2009 Report #1 from Sumatra, Indonesia
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, ELCA Global Mission Volunteer
jlschmalen@aol.com

Assigned by the ELCA as a Global Mission Volunteer, I returned to Sumatra, Indonesia last week.  Everyone has no doubt heard about our devastating earthquakes this past week over on the western coast on the fault line in the “Ring of Fire.”  Our buildings are holding at the deaconness school where I have been teaching this week inland about 50 miles.  We all ran outside first thing.  Of course, our students are from various villages and one student is in Padang, site of the 7.6 shaker which brought down many structures and from where communications are difficult.

Here is some historical background on the two places I have worked since leaving.

About Tau Fong Shan, the Mountain of the Logos Wind
I stopped in Hong Kong for 3 days on the flight over to visit many students but especially the two Indonesian Bataks that Carol and I are supporting at LTS on Tau Fong Shan with the help of a few good friends. That includes Deaconess Eleven Sihotang whom we are preparing to teach and to organize the Library in the Deaconess School and Ronald Pasaribu who is preparing to teach Old Testament at the Batak Seminary. They both are entering 3-year programs.

Then on Friday night some of my former Chinese students took me to a German restaurant where we had a terrific time. (German food cooked by Nepalese, and served by Chinese!)

On the mountain are two Christian institutions: The Christian Mission to the Buddhists and Lutheran Theological Seminary. Both have interesting histories.

Founded in 1922, the Christian Mission to the Buddhist began in Nanjing as a mission church aimed at bringing the Gospel to Buddhist Monks. Its founder was Karl Ludwig Reichelt, a Norwegian and a great liberal scholar who was deeply influenced by German Nathan Soderblom. He called the Nanjing location Ching Fong Shan, (the hill from which the wind of the spirit blows.)

Reichelt, somewhat a mystic, was convinced you could link Buddhist “the law” called Tao, with Christ called logos. He organized “The Christian Brotherhood among China's Buddhist,” it included the 3 fold taking of refuge (which we still use in our Sunday evening's Pilgrim's Mass) and included some of the Buddhist scripture (which we do not use!)

A Christian Monastery on Tau Fong Shan
In 1927 the facilities in Nanjing were burned down in a political riot. (It is interesting to note that 73 years later in 2000 three attempts to burn down the institution were made here as well.) Reichelt brought his cause to this mountain in Hong Kong in 1930. A Danish architect, Johannes Prip-Moeller, became enthralled with the whole concept and designed a beautiful Christian Monastery in Chinese/Buddhist style on this mountain which Reichelt had bought for $3,705. The institution was named Tau Fong Shan which means “The Mountain of the Logos Wind.”

The Scandinavian Mission societies were always critical and argued about this missionary who practiced “syncretism.” He was also accused of being “too Catholic and too liberal.” In 1925 Reichelt separated from the Norwegian Mission Society because of the constant controversy. In the summer he would travel into China visiting Buddhist Monasteries and convinced some of the Monks to leave and come to Tau Fong Shan.

The influx of Monks stopped about 1950; but the mission endures to this day continued by Reichelt's colleagues, his son, and his former students. The late Andrew Hsiao writes in his book, A Brief History of the Chinese Lutheran Church, “Although mission work among monks and nuns has ended, CMB continues to carry on various projects related to religious studies, e.g., dialogue with Chinese religious groups, interchange between Christianity and Chinese culture, and research on new religions. Its contributions to the interchange between Christianity and Chinese culture, as well as its studies on modern religions, are well recognized.”

On Sunday mornings a Cantonese speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong congregation meets in Christ's Chapel, which is built to look like a Chinese Buddhist temple. In the evening we hold the “Pilgrim's Mass” in English. It still contains several of the Reichelt attempts at incorporating some of the acceptable portions of Buddhist worship including the ringing of the huge gong, the taking of refuge and the singing of the beatitudes. Also consistent with Reichelt we celebrate the Eucharist each week.

Reichelt died March 13, 1952 and was buried in the Christian Cemetery next to his beloved center. He was 74 years old and had been a missionary in China for nearly half a century.

Our Seminary located on the mountain
In 1913, Lutheran Theological Seminary was founded in Mainland China as The Lutheran Theological College at which Reichelt had been a tutor. When it had to leave because of Communist oppression by Mao Tse-Tung's regime in 1948, they left Shekow and came in 16 cars to Tau Fong Shan, later establishing themselves at the foot of the hill. Then in 1987, due in part to CMB's  generous superintendent, The Rev. Ernst Harbakk, 7 acres of land on the mountain adjacent to CMB was donated to the over crowded seminary. Our beautiful facility was dedicated in 1992 where we live, study and bask in the wind of the Logos today. I have taught a semester there for each of 12 years.

Introduction to the Bataks
Then, it was on to Indonesia and the island of Sumatra. With the help of Achim Sibeth's book, The Batak. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1991, I will attempt to give you a little background for my present ministry here in Sumatra, Indonesia, where I am now.

The Batak are among the few peoples on earth whose existence has long been known in Europe, but who have only relatively recently “enjoyed the attention of the West. They were very capable of warding off unwelcome contacts and were protected from alien intrusion by the geography of the region where they lived.

Their homeland is the island of Sumatra at the western end of the modern Republic of Indonesia. It is the fifth largest island in the world and the fourth largest in population. The Batak live in the western and eastern costal region north of the equator and west 100 degrees latitude.

The majority of the Batak still live in the mountains. Most villages are situated at an altitude of about 1,000 m. Their daily life is determined by a number of factors: the deeply cut valleys, fissured landscapes and high mountains with steep slopes making cultivation impossible; the composition of the various soils, and a distinct mountain climate. The tropical costal regions and especially where I teach and preach have very high rainfall.

The Batak consist of six ethnic groups: the Mandailing, Angkola, Toba, which I mainly work with, Pakpak/Dairi, Karo and the Simalungun. (The seminary at P.Sinatar where I teach is almost 100% Toba and the Abdi Sabda seminary where I also teach includes all six ethnics and uses the Bahasa Indonesian language). This means that the various ethnic groups often have to use a language other than their mother tongue, and many Batak will have mastered one or more other Batak dialects, as well as the Bahasa Indonesian, the state language of Indonesia, which is based on Malay. I now have three of my books published in this language: The Preacher's Edge, Preparation for Discipleship and the latest “The Stewardship of All Believers.”

My Toba Batak in central Batakland were increasingly Christianized by the German Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft from 1864 on. To these Batak to belong to one of the higher religions has not meant a complete rejection of their old beliefs. An example is the still widespread notion among my people that the souls (Tondi) of the ancestors can influence the lives of their decedents long after death. Their portion of the island which is the cradle of Batak culture is one of the most underdeveloped parts of Indonesia.

About 75,000 years ago a massive eruption, the most ever known, hurled huge amounts of material from the volcano. This ash now forms the Toba tuff that covers a large part of Batakland. It makes for growing peanuts, coco, palm oil, rubber, and the largest of all: rice. It also formed Lake Toba which a beautiful place where I sometimes take my students for spiritual retreats.

The arrival of Christianity
In 1834, the journey of American Missionaries, Munson and Lyman was a complete failure; the local people thought they were spies, murdered them and presumably ate them. (It was their first taste of religion!) I have met and talked with these descendants who are still mailu, embarrassed, about this behavior.)

The situation changed when the German Rheinische Mission sent a Danish missionary in 1864. Ludwig Nommensen, the “Apostle to the Batak,” is still revered by them because of staying over 50 years and serving as the first “Ephorus” (Bishop) of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan church, called HKBP. I am called “Ompung” which means grandpa and is a title for Bishops and people who command great respect. However sometimes I am called “Our Nommensen.” This is my 12th time to be here, always as a volunteer, and always under the auspice of the ELCA Global Missions.

When in May 1940 all Germans in the Dutch East Indies were interned in retaliation for the occupation of the Netherlands, the way was open for the Batak Christians to take the leadership and organization of their churches into their own hands.

The Dutch colonial period ended with the Japanese invasion in 1942. The overall population is now 84+% Muslim. It is the largest Muslim country in the world.

My schedule and mission
For two weeks I will teach and coach Tio Sihombing (recently graduated from LTS, Hong Kong) in teaching Homiletics, Stewardship, Congregational Conflict Management and Pastoral Care. This is at the Balige Deaconess School with all 60 students.

Next, for 5 weeks I will help the former general secretary of HKBP in his doctoral program in Pastoral Counseling at the Batak Seminary. While doing that I will model teaching Pre- and Re-Marriage Counseling (A new idea for them), Conflict Management, and Homiletics.

Finally, it will involve 10 days at Abdi Sabda seminary (500 students from all 6 Batak ethnic groups) in Medan where I will lecture to the Master's students on Pastoral Ministry. In each situation I will be working myself out of a job so that the indigenous faculty can carry on.

On the weekends I will preach in bush villages, often visiting former Cucu (Grandchild which one supports). This now numbers over 50!