Every other month our CLC Board of Missions updates us with recent news from various mission fields.
We give thanks to the Lord that He has led Pastor Bruce Naumann to accept the call to serve as the CLC’s third full-time foreign missionary. He will be working primarily among our fellow Christians in the CLC-Tanzania. His main work will be to serve at the Wartburg Lutheran Theological Seminary as an instructor to men preparing for the pastoral ministry. He will also be training the next generation of seminary instructors.
Pastor Naumann is well acquainted with our foreign mission work. He served on the Board of Missions from 1994-2010 serving as chairman from 1998-2010. He traveled to India in 2000, to East and West Africa in 2005, to East Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008, and he most recently participated in the Mission Helper trip to Nepal in 2021.
Pastor Naumann will continue to serve at Messiah Lutheran in Eau Claire through the end of February. In March he will begin packing and preparing for his trip. Plans are underway for a commissioning service to be held at Messiah in the middle of March. Pastor Naumann will then travel to Arusha, Tanzania, and will begin his work in the seminary with the beginning of their second semester on April 10. Plans are to have his wife Paula join him in August. In addition to his work with the CLC-Tanzania, Pastor Naumann will also have opportunity to visit our sister church bodies in Kenya, Zambia, and Uganda as circumstances allow.
Pastor Naumann is excited for this new opportunity to serve the Lord and His people in East Africa. He writes, “I am enthusiastic about helping to equip men who are studying for a lifetime of service to the Lord in the public ministry of the Tanzanian Church of the Lutheran Confession, as well as students who may come to us from the CLC-Kenya. There are also many doors that appear to be ready to open, God willing, for Gospel outreach in outlying areas.”
We pray that the Lord would watch over Pastor Naumann and his wife during this time of transition. May He enable them to adjust to living overseas, keep them safe from all danger, and give success to their labors.
is pastor of Luther Memorial Church in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and a member of the CLC Board of Missions