A few days ago I returned from a wonderful visit to several of our mission partners in India. I returned to Minneapolis full of enthusiasm — the sort of enthusiasm that issues from the conviction that God is at work around the world. And that he invites us to join him!
An experience in northern India encapsulated the entire journey, in some ways. I danced.
I was invited to participate in the Tenth Jubilee Celebration of the missionary sending program of the North West Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church (NWGELC). The church itself numbers approximately 100,000 sisters and brothers scattered across north central India; its headquarters are in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. A decade ago, the church organized a “Missionary Sewa Sahabhagita” — a missionary sending society. Today the society numbers approximately 300 committed members and fields eight full-time missionaries in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The Gossner church is comprised almost entirely of Oraon people. The Oraon are a tribal people; their indigenous language is Kunrukh. They are “uncasted” — they do not fit into India’s hierarchical caste system. They are a marginalized people, in many ways, predominantly rural, agricultural and poor. Most are found in India, approximately 3.6 million persons. Smaller populations are found as well in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan.
On the first night of our jubilee celebration, as is customary among our Oraon sisters and brothers, we danced. A few drums were produced, then a tambourine. Soon dozens had locked arms, formed a circle, and begun a typical rhythmic step together. Hundreds and hundreds were soon part of the circle — concentric circles that seemed to grow by the minute. I was swept into one of the circles, too. And we sang (though here I could not join in at all) – about the love of God and the power of his word, about God’s desire that all people come to know him, about our own role in sharing the message, and so on.
I was not very good at Oraon dance, I must admit; I am afraid that I stepped on a few Oraon toes! But my sisters and brothers were gracious; my awkwardness was accepted without comment or objection. These were sisters and brothers with very much to celebrate. They were gracious, simply, to carry me along…
Christians are barely 3% of the Indian nation. Yet 3% of a billion people is rather a large number – approximately 30,000,000 sisters and brothers. Indian missionaries are even a smaller percentage of the population overall. Yet the India Missions Association estimates that the Indian church sends 44,000 cross-cultural missionaries today, associated with over 500 sending agencies around the country. This makes India one of the missionary-sendingest nations in the world.
As for the NWGELC, the church is concerned for its own Oraon community in diaspora – unreached Kunrukh-speaking peoples in northern India, and in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan as well. Beyond their own people, however, they are concerned for the entire unreached world.
So, yes, there is a powerful “dance” afoot: our Asian sisters and brothers have heard the Great Commission, too. They are stepping to its beat and into the world. So are our African sisters and brothers, for that matter. So are our sisters and brothers from Latin America.
And our sisters and brothers from the West? Well, they are invited, too. So many have yet to receive the word of Good News! In India and around the world, we are invited to join arms – and to dance and to sing together the wonderful news about Jesus.