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The former General secretary of the communications organization Kairos, Rev. David Chao (a Lutheran pastor), retired in January and was succeeded by Peter P. Chin, formerly the Program Director of the Far East Broadcasting Company. Kairos, whose work focuses on producing radio programs for the Chinese community, is a member of Lutheran Communications in Asia (LUCIA).
Kairos, in addition to their present ministries, would like to develop an Internet ministry as soon as possible, so as to open up new territory for spreading the Gospel.
The AELC created history by ordaining seventeen women on February 20, 1999 at St. Matthew's Church West Parish in Guntur. The president Rev. Dr. G. Emmanuel administered the prayers of ordination; international and national, Lutheran and ecumenical leaders also attended the ordination service.
The Rev. Sunil Banu, Chairperson of the Examining Committee presented the candidates to the congregations. In her ordination sermon, Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari, Vice-President, Lutheran World Federation and Executive Secretary, United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India exhorted the ordinands to be prophetic. She said that it is easy to be an institutional pastor but challenging to be a prophet and added that pastors should be gthe voice of the voiceless particularly at the present time when the Christian community as well as other minorities are being effected by the turmoil around them.h The ordination of women she said was a bold step of faith. Earlier in the day the ministerium of the AELC met at St. Mathews Church to resolve and accept recommendations for the ordination of women. Even though there were many questions raised relating to the procedures to be followed and the methodology of the entire process the entire ministerium consisting of over 350 pastors unanimously accepted women's ordination in principle.
President G. Emmanuel assured the ordinands that the church would find ministerial placements for full-time ministry as pastors within the next year. Presently most of them are attached to special ministries as coordinators, Bible Women and in other capacities. Thirty-two other male ordinands were also ordained for pastoral ministry in the same ordination service.
The AELC is the fifth Indian Lutheran Church to ordain women following the Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Arcot Lutheran Church, the Jeypore Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Good Samaritan Evangelical Lutheran Church which also consecrated a woman bishop, the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Katakshamma Paul Raj. The Church of North India, the Church of South India and the Methodist Church have been ordaining women for some time. The AELC is the largest Lutheran body in India, with a membership of about 800,000. It has a total ministerial strength (ordained ministers) of over 400, and at present there are about 70 more theologically trained women (giving the AELC the largest number of theological trained women within the NCCI member churches) who have yet to be ordained or placed into ministry.
Women hand-in-hand in Japan. Since 1992 Lutheran women in Japan have been gathering from several different church bodies for an annual workshop and seminar. This year they have invited Professor Mikio Fukada of Doshishya University to their workshop, to be held May 23 in Osaka. Women from the Kinki Evangelical Lutheran Church, Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, West Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Japan Lutheran Church will participate in the event. Participants will be led in Bible study during the one-day seminar, focusing particularly on women in the Bible.
The program has been supported by the Asian Program for the Advancement of Training and Studies - Japan, through the Lutheran World Federation. This women's program in Japan is unique because it provides a venue for women from four different churches to come together to discuss and sharecevery year. A standing committee gathers quite often, according to Mrs. Chikae Chiba, a member of KELC, in order to make plans for the coming seminars.
The Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore bids farewell to Rev Peter Chua who retired from active service on March 1, 1999. Born in Johor Baru, Rev Chua is from a Buddhist background. He had wanted to study Engineering in Taiwan. That plan fell through for financial reasons, but God closed that door and opened another.
In 1957, Chua spent his vacation with an uncle in Petaling Jaya who took him to the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, and Chua heard the preaching of the gospel message. He eventually accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, and in 1960, studied at the Lutheran Bible Training Institute, and graduated in November 1964.
On graduating, Peter Chua was seconded by the Lutheran Church in Malaysia & Singapore (LCMS) to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia (ELCM), and went to Penang to work among the Chinese in Penang. He worked under a Swedish missionary, Rev. Dr. Haglund. Three years later, in 1967, he returned to the LCMS.
Rev. Peter Chua has worked in Penang, Chemor, Kanthan Baru, Kuala Kuang, Sungai Siput, Tanah Itam, Semenyih, Broga, Petaling Jaya and Chempaka. While in Chemor, he started a new work in Ipoh Garden with pastor (now bishop) Gideon Chang. He is the first Malaysian pastor to work in Luther House. In 1977, he obtained his Masters of Ministry degree from Trinity Theological College, Singapore. His last assignment was in Malacca.
The Lutheran Church in Malaysia & Singapore will be taking a nation-wide offering in the month of March, to be given as humanita-rian aid for pig farmers and others whose livelihood have been affected by the recent out-break of what was believed to be the JE (Japanese Encephalitis) virus. Last month, however, experts said they had identified a second virus, a new strain of the Hendra virus, which they believe is responsible for the majority of the deaths. Little is known about Hendra, which was first detected in Australia, where it killed race-horses and humans, in 1994. The Malaysian strain is believed to spread from pigs-alive and dead.
The virus itself is found in farm animals, and carried to humans by infected Culex mosquitoes. In the early stages, victims have flu-like symptoms: fevers and chills, tiredness, headaches and vomiting. Memory lapse may also occur. The illness may progress to an infection of the brain causing brain damage, coma and death.
Less than a half hour's drive from Port Dickson is a group of three villages which today are abandoned and look like gghost towns.h These three villages-Kampong Sungai Nipah, Bukit Pelanduk and Kampung Sawah-have been most heavily hit by the outbreak of the virus. To date, 85 people have died from the virus, 36 being from this area alone and the number is still rising. Most of the victims were farmers, farm workers, and lorry drivers transported the animals. Schools have closed and most shops have shut their doors. Ironically, Chinese New Year decorations still hang from many of the deserted houses.
Most of the pig farms have now shut down, especially those whose owners and workers have died from the virus. The pigs were left to starve, and many were let loose to fend for themselves in the nearby villages. The stench from pig carcasses became unbearable. To keep the situation under control, the government has ordered the killing of more than 830,000 pigs.
The mass culling of the pigs will hopefully end the plague sweeping through the three villages, but for the families of those affected, it will be a long struggle to rebuild their lives. Not only have farm owners lost everything, but those in the pig-feed industry have also lost their business. The pig farms are run mainly by Chinese, whose Muslim neighbors consider pigs to be unclean animals. The membership of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia & Singapore is mainly Chinese.
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Twenty-four new pastors graduate from the Lutheran Seminary at Ogelbeng, PNG. The 29th of November, 1998 marked the 20th graduation ceremony to be held at the seminary. Nineteen women also successfully completed the new gstudent's wives programh and were granted certificates. The ceremony was well attended with people gathering from throughout the country. The seminary was also honored by four guests from Neumarkt Circuit in Bavaria, Germany. A farewell ceremony to 40-year missionaries Rev. Helmut and Mrs. Irmgard Hordasch of Germany and a traditional dance by the Ialibu people of the Immanuel District of the Southern Highlands were some other additions to the ceremonies.
Bernhardur Gudmundsson will be leaving the LWF and returning to his native Iceland after eight years serving as LWF's Secretary for Communication Consultancy. He will be working for the next two years for the Lutheran church in Iceland as the coordinator of its Millennium celebrations and the 1000 year anniversary of Christianity in the country.
The director, Dr Peri Rasolondraibe, will be temporarily responsible for Communication Consultancy matters until the position is filled. 
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