Installation of John Vogt as Rector

Pastor John Vogt was officially installed as Rector (President) of St. Sophia Seminary during the Ukrainian Lutheran Church’s Sobor (Synod Convention) in Kyiv, Ukraine on November 9, 2006. St. Sophia Seminary is located in Velyka Berezovtsya, Ukraine. Pastor Vogt accepted the combined call from Thoughts of Faith and the Ukrainian Lutheran Church earlier this year. Thoughts of Faith is a Lutheran Mission Society associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and is based in Oregon, Wisconsin. John and his wife Sandy permanently moved to Ukraine in July. Rector Vogt had previously served as the Rector of Biblicum in Sweden since 1999, which is associated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutherans Synod (WELS). This school year the seminary has seven fulltime students in the program who are training for the ministry. There are three students from Ukraine, two from Moldova and two from Belarus.

15^th Anniversary in Plzen, Czech Republic

The Czech Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC) in Plzen, Czech Republic, celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of their mission field on November 5, 2006. Pastor Matt Luttman was called in 1991 by Thoughts of Faith to help start the mission field’s work. Thoughts of Faith is a Lutheran Mission Society associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and is based in Oregon, Wisconsin. There are three congregations in the CELC that are located in Plzen, Tlucna and Horni Briza. The Plzen church also operates a K-9 Christian day school and has 194 students this school year.

Some 550 people attended the fifteenth anniversary celebration service. The sanctuary at the Plzen church normally holds only around 150 people. Overflow seating was made available in and around the sanctuary to seat the enthusiastic worshipers. At the end of the service a children’s choir numbering 200 children sang, “Lift High the Cross” in both English and Czech. Many tears of joy were shed during the festive worship service because of the many blessings the Czech mission field has been granted during the past fifteen years of proclaiming God’s Word. Praise be to God!

Church Dedication in Kremenetz, Ukraine

The Church of the Holy Cross in Kremenetz, Ukraine was dedicated on September 27, 2007. The Kremenetz church located in western Ukraine is part of the Ukrainian Lutheran Church (ULC) that is in fellowship with both the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). The Ukrainian Lutheran Church is a mission field of Thoughts of Faith (ToF) and is associated with the ELS. More than 200 people, including Mr. Kermit Traska, Executive Director of ToF and Bishop V’yacheslav Horpynchuck, the head of the ULC, attended the Kremenetz Church dedication service.

Prior to occupying the new church building during the final stages of construction, the Kremenetz congregation worshiped in a rented room above the town’s bus maintenance station. The new Kremenetz church building is located in a prime location on the main street in the center of town. The church obtained an old building that had previously contained a restaurant/bar and was in extremely poor condition. The reconstruction process began in the late 1990’s and was overseen by Mr. Vasyl Andriechuk, the Kremenetz church’s Deacon and congregation President. Dedicated congregation members did much of the work. When the church building was completed, it became a beacon of light in a city of darkness and unbelief. We pray that lost souls will be guided to the new church’s doors to hear the true Gospel message and come into the kingdom of believers. May God bless the Kremenetz church’s work!