December 12, 2008
By Joe Isenhower Jr.

The Synod's Board of Directors, meeting Nov. 20-21 in Indian Wells, Calif., authorized forming a corporation in Vietnam to open a new LCMS international school in Hanoi.

This would be the third LCMS international school in Asia. The others are Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS) and Hong Kong International School (HKIS) – both of which have experienced steady growth as they serve their local and international communities.

In an application to the Vietnamese government, the name for the school project that is being submitted for approval is Concordia International School Hanoi.

For the school's first year of operation, the application requests approval of grade levels from pre-school through middle school to open this fall, with high-school classes added for the 2010-11 academic year.

Notes for a business plan – prepared by Dr. Allan Schmidt, Asia school developer for LCMS World Mission – provided the Board with background information and the rationale for the school.

In those notes, Schmidt writes that "the LCMS entered Hanoi" in 1996, with the calling of Rev. Ted Engelbrecht and his family to set up an NGO (non-governmental organization) with human care and teaching English, and through a partnership with "the leaders of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).

"That work has prospered," Schmidt wrote. He also noted that NIN leaders, Engelbrecht, and he (Schmidt) spoke of the need for an LCMS international school in Hanoi when they attended an Asia Ablaze! summit in Hong Kong three years ago. At that time, they pointed out that two international schools in Hanoi were at maximum enrollment, with waiting lists.

LCMS World Mission's Asia Management Team, led by Regional Director Rev. John Mehl, "considers Vietnam the prime location for the next LCMS Asia international school [and] Hanoi, Vietnam, shows the greatest promise at this time," the business plan notes indicate.

In addition to the two existing international schools in Hanoi being filled to capacity as a reason for establishing the new school, Schmidt's notes also point to:

• "The expressed need by multinational corporations, the U.S. Embassy, government leaders, [and] local and foreign parents for a third western-type international school in Hanoi."

• "Hanoi has the potential for additional foreign investment, expatriate growth, and support of local citizens for a highly academic American-accredited, English-based, PS-12 school like HKIS and CISS.

• "Vietnamese parents send their children to U.S. boarding schools in large numbers but prefer to keep them in Hanoi in a school that prepares them for top U.S. universities."

• "The [Vietnamese] government indicates its willingness to consider a charter for a wholly foreign-owned PS-12 values-based institution open to local Vietnamese and foreign students."

• Plans for the school are based on "what has been learned from LCMS presence in Hanoi and from learning more about the educational climate in Vietnam and especially in Hanoi."

• "The United States Embassy staff ... feature American education as an improvement goal and have demonstrated their support for an LCMS school like HKIS and CISS in Hanoi that will lift the educational levels and provide more seats for students living in the Hanoi and South East Asia region."

Both the Hong Kong International School and Concordia International School Shanghai support establishing a school in Hanoi, "specifically with help of their staff," Schmidt noted.

A call for nominations to fill the position of head of school for the new international school in time for the 2009 academic year appeared in the December Reporter.

The Synod Board of Directors also passed a number of other resolutions, including one that encourages a joint Task Force For Concord – made up of members of the Board and the LCMS Council of Presidents – to "further develop" plans for a process to restore harmony in the Synod.

Such a plan was mandated in Resolution 4-01A of the 2007 Synod convention, which directed that the joint group call a summit of "respected leaders" in the Synod to develop a proposed strategy for achieving harmony.

"We have established a wonderful trust level," Betty Duda, one of the three Board representatives, told the Board concerning the task force.

Kermit Brashear, also a Board representative, said that members of the task force are intent on the summit being "an event where people will know that they have been heard."

Board member Roy Schmidt also is a member of the task force.

After meeting with representatives of the Wittenberg project, the Board adopted a resolution expressing "disappointment with the failure of the [project] to submit a viable business plan." That action also requests that the plan be submitted in time for the next Board meeting, Feb. 19-20, and "that the [Synod] President's Office assist with church relations issues."

At its meeting in August, the Board had requested a business plan in time for its meeting in Indian Wells.

The Wittenberg Project proposes establishing a Lutheran congregation in Wittenberg, Germany, and restoring a former school building which dates to 1564, to serve as a visitor-conference center. Current partners in the project are LCMS World Mission, LCMS World Relief and Human Care, Concordia Publishing House, and the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church, an LCMS partner church in Germany known as SELK, its German acronym.

Among other actions, the Board:

• approved procedures to be followed for correcting "negative budget variance[s]" experienced by a national Synod department, commission, or program board.

• appointed Board members Betty Duda, Gloria Edwards, and Roy Schmidt to the Council of Members of the Concordia University System.

• authorized funding for a "strategic and operational study" of the corporate Synod's information-technology investment and deployment.

The Board of Directors also met with the LCMS Council of Presidents and Commission on Constitutional Matters for several hours Nov. 20 to hear updates from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance.

A printed "overview" of the Fan Into Flame campaign indicated that, as of Oct. 28, total gifts (including pledges) had reached nearly $36.9 million, with $17.3 in cash receipts. The campaign's goal is for $100 million to be used for outreach worldwide by 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

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