Sharon Owens serves the Lord in Macau as the director of the Macau outreach team. Sharon's main responsibilities include providing leadership, vision, and administration of the English center and outreach work, which assists the existing Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod congregation, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, located in Macau. She is also responsible for the orientation, training, and supervision of long- and short-term volunteer English teachers who carry out the goals to plant seeds, love people to Christ, and equip others to share that love.

Macau, the Las Vegas of the Orient, is home to 550,000 local residents and 28,000 immigrant contract workers, all whom reside in a land area of less than 13 square miles. Buddhism and ancestor worship are the major religions. Macau is developing quickly as new casinos and hotels flood the city to keep up with the rapid tourism growth.

Born in Cudahy, Wisconsin, Sharon's home congregation is St. John Lutheran Church in Cudahy. She previously served in campus ministry as director of International Student Ministry in the Nebraska District of the LCMS. Sharon is a Director of Christian Education (DCE).

Sharon asks that we pray for her continued studies in the Mandarin language, her leadership skills, a hedge of spiritual protection around her, good health, and a lot of energy to carry on the work. Pray that the Lord would also bless and protect her daughter, Joanna.

Thank the Lord for the joy Sharon has in this service--working with the volunteers, watching the Holy Spirit bring Chinese people to faith, watching others grow spiritually and emotionally, and being part of a diverse culture.