Herb Hoefer
Update
February 4, 2006
Friends
and Family,
I have just returned from another tour of new work,
this time in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka. I try
to focus my efforts on recognizing and encouraging
those who are doing the pioneering work. I do some
business with church leaders, but I really want the
frontline people also to feel the importance that they
have in God's eyes.
The fledgling congregations I visited today have been
raised up by God through the work of the Lanka
Lutheran Church seminary students. They go to the
remotest corners, for their policy (like in India) is
to go where there are no other Christian churches.
Once again, I spent the day bouncing and swerving in a
van. Then we had to climb up stone "steps" and over
rocks and tumbling creeks to these areas of new
outreach. They are unreached because they are almost
unreachable! We had a brief worship service in each
place, and my role was to deliver a message appropriate
to the situation we encountered.
Each seminarian has an area of 20-25 plantations, with
a population of 15-20,000. They are under the
supervision of one of the LLC pastors. The usual
story is that they face a good three months of
opposition. Leaders object that they are just here to
convert people, but they simply reply, "We are here to
share the good news about Jesus, and people can decide
for themselves."
I asked the seminarians how they present the good
news. One spoke of telling how Jesus came to be among
the poor (for these people are desperately poor and
oppressed). He came to give them new life,
forgiveness and eternal life."
Tomorrow the LLC is holding a baptism service at the
headquarters congregation in Nuwara Eliya. I think
there will be 25, all from these ministries. They do
it away as a group so that local radical Hindu leaders
won't interfere and so the new believers sense the
fellowship of the wider church, even though they are
scattered in different plantations.
The people return from work only by 5:00 p.m., so the
seminarians' work is all in the evening. They are
also involved in training lay leaders for these house
churches, wherever there is some capability. Their
housing was build by the British 100-150 years ago,
and the gov't. basically does nothing for them. They
often express that they feel like they are locked in a
prison. They don't have education or skills to leave,
so they just have to keep on working for $1.50 a day
and try to survive.
The LLC has requested that we help them establish
mission stations for each of these students. It takes
4-6 hours for them to reach these plantations by bus
from their homes. We'd like to put up a parsonage
with a community hall attached that could be used both
for worship and for a pre-school.
Through the support of LCMS World Relief, the LLC has
been using these pre-schools to gain an entrance to
the community. They are really popular with the
people, and even with the plantation managers. They
know that people want some hope that their children
can get out of the plantations through education. The
LLC could easily start a dozen more.
I thought I'd share a couple of cultural aspects.
People here for the most part have cell phones, but
they almost always keep them on vibrate. You don't
get this cacophony of musical sounds all the time like
you get in India and in the States. Rather, you just
see someone suddenly getting up and leaving the
gathering with his cell phone in hand. I think that is
really a considerate way to handle the phone.
Another interesting consideration is between the
drivers on these winding hills. They have this little
courtesy of beeps. If someone pulls over to the side
on a narrow road so that another car can get through
or pass, the one that passes gives a quick "beep" as
he goes by and the other driver responds with his
"beep." They do the same thing when one stops so that
another can get by around a curve. It's "beep"
("Thanks") and "beep" ("You're welcome")
God bless.
Herb