New Missouri Synod personnel from Missouri and California set to begin service in Vietnam
Photos available upon request.
ST. LOUIS—July 22, 2011—The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) recently appointed four new personnel to serve in Vietnam in various capacities.
The new personnel include:
Mary Ettner of San Jose, Calif., will be a service coordinator and educator in Hanoi. She will help plan and host short-term teams of volunteers who travel to Vietnam for human care and educational work. She is a member of Christ Church Lutheran in Phoenix. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University, Irvine, Calif.
Kenneth and Gail Horvath of St. Louis, Mo., will teach at the LCMS’ new Concordia International School Hanoi, which is set to open Aug. 24. Kenneth Horvath, a native of Burlington, Vt., holds degrees from Concordia University Nebraska, Seward, Neb., and Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo. Gail Horvath, a native of Aberdeen, S.D., holds a degree from Concordia University Nebraska, Seward, Neb. Both taught at area Lutheran schools, Kenneth at Green Park and Gail at Abiding Savior. The Horvaths are members of Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis.
Patricia Joy Jones of Long Beach, Calif., will teach English as a Foreign Language at a university in Hanoi. She also will provide one-on-one tutoring to students. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanguard University and a law degree from Trinity Law School. She is a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Long Beach.
All of their terms of service begin in 2011.
Ettner, the Horvaths, and Jones were formally commissioned during a sending service July 15 in the chapel at the LCMS International Center in St. Louis.
The LCMS has been involved in mission and outreach since 1851 when it established its first mission board and sent its first overseas missionary to India in 1895. Today, the LCMS trains, sends and supports called and appointed career, long-term GEO and short-time missionaries, human care workers and educators throughout the United States and in various countries around the world where there are mission stations, partner churches, schools or mission relationships.
About The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), is a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian denomination headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. Founded in 1847, the LCMS has more than 2.3 million baptized members in some 6,200 congregations and more than 9,000 pastors. Two seminaries and 10 colleges and universities operate under the auspices of the LCMS, and its congregations operate the largest Protestant parochial school system in America. The church broadcasts the saving message of Jesus Christ over KFUO Radio, and it has relationships and active mission work in 89 countries around the world. In the last five years, the LCMS has awarded more than $35 million through more than 900 domestic and international grants for emergency response and disaster relief. Today, the LCMS is in full doctrinal fellowship with 33 other confessional Lutheran church bodies worldwide and is a founding partner of Lutheran Services in America, a social ministry organization serving one in every 50 Americans. For more information, visit www.lcms.org.
—30—