Three Missionaries III
Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen was born in 1834 in Schleswig-Holstein, an area long disputed between Denmark and Germany, and at the time Danish. After beginning training for mission work in 1857, he traveled as a Lutheran missionary to Sumatra, a large island in western Indonesia. The area was untouched by either Islam or Christianity. After some early setbacks his work among the Batak people resulted in 2,000 Christians by 1876. He translated the bible into Batak by 1878. He sought to preach the Gospel without replacing the native culture by a European one. He also developed native Church leaders and a native order of worship. He died in 1918. With the coming of WWII the missionaries were driven out or imprisoned and the Batak people took over the management of their own church, which now numbers more than half a million.
Prayer:
Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Ludwig Nommensen, whom you called to preach the gospel to the Batak peoples on Sumatra. Raise up, we pray, in this and every land evangelists and heralds of Your kingdom, that Your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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