Lori Endress
ELCIC Missionary in Thailand
- Serving in Chiang Mai, Thailand at PayapUniversity, an institution founded by the Church of Christ in Thailand
- Develops and teaches English programs at Payap's McGilvary College of Divinity for Master of Divinity (MDiv) students
- Implementing a new Faculty Development Program for music faculty at PayapUniversity
- Birthday: January 7
- Address: McGilvaryCollege of Divinity, PayapUniversity, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand
Lori was born on Staten Island, New York. She studied English Language and Literature (Hon. BA) at WaterlooLutheranUniversity and Education (BEd) at the University of Toronto. After several years of English teaching in Toronto, Lori went to graduate school at YorkUniversity, Toronto for her MA in English.
Her love of international experience and languages led her to a two-year teaching contract in Nigeria with CUSO, post-graduate courses in Mannheim, Germany, and Oxford, England, and a nine-year teaching position in Zurich, Switzerland, at the Swiss School of Continued Higher Education and Management.
For eight years, Lori served as a development educator for Canadian Lutheran World Relief. In keeping with the belief that learning is a lifelong pursuit and her desire to deepen her faith and religious understanding, shebegan theological studies at the University of Winnipeg, working on a MDiv degree.
Lori was a member of the ELCIC World Mission Interim Working Group, the Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod representative for Lutheran Laity Movement for Stewardship in Canada and a national representative to synodical discipline committees. At the congregational level, she has served on church council and been a member of the choir and the ELW.
As an ELCICLong-term Missionary in a joint placement with the Division for Global Mission of the EvangelicalLutheranChurch in America, Lori served from 1999 to 2001 at the College of Religious Studies, MahidolUniversity, a distinguished state Buddhist university in Bangkok, Thailand. There she developed and taught an English curriculum and prepared graduate students for their TOFEL exams.
From February 2002 to May 2004, Lori served in Thailand as an ELCIC Short-term Missionary with funding provided by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. At PayapUniversity in Chiang Mai, she was a Coordinator/Teacher in the Special English Program of the International Affairs Division. PayapUniversity was founded in 1974 by the Church of Christ in Thailand.
Lori returned to Chiang Mai as a Short-term Missionary in August 2004 to serve at Payap’s McGilvary College of Divinity, funded by ELCIC Missionary Sponsorships and supplemented by PayapUniversity. In July 2006 at the invitation of the President of Payap University, the ELCIC agreed to assign Lori to this position as a Long-term Missionary. Her work at McGilvary has focused on upgrading English for faculty and for MDiv students, both Thaiand International, who go on to strengthen the church in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and Korea. Now that English training needs for McGilvary faculty have been met, Lori will continue with the McGilvary MDiv programs and also implement a new Faculty Development Program for music facultyon the main campus of PayapUniversity.
Lori's interests include travel, languages, theology, literature, music, art, walking, cooking and gardening.
Missionary Sponsorship is the main source of support for ELCIC Long-term Missionaries. For information on the sponsorship program, contact:
The Rev. Paul N. Johnson Direct line: 204.984.9175
Assistant to the Bishop, ELCIC Toll free: 1.888.786.6707 Ext 175
302-393 Portage
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 3H6
(June 2009)