Frequently Asked Questions about CALMS

What does CALMS mean?

Central American Lutheran Mission Society

...Connecting and Advancing Leaders in Mission and Service

What is CALMS' Mission?

Our mission is to be an effective participant and partner in fullfilling Christ's Great Commission to all races and cultures within Central American and the Caribbean and to connect US mission leaders to strategic mission and service opportunities in order to advance God's work.

When and how did CALMS begin?

The vision for the formation of CALMS grew out of discussions in 1999 between Gloria Dei Lutheran church (Houston, Texas), LCMS World Mission and Lutheran Hour Ministries. Gloria Dei was looking for opportunities to guide the allocation of a portion of their mission budget into specific program in which they could involve their members.

Gloria Dei invited other congregations to join them in developing a new mission society to advance the mission, initially in Panama, and to meet the growing trend for congregations to become more directly involve din cross-cultural mission opportunities.

In addition to providing more direct involvement through short-term mission opportunities, the new mission society offered the opportunity for congregations to pool their resources to make a significant impact.

Since it's beginning, seven years ago, CALMS has grown to include 10 parther congregations and has expanded its work to four Central American and Caribbean countries: Panama, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Belize.

What is CALMS' Vision?

A growing missionary movement advance by congregational leaders who joyfully use their gifts and grow in discipleship while serving strategically and effectively to build the capacity of Central American and Caribbean partners to advance God's kingdom.

What do we expect will be the results of faithfully carrying out our mission?

A growing number of confident and competent leaders (lay and ordained) in Central America, the caribeean and the United States, who are actively involved in serving the needs of their communities and sharing their Christian faith with lost people. Growing and healthy missionary churches and institutions (schools, hospitals, community leaders, homes for the aged, etc) willing and able to serv effectively to the glory of God. Healthy partnerships that benefit both North American and Central American churches/institutions and their members and help them work more effectively.

Why is there an urgency with CALMS' work?

Many people are dying spiritually because they do not know Jesus. Central American churches need a growing numer of effective leaders with missionary vision and zeal to meet the mission challenges and to extend the body of Christ. Hurting and sick people are in need of services that are not now available. North american churches need to learn how to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting, and their members want to make an impact with their lives through challenging projects that build relationships with real people and respond to real needs.

Where and with which partners is CALMS working?

CALMS is presently working with national churches in Panama and Guatemala. In the Dominican Republic, we are working in a special partnership with Lutheran missionaries and other partners such as Bethesda Lutheran Home and Services, LCMS World Relief, LCMS World Mission and the Brazil Lutheran Church. We have begun work in Belize where we have already faciliated a number of short-term mission teams and conducted research projects that have surfaced many needs and opportunities for meeting human need and equipping local leaders. We have supported the Lutheran seminary work in Nicaragua are looking at opportunities in several other countries.

What is CALMS doing in these places?

In Panama and Guatemala, CALMS is focusing on building the capacity of national workers and congregations through strategic short-term teams and projects. For example, CALMS is helping support the theological education of workers in Panama and is planning a spiritual retreat for church workers in both countries for 2007.

In the Dominican Republic, CALMS is linking mission needs with congregational resources. For example, we recently found a highly qualified team to help the new Lutheran School in Santiago with team building, discipline issues and seminars on Christian education. We also recently provided a creative, strategic short-term team to help open doors to work with young men in the Santiago area where we had struggled to build relationships. Focusing on a baseball clinic, CALMS sent qualified coaches to help the young men in the area learn to play baseball better and in the process introduce them to Jesus. As a result of this one project, there is now a new worshiping community in Palmar Arriba made up primarily of young men!

A new focus for CALMS is organizing mixed teams involving national workers with US short-term teams to provide a broader mix of skills and opportunities for our Central american Partners to grow and serve in another culture. For example, we recently recruited a couple from Panama to work with a team from St. Louis to help lead a family life workship in the Dominican Republic.

CALMS is also developing a new partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the Lutheran Church in Guatemala to build homes for needy families including disadvantaged Lutherans. CALMS has already built one home (March 2007) and has plans to build six more in 2007 and early 2008. Eventually, we hope to help the national church begin church planting by building villages to provide much needed housing for Lutheran families and others. Part of the strategy is to equip these Lutheran families to be "salt and light" for their new communities.

In Belize, we are hoping to work with the Lutheran church in Guatemala to reach the growing Spanish-speaking population in that country. We are also working with national healthcare workers to develop a functioning pharmacy for the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga and training for physical therapy workers in San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border. CALMS recently developed a new partnership with a group of seven Wisconsin Lutheran congregations to help develop the work in Belize and provide on-going support for the equipping ministries being established.

Another major focus for CALMS is our work with the Sponsor-A-Child program which links families in the United States with children in Central America who would not be able to study without speical scholarship help.

CALMS has also provided scholarships for educating national pastors, provided opportunites for national workers to see new mission models, funded projects to help build the capacity of national churches, provided spiritual, emotional and prayer support for expatriate and national missionaries and facilitated strategic planning for national churches.

What are the key priorities for CALMS?

CALMS' top priorities include:

1. Building the capacity of national workers to plant healthy churches,
2. Designing strategic short-term projects that help advance the goals of the National churches,
3. Equipping North American lay leaders to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting and to lead effective short-term teams,
4. Helping facilitate a missionary spirit and motivation among North American and Central American church leaders,
5. Helping congregations make an impact on their communities and
6. Helping national schools and organizations (hospitals, homes for the elderly, etc) serve and meet human need more effectively.

Which are the nations/people groups we have been called to reach and disciple?

In each of the countries in which we work, there are huge numbers of poor people who need health and human care services as well as the Good News about Jesus.

In Guatemala and Panama, there are Ladino populations (people of mixed ancestry) and the indigenous populations such as the Mayan and Cuna people.

In Belize, there are a variety of groups including a large Mennonite community, Garifuna (African/Mayan descent), Chinese, Spanish-speaking from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico and retirees from Canada and the United States.

In the Dominican Republic, the addition to the dominate Dominican population, there are large numbers of Haitians. Rastafarians are found in all the countries where CALMS works.

What are the mission challenges at this time?

In several countries where CALMS is working, there are not enough national church leaders to serve all the existing congregations or to expand the church to new communities.

Most congregations do not have enough people who earn enough to help support their pastor. This forces most pastors to work in a secular job in order to support their families.

Workers are also generally very overworked and need more prayer support and encouragement. For example, one pastor serves as his national church president, teaches school and pastors a growing congregation while trying to study and take care of his wife and family of three children.

Health care is often not available and many suffer from undiagnosed conditions such as diabetes and preventable diseases caused by lack of sanitation, poor diets, etc.

Housing needs are very real and many families, including Lutheran families, live in deplorable conditions. For example, a deacon, his wife and family of four children from Gualan Guatemala, live in a one-room adobe house. Another family of six in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala live in a two-room rented apartment. In Seine Bight, Belize, 18 single Spanish-speaking immigrants from Guatemala live in a small one-room shack with no running water or bathroom.

What is the current CALMS mission resource situation (budget and personnel)?

CALMS has two full-time staff members, Rev. B. Steve Hughey, Executive Director and Cindy Dube, Logistics Manager who work from their homes in St. Louis and Houston respectively.

Steve is a former missionary to Venezula and the Mexican border and cindy has Guatemalan roots. Both Steve and Cindy speak Spanish and have a strong commitment to building relationships with national leaders.

CALMS is also blessed with several part-time staff and a number of volunteers who help with accounting, web-design, communications, etc.

With no owned or leased office space, CALMS minimizes administration overhead costs, choosing to pass along gifts and offereing to support strategic projects to help our Central American partners.

The total CALMS budget for 2007 is $571,000. Support comes from congregational church partners, receipts from the Sponsor-A-Child program, modest fees charged to short-term teams, regular donations from individuals and families through the CALMS' Circle of Friends and some grant funding.

Currently, there are eight congregations that include CALMS in their budget, and six of these have representatives on the CALMS board of directors.

Where are the current open doors and opportunities?

CALMS is currently developing the list of short-term opportunities for North American congregations for 2007. We estimate that we may have as many as 50 short-term projects for the coming year. These include projects that focus on equipping national leaders, construction, health care, teaching special skills, and evangelism.

We are supporting existing and new Lutheran work in Belize, working with our partner church in Guatemala and CALMS partner congregations in the United States. In December 2006, a planning team designed over 20 short-term projects to help CALMS recruit strategic teams to assist with human care and evangelistic ministry in Belize. In May, 2007, an advance team visited Belize to officially launch CALMS' effort to expand God's kingdom through strategic short-term teams and to build relationships with key Belizean leaders.

Nicaragua has a growing Lutheran church and CALMS is now supporting them with funding to improve their seminary library. We have the opportunity to work more closely with this growing church to provide short-term teams for various ministries.

There are also opportunites to help with short-term teams in Honduras through a partnership with the small Lutheran church there and a non-denominational mission agency, World Gospel Outrach.