Title: ELCA: 158 Southeast Asians Baptized
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 18, 1998

ELCA: 158 SOUTHEAST ASIANS BAPTIZED
98-22-136-LJG*

     SIOUX CITY, IOWA (ELCA) -- On Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 158 Southeast
Asian people living in Nebraska and Iowa responded to the Rev. Tom B.
LoVan's invitation to be baptized in a special service by a swimming pool
at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa.  LoVan is a pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
     "In Southeast Asia, Christian people have a tradition of Baptism by
immersion," noted LoVan.  "We wanted to make that style available, as well
as the more mainstream tradition," he explained.
     "This is the largest Baptism I've seen in this country," noted Bishop
Richard N. Jessen, and Bishop Curtis H. Miller agreed.  The two bishops
serve the ELCA's Nebraska and Western Iowa Synods, respectively.  Both
synods support multicultural ministries, and currently both support LoVan's
outreach work among Asian people working and living in the river
communities of Sioux City, and Dakota City and South Sioux City, Neb.
     Southeast Asian people from Nebraska and Iowa have been worshiping at
Salem Lutheran Church in Dakota City, Neb., and at Morningside Lutheran
Church in Sioux City for the past several months.  LoVan, a "pastor
developer" who is Laotian, extended invitations for them to come to the two
ELCA congregations.
     Jessen and Miller conducted traditional Lutheran Baptisms at pool
side, while LoVan and other local pastors carefully submerged those who
chose Baptism by immersion.
     "Before this time, Asian people came to the Lutheran church by
accident," explains LoVan.  "I came by accident; I married a Lutheran
woman. That is how I found the jewel in the Lutheran church: justification
by grace through faith."
     "From now on, I don't want Asians to come to the Lutheran church by
accident. I want them to be invited!"  That is what LoVan has done in the
eight months he has been working in Dakota City, and Sioux City.  Hundreds
have responded.
     "It is not me doing this work; it is the Holy Spirit," LoVan insists.
"In eight months, I never thought this many people would come.  I expected
maybe 10 to 15 families from the two cities.  Now at Morningside, we have
40 to 50 people coming each Sunday.  At Salem Lutheran Church there are
100-150 each Sunday," he said.
     "We use 13 different translations of the Bible, " LoVan said.  He
preaches in Lao in English because most of the young people no longer speak
their parents' native languages.  While about 80 percent of the new
worshipers are Laotian, specific ethnic groups include Thaidam, Chinese,
Vietnamese, Mien, Malaysian, Phillipino, Hmong and Yao.
     LoVan noted that more than 50 people were unable to attend the
ceremony, and that the two congregations are planning another Baptism
ceremony for that group.
     LoVan is part of a growing number of Asian American pastors working
with Southeast Asian communities in the Midwest.  There are 58 Asian
congregations and ministries in the ELCA.
     LoVan has lived in Iowa for 20 years.  He worked for Lutheran Social
Services of Iowa for several years before he became an ordained ELCA
pastor.  He served in an ecumenical Laotian congregation in Storm Lake,
Iowa, that was a joint project of the ELCA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
and the United Methodist Church.
     As more and more Laotian people came to Dakota City, lay leaders and
the Rev. Nathan Houfek of Salem Lutheran Church became interested in an
outreach ministry.  Many Asian people came to work for IBP, a meat-packing
company with many locations across the Midwest.  Salem members contributed
$30,000 of the congregation's 125th anniversary offering to that ministry
last year.
     "We are conducting joint worships services for special church days,
such as Easter and Lent," LoVan noted.  Half of the Sunday School at Salem
is now a made up of Asian members.  "The teachers have said they really
enjoy having the new Asian members in their classes, and the joint services
will cut down barriers between the two groups," he said.
     "It's not been easy on this congregation, because we have people who
lived through the issues of the Vietnam era in our country's history,"
noted Houfek.  "It's not been easy, but the congregation's doing the
ministry."
     "When I came to Dakota City in 1986, it quickly became apparent that
a large population of Hispanics and Asians existed and that the Asians were
not being reached by any churches at that time.  So, it's been a growing
interest for the congregation," said Houfek.  The Nebraska native has had a
long multicultural ministry, tracing back through a close family friend who
was a missionary in Tanzania for 40 years and through the intricacies of
sponsoring a 13-member refugee family while a pastor at Grace Lutheran
Church in Lincoln, Neb.
     Nebraska Synod congregations have welcomed Asian people for many
years although not in the numbers worshiping at Dakota City.  During the
early years of the ELCA,  members of the Hmong community in Omaha, Neb.,
worshiped in a separate service at Augustana Lutheran Church.
     Lormong Lo, a longtime leader among the Hmong in Omaha, said,
"Basically, we  go to the regular services with all the rest of the
congregation. We have become quite comfortable with English."

     [*Linda Janssen Gjere, Communications, Nebraska Synod ELCA operating
     from the Office of the Bishop, in the Lind Center, Omaha, NE]

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