Rev. Pao Moua will be installed Aug. 23 as the pastor of WELS' first Hmong mission in Alaska. The mission—currently called Faith Hmong Mission—is holding services at Faith Lutheran Church, Anchorage.

"I think it looks really promising as a mission field for us," says Rev. Leon Piepenbrink, Hmong ministry coordinator. "We're there before a lot of other churches have started Hmong congregations, and we're there at a time when a lot of people are moving there."

About 50 Hmong have been meeting regularly at Faith for about a year. Many of the core members relocated from Fresno, Calif., where WELS already has a Hmong congregation. Before Moua came, Rev. Jim Oldfield from Faith had been preaching once a month with an interpreter, and Hmong elders had led simple services on the other Sundays.

Since there is no funding for this mission, Moua will be working a full-time job in addition to preaching, holding Bible study, and conducting ministry training at the mission. Congregational lay leaders will be responsible for community outreach. "Our goal would be to gather more donations and commitments for this mission in Anchorage so that eventually Pao could scale back to a part-time job and do more ministry," says Piepenbrink.

Although not financially responsible for the Hmong mission, Faith is hosting the mission at its church and allowing the Moua family to live in the nearby parsonage. Moua was one of three Hmong men who graduated in May from the Asian Ministry Training Program, a satellite program under the auspices of the Pastoral Studies Institute of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.