CTSFW Receives $100,000 Mission Grant from LWML
FORT WAYNE, August 14, 2025—Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), is one of thirty-three recipients of a mission grant from Lutheran Women in Mission (LWML). The $100,000 grant, which was announced at the LWML conference in Omaha, Nebraska, in June, will provide scholarships for two students from Tanzania, Heavenlight Mono and Victoria Kiula, to enroll in CTSFW’s distance deaconess formation program.
Deaconess Heavenlight Mono and Deaconess Victoria Kiula, both graduates of the Concordia Pastoral and Diaconal Training Program (CPDTP) in Tanzania.
“The need for deaconesses in that region is great,” said Dr. Naomichi Masaki, the Reverend Victor H. and Lydia Dissen Professor of the Lutheran Confessions and director of the Concordia Pastoral and Diaconal Training Program in Tanzania. “Certainly, the deaconesses serve in traditional diaconal roles of teaching the faith, visiting the sick and dying, and organizing congregational care for the hungry and poor, but they also play a vital role in helping new Christians by providing guidance on the new life received in Christ through the waters of baptism.”
CTSFW has administered the training program since 2013 at the invitation of the South East of Lake Victoria Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (SELVD-ELCT), which is growing rapidly. The two-year certificate program has prepared roughly 80% of SELVD’s 118 pastors for ordination and all thirty deaconesses for service, according to Masaki.
Deaconess Heavenlight Mono, Dr. Daniel Mono, and Dr. Naomichi Masaki. Dr. Mono was installed as Bishop of the Mwanga Diocese, ELCT, July 13, 2025.
“Heavenlight and Victoria have an important role to play in supporting the confessional Lutheran movement within ELCT, which is moving much faster than anyone expected,” Masaki added. “I would call it a confessional revival in Tanzania. Hunger and thirst for the Word of God over there is great.”
With a master’s degree from CTSFW, Mono and Kiula, who were handpicked by SELVD leadership, will be equipped to serve as the first indigenous deaconess instructors at the Bishop Emmanuel Makala Training Center in Negezi, where they would provide diaconal training for local women. The effects of the LWML grant will thus be multiplied as deaconesses share the love of Christ in the communities they serve, primarily poor women and children, many with disabilities or a history of abuse.
Paula Daniels, president of the LWML Carolinas District and the official sponsor and submitter of the grant proposal, was quick to commend everyone involved with the grant. “I’m thankful for those who helped write the proposal and am thrilled that the project is moving forward with the help of LWML,” said Daniels. “I’m excited about the opportunities the grant will provide to share God’s Love and show mercy to the people of Tanzania.”
To learn more about the project, see the LWML’s video overview of 2025–27 grant recipients.
WATCH THE VIDEO