Missionary Kid Tutor

Christina Riddle is working as a volunteer tutor for the Federwitz family in Ghana, and making life a lot easier for LBT missionaries,David and Valerie Federwitz. Her family support frees David and Valerie to focus on their work and assures them that the children are safe and well-cared for especially when they must travel.

Prior to this assignment, Christina worked for the Esala family also in Ghana. Life offers its entertainment and the Esalas were intrigued by Christina's sense of humour. In one of Christina’s prayer letters to her supporters, she described a brief encounter she had with an unwelcomed kitchen helper:

" I was baking bread on Thursday and went to the drawer for a measuring cup. A very cute mouse and I were very surprised to see each other, as evidenced by his scramble to flee and my very loud yelp…If I decided to kill things or not based on how cute they were, he would have been saved. But that’s not how I operate…By the time they (the Esalas) arrived, Little Mouse had wisely fled…”

Overseas Volunteers Help Missionaries!

Overseas volunteers are workers who have acquired specific expertise often needed by LBTC. They may not be able to commit to long term mission work or may not have linguistics skills that are needed to become a staff missionary.

However they are able to offer specialized talents to LBTC perhaps on a short term basis. Their assignment can be brief like 2-4 weeks or longer like 2-3 years depending on the task which they perform and the time commitment they accommodate.

Overseas volunteers are not employees (staff) of LBTC but LBTC helps them raise necessary funding to support themselves while overseas; prepares them for the mission field; and acts as a liaison when associate organizations are involved in their assignments.

LBTC matches a volunteer’s skills with positions available overseas. For example, sometimes LBTC missionaries lack skills to accomplish a very specific task that is not directly related to their LBTC translation assignment but critical nonetheless to managing their home, family or workplace. Overseas volunteers are matched then to a missionary. This process may take a bit of time.

Below are examples of how overseas volunteers have served effectively. We hope you too will be encouraged to consider this type of assignment and heed a call that God may be extending to you to be involved with Lutheran Bible Translators of Canada! Your first step is to contact LBTC and open into discussion about the matching process of your skills and LBTC's needs.

Technical Support

When LBT missionary Paul Federwitz found himself lacking an understanding of accounting practices, he could not link his students to possible uses of Excel in their day-to-day workplaces. So he encouraged his former supervisor and long-time friend, Scott Schuth, to come to Ghana as a short-term instructor in this specialized area. Scott as a volunteer missionary raised enough support for his trip through help from LBT.

Could you be a Scott or Christina? Are you a teacher, maintenance/ construction worker, housekeeper, bookkeeper, electronic/computer whiz, office staff or reception? Are you willing to serve the Lord by providing support to LBT missionaries?

How Can You Be Involved as an Overseas Volunteer?

• Teaching/tutoring
• House parents/hospitality
• Computer programmers and technicians
• Maintenance and construction including specialists in alternative electrical generating systems
• Bookkeepers, receptionists and general office staff
• Printing

To learn more about what it takes to become an overseas volunteer with LBTC, contact LBTC.

Here is How Others have been involved overseas:

• Laurie Lonneberg of Mission, B.C. who traveled overseas three times to build houses
  for missionaries in Sierra Leone and Cameroon
• Norman and Beverly Mossman of Burnaby, BC who printed Liberian Bible story booklets
• Dorothy Lueze of Kitimat, BC who spent six months in Cameroon tutoring the Weber children
• Frank and Margaret Pachal who spent several months in Sierra Leone assisting LBTC missionaries
• Judy Selkirk (and son Jesse) who spent a school term in Guatemala City teaching missionary children.
• Curtis and Andrea Boehm who helped to home-school the Maxey children in Cameroon.

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