All four of WELS' ministerial education schools are in session for the 2010-11 school year. Initial enrollment figures show increases at three of the four schools this year. Only Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon Wis., shows a slight decrease.

Initial enrollment numbers are: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 143 students; Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., 725 students (161 in the pastor track, 564 in the teacher and staff minister tracks); Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Saginaw, Mich., 194 students; Luther Preparatory School, Watertown, Wis., 360 students.

Among those enrolled throughout the ministerial education system are 78 students from other countries or ethnic minority groups within the United States. The 10 different countries represented are: Antigua, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Germany, Japan, Korea, Ukraine, and Zambia.

The international and ethnic students are all preparing for service in the church, says Rev. Paul Prange, administrator of the Board for Ministerial Education, although often in very different ways. Some students follow the schools' regular diploma and degree programs to serve anywhere that they are assigned after graduation. Some are preparing to serve their own ethnic groups in the United States. Others are preparing to serve back in their countries of origin. A handful are learning their first Bible basics as part of the ministerial education strategy of the world mission field from which they come.

Prange notes, "The partnership between the ministerial education schools and those who work in our mission fields is growing and strengthening every year. Rapid advances in communication make it easier to adapt to changing circumstances and changing needs in the fields."