2009 Report #2 from Sumatra, Indonesia
Jerry L. Schmalenberger, ELCA Global Mission Volunteer
jlschmalen@aol.com

It is a very sad story in Padang where the two earthquakes struck (7.6 and 5.5). Thousands of houses destroyed. Many people missing or dead. The ELCA sent $30,000 right away to AKRUM, a health agency we have a relationship with. I continue grief counseling and empowering others to do it. It is very similar to when the tsunami hit in Aceh.

Last Saturday I did some traveling. We went to the memorial of American missionaries Lyman and Munson whom the Bataks killed and ate in 1843 giving them their first taste of religion. Nearby is a Batak church with another memorial to the event. The congregation has descendents of those who did the killing and they are still superstitious about the guilt. So they built the Memorial. Ingwer Nommensen, Apostle to the Bataks, a Danish born German Missionary, baptized the main perpetrator years later. I met his great great great grandchildren named Lumbantobing.

Next we drove to see pastor Bonar Nababan who is now the superintendent of Hasundutan, the poorest district in all of HKBP. He was my colleague at the seminary and has translated my book, The Preacher's edge. He is presently translating my new book, The Stewardship of All Believers. It will be in Bahasa Indonesian and is already in Chinese. I will try to get this district of coffee growers hooked up with our LWR "Fair Trade" program.

While at the Deaconess School, I also went with the first year class to see Huta Dame, the village where they tied Nommensen to a Banyan tree which you can still see and were going to kill and eat him until a great rain storm came: lightning struck and he was set free.

Last Sunday I was guest of honor at the Lokabodi Bibel Vrouw school for their 75th Jubilee celebration.  Each time I travel to Indonesia, I lecture there one day. There are about 90 young women preparing to do "Women's work” in the congregations which their culture would not allow men to do. But now with the ordination of women, perhaps the mission is not as urgent. Many go there for a 3 year much cheaper academic program than the 5 year seminary. About 500 attended and the procession of perhaps 80 women from the villages with sacks of rice (tondak) on their heads was impressive. It will provide rice for several months for this school.

Last Monday I packed up and left the Deaconess students to transition to the HKBP seminary where I am now. It was a tearful farewell as faculty and students consider me their father and grandfather. I leave Tio Sihombing, whom we sent to Hong Kong, now teaching homiletics which I modeled for her and Deaconal Ministry for which I was her supervisor in Hong Kong.

I now live in the seminary's very old run down guest house which was built many years ago for a doctor to live in as this was a palm oil plantation hospital before it became a seminary. It is literally falling down around me! Musangs (civits) live in the attic, ants are everywhere, and termites have devoured the woodwork. It is in a swamp-like surrounding with mosquitoes in abundance. It rains almost every day and everything is damp including my old collapsed bed which sits on the floor.

Pandita Rospita Siahaan, whom my sister Doris and I sponsored through this seminary and whom I ordained and married to Pandita Donny Podang, came to see me yesterday. She waited a week just to see me! The ELCA gave her a scholarship for her master's degree which she has finished with honors. She now will receive an assignment to a parish or teaching position. The Bishop will not consult with her; he will simply send a letter telling her where she must now serve. This church has an awful law which says that if both of a clergy couple are ordained only one can serve. So Rospita's husband is presently teaching school.

Dewi Sinaga, who just got her doctorate from Hong Kong and is the first female Th.D in all of the 3 million member HKBP church, has challenged this practice big time. The Bishop sent the letter assigning her to work in the church headquarters instead of teaching here as she prepared to do. She sent the letter back refusing the assignment and produced a contract I had written when she received our financial help. The Bishop backed down and she is now teaching New Testament here which makes me very pleased.

My schedule each week:
2 classes in New Testament called "Jesus' Pastoral Care in the New Testament."
1 class in Congregational Conflict Management
1 class in Pastoral Care and Counseling
2 classes in Homiletics
1 class for M-Div students
My load is not as heavy as in Balige but the first one will be a new subject for me and will take a lot of preparation.

This church is facing a constitutional crisis. The Bishop (Ephorus) was in an awful accident. He and his wife and two assistants went off the mountain road and dropped at least two football field lengths. I saw the place it happened and I could not believe anyone could survive it. They all did! But he has been out of service for a couple months. Their constitution says after 3 months absence they must elect a new Bishop. Many are clambering for this and others just want to ignore the requirement. It could cause a serious split as often happens in this culture.