Todd Edwin Roeske

1. 5/9/1962 Howell, Michigan USA

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Kimberly Sue (nee Koenemann) b. Fort Wayne, Indiana USA 5/13/1964

1. 7/12/1986

Children: Audrie Mae (1991), Kalae Hope (1996), Karis Joy (2002), Amani Faith (2005)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1993-2005 Philippines Evangelistic Missionary

2005-present Philippines (non-resident) Consultant to Asia

 

Biographical Summary

Todd Roeske grew up in Hartland, Michigan and attended Concordia University in Ann Arbor, graduating with a B.A. degree in 1984.  After graduating, he entered mission work as a Volunteer Youth Minister in Taiwan.  At Concordia he had met and begun dating Kim Koenemann, who was studying for a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and she was very supportive of and interested in his work even through a long separation.  After Kim graduated, she joined Todd in Taiwan and taught at an international school.  Todd was very affected by his time in ministry in Taiwan, living in a country where over 95% of people are not Christian, and his call grew stronger to share the Gospel in any way he could.

 

Kim and Todd were married in 1986, and in 1987 they left Taiwan to return to the United States. In 1988, Todd and Kim joined a travelling music ministry team with Lutheran Youth Encounter and spent the next fourteen months travelling in the United States and East Africa.  When they returned home, Todd began studying for a master’s degree in social work at the University of Michigan, which he received in 1990.  During that time, Kim taught upper elementary grades in Detroit.

 

In 1991, Todd received a call to work as Program Director at Camp Lone Star in LaGrange, TX.  The Roeske were blessed to expand their family when daughter Audrie was born in July 1991 and adopted by Todd and Kim a year and a half later.

 

In 1993, Todd received a call from LCMS to serve as an evangelistic missionary and church planter in the Philippines.  He accepted right away, and the family was sent to the southern part of the Mindanao region, working among the Tagakaulo people.  During most of the time they spent in the Philippines, there was at least one other missionary working in the same area.  The strategy for their work was always to nurture a self-sufficient, “God-dependent” (not missionary-dependent) church that could sustain and grow itself from early on.  Todd began with fairly traditional evangelistic work: he visited villages to assess whether anyone was interested in learning more, then met with those who wanted to learn, teaching Bible stories and undertaking community development projects when possible.  As a group of people would become interested in forming a church, they would choose from amongst themselves someone to lead the congregation.  The missionaries would then work with those leaders using a three-pronged development strategy: one-on-one mentoring; learning about preaching and service leading; and informal seminars to prepare the leaders to teach.  These seminars could have up to fifty attendees and were quite important, as the missionaries took church leaders through the Scriptures, talked about issues that could come up in congregations and held small-group discussions.

 

Once students had completed these seminars, they would attend formal training to increase their understanding and grasp of theological concepts.  These training programs lasted five years in all.  The first year was devoted to study of Old Testament and the second to New Testament.  In the third year, the church leaders learned theological doctrines and how to teach catechism, Sacraments, prayer, Ten Commandments, law and gospel, and the creed.  The fourth and fifth years focused on practical issues within the church – stewardship, family life, and faith and the Gospel within everyday life and culture.  During these years, students would also begin to help teach students who were in their first years of study, as part of the plan to prepare church leaders for independence and self-sufficiency early on.

 

While this work progressed, the Roeskes tried to meet as many of the needs of the people around them as they could.  Neighbors would come to them with health issues, and they often served as the “ambulance” to take a sick person to the hospital.  Kim developed a Sunday School program for the fledgling church and helped congregations find ways to teach their children even with very few resources.  She was also very involved in the village where they lived, dealing with day to day issues.  Meanwhile, she cared for the Roeske’s own home and children.  Todd and Kim adopted two more girls while living in the Philippines: Kalae, born in September 1996, and Karis, born in March 2002.  Kim made sure all the children were well taken care of and taught each of them at home as each girl grew old enough to begin school.

 

Most of the Roeske’s language learning while in Mindanao was “by the seat of our pants.”  They studied with language helpers but got to know the language mainly by living with and speaking with the people of the area.  As part of his evangelistic work, Todd also worked with written materials that were available in a trade language of the area and adapted them to create a grammar of the Tagakaulo language.

 

The Roeskes’ departure from the Philippines after twelve years was part of the overall plan for mission in the area – the missionaries would leave as soon as local leaders were equipped to teach and do evangelism among their own people.  The family first moved to the city of Davao, where they were available to the Tagakaulo church as needed but not immediately on hand for day to day activities.  In 2005, they left the Philippines entirely and returned to the U.S.  Todd continues to serve as a counselor and resource for the Tagakaulo church, returning three times a year to encourage and train church leaders and members.  He also translates and edits a Tagakaulo-language newsletter for the church.

 

Back in the U.S., the Roeskes were blessed once more to adopt daughter Amani, born May 2005.  Kim and the girls had returned a few months before Todd, and when he arrived the family settled in Copper Center, Alaska.  In Copper Center Todd and Kim serve as volunteer evangelistic missionaries.  They work with a small group of Lutherans in Copper Center and are trying to reach out into the surrounding communities with the Gospel, looking for ways to help surrounding communities to develop fellowship groups that will be self-sustaining as they feed on God's Word.  Todd is also responsible for Lay Training and coordinating ministry on the Alaska Road System.  He trains leaders in the church and mentors those who want to become more involved, and he tries to find ways for believers to communicate with and support each other in their faith.  Todd was colloquized by the LCMS in 2007 as a minister ordained for this work.  Kim is involved in women’s Bible study and children’s ministries at their church, leads the music program, leads a homeschool ministry, and contributes to the running of all church activities, especially while Todd is traveling.  She also continues to homeschool their younger children (Audrie and Kalae now attend a small public school).

 

One further ministry Todd has undertaken recently is travel to China to assist with training, working with Bible schools, curriculum, and any other needs of the church there.  Having undertaken varied kinds of mission work both at home and abroad, the Roeskes remain open to the Lord’s plans for their lives and continue to care for their family and those to whom they minister with the love of the Gospel.

 

Nota Bene

Todd has done some writing upon request, including the article “Christian Worship in a Cross-Cultural Setting” for Missio Apostolica (Lutheran Society for Missiology), 1997, v.1.

 

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

An issue that the mission among the Tagakaulo tried to address head-on is the constant question of dependency of an indigenous church on missionaries and the sending church.  Todd and the other missionaries in this area did the best they could to train leaders and encourage self-sufficiency in the Tagakaulo church.  They achieved a good level of success but discovered that it’s nearly impossible not to create any dependency – the issue must simply be dealt with each day, and missionaries must be conscious of their actions that may create types of dependency.

 

Cross-cultural issues are also a hallmark of missionary work.  Todd and others had to learn to do ministry in a cultural setting that was unfamiliar to them and to try to nurture a church that could address the spiritual and other needs of people in that cultural setting.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

As Todd says, “you really never know what’s going to be your biggest contribution.”  However, he does hope and pray that the churches they planted will bring people to the knowledge and love of Jesus.  He was blessed during his time in the Philippines to see some people grow incredibly in their faith, their lives fully changed by the love of Christ.

 

A further contribution Todd was able to make, outside of his called work, was to help a few deaf children from the Tagakaulo-speaking area attend a school for deaf children and live in a dormitory with other deaf children.  He hopes that the education they receive at this school will make a difference in their lives and equip them to be better integrated into their communities.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

There are now sixteen congregations in the Tagakaulo area, and the first group of pastors in Tagakaulo graduated from their training in 1995.  As noted, Todd serves as a resource and support for the church there.  With encouragement from former missionaries, the Tagakaulo church is self-supporting and continues in evangelism, worship, and training of leaders.

 

Lessons Learned

• Todd’s time in mission has given him a real appreciation for different cultures and different ways of communicating.  People need to be able to relate to Jesus on their own cultural terms, not using American constructs.
• Working with a minority group in the Philippines was a challenge for Todd and other missionaries to the Tagakaulo area.  Focusing on learning the Tagakaulo language first (before learning the trade language of the area) really made a difference in their connection with the people; they were much more likely to be accepted when they first learned the “minority” language.  Todd also found that, practically, it was easier to apply his knowledge of Tagakaulo to learning the trade language than the other way around.

 

Best Practices

• A missionary needs to learn the heart language of the people he or she serves; the relationships you can develop with people are on an entirely different level.  Even if you end up speaking mostly in English, learning the heart language of a group of people deepens relationships.
• The mission among the Tagakaulo-speaking people began with a plan to train local leaders and gradually allow missionaries to leave while the church could remain self-sufficient.  Formulating this plan ahead of time was very helpful for the missionaries’ work and enabled them to leave the field without concern that the newly-formed church would collapse.
• Todd once had a man he was working with in Alaska tell him he was “the best missionary.”  The man explained that he made this comment because he felt Todd was not forcing ideas upon him, but rather that he spent a lot of time listening.  Todd has found that simply listening is very important in all mission work, and particularly in his ministry in Alaska.  Culturally, the people with whom he works take a long time to accept someone, and this makes listening a very important pastoral ministry.  “A missionary must listen for a long time before anyone will listen to him.”
• Another reason to listen and to let others speak is that people who grow up in a cultural setting will often know better how to deal with issues that arise in that cultural setting than will a missionary.  People often tend to look to a missionary for his or her opinion or thoughts, but it’s important that the missionary respect others’ greater understanding of their own culture and community.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

While studying at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Todd became very interested in serving in the Peace Corps.  During the application process he noticed a flyer up on campus regarding volunteer youth ministry in Japan, and he filled out the application.  The LCMS contacted him about interviewing for a volunteer program, although Todd thought he would still probably join the Peace Corps.  By the end of his interview with LCMS, he was asked to join the volunteer mission in Taiwan, and although he had reservations he went home to pray about it.  When he learned from the Peace Corps that it would take six months to two years to be placed, it moved him to reconsider the ministry in Taiwan.

 

Once Todd began his work in Taiwan, he found that it really opened his eyes to realize that 97% of the people there were not Christians, and there were huge numbers of people who didn’t know what it meant to know Jesus.  It changed his whole perspective and instilled in him a strong desire to do mission work and to spread the good news of the Gospel.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

• One story of Todd’s is a good example of the issues that arise regarding dependency: When he was first in the Philippines and beginning to train church leaders, one of his coworkers thought it would be a good fellowship experience to host a Christmas party.  Todd agreed to help, and the church members they had been working with attended and enjoyed the party.  It was such a hit that the missionaries figured they would host a joint party the next year.  By the third year, the Christmas party had become something of a tradition (whereas before it had been just a personal choice to host an enjoyable party), and suddenly it seemed that it “had to be done.”  Todd and the other missionaries felt they had to keep hosting the party even though they were aware that an elaborate party probably couldn’t be sustained once they left.  As predicted, the indigenous church in the Tagakaulo area makes an effort to have Christmas gatherings now, but it has turned into a struggle to plan and execute.  Here a simple act of generosity that missionaries thought would be a fun time of fellowship because an unsustainable structure that caused problems when they left – demonstrating the obstacles missionaries and indigenous churches are up against when they try to create sustainable structures and avoid dependency of the indigenous church on missionaries or their sending church.

 

• Todd learned an interesting cultural lesson during his early years in the Philippines while in a village visiting, teaching and waiting (“you wait a lot in the Philippines”).  While he was waiting for someone at one point, a woman came up to him and asked him to spit on her!  He asked why, and she said she had a headache.  Her understanding was that he was some kind of holy man, and she hoped her headache would go away if he spit on her.  Todd, uncomfortable with the suggestion, told the woman he would pray for her, and he did lay his hands on her and prayed for her, although he remained unsure whether she was really satisfied with this remedy.  It was an early reminder that the questions people ask can differ greatly from one culture to another!