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Putnam (Dominican Republic) Update – October 2022

Schumann Putnam Family Newsletter

The Fruits of His Word 

The Schumann Putnam Family Newsletter
Fall 2022

Deaconess formation courses and graduations –
After 4 years of study, 99 women graduated from the deaconess program offered by The Reformer Concordia Seminary of the Dominican Republic. Before their graduation ceremony, students participated in one last course called, “Diaconal Care” where we focus on how a deaconess shares the love of Christ through Christian education, spiritual care and works of mercy in congregations and out in the community.  We give thanks to God for all the women who were able to study His Word and grow in their faith over the past years.
(Above: Deaconess students from Mexico present a case study on how to provide diaconal care. Below: Danelle teaches in Mexico City, May 2022. Photo Credits: Johanna Heidorn)

These women are excited to work alongside their pastor and members of their congregation to spread the Gospel to a hurting world.  The Diaconal program has been my (Danelle’s) main ministry focus the past four years from the development of the program to course writing, teaching, and mentoring the women in Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Panamá and Venezuela. It has been a privilege to be able to serve the women and be encouraged by their selfless service to so many and their love of Christ’s church.  (Above: Graduates in Guatemala. PC: J. Heidorn)

At the end of May, we celebrated the graduation of 2 pastoral students and 12 deaconess students from our seminary in the Dominican Republic. The seminary serves many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean through residential and on-line pastoral programs as well as the deaconess program.
Rafael Flores will be returning to Chile with his wife Jamielynn
(below on left).
Jeancarlos Ramírez will return to his country of Peru with his wife Caitlin, and their children, Abraham and Eliana (below on right). (PC: J. Heidorn, J. Inglehart)   
is the 2022 class of Deaconess and pastoral graduates in the Dominican Republic are pictured below with The Reformer Concordia Seminary faculty.
(PC: J. Heidorn) 

Pictured above is the 2022 class of Deaconess and pastoral graduates in the Dominican Republic with The Reformer Concordia Seminary faculty. (PC: J. Heidorn) 

Meet Deaconess Student, Migdalia –
In August, I traveled to Panamá to teach the last deaconess course and participate in their graduation.  I was a missionary in Panamá from 1999 to 2005.
I met Migdalia when she was about 10 years old at a vacation Bible school, we held to start a new church.  Migdalia would faithfully bring her little brothers and sisters to Bible school, and now attends church with her husband and children.
It was a blessing to see how the Lord has kept her in His Word and is using her as His instrument to tell others of his love. (PC: J. Inglehart)

Luther Academy in Guatemala and Mexico – 
Carlos has also been very busy working to introduce the new hymnal in Spanish to our sister church bodies and missions in Latin America.  In June he traveled to Guatemala to help to teach a course on theological foundations for church music and hymnody. The course was taught with Pastor Alejandro López, a Chilean pastor serving in Panama.  Seventeen pastors from the Lutheran Church in Guatemala and musicians from each congregation gathered for the 3-day course.

They also taught this course in Mexico at the end of August for
pastors and leaders of the Lutheran Synod of Mexico.

(Below – Carlos teaching in Guatemala, Pastor Elry Orozco and seminarian Kairo. PC:J. Heidorn. Last, Pastors and leaders in Mexico.)

Luther Academy in Bolivia and Venezuela –
Carlos also traveled to Bolivia in June, where he taught on the origins and use of the liturgy in the worship service where over 37 participants attended.

We are thankful that after many years of not being able to get into Venezuela due to safety issues, Pastor Sergio Fritzler, a professor of Concordia Seminary in the Dominican Republic, was able to go in July to teach a Luther Academy course on the Theology of the Divine Service.  The course was a great encouragement to the pastors who have been serving in difficult times due to Venezuela’s political and economic struggles. It was an opportunity for them to have fellowship with one another and be filled with God’s Word. 

All these photos show just a few of the faces that the Lord works through each day so that His Word continues to go forth to forgive, heal, change lives, and bring life and salvation in Christ Jesus to those who hear it.  

We pray that He will continue to bring forth the fruits of His Word, as each day more men and women are trained and called as pastors and deaconesses to work in His harvest.

 

Pray for: Health and safety for Carlos and Danelle, the start of a new group of deaconess students and the first course this November, for the pastors and leaders Carlos serves across Latin America through Luther Academy.
Thank you, in Jesus’ name!

Danelle Putnam, LCMS Missionary to the Dominican Republic · C/ 12 · Cerro Alto · Santiago · Dominican Republic