This page is designed especially for women and friends who we met at WELCA's "JUST LOVE" Gathering and their WELCA groups and friends.
Thank you for visiting our booth and this page! We hope you'll enjoy the selection of articles we chose and the word search we created just for you. (AND the pomegranate lip balm - yum!)
LPGM is small (just four U.S. staff!) but mighty in impact (thanks to friends like you and GOD!).
The organization was founded in 1995 by Gordon and Betty Olson in response to the tragic murder of their son Tim, a young St. Olaf College alum. He was an aspiring archictect who was called to oversee the building of a Lutheran church in Central Africa when he was killed by bandits. Since then, LPGM has grown to help build relationships globally, and to invest in the education and lives of countless people in some of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged regions.
This 3-minute video will give you a better idea of who we are and what we aspire to do.
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Our global partners are doing AMAZING WORK to help people on the margins - especially women and girls - get access to quality education. And we all know educating a girl is the most effective way to make lasting change. Our global partners include:
- Arcot Lutheran Church, India
- Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC), Guatemala
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Central African Republic
- Eripoto for Girls & Women, Tanzania
- Mwangaza Education for Partnership, Tanzania
LPGM works - and walks - with these global partners to listen, respond, and bear witness to local needs and priorities. We invite you to join us in this work! Please read to the end to learn how.
But first, for the rest of the stories from your WELCA "News to Bless Your Heart" flyer:
O Taste and See - India Reflection 2023
Read about Pastor Sara's culinary (and spiritual) adventures in India.
Sponsor a Student
Meet Dalit students awaiting sponsors so they can live and study in our Lutheran partners' boarding schools in India. For $40 a month, you can invest in their life through educational, physical, and spiritual development!
Transformational Travel
This group (pictured above) from Our Savior's Lutheran Church (Faribault, Minn.) traveled with LPGM to visit our partners in Guatemala, Summer 2023.
Announcing Our Newest Initiative:
Women and Girls' Literacy in the C.A.R.
Due to extreme poverty, political instability, and human rights violations - especially against women and girls -, only a fourth of women in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.) can read a simple sentence. Just this fall, our partner in C.A.R. launched a literacy initiative to empower women and girls through education.
Our partner - the social work arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of C.A.R. - is the "boots on the ground." They designed the pilot program, identified 80 women and girls desiring to learn to read and write, arranged the learning space in three Lutheran churches, worked with literacy experts to choose a curriculum, and hired and trained the teachers. Our work at LPGM is to walk alongside them, tell their story, raise the necessary funds, and build relationships between them and caring friends like you.
Initiatives like this, along with those of our other partners, have the potential to improve the living conditions of vulnerable girls and women while promoting gender and women’s rights. And this impacts their families, communities, and our world for the good of all. These programs' success and longevity, however, depends upon sustained financial support and prayers from partners like you.
Will you or your WELCA group join us in our mission? Learn more about the women's literacy initiative and sign up for our e-news; being aware of what challenges others face is the first step to walking alongside them.
And finally... the long-awaited"key" to the word search is below!
Please reach out to us for additional information about how you, your congregation or WELCA group might partner with us. We look forward to hearing from you and partnering with you!
In God's Love,
Dr. L. DeAne Lagerquist, Board Chair
Retired, St. Olaf College, Harold Ditmanson Distinguished Professor of Religion
Bethany Krepela, LPGM Development Director
(bethany@lutheranpartners.org | 612-806-0733)
P.S. To sign up for our e-news or to submit a question or speaker request, please visit Contact Us — Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry. May God bless you and your women's ministry!
