Pre-Worship

This morning I am blessed to attend St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Baguio City, a member congregation of the Lutheran Church in the Philippines, a partner church body in full altar-pulpit fellowship with the LCMS. I arrive at 8:30am for the Bible study which, typical to Southeast Asian culture, doesn’t really start until 9:00am. Pastor Willie is leading the Bible study on Romans 10:1-17. He’s one of the teachers at Lutheran Theological Seminary that I met on my first visit here in March.

He finishes an excellent explanation of this passage, and in the few minutes before worship I realize we’ll be using The Lutheran Hymnal.

I haven’t held the TLH – let alone used it for worship – in ages. I grew up with it, and the familiar melodies bring back my early childhood years at Emmaus Lutheran Church in Indianapolis, where I would wait in anticipation for the ringing of the great church-bell in the tower with the Lord’s Prayer.

Then I noticed the sticker on the inside cover. Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Palisades Park, NJ. Still an LCMS congregation! The hymnal was donated in 1991, I’m not sure why since the congregation has been around since 1919. But now, 32 years later, it’s in use here in the mountains of the Philippines, and it was obvious in worship they use pages 5 and 15 as their sole liturgical formats.

I opened a nearby Bible and found it also had a previous life:

I’m not sure where this St. Matthew’s is, but this gift given in memory of Eleanor Buchholz is still being actively used on the other side of the world.

As is this Bible from perhaps another St. Matthews.

It’s humbling to think these Bibles and hymnals have been so well-used and loved over the years (though, to be honest, the Bibles – though yellowed with age – are still in remarkably good shape, as though they have never been read quite as often as they could be by ANY of their owners!). Partners come in many shapes and forms, whether donating Bibles and other materials or praying and supporting workers like myself as we put those resources to use. It was a privilege to hold these books in my hands now, to hear through them God’s Words of forgiveness and grace to me, and to be guided by those books in receiving the gracious gift of His Son’s body and blood in the Divine Service. Pastor Felipe did a wonderful job of preaching God’s Word and feeding God’s people.