As this month concludes, I am once again in Latvia, attending Luther Academy’s Intensive Study Weeks. It is a blessing to interact with our students on a person-to-person basis after five months of seeing them every week only over Zoom. But it is also wonderful to fellowship with my fellow LCMS missionaries / Luther Academy instructors who in some way serve as my “Winkel,” the term pastors use for their brother pastors in the local circuit whom they meet on a monthly basis. Believers in the triune God—both in the Old and New Testament—have always been called to live with one another in community. For us today, this means to regularly gather to receive Word and Sacrament, but also to fellowship with one another outside of the worship service (hopefully, as you are able, for Bible study, prayer groups, retreats, etc.). Christians are not “Lone Rangers,” keeping their faith to themselves in isolation. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, thank you so much for your continued prayers and support, and I pray that you too may regularly be able to experience the blessings of Christian fellowship—both around the altar and also as you interact with fellow Christians in your daily lives. “And they devoted themselves at the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42).
With much gratitude and love in Christ,
Pastor Christian Tiews and Lula
where they were married many years ago
The Tiews in Germany 