Stories from the Mission Field | CGO Blog

Sometimes God opens doors softly, subtly. I was nearly walloped in the face as He tore one from its hinges; two weeks after a harried phone call, I was on a plane to Belize! While wallowing in a planned mission trip to Guatemala that didn’t pan out, the words of Proverbs 16:9 struck me: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” As I scrambled to forge ahead with yet more plans, the Lord established a way for me to go to elsewhere in Central America! Shortly before a team from The Lutheran Church of the Webster Gardens was set to depart, I was approached about taking the place of a participant who dropped out at the last minute.

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Latin America Mission Trip

On November 20, 2015, Jonathan Ruehs and fourteen other missionaries boarded a red-eye flight to Guatemala City. Stocked with more than 200 books from Concordia Gospel Outreach, the missionaries fearlessly headed for a poverty-stricken village that had been considered “too big” for many other groups to take on: El Progreso, Guatemala.

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Latin America Children's Outreach

In February 2010, a tsunami ravaged the coastal town of Constitución, Chile, washing away lives and homes in the ensuing tidal waves. Mere days after the freak tsunami, Rev. Omar Kinas, who had been called by the confessional Lutheran Church of Chile to serve in another location, was asked to go to Constitución instead. Rather than shy away from tragedy, Rev. Kinas asserted that the people of Constitución needed the Gospel more than ever.

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Latin America Children's Outreach

Dave Grieshaber and the rest of his volunteer team almost didn’t get to go on their mission trip to Acuña, Mexico.

It wasn’t just some chance of fate how it all worked out, and it certainly wasn’t luck. By God’s design, another mission team was unable to make the trip. So in summer 2015, the team of twenty-six missionaries from the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens answered God’s call and headed down to Mexico.

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Latin America Children's Outreach

It’s a long way from Janesville, Wisconsin, to Comayagua, Honduras, especially when you’re a family of four traveling with two hundred (and one) pounds—four suitcases packed to the max—of medical supplies and Spanish Arch Books, coloring books, and Bible stories.

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Latin America Children's Outreach

If you’ve ever had to go through customs, you might be able to relate—at least in part—to the experience Deaconess Olga Preisz Groh had on her way to Nicaragua last year.

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Latin America Multicultural Outreach

“I want to go back,” said Megan, a fifth-grade student.

Her second-grade sister excitedly agreed, “Me, too!”

The girls, along with their mother, Kim Boyll—members of The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens—spent their spring break this past March in Belize on a mission trip. They joined a group of two-dozen people from the St. Louis area, which included nine other children. The group went there to teach, to talk, and to share God’s love.

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Latin America Children's Outreach

Five years ago, John Gates, a member of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church (ASLC) in St. Louis, set out for his first mission trip through Hearts for Honduras. He joined a group of missionaries in the water well division from Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball, Texas. A driller of oil wells by trade, John says there was something about this trip to a third-world country to help its people gain access to life-sustaining water that appealed to his sense of humanity. It was a greater purpose.

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Latin America Multicultural Outreach