WELCOME TO SUMMER! 
HERE IS THE LATEST FROM YOUR NORTH WISCONSIN DISTRICT!
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LHM has launched several new initiatives to encourage lay people to be missionaries in their daily lives. Among these are:
Research was conducted along with the BARNA Group, an industry leader for determining insights about faith and culture. The survey results are available from BARNA by ordering at barna.com/spiritualconversations. Information that was gleaned from this survey will be presented this year and the next two years grouped under the following headings:
	2018 – Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age
	2019 – Households of faith
	2020 – Communities of Action
The Online Mission trip has been expanded to be available to individuals and not just Lutheran classrooms.
LHM has launched a podcast network, with 10 podcasts designed to target young Christians. The first, offered this spring, is entitled “Sentido Latino,” and addresses the needs of Latinos (people who come to the U.S. from Latin American countries).
THRED which is a network of online conversations about Christ and the church, targeted for non-churched people.
LHM Learn offers information to those who wish to grow in their faith. The newest of these is “Songs of Thanks II,” which is a treasure trove of Good News designed for our daily walk in faith.
DID YOU KNOW…That LHM takes a different approach to enable people to have access to the Good News of Jesus? As opposed to about 90% of all mission endeavors conducted in North America which reach out to those who already know about Christ, LHM tries to make its information available not just to those who know about Christ, but to those who have not been reached before, especially young adults located in large urban centers scattered around the world.
LHM recently received a $100,000 grant from the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League to support its ministry in the Middle East and in North Africa.  Congratulations!!!
NATIONAL NEWS
LHM’s Convention is being held August 3-5 at the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. There is still time to sign up! Go to lhm.org/celebration for more information!
DO YOU SHOP ONLINE AT AMAZON? If so, before you place your next order, STOP! Now, if you go to smile.amazon.com, you will find the same selection of products and pricing that is found at Amazon.com … except for one difference. Any purchase you make through smile.amazon.com will have 0.5% of the purchase price donated by Amazon to your favorite charity, which of course is LHM! Go to the website where you will be prompted to enter LHM as your charity, then continue with your online shopping as you normally do. Fantastic!!
LHM wishes to announce the following results from its recent election of officers for its Board of Directors. Re-elected to another three year term were Jack Ficken of Tennessee, Gretchen Jameson of Wisconsin, and Phillip Johnson of Minnesota. Elected to their first three year term were Jonathan Laabs of Illinois, and Karen Soeken of Maryland.  Congratulations!!
The Men’s Network Work Day, April 28th, saw more than 600 people engaged in service projects in their local community. Some of these projects included wood splitting, landscaping, yard clean-up, building repairs, installing playground equipment, picking up trash on nature trails, and building handicap ramps. Congrats to all!!
Concordia University and seminary news:
Concordia Seminary – St Louis: Rev. Ray Wilke, co-founder of Orphan Grain Train, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. Rev. Dr. Douglas Rutt began July 1 in his new position as provost and professor, after being with LHM as Director of International Ministries for the last eight years.
Concordia Theological Seminary – Fort Wayne: awarded Rev. David Rakotonirina of Madagascar and Bishop Risto Soramies of Finland honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees, and Bruce Kintz, President and CEO of Concordia Publishing House, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.     
The next issue of The Lutheran Layman will feature part one of a four part Bible study entitled “Nurturing your Faith.” Part one in the next issue will be “Nurturing your Faith: Prayer.”
LOCAL
Plan on going to this year’s North Wisconsin District Convention October 13th, at Rib Mountain Lutheran Church in Rib Mountain (Wausau). You can find the registration forms on-line at our website, nwdlll.org, and download them and mail them in along with the registration fee.
Also consider inviting a new family to come to the convention, free of charge! The purpose is to introduce them to our ministry family, and encourage them to become LLL-LHM members. This information is also available as a download under “New Family Rep,”  to be printed out from our website.
Our Ambassador Leadership program, which was cancelled this spring due to bad weather, will be held this fall at two locations. On September 15th, it will be held at St. James  Lutheran Church In Shawano, and again on September 22nd at Trinity Lutheran Church in Merrill. Information on these Leadership Training programs can be found on our website, nwdlll.org.
HAVE A BLESSED REMAINDER OF YOUR SUMMER!