Faith Lutheran Church

Faith has been participating in the ELCA’s Missionary Covenant Program for a number of years. This program offers an opportunity to become a partner with a particular missionary or missionary family and to support their work.

The ELCA’s Division for Global Mission works with the sponsoring congregation to select a missionary. A yearly covenant establishes the relationship. Sponsors are encouraged to support their missionary through:

            •           prayer

            •           correspondence

            •           financial support, and

            •           an invitation to visit when the missionary is on home assignment.

Our current missionaries are Dirk and Sarah Stadtlander. Dirk serves as Pastor/Evangelist in the Lutheran Church of Senegal (L’Église Luthérienne du Sénégal or ELS), a ministry of Word and Sacrament with the Fulani Christian Community in the Linguere area of Senegal, west Africa. In addition he works with the evangelism team of the ELS to plan and carry out a holistic outreach ministry among the Fulani.

Who are the Stadtlanders?

Pastor Stadtlander is a graduate of Iowa City High School, and Sarah is a graduate of Waconia (Minnesota) High School. They met and married during their time at Luther College. After graduating from Luther, Dirk received a Master of Divinity degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary, and Sarah received a Master of Teaching degree from Clarke College. Sarah will eventually serve as a missionary in a teaching capacity, but for now she is concentrating on raising their two young children, Eva and Ellen, as well as getting to know their new neighbors both in the church and community.

The Stadtlanders began their time as missionaries by moving to Burkina Faso, another country in western Africa, for eleven months of intensive French language training and learning about life in West Africa. They arrived in Senegal in August 2006 where they were engaged in Wolof and Pulaar language and culture learning in Dakar, St. Louis, and Yeumbeul. Dirk also worked alongside a Senegalese pastor in the Dakar Parish of the ELS.

How we support them

Faith regularly prays for our missionary in Sunday worship. We contribute a minimum of $1,000 per year. We publish news from our missionary in the newsletter. Members can designate gifts for their work, and members are encouraged write to the missionary. You can contact the Stadtlanders at dirknsarah@hotmail.com. You can also send letters and cards to this address: B. P. 41, Linguere, SENEGAL. Letters and cards are appropriate throughout the year. When you write you can:

            •           say that you are praying for them and the people they serve;

            •           talk about what Faith is doing and how you participate in it;

            •           describe yourself and/or your family;

            •           send birthday and other holiday greetings
                              (Dirk: September 10; Sarah: November 2; Eva: March 19;
                              and Ellen: September 24).

Questions you could ask include:

            •           What is it like where you work? Whom do you serve?

            •           How is faith expressed in your setting? What is worship like?

            •           What are some things you especially like about the country in which  

                        you serve?

            •           What are your greatest challenges or blessings?

            •           Ask them to e-mail you their quarterly newsletter.

Sunday school classes and Bible study groups in the congregation could tell about what they are doing and ask questions about the equivalent activities in the missionary’s work.