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MO’S STORYJanuary 17, 2023/0 Comments
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What are the reasons for the incarnation?December 24, 2022/
What are the reasons for the incarnation?
The John Ross Show-Interview with Pastor Hesham Shehab-December 23,2022
What are the reasons for the incarnation?
The John Ross Show-Interview with Pastor Hesham Shehab-December 23,2022
Christopher Kolupa’s Ordination:
Praise be to God! Pastor Chris Kolupa was ordained and installed at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (HTLC), Burbank, IL, on August 22, 2021.
Kolupa is a born Lutheran who served in LCMS churches in different capacities all his life.
In addition to being a servant of God, Kolupa is an accomplished musician, a certified teacher and a graduate of Elmhurst College. While Kolupa was vicar at HTLC for two years, he completed the Specific Ministry Pastor program at Concordia St. Louis Seminary.
He also carried out all the pastoral duties in the congregation, except administering the Lord’s Supper which was done by Rev. Hesham Shehab.
In addition to his dedication to serving HTLC during those two years, Kolupa helped Salam Christian Fellowship and Messiah for Muslims, ministries to Muslims at different locations in Chicagoland.
Kolupa’s affiliation with the ministry to Muslims started when he assisted Pastor Shehab in a wedding ceremony at St. John Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, IL, in 2015.
Since then, the two men formed a team that shared the Gospel with immigrants and refugees, as well as offering them social services in Chicagoland. The two men would one day be helping an immigrant family with hauling furniture and another day celebrating the Lord’s Supper together with converts from Islam and Christian Arabs who fled the Middle East by the skin of their teeth.

Congratulations to Rev. Nader Hanna of Salam Ministries for his ordination on May 16, 2021.
Rev. Nader Hanna was born and raised in Egypt, a Muslim Arabic speaking country, currently lives in Huntington Beach CA, and works as an evangelist and itinerant speaker. Nader helps launch Disciples making movements among Muslims, and helps churches know more about Islam and how to reach Muslims in their communities with the message of God’s love and salvation in Christ Jesus Nader is a regular guest speaker at several Christian Arabic TV networks. He has traveled to preach the Gospel and train leaders in countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Nader is recognized as an ordained minister by “Covenant Ministries International” CMI in New Jersey. He received theological training in Beirut-Lebanon, Training on missions at the “Keystone Project” in South Dakota, “Horizons International” in Colorado, “crescent Project” in Indiana USA. Nader is a certified trainer with EQUIP, and a “Haggai Institute” faculty member; both are leadership training organizations. And currently colloquizing to enter the ministerium of LCMS. Rev. Nader Hanna and His wife Amy have a 17 years old son; Hadi Hanna. Nader and Amy have been full time in ministry for the past 20 years producing and broadcasting Christian TV and radio programs to the Arab/Muslim world, doing outreaches, discipleship and leadership training in Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus and the USA. If you would like to have Nader speak in your church, at a conference or appear on a television or radio program, please contact him at: Salam Ministries. 6100 Edinger Ave. Apt 221, Huntington Beach, CA 92647. Mobile: 714-724-2985, E-mail: PastorNader@gmail.comVISIT US AT OUR COFFEE HOUSE
The House Of Wisdom is the name of our coffee house were we offer free coffee and a friendly environment to share the gospel.

Speaking at Ahmadiyyah Mosque on Thanksgiving and the Lutheran tradition:

Good Evening,My name is Hesham Shehab.I am an ordained minister at the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and serve the Middle Eastern community in Chicagoland and share the Gospel with new immigrants and help them integrate in the American community.Imam Mohammed asked me to share the Lutheran tradition on Thanksgiving.A national day of Thanksgiving wasn’t part of Martin Luther’s life. Thanksgiving Day is an American phenomenon. But Lutherans celebrate Thanksgiving Day with a worship service firstly, to thank God for His Grace in offering His Son as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins and raising Him from the dead to be the firstborn, so that we may have hope for the resurrection of the body. Secondly, to thank God for this Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave that offers a safe haven for those who are persecuted for their religious belief or political opinions around the world. Maybe, a third reason to celebrate Thanksgiving with a worship service is to digest the turkey we consume on that day…just joking…a third reason is to thank God for the blessings and the affluence in this nation, where not many people go hungry.Martin Luther recognized God’s blessings to every living thing when he wrote “(…) since everything we possess, and everything in heaven and on earth besides, is daily given and sustained by God, it inevitably follows that we are in duty bound to love, praise, and thank Him without ceasing, and, in short, to devote all these things to his service.” (The Book of Concord, Fortress Press, 1959, page 412)In a world that thinks it can give God something, either by the way a person lives and by what a person does, Luther would remind us that God doesn’t need anything from us. Luther goes on to say that God wants us to be grateful and to honor him as God. “We cannot give God anything; for everything is already His, and all we have comes from Him. We can only give Him praise, thanks, and honor.” (What Luther Says, Concordia Publishing House, 1959, page 1353). And in a prayer at the end of his treatise on keeping children in school, Luther prayed, “God grant that we follow His Word to praise and thank our dear Lord for His precious blood, which He so freely offered for us [on the cross, for the forgiveness of our sins]. (What Luther Says, Concordia Publishing House, 1959, page 1354).May God keep us from the terrible vice of ingratitude and the forgetfulness of His blessings.And I seize this opportunity to pray for the hungry in countries like Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and other places in the world… and pray as Martin Luther used to pray: May there be a goodly share on every table everywhere.
In Jesus name. Amen.
November 23, 2019