A primary object of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League is to gather funds for mission grants, including those directly sponsored or approved by The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Funding
· Mite offerings fund the grants.
· Districts retain 75 percent or less of the mite offerings received; 25 percent or more is sent to the LWML.
· Major portions of these funds are allocated for district and national grants.
LWML members, societies, zones, circuit mission councils, and synod boards and Recognized Service Organizations (RSO) of LCMS may submit mission grant proposals.
1. Proposals for grants outside of the Michigan District must be endorsed and approved by the president of the synodical district in which the project is located.
2. Proposals for grants outside the United States must be endorsed and approved by the president of the partner church in the country in which the project is located.
Proposals must be submitted to the Vice President for Mission Outreach of the Michigan District LWML
The grant proposal must be submitted – postmarked -- by October 31 of the odd-numbered years.
Grant must:
1. Not exceed request for $25,000;
2. Be mission in emphasis - extending the ministry of the Word;
3. Fit into the plans and projections of the Michigan District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod ;
4. Be with the doctrine and tenets of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod;
Here are the links to the following documents to use for submitting grants (Located at the bottom of the "Resource Helps" website tab page)
Cover Letter for Grant Proposal Guidelines & Criteria summary
Cover Page for Mission Grant Proposal (Word doc)
Resolution Page for Grant Proposal (Word doc)
Provides support for seminary students seeking to complete pastoral preparations at either Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN, or Concordia Seminary St. Louis.
Funds to assist in the ministry of the Orphan Grain Train.
Food and clothing needs of seminary students and their families.
Funds will support the St. Martin Lutheran School for the Deaf, Dearborn, Michigan, to purchase equipment to transform Christian-based print books into ASL apps. This will allow deaf children across the U.S. to view a book entirely by a deaf performer, and to build deaf children’s reading fluency, as text and illustrations also will appear on the screen.
This grant will provide assistance to women studying to be a deaconess or professional church worker.
LBW serves free of charge blind or visually impaired people around the world, including prison inmates, with Bibles and other Christian materials in a format and language they can read. LBW is producing new prison Bibles and Bible studies in English and Spanish for incarcerated individuals. LBW will provide in Braille format Christian information that addresses today’s issues. Additionally, this project will use a Prison Braille Transcription program located in Michigan or California to transcribe 1,300 pages of new Christian titles. This is new and specific to LWML Michigan District and the LBW Michigan Ministry Production Centers. The funds will be used for supplies and equipment to produce approximately 2,500 volumes of Braille or Large Print materials.
Funds will be used to supply Lutheran schools and teachers with necessary resources to support educational and spiritual growth of children who, though in Christian environments, do need special learning difficulties addressed.
Support for MOST ministries, funds will be used to continue their work by allowing the purchase and maintenance of eyeglasses and equipment.
Funds will be used to purchase a used transit passenger van for mobile ministry use. The van will enable the Mission to expand service and reach more families with Jesus’ love by transporting people to and from the Mission, and to doctor and service appointments.
The people of South Sudan are in need of the Gospel, living in extreme poverty, civil war, famine, and disease, with average life expectancy of only 56 years. The evangelical Lutheran Church in South Sudan (ELCSS) has more than 200 congregations, but fewer than 80 pastors to serve them. Need for new pastors is great, as each pastor is responsible for preaching God’s Word to at least three congregations, often long distances apart. Lutheran Heritage Foundation in Macomb, MI, has partnered with ELCSS to establish a seminary, The Concordia Lutheran Institute for the Holy Ministry (CLIHM) to provide theological education for new pastors. These CLIHM seminarians come from extreme poverty and do not have funds to cover educational costs. This grant would support five South Sudan seminarians for one year, providing tuition, supplies, room, and board.
Funds will be used to begin furnishing a medical clinic on the island of Ile-a-Vache, Haiti. Once the clinic is established the Caribbean Children’s Foundation will provide to the island’s residents basic health care, laboratory and pharmacy services, and opportunity to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Currently, health care is a long, often unaffordable, weather-permitting boat trip to the mainland.
Funds will support Afghan Ministry to an extended Afghan refugee family in nearby Kalamazoo. With guidance from POBLO, the family patriarch, a Christian missionary, will receive assistance through LWML’s grant toward ordination as a Lutheran pastor through the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
Shepherd’s Canyon Retreat is an LCMS Recognized Service Organization. Funds will be used to provide scholarships to help pastors, DCE’s, and teachers who are suffering from depression and compassion fatigue by attending week-long retreats in Arizona receiving help, hope, and healing by God’s grace.
The students of local Lutheran congregations supported by an expanded Hands of Mercy training center at Yambio, South Sudan, will be able in schools to gain Bible literacy using My First Catechism with workbooks and children’s Bibles at actual wooden desks with whiteboards. The classrooms will be fitted for children’s safety and improved learning environments to build futures with Christ.
The funds will be used to support a female Afghan bilingual coordinator, as well as provide Bibles and Luther’s Small Catechism in the refugees’ native languages. Participants will also be provided transportation to attend the programs and events.