Co-founder of HKIS and Pastor at the Church of All Nations in the early 1960s
† 2015
Reverend Lenard (Len) Galster served as the Pastor at the Church of All Nations in the early 1960s, and was one of the three co-founders of HKIS, alongside Joseph Maché and Dr. Melvin Kieschnick.
The 40th-anniversary book about the history of HKIS includes this information: “Reverend Lenard Galster [was] a Lutheran missionary in Hong Kong who saw the need to minister to the spiritual and educational needs of the growing number of American business people and their families working in Hong Kong. He began English-language Lutheran Church services in the Repulse Bay area, on the south side of Hong Kong Island. The first service, which had 18 worshippers, was held on March 4, 1962, in the now long gone, but then very elegant, Repulse Bay Hotel.”
Acknowledging his long-ago predecessor, Pastor Joel Schiewe, the current Pastor at the Church of All Nations, said, “Hearing the call to start a church in Repulse Bay, Rev. Galster knocked on the doors of 200 families in the neighborhood inquiring about Sunday School. When CAN and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod started HKIS, Rev. Galster tirelessly worked with the children and the community.”
In his 2007 book Dragon Taels, historian Dave Kohl described Len as an “unsung HKIS hero,” and told the tale of the early days of the Church of All Nations in Repulse Bay:
“Attendance grew rapidly, and the group formed a congregation, and wanted a church building. Government didn’t provide land for such things, but in 1963 told the church if they had a school, they could incorporate a church into it. BINGO –
“[The] Maches, Galster, Mel Kieschnick, C.S. Hung […] formed a committee. Todd Wong’s architect dad provided plans for a 24-room school, Galster coordinated with banks and the home church, Kieschnick wooed the Education Department and Lands Department, and when Galster went to Detroit in 1965 to ask for a US$100,000 loan, he had Wong’s complete plans under his arm. It was approved, and HKIS began construction within days (with the chapel on the 5th floor)…….the rest is history.”
In 1966, Len was called to missionary work in Thailand and left Hong Kong before the completion of the school’s construction. He and his wife Ruth later returned to the US, where Len served congregations in California and Oregon. He passed away in 2015.