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The LCMS and Lutherans from Hong Kong began serving refugees in Macau in October 1950. The “mission” was made official in 1952 and by 1953 had significant involvement from ‘The Lutheran Hour’ with rebroadcasts from Hong Kong. Rev. Louis Jasper later began work with the deaf in Macau in the late 1960s.
The Lutheran Church—Hong Kong Synod (LCHKS), based in nearby Hong Kong, became an LCMS partner/sister church in 1977. The LCHKS served, and continues to serve, Lutheran congregations in both Hong Kong and Macau.
LCMS World Mission reinitiated work in Macau in 1988 with the organization of Concordia Welfare and Education Society Macau. Later in 1995, the International Lutheran Society of Macau (ILSM) was founded for the registration of Concordia English Center in Macau.
The Center uses a combination of English-as-a-Foreign-Language teaching, small-group Bible studies and various fellowship activities to gather and evangelize both Cantonese residents of Macau and Mandarin-speaking migrant workers from surrounding areas. Career, GEO and short-term missionaries all comprise vital components of the LCMS missionary team in Macau. Many short-term teams also serve alongside the missionaries for 1-2 weeks, providing much-needed encouragement and support to resident missionaries and offering special English and Bible camps and special events, which attract many seekers to the Center.
Since 2003, an Alliance missionary pastor from the China Evangelical Lutheran Church, the LCMS partner/sister church in Taiwan, serves side-by-side with the LCMS missionary team to reach out into the community to proclaim the Gospel.
In the mid-1990s, LCMS World Relief and Human Care provided support towards Christian education for children with disabilities.
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