Wally Schulz, ex-"Lutheran Hour" speaker, visits area

A former longtime missionary to repressive nations, who also made a name for himself on the St. Louis-based radio series "The International Lutheran Hour," will preach Aug. 3 in Chaffee and near Gordonville.

The Rev. Dr. Wallace "Wally" Schulz said his sermons at 8 a.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chaffee and 10:15 a.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, south of Gordonville on Highway 25, will be based on Jesus Christ's promise to bestow "the living water" in John 7:38. While living in Riga, Latvia, Schulz worked up and down the Trans-Siberia Railway, to train ministers and promulgate the Gospel in the old Soviet Union, along with working in Ukraine, Indonesia, China and the Middle East between 1962 and 1990, he said.

Asked if his safety was ever threatened, he said, "There were three or four incidents that I never discuss publicly because I would become the focus of the story, rather than Christ himself.

"It's going to happen when you're doing that, because people aren't going to like what you're doing."

Schulz will attend an Aug. 3 luncheon at Zion Lutheran Church and make a presentation on his missionary work. The Rev. Wayne Schwiesow is host pastor at both churches.

A friend of Schulz's, the Rev. David Dissen of Cape Girardeau, said the 70-year-old Augusta, Missouri, resident was the first person from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to enter the old Soviet Union during the era when Christians were sometimes violently repressed.

"I have known Dr. Schulz for several decades," said Dissen, former administrative pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. "He is a fascinating individual, and most of all he is a committed Christian evangelist who sincerely desires that all people, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, come to faith in Jesus Christ as their personal savior from sin, death, Satan and hell."

Having invited Schulz as a member of the publicity committee in Gordonville, Dissen wrote in an email that he expects the minister "through his scripture-based and Christ-centered message to make more and more people aware of the unlimited opportunities we have to aid in worldwide evangelism through their support of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation."

Schulz, born and raised in rural South Dakota, graduated in 1967 from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, and in 1973 from Concordia Seminary, in Springfield, Illinois. In 1992, the university in Seward awarded Schulz a doctor of letters honoris causa, or honorary degree.

Schulz perhaps is best known as a speaker on "The Lutheran Hour," a radio program produced by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod first broadcast in 1930 and still on the air today; he was on the air for more than 25 years.

Before his stint at the Lutheran Hour, Schulz served as a professor of English at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan; as a pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa; and on the staff of Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. He also served two terms as fifth vice president and one term as the second vice president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

In addition to serving as a chaplain to medical work among the poor in foreign countries, for over a decade Schulz has maintained contacts with and assisted the underground Christian church of China. He has participated in several World Congresses on Evangelism and in 1986 he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his distinguished service to humanity.

In 2002, Schulz accepted the call to serve as evangelist for the Lutheran Heritage Foundation, a worldwide missions and evangelism movement. He now serves as executive editor of "Good News" magazine, published in 20 languages and distributed in 100 countries. The mission of the foundation is to translate, publish and distribute confessional Lutheran materials around the world.