A Place
to Celebrate

Pass through the doors of Mara Evangelical Church in Indianapolis (MECI) and you’ll be greeted with the joyful sounds of a praise band — drums, keyboard and singers — as church members sway to the music. The hymns are in Mara, a language not often heard in Indianapolis.

There are nine Mara congregations in the United States affiliated with the Mara Evangelical Church in Myanmar, a member of the Lutheran World Federation. These vibrant faith communities gather hundreds of people for weekly worship. However, few of these congregations belong to the ELCA.

In September 2019, a group of 128 people in the Indianapolis Mara community approached the Indiana-Kentucky Synod to express their interest in joining the synod and the ELCA, and 14 months later, MECI became a new synod-authorized worshiping community.

Today this active, energetic faith community draws about 80 people to weekly worship services running 2-1/2 hours. Members participate in monthly Bible study, home prayer gatherings, confirmations and rehearsals for the church’s band and choir. MECI includes many young families and 50 children, some of whom attend vacation Bible school with a neighboring congregation, Resurrection Lutheran.

For these children, MECI is an important community. Some recently arrived children hadn’t attended school since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil war in Myanmar. The congregation offers them — and the adults who also attend — a supportive environment. Last year, MECI welcomed five new families.

Back in 2020, Pastor Khai was living not in Indianapolis but in South Carolina. When the people launching MECI approached him to lead their new congregation, he asked for three months to pray on it. During that period, Khai says, he felt the Spirit tell him to “feed the people with the word” and promise him that God’s word would surround and support him — so off he went to Indianapolis. In December 2020, the Rev. William O. Gafkjen, bishop of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod, recognized Khai as a synod-authorized minister for MECI.

Khai entered the Indiana-Kentucky Synod candidacy process in 2021 and soon began his seminary education through the Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) program at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. The synod prioritized his ministry, promised him a reasonable salary and funded his seminary costs. Every week, Khai and the Rev. Nancy Nyland, then director for evangelical mission in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod and now pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Indianapolis, met to support, strategize and learn from each other.

MECI became a synod-authorized worshiping community in April 2021 and was welcomed into the ELCA as an organized congregation during the Indiana-Kentucky Synod’s assembly on June 7, 2024.

“I can’t say enough about the dedication of [MECI members] giving their time to the church, but also giving their resources to the church,” Nyland says.

The members did invest in their church. With a loan from the Mission Investment Fund, MECI purchased and dedicated its own building to have the space the congregation wanted. In addition to supporting the purchase financially, members then rolled up their sleeves and began renovating the space to meet their needs. They pushed back a wall, built a stage for the band and removed other walls to create more open spaces for sharing meals. Now the building is often filled with worship, music and food.

The congregation’s work reaches beyond its doors. Many of its members are recent arrivals to the United States who don’t speak English and need help with practical things such as transportation, medical care, translation, housing and employment.

MECI is a wonderful example of how Mission Support unites congregations, synods and the churchwide organization. Through sharing Mission Support, congregations and synods across the ELCA have helped to make this ministry possible. Those Mission Support dollars support the TEEM program and enabled both the Indiana-Kentucky Synod and the churchwide organization to fund MECI. In turn, MECI shares Mission Support with the wider church, strengthening other ministries like its own.

Both Nyland and Schroeder say they were inspired by the congregation's dedication and thriving spiritual life. “For me, it’s ‘How do we continue to learn from them?’” Schroeder said.