Today commemorates Ludwig Nommensen (1834-1918) a Danish-German Lutheran missionary to Indonesia. In a round about way, he’s partly the reason became a Lutheran pastor. He enrolled at the Rhenish Missionary Society seminary at Wuppertal-Barmen in 1857. He was sent as a missionary to Sumatra, Indonesia in 1862, and worked diligently among the Batak people. In 1881 he became the first euphorus (bishop) of what became the  Batak Christian Protestant Church. This body of some 4.5 million Lutherans continues to grow and is larger than our own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nommensen University in Indonesia is named after him. That’s where his story crosses mine.

I was in my last year of college when I saw an ad in the Lutheran that the LCA was looking for someone to send to Nomensen University to teach choral music and English. I applied and was interviewed by Pr. Norman Nuding who turned out to be a friend one of my music professors and a pastor I knew well. The interview went well, except that it turned out the position also required the person to coach soccer. I didn’t get the job, but I was first runner-up. Pr. Nuding was encouraging and he hoped I would find a way to serve the Lord. That was the push I needed to explore becoming a pastor.

God sends us to share the Good News of Jesus, but we seldom realize how far reaching our influence may be. Remember the words to the old spiritual, “Children go where I send you.”

Where is God sending you?

Read Matthew Luke 9:1-2 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne