Herb Hoefer
Update
February 4, 2006
Friends and Family,
Today I met with the seminary students of the Lanka Lutheran Church and then
with the LLC pastors. The seminary students have had a year of theological
training, and they have been sent for church planting (along with the
classes) for the past six months. Just like the
probationers-as-church-planters in India, they are marvelously courageous
young men.
They held the baptism service at the Lutheran Centre yesterday. I had
misunderstood what they were anticipating for the service. I thought they
had said 25 were going to be baptized. It actually was to be 125!
As it turned out, only 88 showed up. The group from one plantation was
stopped in route by some Hindu radicals from the area who knew where they
were going. They rocked their van so that they thought it might tip over,
and on those roads that means a fall of a couple hundred feet down the steep
mountain side. They abandoned the van and went home. A group from another
plantation was opposed the previous evening by the village elders, so they
decided to let things settle down before going ahead with their baptisms.
The LLC
pastors say they will go to each of the areas to try to settle things down
and call them together for another joint baptism service in a couple of
weeks.
Of course, it was quite a celebration. I had the sermon, but I didn't do any
of the baptisms. I shouldn't do such official religious acts on my
tourist visa. It was the largest group the LLC has ever had for baptism. All
of these converts came from just 6 months of the seminarians' work, and they
say many more are getting ready. Join us in thanks to God for the blessing
of His Spirit on the work of His Word.
There is another group that is doing evangelistic work from the LLC. The
United Evangelical Mission, headed by a layman of the Indian Evangelical
Lutheran Church, has financed a group of young men of the LLC on a two-year
project of church planting. They have one month of training, by the LLC
pastors, and then do field work for 3 months. Their model is that the young
men are to to try to contact 6 families a day, totaling at least 110 a month
and 1000 over the two years. They expect God's blessing of the work to the
amount of 5 families for baptism every three months. The second year they
are to gather these new congregations and give them technical/vocational
training so that they become self-supporting families and establish a
self-supporting church.
The stories of the ten seminarians, of course, were quite moving. All of
them spoke of their fear in going totally unprotected into a fully
Hindu/Buddhist/Muslim village. They all faced considerable opposition for
the first 3 months usually. Often those who opposed them the most
severely, even to the point of beating, are now the most faithful. One young
man spoke of getting beaten by one Hindu and then going to his home the very
next day to share the Gospel. He is one of the ones who
came for baptism yesterday.
The seminarians complete their training by the end of the year, and the LLC
pastors say another set is all ready in the wings to come for the next three
years. The program is supported by "Jesus Is Lord" mission
society. We'll have to see if we can get support for the probationers at
$100 a month for the next two years. The pastors are doing what pastors
should do: "equip the saints for the work of ministry."
The young men spoke of many coming to Christ because they were healed after
praying with them. Some are having an after-school program for the children,
and a Sunday School. All of them want to have a pre-school in their village,
like there are in 17 of the other LLC villages through the help of LCMS
World Relief. They also would like to have the self-support help for
widows and abandoned women that Wheat Ridge Ministries is implementing in
their "Cows for Widows" program.
I'm hoping that LCMS World Mission and LCMS WR can jointly fund a "mission
station" in each of these far-flung villages of the seminarians. The plan is
to have a parsonage with an attached community hall that can be used for the
pre-school, costing $15,000. We also need to do this before the Pentecostals
- in their typical fashion - move in to build the chapel and take the
congregation.
All of these men - some with wives - want to live in the village with the
people. They know that they can help the people much better, both socially
and spiritually, if they can reside among them. As it is, they must travel
and walk many hours each week from their homes to reach these remote
plantations.
Their dedication to these people is really moving, for the villages are
really far away from their homes and any modern facilities. They are sure
many more will come forward for baptism if they see that the church will
really be there for them and for their children. The men - and their
wives - just don't think of their own comfort and desires. They just think
of helping the people to whom God has called them.
I feel so humbled and inspired in the presence of these young men. It is my
privilege to be among them and to teach them. Indeed, they have so much to
teach me about what really matters in life.
God bless.
Herb