Gerhard Frederick Kempff

1. 2/24/1926 Priest River, Idaho USA
2. 1/28/2008 Spokane, Washington USA

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Betty Jean (nee Sandler), b. 12/18/1930 Perryville, Missouri USA; m. 7/28/1951

Children: Mark Nathanael (1952); Paul Martin (1954); Daniel Gerhard (1955);

Margarita Clara (Lopez) (1956); Melanie Ann (1957);

Jonathan Carl (1958); Joel Herbert (1959);

Miriam Elizabeth (Harkey) (1961); Philip John (1963);

Jeanne Kathryn (Harris) (1965)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1951-57 Guatemala Evangelistic Missionary

1957-64 El Salvador Evangelistic Missionary

1964-71 Honduras Evangelistic Missionary

 

Biographical Summary

Gerhard Kempff graduated from Concordia High School in Portland, Oregon in 1944; from Concordia College, Milwaukee, in 1945; and from Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, in 1951.  During his seminary years, he served two vicarages.  The second was in Guatemala, where he fell in love with the place, the people and the idea of doing foreign mission work.  Shortly after his return from this vicarage, he and Betty, then Sandler, met at a Walther League function.  Betty had grown up in Perryville, Missouri and was working in a bank in Saint Louis at the time.  She recalls that when they first met and began dating, his time in Guatemala was “all Gerhard could talk about.”  He notified the Board for Mission Services that he would like a call to foreign mission work and, based on his vicarage experience, received a call to Guatemala in 1951.

 

Gerhard had served in the cities of Puerto Barrios and Zacapa during his vicarage year, and he was called back to Zacapa to undertake evangelistic work there and in the surrounding area.  Another missionary couple, the Bretschers, was called at the same time and joined the Kempffs in Zacapa two years later, where Carl Bretscher was instrumental in beginning a Lutheran school.  Both Carl Bretscher and Gerhard preached in and worked with the mission church in the town of Zacapa as well.  Gerhard had learned a lot of Spanish during his vicarage, but during their mission service Betty learned by complete immersion – no one in Zacapa spoke English, so she just spoke as best she could and relied on the kindness and help of the members of their mission congregation.  Just walking around the marketplace and talking to people, as well as interacting with congregation members, was also useful in picking up cultural rules and norms.

 

Previous missionaries had already made some contact in villages surrounding Zacapa, so after the Bretschers arrived Gerhard concentrated on evangelistic work in those villages.  His main form of evangelism was simply to sit on a bench or someone’s porch, to open the Scriptures and read and teach.  This encouraged people to read the Bible, to discuss and to learn about the Gospel.  Gerhard also visited and talked with people in their homes, and when a large enough group had gathered a congregation would form.  It always seemed that the Lord led one member of a group to rise up as a leader for worship and study – whether one man, or perhaps a whole family.  Those who showed leadership potential were trained as catechists and could serve as worship leaders as well as facilitate missionaries’ work with congregations when the missionaries were able to come into the various villages.  As time went on, catechists who sought further training could be trained in more centralized locations to be pastors.

 

Gerhard’s work in evangelism continued for several years, and meanwhile he and Betty became parents of several children.  With son Mark born in 1952, Paul in 1954, and Daniel in 1955, and daughters Margarita and Melanie born in 1956 and 1957 respectively, Betty was kept quite busy running the Kempffs’ household and making sure the family was safe and happy.  Most household tasks took much longer than in the U.S. (spending the day at the market for the week’s food; boiling water for drinking and cleaning; and so forth), so a home was a full-time job!  She also worked with church activities in Zacapa and the surrounding areas, including Sunday school and Vacation Bible School as congregations began to host these activities.  Betty counts herself fortunate to have picked up Spanish relatively quickly and easily, and she grew close with the people of Zacapa and the region.

 

In 1957, the board (made up of missionaries) which oversaw work in Central America decided that it was time for the Kempffs to begin service in El Salvador, where a small mission had been started.  They moved first to San Salvador, hosting worship services in their home.  When a Salvadorian pastor was called to the city, the Kempffs relocated to a smaller town.  Their evangelistic work took the form of inviting people who had already been contacted by the mission to Bible studies and services at their home.  Those people sometimes brought friends and relatives, and Gerhard would visit new worshippers for further fellowship and instruction.  Two women who lived across the street also brought their children for Sunday school and to play with the other children – there were always a lot of kids around, and the Kempff children had lots of fun with so many friends!  When missionaries left the area, these two ladies were the ones who really kept the church going in the area.

 

Gerhard also spent much of his time in El Salvador training national leaders for the church.  Leaders of village churches led worship themselves and also gathered people for worship when a missionary visited.  Not all of these leaders were very well educated, but most could read, and the Lord caused the Word to grow in their hearts so that they began spreading the Gospel all around them.  Gerhard met periodically with these leaders for further training in Scripture and worship leadership, and some later became ordained as pastors.

 

The Kempffs welcomed four children while in El Salvador: Jonathan in 1958, Joel in 1959, Miriam in 1961, and Philip in 1963.  Their older children attended school at a small correspondence-based school set up by missionaries in the area.  Betty spent a large part of her time looking after them, and as always she worked closely with the church, ministering with women’s groups and Sunday school activities and “talking and learning” with church members.  The Kempffs often had visitors in their homes, particularly church leaders who came for training, so she also did a lot of cooking!

 

The family’s assignment in El Salvador, like their stint in Guatemala, lasted seven years, and in 1964 they were again asked to relocate by the Central America board of missionaries, which by this time included national lay leaders and ordained pastors.  They moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where Gerhard again began evangelistic work by visiting contacts in five surrounding villages.  The mission rented a building in Tegucigalpa where services could be held for the congregation there, and Gerhard also conducted services in the outlying villages.  Betty continued her work with church ministries, and in Honduras she also went out several times to surrounding villages to speak at evangelistic seminars, talking to women and answering questions about faith, family life and raising children.  The Kempffs’ youngest daughter Jeanne was born in 1965, completing their family of ten children.  In Tegucigalpa there was a government school for their high-school age children to attend, and they studied with many interesting colleagues, including the Honduran president’s children.  The younger children attended a Mennonite missionary school.

 

Gerhard and Betty had planned to spend their careers as foreign missionaries, but in 1971 the LCMS was experiencing financial difficulties and recalled some missionaries from the field, including the Kempffs.  They moved initially to Spokane, Washington, where they had family, and searched for a call.  Gerhard soon received a call to a church in Libby, Montana.  This was a major change for the family after living and serving so long in Central America – the work of a pastor at a congregation in the U.S. was much different from that of a missionary, and Betty had never really been a “pastor’s wife” in the way that most Americans would describe the role.  Gradually they and the congregation got used to each other, though, and they served in Montana for another seven years, until 1978.  By this time, several of their children were in college.  Mark had graduated from high school and begun college while the family was in Honduras, and by the time they left Montana all but the youngest three children were attending college.

 

In 1978, Gerhard was called as pastor to the first Hispanic LCMS congregation in the United States, Trinidad Lutheran, which had been established in San Antonio, Texas, some fifty years previously.  This congregation was comprised of mostly second- and third-generation people of Hispanic ethnicity.  The Kempffs ministered at this church for yet another seven years, until 1984, and meanwhile their youngest children graduated from high school and left for college.  In 1984 they moved back to Washington, to the Yakima Valley, to minister in two small congregations that served as mission congregations for migrant farmworkers in that area and included an emphasis on outreach to children.  This ministry lasted until 1991, when the Kempffs retired and moved back to Spokane.

 

They lived there together until January 2008, when, immediately after returning from Texas where he had baptized their second great-grandchild, Gerhard was called to his eternal rest with his Creator.  Betty remains in Spokane and continues her involvement with the church.  Through a long and fulfilling career in mission work and ministry, Gerhard and Betty Kempff served their Lord and their neighbor in many places, and their contributions to the spread of the Gospel and the worship of God continue to bear fruit.

 

Nota Bene

Gerhard wrote many Bible studies, in both English and Spanish.  Once the Kempffs had returned to the U.S., he wrote a bilingual catechism that was published and used by LCMS Hispanic missions.  He participated in creating Spanish hymnals and took part in the collaborative writing of Predicando a Cristo, published by Concordia Publishing House.

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

One of the issues Gerhard and other missionaries in the area had to deal with was sometimes difficult relationships with the Board for Mission Services.  While BFMS and missionaries certainly worked together, it was difficult for those serving in the U.S. and those serving on the field to see eye to eye on all issues.  The missionaries could not do everything BFMS asked and sometimes found they needed to work in ways that BFMS did not consider best – the perspectives were simply different.

 

For Gerhard and Betty, there was constant learning about culture in the different places they lived.  They found there were always more cultural facts and practices they needed to learn and that foreigners living abroad could never become “just like” the nationals of the country in which they were serving.  Betty notes that Gerhard’s way of dealing with this issue was simply to be himself, which may have been one reason that he was so well-liked wherever they went – he never pretended to be something he wasn’t, even when living in a culture new to him.

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

Gerhard’s work of evangelism and training for the church left an impact on many people in the places the Kempffs lived and worked.  A particular contribution he was able to make to the ministry in Central America was his devotion to reading and teaching Scripture, sharing Bibles and scriptural materials and his love for sacred music, which included an interdenominational choir in Honduras.  Gerhard’s evangelism often took the form of just sitting down and reading Scripture with people, discussing and teaching the Word found there.  He used his gift and love for learning and teaching the Gospel to conduct more formal training for the churches in Central America as well.  People responded well to Gerhard’s sharing of the Gospel because he was so willing to teach and explain the Scriptures which many had never read for themselves.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

National churches have developed from all the missions the Kempffs participated in.  Gerhard’s work of training national leaders helped build up those churches, and the Kempffs continued to participate in cross-cultural ministry after returning from the mission field.  Gerhard’s work with Hispanic ministries and Spanish-language publications also contributed to the beginnings of Hispanic mission in the United States.

 

Lessons Learned

• The Kempffs’ time on the mission field reinforced in their minds and hearts the belief that everyone who comes to faith is a disciple of Christ.  Particularly on the mission field, laypeople had an enormous impact.  The laypeople the Kempffs knew in Central America were dedicated to reaching out to anyone they knew with the Good News of Christ.  The Kempffs believed, and found, that pastors and missionaries are basically teachers – perhaps more knowledgeable, but not “higher” than anyone else.  Gerhard consistently found that those who were being trained as catechists had amazing insights and grasp of Scripture.
• Most missionaries gain sensitivity to the fact that no culture is greater or lesser than another.  All cultures have the same worth before our Lord and Savior.  The Kempffs’ concern for people of all cultures was one reason that they were involved in peace and justice work and in immigration issues in Texas and Washington.  In the Yakima Valley, Gerhard and Betty both did a lot of translation for migrant workers, as well as helping workers and their families to understand the system in the U.S. and acquire paperwork.  They undertook this work because of their concern for people who had to live and work in a foreign culture and who were often looked down upon by Anglo Americans.  On the most basic level, everyone is God’s child, and even in our differences all human beings are fundamentally the same.
• It seemed to the Kempffs that it would have been helpful to have more cultural training before leaving for the field.  Although the people they worked with were unfailingly kind and helpful and taught the family much about their culture, Gerhard and Betty thought they could have benefited from advance preparation.

 

Best Practices

• It helps mission immensely when teaching is the main work of missionaries: just to open Scripture and see how it is God-breathed.  Scripture should be the top, main focus of all ministry.  As mission work develops it is also important to reach out to the neighbor with love and to do good for the people served, but it all starts with God’s Word.  Gerhard used to say, “We must teach Christ crucified and resurrected, and then we also in that love reach out with social programs.”
• While noting the above caveat, however, it is certainly necessary wherever one goes to show care and love for others – not only is this God’s will for Christians, but it also builds trust and relationships so that others care about what you have to say.
• Be yourself on the mission field.  It is neither necessary nor successful for missionaries to try to be other than they are, and missionaries should certainly not pretend to be “just one of the people.”  A foreigner will never be “just one of them,” and it is enough that missionaries be who the Lord made them to be.
• North Americans don’t know any more than anyone else.  All of us, including missionaries, need to learn humility.  Different lifestyles or ways of thinking or speaking are just different – not better or worse.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Although Gerhard had wanted to be a pastor since he was a child because of a good experience with the pastor at his church, he had not given much thought to mission service until his vicarage in Guatemala.  Gerhard was good friends with fellow seminarian Carl Bretscher, and Carl’s brother-in-law had done work with Hispanic people in Texas, which intrigued both Carl and Gerhard.  Both sought out and were called to vicarages in Guatemala.  Gerhard and Betty began dating shortly after he returned from his vicarage, and he was so enthralled with the memories of his vicarage and the idea of mission work that she knew she’d have to be ready to be a missionary wife when they were married!  She felt blessed and humbled to be part of the mission outreach of the LCMS in Central America, and she finds it a tremendous blessing that she was chosen by the Lord to be Gerhard’s wife and to be a missionary wife.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

• The Kempffs felt blessed to live in a rural area during their first term in Guatemala.  Betty recalls that the people who lived in rural areas were extremely kind and a real blessing to the family.  They helped the Kempffs understand culture and language without looking down on them for their ignorance or their status as foreigners.  They were willing to teach without embarrassing their “students.”  Gerhard had a story from his vicarage, at a time when he knew and could speak Spanish but was not yet fluent.  One day in worship he was teaching about the fruits of the Spirit, but instead of the Spanish word for “fruit” he used a similar word which meant “banana train.”  So he was encouraging everyone to consider the banana train of the Spirit!  The congregation got a good laugh out of the mistake and often kidded him about it, but were kind in their teasing and helped him understand the correct vocabulary.

 

• The missionaries in Central America had a lot to learn about culture, but sometimes it was difficult to distinguish cultural practices from personalities!  In Zacapa, where the Kempffs served as co-missionaries with the Bretschers, they all soon learned that everyone in the villages gave lots of hugs, and they got used to greeting and saying goodbye with hugs.  This in itself was not a problem, but both Betty Kempff and Elaine Bretscher wondered if sometimes a few of the younger women of the area were giving their (young, handsome) husbands a few too many hugs!  Of course Betty and Elaine also periodically found themselves on the receiving end of flirtatious speech from young men.  On the whole it didn’t create many problems, but there was a certain level of interest that the “foreign missionaries” created that they had to deal with as best they could.

 

• Although the Kempffs served only in Spanish-speaking areas during their mission service, they found that they had to learn a “new” Spanish each time they moved to a different country – the grammar mostly stayed the same, but many vocabulary words would change from one country to another.  Betty found this especially true when shopping for food in the market.  Once they began working in Texas, they found that they were mostly speaking “Spanglish” since that’s what their second- and third-generation congregants spoke.

 

• An agriculturalist, Reuben Tafelmeyer, joined the mission in Zacapa, Guatemala during the Kempffs’ time there, and he eventually married a young woman from Zacapa.  Betty and Elaine Bretscher decided together that they would hold a bridal shower before the wedding took place.  This took a lot of explanation when they invited the women from the town of Zacapa and the surrounding villages and tried to explain exactly what they were doing!  It ended up being a fun party and was another way that the missionary wives were able to develop friendships with the people of the area.