On Sunday, July 30, the Rev. Geraldo Walmir Schüler, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, reminded delegates to the 68th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) of another convention long ago: the convention of 1899, when the LCMS first considered a request to send a missionary to Brazil. A year later, in 1900, a missionary arrived in Brazil, and from his efforts, a thriving church body has grown that now partners with the LCMS through the Alliance Missionary Program.
“We want to express our gratitude to God for having given us His only Son to be our Savior, dying on our behalf on the cross of Calvary, and we also want to express our gratitude to the LCMS, for it was through her that this precious theology of the cross was brought to us,” Schüler said. Although he spoke in Portuguese, a translation of his words appeared on the screen behind him. “Thanks to this precious theology, our fathers lived and died in peace, our generation lives and will die in peace, and the next generations will have the same opportunity.”