Missionary to speak at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Mocksville on September 18 – Salisbury Post

A missionary will speak at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Mocksville on September 18

Published at 00:00 on Saturday, September 10, 2022

MOCKSVILLE — Reverend Stephen Deal will speak at the 10 a.m. worship service on Sunday, Sept. 18 at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1913 U.S. Highway 601 S. He will provide a special message for children in addition to the day’s sermon. The service will be followed by a brunch.

Deal has been a missionary with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for more than 25 years. From 1992 to 2002, he was part of the pastoral team of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina of Guatemala (ILAG), whose religious communities are today concentrated in indigenous villages in the region of the “Half Moon Q’eqchi” in Guatemala.

In 2003, he moved with his family to Costa Rica to serve as a regional representative for ELCA Global Mission with missionary responsibilities in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In this capacity, he facilitated mutually accompanying relationships between ELCA partner churches in the region and ELCA synods, congregations and members interested in supporting and learning from the holistic mission model that has been adopted by the Lutheran churches of Central America.

Since 2014, he has been deeply involved in ELCA’s AMMPARO strategy (see http://www.elca.org/ammparo), helping ELCA members understand the root causes of the mass exodus of children, young people and families in Central America, and then to build a network of relationships with Lutheran churches and ecumenical partners in the Northern Triangle of Central America and Mexico who “welcome the stranger” and defend the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees.

Since September 2020, he has been expanding ELCA’s established network of AMMPARO companions to other parts of Latin America where Lutheran churches in Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina are also engaged in ministry. migrants to migrants and refugees fleeing the protracted socio-political situation. upheaval in places like Venezuela and Haiti.

Prior to serving as an ELCA missionary, Deal lived and worked for 14 years in Washington, DC, where he was a member of Luther Place Memorial Church. He was born in Hickory and holds an undergraduate degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University and a graduate degree from the University of Michigan. He was ordained in the Augustinian Lutheran Church in Guatemala.

He is married to Marta Julia Girón Rodas, also called as an ELCA missionary, who is active in women’s ministry in the Iglesia Luterana Costarricense (ILCO) in Costa Rica.