Scott, Leona, Brendan, Ariana & Jan Way
USA – Germany
Neues Leben-Seminar
When we came to Germany as missionaries, we knew only that Scott would teach at New Life Bible Institute (Neues Leben Seminar) and Leona would join Scott in trying to develop relationships with the students so that they could see how our teaching is lived out in our lives, with all our imperfections. Beyond that general knowledge, we weren’t really sure how things would work out.
We are still in our first year here—a year most mission agencies say consists mostly of survival. So we are reluctant to say that we know now all about how things are working out. But, we have settled into somewhat of a routine. Leona is quite well known among the students, and liked by all. She also has the chance to work in the seminary’s office, currently on a volunteer basis, assisting in the administration of the school. Her work brings her into even more contact and discussions with the students.
Scott continues to make progress in teaching. This year was supposed to be only observation and language learning. As you know, however, three weeks before the fall semester, he found out that he would be teaching an exposition of the Gospel of John, and a course called Theological English. He teaches the English course in English, of course, but John is taught in German. So he is indeed learning German—and quickly—just not in the way he thought he would. The pressure of preparing and teaching two courses is sometimes a bit much, but this is what he has trained for and wanted to do for years.
Our ministry is obviously not directly evangelistic in its emphasis, but since missionaries are usually thought of as engaging in evangelism, perhaps a word is in order. Neues Leben is known in Germany for its accent on evangelism. Each year we take the students on various one-week missions or evangelistic endeavors. Scott recently returned from such an emphasis in Ulm with ten students. It was a great encouragement to the church there and also a motivation to the students themselves. One lady accepted Christ during the week, though she had been involved with the church there for some time already. Many new contacts were made for the church. Hopefully some of them will come to faith in Christ through the church’s ongoing ministry to them. It should be remembered, though, that Germany is not in a “harvest” time. The speaker at our Kontaktmission annual conference, in fact, just last week gave his opinion that Germany is in a time where “sowing” and “watering” are most important.
What we are doing here has been affirmed repeatedly and in many ways, by teachers, students, and alumni. The rector of the school has praised the theological emphasis of the teaching; the students have appreciated the content—even with the language difficulties. Alumni have commended our desire to bring a personal side to the teaching. The students have responded very positively to coming to our home for dinner and sometimes a movie. The school leadership has asked Scott to take over the leadership of the systematic theology study area, beginning next fall. The call for Leona to work in the office came from the school. We see these invitations to more responsibility as further affirmations that we are meeting a need here. And the general need for stronger pastors and church-planters is evident in our discussions with colleagues, other pastors, and even in various addresses at our mission board’s annual meeting.
I emphasize this because we are one small part of Lake Ridge’s “global impact.” We don’t claim to be some great tool of God, but we do see that the work we are doing is needed. It is too early in our ministry to say just how effective we are, but our experiences so far seem to indicate that we are headed in the right direction.
Many individual members of LRBC provide another significant chunk of our support. We thank God for providing for you and motivating you to give, and we thank you for your individual and corporate faithfulness in giving. We pray for you and the ministry there, and also that God will continue to enable you to help us. Your help is very important to us.
We also thank you so much for the other care you have shown. The Builders, the choir, the Roose Home Team, and several individuals have so encouraged us with gifts of goodies, supplies, cards and letters, and “American things” that we cannot get here. There have been times when these boxes came at just the right time to lift our hearts. God bless you for this.
Family and the Rest of Life
We have more or less settled into one of the largest churches in the area. It has about 200 attendees. We are having some difficulty getting heavily involved. This is partly due to cultural differences in how churches operate, and partly because we are still wrestling with how to be deeply involved in church when the majority of our ministry is tied to the Bible school. But we recognize the importance and need of church life and desire to continue integrating into the church.
Our two oldest children have done excellent in learning German. We did not provide any special education in the language—we just immersed them into the school system here. It was very rough going at first, but they are speaking, reading, and writing quite well now. More improvement is needed, but they have reached a workable level of fluency. Jan is having more difficulty, though he has learned far more than he would like to admit. He still has the most adapting to do.
Leona is re-learning her mother culture, sometimes with more difficulty than expected. But she is still on a whole different level than the rest of us. Scott has also finally reached a level of workable German. He still is frustrated at not being fluent enough to speak with some eloquence, but he is able to function in the language.
We thank you again for the mutual partnership you have with us and we have with you. We still miss Lake Ridge very much, regularly talking about the Builders class or the choir or this or that event or person. Although we have two other supporting churches (and two others considering us still), Lake Ridge is our home. We encourage you to stay faithful to the Lord, loving to each other, and committed to not only equipping there locally, but impacting globally. God bless you all as you serve Him.
Scott Way: I was born in Canton, Ohio, into a Christian home. I was raised in church and came to faith in Christ at the age of eight. From my late teen years I have wanted to be involved in vocational Christian work. After spending a year in Europe on a short term missions endeavor (during which I also met Leona), I knew I would eventually go back as a missionary. Some years later it became clear to me that God had best gifted me and burdened me for a teaching position, helping Christians—particularly future pastors and church planters—grow into a solid, theological and biblical mindset and lifestyle. With a German wife, it seems only wise that our destination be the needy country of Germany .
In May 2006, I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (at long last) with a Th.M. in Historical Theology. I have experience teaching in many venues, for both the church and business, and am looking forward to making this my vocational ministry.
Leona Way: I was born in a small town in central, western Germany. I was saved as a teenager and was always interested in spiritual things. After nine years as a medical assistant, I decided to attend Neues Leben-Seminar, or New Life Bible College. I took a two year degree and then stayed on as a secretary for the dean of students. In that position I informally functioned as a liaison between students and faculty. I loved counseling the students on spiritual and practical matters. I hope to return to this type of ministry alongside Scott’s classroom teaching ministry. It is our desire to have a well-rounded impact on the students, both in the classroom and through personal relationship.
The Three Younger Ways: Brendan is our oldest son. He is ten and in the fifth grade. Ariana is our daughter. She is seven and has almost completed second grade. Jan (pronounced Yahn), is our youngest son and will soon be six. He is finishing kindergarten and is enjoying learning to read.
Where: We are headed to a German evangelical Bible college called Neues Leben-Seminar, which is located in small, rural Wölmersen, northwest of Frankfurt and east of Cologne . We hope to help strengthen and expand the German church through the training and development of German church planters and pastors-to-be. Scott will teach (most likely theology or church history and possibly homiletics). Leona will oversee our home outreach, both to the students in the school and our neighbors.
Why: First of all, both of us have a heart to help Christians grow and to reach people who perhaps have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel with the message of Christ. Second, both of us want to see those who are going into Christian ministry be as well-prepared as possible for what is almost always a challenging work. Third, we are doing this in Germany because the need is great. In Germany less that 3% of the population is an evangelical Christian. So, the evangelical church in Germany needs help. One of the helps it needs is in preparation of German nationals doing vocational ministry. Fourth, our backgrounds, desires, and experiences all lead to the conclusion that Europe in general and Germany in particular is the wisest choice for where we should engage in this ministry.
Kontaktmission USA
3628 E Mitchell St
Humboldt , TN 38343
