This month WELS President Rev. Mark Schroeder will be taking his first trip to a world mission field. He and Rev. Phil Koelpin, chairman of the Board for World Missions, will be traveling to India July 8-23 to visit congregations of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Ministries, WELS' sister church in India.

"I can't begin to imagine what I will see and experience," says Schroeder, "but I'm sure this trip will help me to better understand what the Lord is doing in places on the other side of the world." Meeting fellow Christians and seeing their work firsthand, he says, will help him better communicate about mission work to WELS members in the States.

Rev. Michael Duncan, chairman of the South Asia Administrative Committee of the Board for World Missions, says this visit will also be encouraging to the members in India. "It reinforces the knowledge that a church body on the other side of the world cares about them and their workers," he says. "The people also appreciate being able to personally express their gratitude to the people of WELS through the leaders for their support and training."

While in India, Schroeder and Koelpin will be attending a church dedication, visiting national churches, and talking to seminary students. They also will be the featured guests at the seminary graduation of ten national workers. These graduates will join the 12 national pastors, 83 gospel workers, and 12 Bible women who serve more than seven thousand people in 134 congregations.

"I'm really looking forward to witnessing that milestone and seeing these men at the end of a long and difficult preparation, now ready to be pastors and full-time proclaimers of the gospel," says Schroeder.

On their way back to the United States, Schroeder and Koelpin also will stop in Hong Kong to visit Asia Lutheran Seminary.