January 1983

A visitation team representing the CLC embarked for India to investigate the field of labor around Nidubrolu, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh State, India. The team consisted of John Rohrbach and Pastors David Schierenbeck and David Koenig. They held doctrinal discussions with V.S. Benjamin in which it was observed that we were in doctrinal agreement and

July 1982

The BoM in a supplementary report to the CLC convention made mention of a meeting with John, correspondence with both John and the contact in India, Mr. Benjamin, a West Central Conference Memorial on the issue, and a projected budget for the effort. The report stated, “Recognizing the apparent mission opportunity the Lord may be

Initial Contact

The CLC Board of Missions (BoM) received a letter from John Rohrbach, a member of Zion, Ipswich, S.D., dated Dec. 10, 1981. In it he wrote, “This past summer I went to Sri Lanka and India… While there I became sick and was hospitalized for ten days. During my stay at the hospital a schoolmaster

March 1980

Recognizing that correspondence was not doing the job of keeping in touch with our sister church, a visitation team of Pastors Egbert Albrecht and P.F. Nolting visited the churches and held discussions with the leaders. The number of congregations had declined to 27. There were serious internal problems in the church. After assessing the report,

September 1977

The NCLC had applied for a government registration number. This was a prerequisite to eventually apply for overseas missionaries. After much work and time on the part of NCLC members, the church was incorporated and registered with the Federal Government.

Late 1974

Patrick Udo with his wife and infant daughter arrived in the USA to begin his studies at Immanuel Lutheran College to prepare for the ministry. He had been chosen by the visitation team to come to the USA for training. At this time also, it appeared difficult to get a missionary into Nigeria from our

April 1974

Pastor E.E. Essien and several stations that he served addressed a letter to the CLC inquiring of affiliation. Pastor Essien had been trained at the old Synodical Conference school at Obot Idim. It seemed this would be a real doctrinal boost to the group now calling itself the Nigerian Church of the Lutheran Confessions (NCLC).

January 1974

In answer to this request, which was forwarded to the CLC Board of Missions, a visitation team of Pastors Carl Thurow and Norbert Reim traveled to Nigeria and visited the churches and individuals that voiced interest in the CLC through Oscar. It was determined by this visitation that here was a mission field in which

Initial Contact

In the early 1970’s Oscar Erpenstein of St. Stephen’s of San Francisco came into contact with certain Nigerian students schooling in the USA. He showed them the truth from God’s Word. When they returned to Nigeria, contact did not stop with these students of the Word. Oscar continued to correspond with them and their friends

April 2000

Based on favorable correspondence, a meeting was held in the village of Etago, Kisii in a pasture with about 125 people. Pastor and Mrs. Koenig visited in the area with the interested individuals before and after this meeting. The meeting went over the main differences between us and the Roman Catholic and 7th Day Adventist

Related Collateral