girl and her younger sister at Siloam. And we have heard from so many of you who

have not traveled that you, too, are changed by your involvement in LPGM.

What is YOUR LPGM story? Who needs to connect or reconnect

with LPGM?

What new things can we accomplish together in Christ’s name?

Mark you calendar to join us on October 10th! Please note, the date is a change from previous communications.

Thanks for your partnership!

Paul Steen, LPGM Development Director

Interested in sharing your LPGM experiences?

JOIN US for a 20th Anniversary Celebration!

Page 2—Message from Executive Director;

Project Education India News; List of Special Gifts

Page 3—Thrivent Grant, Message from LPGM Board Chair

Page 4—Additions to LPGM Board of Directors

This newsletter is an occasional publication of Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry. All contents © Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry. 5200 Willson Road, Suite 280, Minneapolis MN 55424 | 612.823.5058 | office@lutheranpartners.org

Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry is a movement that engages individuals and communities in transformational partnerships across the globe. Centered in faith and dedicated to service, LPGM is called to action by sharing resources and hope.

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special contributions received February 1, 2015 - April 30, 2015

IN MEMORY OF: Remembered by LORENS Q. BRYNESTAD: Phyllis Brynestad and Family | ANDY CHRISTENSEN: Debra Christensen | MARY JANE HAGEN: Sandra & George Anderson

GRETHE HIFDT: Corinne & Dan Engstrand | ANNELINE OLSON: Dale & Janet Johnson

IN HONOR OF: Recognized by

JANE & DOUG KOONS: Jenny Koons | JANE KOONS: Gudrun & Geoffrey Witrak; Ruth Witrak | VERNE WINTER: Bonnie Winter

Please notify us of any errors so we may correct the oversight | donors@lutheranpartners.org

Dear Friends, My call as Executive Director of Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry is coming to an end. Last August, my family and I moved to Houston, Texas, when my wife began her call as Senior Pastor of Kinsmen Lutheran Church. Since then I have commuted to Minneapolis at least once a month at my own expense. I offered my resignation in April when the LPGM Executive Committee assessed that the long-term interests of LPGM would be best served by an Executive Director based in the Minneapolis office. I am and will remain committed to LPGM’s life-changing ministry and I will work to help it achieve the strategic goals the LPGM Board developed last year. Rest assured that LPGM maintained its high standards of accountability and reporting throughout this period, a fact supported by the 2014 Audit, and will continue to do so through the coming transitions. There isn’t enough space to name even a fraction of the many

miracles I have had the privilege of witnessing as Executive Director, or the many ways my faith has grown because of my participation in this ministry. Sadly, there isn’t time for one last visit to projects, sponsors, donors or partners, so please accept this as my thanks for the blessings you have brought to me and my family. The friend-ships that developed over the past 4 ½ years will remain close to my heart.

Thank you for being a partner in ministry. Sincerely, your brother in Christ, Rev. Mark Warpmaeker

page 2

Sponsors of students in the Project Education India program often wonder what has happened to the students they have been supporting both financially and through prayer when the student completes his/her 12th standard education. LPGM travelers spent a few days at Siloam Girls Boarding Home in January 2015 and we had the pleasure of meeting five wardens (like resident assistants) who were once LPGM sponsored students. They all had gone on to extended study and now have the responsibility of taking care of other LPGM sponsored students. While we were there, each of the wardens wrote a letter to their former sponsor and we had the privilege of delivering the letters when we returned to the U.S. Your gift of sponsorship is truly making a difference, one student at a time!

If you use the automatic payment option from your bank

to make donations to LPGM, please take a few moments to

make certain the bank is using our new address so your

contributions are not delayed. THANK YOU!

5200 Willson Road, Suite 280, Minneapolis MN 55424

Project Education India News By Mary Peterson, LPGM Project Administrator

Attention PEI Sponsors … to get more stories like the one above,

send a message to sponsors@lutheranpartners.org

Earlier this year, Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry received a $25,000 grant from the Thrivent Financial Foundation. The grant will help LPGM accelerate our strategic plan as we engage new congregations as well as more youth, young adults, and young families in global mission. LPGM is thrilled to work with the Thrivent Foundation once again. We quickly put some of these funds to work as we launched our “Friends” programs to sustain our more mature programs – English+ and the ALC Community College in India, and Village Savings & Loan and Emmanuel Health Center in the Central African Republic. One new element of this grant is Matching Gifts. Any new participant in one of the “Friends” programs, as well as new contributors to LPGM’s “Green Shoots” general fund, can have their gifts matched on a 2:1 basis. For every donation of $2 by a new donor to LPGM,

Thrivent will provide $1. Now is a great time to help sustain these life-changing programs along with our partners. Make your donation go further – learn about Friends and Green Shoots as well as donate online at www.lpgm.org. Thrivent Financial Foundation: The grant is part of the foundation’s Lutheran Grant Program. This program is designed to assist Lutheran organizations and those they serve in achieving economic security and sustainability. In 2014, the program distributed almost $1 million in grants. Eligible grant applicants include: Lutheran congregations, regional divisions of the three largest church bodies, small church bodies, high schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, camps, campus ministries, social ministry organizations, and other independent Lutheran organizations or LGPM Board members and Executive Director Mark Warpmaeker institutions. receive the first installment of the Thrivent grant in February 2015

LPGM and Thrivent Foundation Announce Matching Gifts Grant

page 3

As you read on page 2 in the note from LPGM Executive Director, Mark Warpmaeker, LPGM is amidst some significant changes. On behalf of the LPGM Board of Directors and staff, I want to express sincere thanks to Pastor Mark for his dedicated and loyal service to LPGM since he joined the staff in October 2010. Mark’s position was technically a brand new venture for the organization. He swiftly eased into the role, next to founders Betty and Gordon Olson, and has worked tirelessly to continue the mission of LPGM. At this juncture, Mark continues to be dedicated to the greater good of the organization by offering to work through a transition time, and again we are thankful. The transition, however, is not a known commodity as this is going to publication. Mark is working with the Executive Committee to determine a reasonable time frame for which his leadership will move through the process of handing the reins to a new Executive Director; however, we are keenly aware that there may, in fact, be no physical overlap between Mark and the next person in the position.

We are assembling a search committee that will manage the process of seeking potential candidates for the position of Executive Director. The search committee will make its recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors holds the ultimate hiring authority. LPGM staff members are committed to keep the organization functioning by taking on extra duties until a new Executive Director is in place. Mark will continue to be a part of these collaborations for as long as appropriate and jointly determined. Aware that we are not the first organization to go through such a challenge, we take some comfort in knowing we are not alone in this endeavor. We call upon you, our loyal friends and partners, to offer prayerful support for the situation. If you have expertise in, or know of someone who works in interim situations, please contact me via email: office@lutheranpartners.org, about the possibility of being involved in the LPGM transition process. We all hope and pray that LPGM will survive through this unknown time and emerge an even stronger and more vibrant organization promoting global outreach.

A word about LPGM Leadership … from Board Chair, Rev. Mark Holman

NONPROFIT

ORGANIZATION

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PAID

TWIN CITIES MN

PERMIT NO. 31516 Address Service Requested

October 10, 2015: 20th Anniversary Celebration Details are forthcoming

Connecting and encouraging through faith

LPGM is a 501(c)3 organization. Your contribution is tax deductible to the

fullest extent allowed by law.

Information about LPGM staff, Board of Directors and global partnerships

can be found at our website: lutheranpartners.org

Rob Johnson received a BA from the College of Wooster. Rob is a teacher at Breck School. He teaches Religion in the Upper School, and in the Lower School he teaches Project Adventure, a high ropes-based, team-

building curriculum. He also is the Sunday School Coordinator and Confirmation Coordinator at Trinity Episcopal Church. Rob tries to spend time with his brilliant wife, Wendy, when she’s not busy with her own full plate. He also occasionally gets to see his kids: Luke when he comes home from college, Josh in the halls of the school as a Breck student, and Rebekah on the figure skating rink. When not at Breck, he spends time with the international students living with their family, and great neighbors.

Kyle Rudser grew up in Northfield, Minnesota, and went on to St. Olaf College where he competed for the Swimming and Diving team and earned a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics in 2002. He went to graduate school in biostatistics at the University of Washington for an MS in 2005 and PhD in 2007. After graduation he stayed in Seattle as a Post-doctoral Senior Fellow with the Data Coordinating Center at the University of Washington supporting the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, an international network supported primarily by the National Institutes of Health to study resuscitation

from cardiac arrest and severe trauma. In 2008 he joined the faculty in the Division of Biostatistics at the University of Minnesota with an additional appointment in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the U of M. He is active with several national and international professional organizations and has participated on numerous Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for clinical trials. He has traveled internationally numerous times, some for pleasure and others for a site visit or conference. He lives in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and is a member of Roseville Lutheran Church with his wife Annalisa and two sons.

At the April 24, 2015, Board of Directors meeting, we thanked Dave Dynneson and Rev. Joel Quie for their service as LPGM Board mem-bers as their terms came to an end. Two new board members were elected at that same meeting ...