Herb Hoefer
Update
January 4, 2007
Friends and Family,
I arrived in India late Jan 2nd night. Tomorrow I head out to the village
are, so I thought I should send you some information before I leave.
It's been exciting once again to see all the new work being undertaken by
the congregations. I've met with a couple of our IELC pastors here in
Chennai. One has five new centers around the city that God has established
through the work of the congregation members. He said they had 15 adult
baptisms in these centers on Christmas Day. He really needs one of our
seminary probationers to help him develop those centers. His congregation
has paid for the purchase of three sites for erecting a chapel, but they
need help to build the chapels.
Another pastor said his congregation has begun work among an 65-family
settlement of snake charmers that has moved into the suburbs of Chennai. The
gov't. has forbidden them to go into the forests and collect snakes for
their skins, so they moved into an uninhabited area by the ocean that is
covered with thorn bushes. They make their livelihood now by catching small
fish that come up a stream near their
settlement from the ocean. It always amazes me how Christians devote
themselves to the most neglected and remote populations in this land.
I decided to purchase a cell phone for use when I am in India and Sri Lanka.
It was quite an experience. Because cell phones are now used to detonate
bombs, there is a huge process of registration. It took a good hour. I had
to provide a photocopy of my passport and visa, a photo, and a second photo
ID (fortunately I had brought my driver's license), as well as fill out and
sign several forms.
Today I went with a local pastor to check on arrangements for a student
scholarship fund that I had established 30 years ago through a generous
donation. While at the bank office, one of the Hindu managers spoke of the
training he had received in a Christian school. He made an interesting
observation that all of the progress India is making today economically is
built upon the work of the Christian missionaries. He said they left strong
educational traditions in the land and strong moral principles. Without
these, India would be where it always had been.
Tomorrow I will meet with President of the IELC, but I've already heard some
good news about the administrative situation in the church. Until the India
Supreme Court overthrew the Madras High Court decision a few months back,
the church had been under two court-appointed administrators. The new ruling
is that the church will be responsible for all spiritual matters, and the
court-appointed administrator (one resigned) will oversee legal matters
only, including the conducting of the church elections in June. When the
IELC Church Council met last month, they declared "null and void" all the
appointments of pastors that the court-appointed administrators had made.
I'm working up some points on the divine call for the seminary faculty to
discuss and present to the church, as this is an area that was severely
violated by these administrators. Another good news was that the Kodaikanal
School which has been using valuable
property finally remitted a year's payment of rent, and the Church Council
resolved to use all that money to raise the pensions of retired pastors,
from $6 a month to $25.
I've been informed that I will have a full schedule on Sunday when I get to
the Ambur area, including a baptism service for over a hundred people. Wow!
God bless.
Herb