April 14, 2025

On MLC Day - May 7, 2025 - we will celebrate the blessings God has gifted to our WELS ministries—through the pastors, teachers, and staff ministers who faithfully proclaim his Word and through the individuals and families who support this work.

In preparation for our May 7 celebration, we encourage you to . . .

• PRAY - Celebrate blessings at your churches and schools through prayers of thanks for the work of pastors, teachers, staff ministers, and ministry leaders. Start now! Our online Pray Kudoboard is ready for your posts!
• SHARE - Join friends of MLC across the globe in sharing photos and videos that express thankfulness for our Lord's blessings. We especially invite everyone to post short selfie shout-out videos. We can't wait to see your posts on our Share Kudoboard! Follow MLC’s Facebook and Instagram for video-sharing details.
• GIVE - Contribute to our Congregational Partner Grant Program (CPGP) to honor those who have blessed you through their public or private ministry. With your gifts, we hope to add another $130,000 to the CPGP matching fund so that more students will receive financial assistance for their journey to the public ministry. Visit our MLC Day Give page for donation updates and a link to donate.

Read more about MLC Day.

MLC Daylight trips help our students see first-hand how to do outreach and how to minister to different communities.

Over spring break, Yi Le (Mary) Wang (St. Paul-Saginaw MI) went on her first mission trip to Beautiful Savior-Fayetteville NC. She was excited to see ministry in a new place and share the gospel.

The Daylight group helped Beautiful Savior plan and run a neighborhood block party. They also canvassed, sang, and played instruments in church.

Yi Le saw a ministry very different from the one she experienced growing up. “My favorite part of the trip was hearing from the military wives about their husbands’ deployments,” she said. “To us, church is a place where we go as a family every Sunday. To them, it is more a place where they can seek stability and be with fellow believers.”

Helping at Beautiful Savior showed Yi Le and her group that seeking to understand and serve others in love can make a big difference in ministry. “This trip was definitely worth it,” said Yi Le, “and I can’t wait to go on even more!”

Pictured: Caleb Rimpel (Star of Bethlehem-New Berlin WI), Noah Kelly (Bethany-Saginaw MI), Yi Le Wang, and Nicholas Ross (Refuge-Raleigh NC) at Beautiful Savior

On their spring tour, the MLC College Choir presented “God Is Our Refuge and Strength” through beautiful concerts and edifying worship services at congregations in Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

One tour highlight was the joint concert with the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Chorus at St. John’s on the Hillside-Milwaukee.

The concert, which nearly 800 people attended, was part of efforts to thank the Lord for blessing 175 years of the WELS and 160 years of WELS ministerial education. Hearing the choirs of two ministerial schools sing at St. John’s, a congregation established in 1848, was an awe-inspiring reminder of God’s rich blessings.

The WLS Chorus made a stop at Martin Luther College nine days later during their spring tour, and the MLC College Choir joined them for a second joint concert!

See pictures from the tour.

After finishing the indoor track and field season with record-breaking results, the MLC track and field teams opened the 2025 outdoor season on a promising note.

The men’s 4x100-meter relay team—Matthew Hillmer (St. Matthew-Oconomowoc WI), Stephen Wietzke (Crown of Life-Pueblo West CO), Lucas Holtz (St. Paul-Appleton WI), and Arthur Robinson (St. Paul-New Ulm MN)—broke the MLC outdoor school record set in May 2024 with a new record time of 43.40 seconds.

Both the men’s and women’s teams built on that exciting start with several top-10 finishes.

For the men’s team, Stephen Wietzke and Samuel Plocher (Holy Trinity-Des Moines WA, pictured) both earned first- and second-place finishes. Stephen took first in the 200-meter and second in the 100-meter, while Sam placed first in the 110-meter hurdles and second in the high jump. In the throwing events, R.J. Perry (Our Savior-Brookings SD) earned a top-10 finish in the shot put with a mark of 13.39 meters.

For the women’s team, Sarah Felsing (Jerusalem-Morton Grove IL) placed 15th out of 45 runners in the 1500-meter, and Madelinn Romsdahl (Emmaus-Phoenix) took 11th out of 45 throwers in the discus throw. Hannah Rodmyre (Holy Trinity-Des Moines WA) took fourth in the triple jump and seventh in the long jump.

Read more results on the MLC Athletics website.

Our admissions counselors have been busy this year, visiting schools throughout the WELS and hosting over 400 prospective students during the first semester and over 250 during the second.

Most of those visitors came for Focus on Ministry visits, where WELS high school students tour campus, visit classes, attend chapel, and learn more about what it means to prepare for public ministry. In addition to Focus on Ministry visits, this year MLC has also welcomed over 50 individual visitors, 15 grade school groups, and 6 youth and sports groups.

And the visits are still going! Focus on Ministry visits wrap up at the end of April, and our admissions counselors will continue to welcome visitors through the summer.

Pictured: Manitowoc LHS at MLC for a Focus on Ministry visit in early April

Please join us for the 2025 Commencement events:

• Honors Recital - May 16 at 4:00 pm in the Chapel of the Christ
• Alumni Dinner - May 16 from 4:30 to 7:00 pm at Turner Hall
• Commencement Concert - May 16 at 7:30 pm in the MLC Auditorium
• Commencement Service - May 17 at 10:00 am in the MLC Gymnasium
• Call Service - May 17 at 2:30 pm in the MLC Gymnasium