Herb Hoefer
Update
14 January 2006
Friends and Family,
I am now in Nagercoil for a few days. I've had the privilege to show Dr.
Rick Herman, President of Wheat Ridge Ministries, and some of our Asia LCMS
mission execs around the IELC the past four days. It's been exhausting, but
it feels good that others see the tremendous work and potential going on
here. There's administrative chaos at the top but great vitality at the
grassroots - and that's what really counts in the Kingdom anyway.
As usual, India is a series of great joys and pains. When I was in Nagercoil
last week - before meeting the group in Chennai and taking them through
Ambur and on to Nagercoil, a Muslim convert came to see me. His father had
come to the Lord through the work of one of
our earlier missionaries. He said that now all of his brothers have
returned to Islam. He was so relieved to meet with a missionary again, for
he has felt very alone and struggling in his faith. As we were about
to part after prayer, he just feel on his knees and wept on my lap like a
baby. I had urged him to connect with the church near him, but I know how
difficult it is for our congregations to really bring a Muslim convert into
their fellowship. India is a country of ethnicities, and my experience is
that the deeper one's sense of ethnicity is the harder it is to relate to
people of a different ethnicity.
We had a good discussion with the LWF-related staff working on economic
development projects in India. One of their most successful has been among
women - as is true in most parts of the world. They gather 15-20 women into
"Self-Help Groups" and ask them to come up with a project for the uplift of
their community. Usually they develop a comprehensive plan for health
education, economic development, and social awareness. When they set up a
co-op, they typically have 90% repayment of loans. The group establishes
its own
leaders.
Another discussion was about the situation of the "untouchables"
in India. They now call themselves "dalits," which means "oppressed," and
they include the tribal peoples in this category, totalling about
20% of the population of India. They were observing that Christian missions
effectively removed the practice of untouchability through their schools,
hospitals, congregations, etc. If high caste people wanted to access these
Christian services, they had to mix with the dalit converts, teachers,
nurses, etc.
However, now they want to address the continuing systems of oppression in
the land. They are trying to mobilize dalits to stand up for their
political and civic rights, providing them legal services. Another
project is commissioning 66 Indian dalit scholars to write commentaries on
each of the books of the Bible from the dalit perspective.
There is no doubt that the dalits of India are on the move, and it is
threatening the feudal structures in the land. This is part of the reason
for the severe opposition and persecution of Christian workers, for
the Gospel is at the forefront of raising people's dignity and empowerment.
Rick Herman's major focus on this visit to India was the "Cows for Kids"
project. It is a scheme of helping widows that Carol and I used all the
years we were in India, and still do. (It's our family Christmas present to
each other, for example, to send $250 for a cow for a widow.) The idea is
to provide a cow so that the widow can provide the income that she needs to
support her children. Then they can stay in school and get ahead in life,
instead of being forced to go out into the fields to work in order to put
food on the table. Basically, the income from the milk provides what she
needs for each day's needs. Where
she can save money and provide for the dry spells, is when the cow has an
offspring. Especially, if it is a female, she has a nice sum to use for the
future.
When we were at the train station, one of the pastors stopped by. When he
heard about the reason for Rick's visit, he shared how one of the widows we
had helped had put her children through college. Now there's a woman who
was a good businesswoman! It's such a great
program of empowerment for oppressed women.
At any rate, Rick had the privilege of being involved in the transfer of
a cow to ten widows during the two days we were in Ambur. Tomorrow he is
scheduled to meet some of the widows who received cows earlier in the
program in the Nagercoil area.
This program just moves me to tears. It is such a joy to give these women
hope. It is such a joy to share the joy of the pastor that one of his
suffering parishioners is really helped, and to share the joy of
the whole village over this help for one of their suffering ones. It really
brings the biblical mandate to care for the widows and orphans alive and
makes us realize how crucial this witness is in the community,
making the Gospel claims alive and real.
I had reported in the previous Update about the sacrificial giving of the
Christians here in support of their congregational building projects. We
had a couple of further examples on our tour. One was the teachers of a
high school who pooled funds for the construction of six new classrooms, an
indoor play area, and a technical training institute on their campus.
Another was a girls boarding that is funded by the teachers of another of
our schools. Another is a stone company owner who is donating a granite
stone altar to a mission congregation chosen by our LCMS Board for
Missions. It is a gesture of thanks that he
wants to express for all the help provide over the last 110 years for the
spiritual and social uplift of people in India. With all of their financial
struggles, they are so generous. Of course, we know worldwide that it is
the poor who are the most generous - also in our own country. I saw a
report that the highest per capita charitable giving in the
USA is in Mississippi.
It was interesting to discuss with one of the pastors about the new church
building they are planning to build because of the expansion of their
congregation. They can get cheaper and more land if they build it
away from the main highway. But they want to keep it visible from the road
as a witness to Christian presence and because they know many truck drivers
say a prayer to our Lord when they pass.
God bless.
Herb