Notes: Download
Series: LFL National Conference
Keywords: abortion, international, latvia Speakers: Janis Diekonts
Detail:
Over 200 Lutherans gathered October 21-22 at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, from across the United States, Canada, and Latvia, for the 2016 Lutherans For Life National Conference. The theme: Here We Stand.
Jãnis Diekonts currently is director of Lutherans For Life in Latvia. He started to attend pro-life conferences that were organized by Lutherans For Life in 2008 and became director in 2012. He has a professional higher education degree in marketing and trade economics and is currently studying theology in the Lutheran seminary in Riga. He serves as an evangelist in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. Together with his wife, Ieva, they live in the small town of Cesvaine in the eastern part of the country and volunteer in the local congregation’s human care center.
Rev. Don Richman was born and raised on a farm near Tower City, North Dakota. After graduation from high school, he served with the army for two years in Munich. After that, he enrolled at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work and economics in 1959. Soon after beginning his career as a social worker, the Lord called him into the ministry. He enrolled at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he graduated with a master’s degree in theology in 1969. Pastor Richman was married to the former Mavis Elster in July of 1963. After serving as an associate pastor in Jamestown, North Dakota, for three and a half years, Pastor Richman was called to the senior pastorate at Emmaus Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota. After much prayer, thought, and consultation, Pastor Richman was led to resign from his position at Emmaus Lutheran church to organize the East European Missions Network—incorporated in 1992. Pastor Richman served as director until March of 2004. He continues as founding director of EEMN. Though he and Mavis continue to reside in Bloomington, Minnesota, he travels frequently to various countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.