New Life Church-Lutheran
Outside Missions
Mission of Christ Network Rev. Dr. Fungchatou (Fung) and Dr. Kalia Lo
Rev. Dr. Fungchatou (Fung) and Dr. Kalia Lo were born in Laos to two non-Christian families. By the grace of God, their families immigrated to America as refugees from Laos and became Christians. In 2000, Dr. Fung graduated with his Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Fung was a university professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and at St. John’s University in Minnesota for a total of ten years. In 2007, Fung graduated from St. Louis Seminary, was ordained as an LCMS Pastor, and accepted his first call as a foreign missionary to Indonesia. In 2018, Kalia got her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from Bethel University in Minnesota. Dr. Kalia was a teacher for the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools prior to the Lo family’s departure to serve the Lord in Thailand. The Lo family served as foreign missionaries with the LCMS’s Office of International Mission from 2007-2013. For the past four years, the Los have been missionaries in Thailand to the Hmong people in Southeast Asia.
Working in partnership with Mission of Christ Network, LINC-International, and the Hmong Mission Society, the Lo family is currently serving the Lord as foreign missionaries to the Hmong in Southeast Asia. Their primary ministry focus is to seek, save and equip the Hmong people for Kingdom growth. Their specific ministries include, but not are limited to, theological and discipleship trainings with Hmong pastors and leaders from the countries of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. They are also working with the local Hmong congregations to start new ministries and plant more churches. During the last fiscal year of 2020-2021 alone, the ministry had 639 baptisms, started 13 new ministries, and added 8 new sites to their theological training program.
Donate to the Ministry of Pastor Lo by clicking here.
Lutheran Bible Translators - Amy Formella
While attending Concordia University Wisconsin, Amy Formella realized that she had an interest in Biblical languages and missions. While in college, she was able to go to Peru to learn more about being a long-term missionary, to Botswana with the Crossroads trip to learn more about LBT on the field, and Slovakia to help teach English during a Vacation Bible School. Following her graduation in 2015, she attended the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics to take required linguistics courses, and to begin her masters in linguistics with a focus in Bible translation.
Amy arrived on the field in Sierra Leone in May 2017. After a few months of orientation and then language learning, Amy began working regularly with the Mende Bible Translation team as the Technical Advisor. She assists the team by training, proofreading, being involved with team checking, and advising on the process of the translation project.