King Josiah recognized that Judah needed to renew its covenant with God. Lutheran missionaries began going to India to share the Gospel in 1703. About 150 years ago a Lutheran pastor named “Father Heier” was involved in building Lutheran church infrastructure in India in a major way. Unfortunately, the India of today is a far cry from the time of Pastor Heier. I think it is time for the Lutherans of America to take a look at the needs of their brothers and sisters in the church in India and to reaffirm God’s work in that place.
“Untouchables.”
Here is how the Indian Lutheran church called the AFLC-I, looks at the down-trodden Christian children in Andhra Pradesh, the Indian state in which Chirala is located:
Long ago missionaries came to the state of Andhra Pradesh in India from different countries to extend the Kingdom of Lord Jesus. Many missionaries selected their mission field in this down-trodden community because they are the people who need to be uplifted economically, educationally, religiously and socially. The main castes of the down-trodden are Mala and Madiga. ... They are called untouchables. Missionaries started working among them. They established some schools and hospitals for them on compassionate grounds along with the gospel work. During their time many of these downtrodden accepted Christianity.…
During the missionaries’ time only 5% of this downtrodden community got education …. After Indian independence virtually all missionaries left India. Remaining Indian pastors have maintained organizations and churches but have not in a position to lift up this community.
Churches ... were divided into small groups. The state government of A.P. took over the established schools of the missionaries.
Many teachers appointed by the government are upper caste people so the discrimination is still going on. The upper caste teachers ... teach only upper caste children. Therefore the upper caste children are getting jobs in various areas. But the down-trodden Christian children without education are becoming laborers in fields and in some factories. Their economical status is becoming poorer and poorer year after year.
The down-trodden population
… comprises 28% of the total population of Andhra Pradesh. The present total population of A.P. is approximately 80,000,000. … We have 40 Free Lutheran congregations in various villages of Guntur and Prakasam districts of A.P. Out of these 40 we have established 22 congregations in the down-trodden community. The above said discrimination and poor education of these children is also the same in these congregations.
Therefore to strengthen the democratic values in Indian society, to reduce poverty and injustice for these down-trodden children, we established St. Paul’s Lutheran Public School in Chirala where we have our AFLC-I headquarters. The adult population of this community in all our 22 congregations is 6500. The population of the children in these congregations is approximately 15,600. ...
Additionally, the AFLC-I has taken on responsibility for “orphans” in the churches and communities served. Those orphans reside at the school and receive education ... in the school. There is no economic support for their education. Pastor Ivars Krafts developed a website to help people know the needs of the school several years ago, and some orphans are supported by stipends from the United States and Canada, the remainder being subsidized by the AFLC-I.
The major complicating issue for this school, however, relates to its physical plant. First, please understand that the AFLC-I is ministering and using its assets wisely in managing this school. But the school has physical plant limitations.
Pastor Dave Gets an Eye-Opener. Your Pastor Dave really did not understand this background when he was planning to go to India as part of the AFLC Mission Teaching Team a year ago. He was looking forward to visiting with his seminary classmate, Pastor Luther Sastry who is now President of the AFLC-India.
Church and Politics in a Non-Christian Country. It is only on returning to this country that a fuller history of this school is emerging. Our former AFLC World Missions Director Pastor Gene Enderlein reports that the school has always been an official work of the AFLC-I, not something that we in this country have established. In the last days of Gene’s tenure with World Missions, the political situation in India was dire. The incoming Hindu administration was overtly anti-Christian and the hand writing on the wall suggested external support for Christian endeavors inside India would soon be severely limited. (Hindus have a very poor view of Jesus Christ and the down-trodden people.) It was at that point that interest in an “English school” modeled after several already existing in India came to the fore. It appeared that an appropriate English school could be an internal missions project. The resulting discussions ended with the AFLC-I beginning its St. Paul’s Lutheran Public School ministry in the first part of this decade. It has always been a “Christian” school.
Initial community response
was very good with enrollment over 300, but registration attrition resulted from failure to upgrade the school building. The school today has 213 youngsters registered--100 tuitions are subsidized. English is the teaching medium because English education is the only access mechanism to higher education and advancement. Subjects taught are General Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, and computer education—all in English.
Access to English education
is a growth plan for the AFLC-I. Pastor Sastry notes that “it is so important that our congregations were established among downtrodden communities. Downtrodden children have been neglected. They do not have good education programs. There are many public schools but no standard education in them. The downtrodden children go to these schools, but they cannot compete with the higher caste children. Years pass and the downtrodden children become laborers in fields whereas the higher caste children become job holders in many companies. These children will become our church members, but they will not be in a position to maintain the church because of their poverty. So the AFLC-I has concentrated on these downtrodden children. If they can get a good education, they can stand and compete with other students for jobs. Then these will become strong supporters of our church in future.”
A Building Project.
The existing school has major physical plant problems. Minimally an adequate school building needs to be constructed with three floors dedicated to education and one floor dedicated to health care and pastor continuing education needs. School construction costs will run about $75,000 at this time with an additional $25,000 needed to outfit the building for educational purposes. Total needed: $100,000. Physical plant inadequacies will remedy these problems: no lavatory, no library, no physical laboratory (think of a science lab in our terms), no dining hall, no walled individual rooms for the various classes, no strength in the building (think of thatched, open-walled buildings with no concrete in construction), inadequate space for housing orphans (all children sleep in a smaller room on a second floor of the administration building).
Needs.
Pastor Jerry Peterson of Oklahoma City and I have presented a building action plan to the World Missions Committee of the AFLC in Minneapolis. Fundraising for this building plan needs to begin in order to support the needs and plans of the AFLC-I church. Although it would be wise for the AFLC World Missions to support this project with some token funds, the major need is for overall support of this building project. Support would involve tacit encouragement of the AFLC-I in this building initiative. A classroom will cost approximately $2750 and there will be 28 classrooms. Water closets will be roughly the same cost with 8 bathrooms needed for this project. This means that 36 giving units of $2750 will fully complete this building. It is anticipated that dollar support will come from both inside the AFLC and from outside as well, especially as related to health care support.
Size and Shape.
The AFLC-I has developed a master plan for a “modern” concrete, three-floor building that will address these deficits. There has been lots of inflation since last January when we first learned of this project, but the cost in approximate U.S. dollars now looks like this: The concrete building shell can be assembled for $100,000. The building is designed as two modules, each having four floors. The dimensions of the two components are 9.14 meters x 27.4 meters and 9.14 meters x 25.9 meters or grossly 30 feet by 91 feet and 30 feet by 86 feet. The AFLC-I plan calls for erecting the shell of the building and outfitting floor 4, then floor 3, then floor 2 and then floor 1 in stages.
Prayer Request. We can’t be Josiahs and call people to recommitment, particularly when it is an Indian project. But we can affirm our support for the Indian AFLC-I. Would you consider adding the needs of St. Paul’s Lutheran Public School to your prayer concerns? Let us seek the Lord’s will in this matter and lift up our friends in India as they do real “boot-strap” mission work among the Indian people.
~Pastor Dave
