Candidate Pastor

Work

Rev. Sinaga is a pastor in the Huria Kristen Batak Protestant Church (HKBP), serving a small community of 300 families in Medan, North Sumatra. "The best sermons," he says, "are the ones that reach the dinner tables." By that he means that being a pastor is about much more than preaching. It is also about assisting people in their daily needs; helping to ensure there is food on their tables. Over the years Rev. Sinaga has seen the blessings of the land give opportunity and the greed of people take it away. Both of his parents were school teachers and they also had a small farm. The fruits of this land were enough to send him to school and university. However, these days, middlemen control the agricultural market, implementing systems that keep farmers in debt. Rev. Sinaga would like to see his community liberated by practicing sustainable organic farming (eliminating the need for loans for fertilizer) and setting up a credit union (so that the farmers may assist each other and reap the benefits of their labor). Furthermore he would like to promote more inter-religious cooperation, based on the model at ARI. Being a part of a multi religious society, he believes this is essential for building healthy, productive communities.

Sending

Organization

Huria Kristen Batak Protestant Church

The ministry of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) of Indonesia covers the entire region of Northern Sumatra. It is a holistic ministry, which attempts to implement the words of Luke 4:18-19, to release the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to set free the downtrodden. The Diakonia Dept. in which Rev. Sinaga serves, focuses on community development in the areas of education, health, social services, and agriculture. They promote organic agriculture as a means of independence and teach how a harvest can be best used to provide both food for the family as well as small income. For the past year a large part of their work has been devoted to providing short term relief and long term rehabilitation to those areas devastated by the 2004/5 Sumatra earthquakes work which has on some levels been able to transcended religious barriers.