The missionaries for the Mission Diocese, Leena and Tuomo Simojoki, live in Nairobi, Kenya with their seven children.
Leena and Tuomo Simojoki work in the Lutheran Heritage Foundation Nairobi office. The office serves Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Zambia.
Lutheran Heritage Foundation, a US based organisation, was founded in 1991 to translate, publish, distribute and introduce basic Lutheran literature. The organisation operates in over 85 countries and in over 100 languages. In Africa, the organisation has worked since 1996.
The mission of the organisation is to make sure that Churches have the basic books available in their own mother tongue. The organisation translates books for Pastors, congregations and children. Fundamental books include Luther’s Small Catechism and children’s Bibles. On top of this the organisation translates liturgies, hymnals, devotional books, prayers books and Luther’s major titles in local languages.
Lutheran Heritage Foundation sets up translation teams for the different languages, who are then trained. The translators are paid for their work. LHF publishes the books and distributes them to congregations free of charge. LHF also introduces the books, so that they are easier to use by the recipients. Special emphasis is given to introduction to Pastors so that they can in turn train their own congregants. Introduction is also given to Sunday School teachers, Deaconesses and the youth.
Leena’s and Tuomo’s task is to be in charge of the Nairobi office and develop it. A central task for them is to train the local people to take responsibility over the office so that in the future, the office could be run without a missionary presence.