THE AUTHOR

Rev. Theo Kuster is a retired missionary living in Minneapolis, MN. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity from Bethany Lutheran Seminary, Mankato, MN, in 1962; a Master of Sacred Theology from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN in 2002; a BA at the U of Minnesota in 1960 and an MA in Ibero American Studies from the U of Wisconsin in 1981. As pastor he served St. Paul's in Chicago, IL and St. Peter's near Goodhue MN. As missionary he worked in Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ghana West Africa, and Kazakhstan.

LAST UPDATE

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THE COLORING BOOK

Early in 1968 Robert Moldstad had an idea for a coloring book for children to promote the mission. Using slides and other materials he developed a series of line drawings. Here are a few of the first examples, with comments attached. These were later revised and the coloring book was a popular success in ELS Sunday Schools and Vacation Bible Schools.
680000_rm_pr_a Example a;  Example b;  Example c;  Example d;  Example e;  Example f.

DIFFICULTIES

Since no-one from the ELS had recently started a foreign mission from scratch, every step of the way was an invention and an adventure. For instance, the coloring book idea was not an "official" project, thought out by one or another of the existing Boards or Committees of the Synod. It soon became obvious there was a great difference between a mission run by a mission society and a mission run by a synodical system. We had suspected the difference would not affect our work. It did! In the mission society method all the members of the society, all the contributors, etc., were "on board" with the main purpose of the organization. There would be little difference of opinion. On the other hand, we soon found out, the situation was different in a synodical system. In the synodical system the mission was only one of a number of activities and "missions", each of which had a following, each of which was promoted and defended by that following. The difference was most obvious in the yearly Synodical meetings when the budget was discussed, and appropriations were made to the various Boards. Did we make a mistake going with the synodical system? I don't think so. In the short run it was a struggle to establish the validity of the cause. But, in the long run, the ELS benefitted in many ways by having a "foreign mission." More on this as we work our way through the material.

DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLICITY

Publicity was very important under the synodical mission paradym. During early planning we had not taken this fact into consideration, and little or nothing had been arranged. The Foreign Field Secretary asked Glenn Riechwald, a prof at Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato, MN, to help. Here is the correspondence:    Page one;   Page two;   Page three;   Page four. My files contain no more correspondence between the Secretary and Riechwald.

The important point was the NEW BEGINNING in missions. Not the mission method of the past century, but a new approach. In the words of the Foreign Field Secretary:

We were unaware at this point of how important it would be that if our people did not understand the method, there would be all sorts of misconceptions. We found out, the "slow beginning", mentioned above, proved to be only one of many misconceptions.