FPM News: Rev. Lana joins us Fulltime!

FPM is excited to announce that, in partnership with The United Methodist Church's Illinois Great Rivers Conference and the North Katanga-Tanganyika-Tanzania Episcopal Area, our longtime board member, Rev. Lana Robyne, has been appointed as a full-time missiologist to the Tanganyika Conference effective July 1, 2020.

Once the Covid-19 travel restrictions have been lifted, Pastor Lana will move to Kalemie, DR Congo. Her primary task will be developing and directing mission evaluation and discernment initiatives focused on and with the Tanganyika Conference. She will be meeting with congregations to study and evaluate missional capacity and needs, praying, preaching, coaching, leading workshops, researching, fundraising, and coordinating mission education and projects. This initiative will work closely with the Tanganyika Conference’s Director of Connectional Ministries, Evangelism Department, Development Department, Kipendano (UMW), JPC (Youth and Young Adults), and scouting ministries. Her appointment will include significant time itinerating in the United States as well as DRC. 

Pastor Lana was ordained an elder in 2001 and has been on loan to the Indiana Conference for the past 18 years. She has served as Co-Director of Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry at Purdue since 2002 and, for the last 14 years, also as Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Campus Ministry at First UMC in West Lafayette. In 2006, she was a visiting chaplain and lecturer at Africa University. Before that, she served small churches in Illinois. 

Pastor Lana has two adult children, Isaiah and Ella. She has an M.Div. and Master of Theology from Christian Theological Seminary. This August, she will be receiving an MA  in History from Purdue, where she researched colonial mission and human rights history in Congo. 

We ask that you hold Pastor Lana in your prayers. This is a huge leap of faith for her, especially since this ministry does not come with a guaranteed salary. She is trusting that God will help her find creative ways to financially support her work. If you feel called to donate or organize a fundraiser for this ministry, please let us know. Tax deductible contributions earmarked "Lana" can be made through Friendly Planet Missiology.   

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