Ronald Dean Rall, Mary Anne (Hiltz) Rall

(Ron) b. 12/26/1947 Oelwein, IA USA

(Mary Anne) b. 5/7/1949 Covington, KY USA

1. 7/19/1975 Papua New Guinea

 

Family

Children: Matthew Stephen (1977, m. Maureen Reilly); Emily Christine (1978); Margaret

Anne (1980); Kathleen Elizabeth (1983); Sarah Ellen (1985); Christopher Micah (1987)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1973-1981 Papua New Guinea Ron: Evangelistic Missionary

Mary Anne: Volunteer, World Brotherhood

Exchange

Biographical Summary

Ronald and Mary Anne Rall each separately felt a call to and interest in mission service from an early age.  Ron, growing up in an LCMS family, attended Concordia Senior College in Saint Paul, MN before studying for his M.Div. degree at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, which he received in 1973.  He notes that his interest in overseas work led him to seek out – and receive – a vicarage assignment in the Canal Zone in Panama, the only place outside the U.S. where seminary students could serve during their vicarage years.  Mary Anne, who was raised Catholic, attended Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, KY, fairly close to Erlanger where she grew up.  Afterward, she worked for a time at a retreat center where missionaries would come for orientation and training events.  It so happened that one of these orientations was held by the LCMS.  Its missionaries included Ron, who had accepted a call to Papua New Guinea after determining that no calls were available to Latin America, where he had initially thought he might serve.  Ron and Mary Anne shared some mutual interest in each other, but of course Ron was shortly to travel to PNG!  They continued on their paths separately until God would again bring them together.

 

Ron’s call in Papua New Guinea was that of an evangelistic missionary to the Ipili people.  He was assigned as a circuit adviser for twenty-five congregations in the Ipili language region, helping train, support, and encourage the native pastors and (more commonly) non-ordained evangelists who led the small congregations in the area.  Somewhat ironically given his subsequent marriage, Ron had been called to the Ipili region specifically because he was a bachelor, after other missionaries had had to leave the remote region due to family health issues.  Ron and Mary Anne were both blessed with good health during their tenure in PNG, although like others, the timing of their departure was eventually influenced by the health needs of their children.  Besides training evangelist leaders, Ron worked at developing liturgy and music for the Ipili Christians.  Rev. Terry Borchard, another missionary who had been in the region, was translating the Bible into the Ipili language, and Ron assisted in editing his drafts.

 

Meanwhile, Mary Anne was attempting to go abroad as a volunteer worker.  She was invited into service by World Brotherhood Exchange, an organization that partnered with the LCUSA, and requested to choose whether she would go to Ethiopia or to Papua New Guinea.  After prayer and reflection, with perhaps a very small bias toward the area where Ron was serving, she chose to go to PNG.  Mary Anne was first sent to train secretaries, but there really were no secretaries to train, so instead she herself worked as a secretary in the office of the president of the Gutnius (Good News) Lutheran Church, Bishop Waima Waesa, and for Rev. Erwin Spruth, Bishop Waesa’s American advisor.  She then taught at Highland Lutheran School for six months.  She and Ron were married in July 1975, and much of her time after their marriage was devoted to raising small children in a very remote area of PNG, as well as supporting Ron in his ministry.

 

Ron’s work among the Ipili people was mainly one of support for churches that had already been established, but a new challenge came in the form of evangelism to the Hewa language people, a group of hunters and gatherers who were not easy to evangelize, both because they moved so often and because they were not initially receptive to the Gospel message.  An opening was found in the fact that the Hewa did have serious need of health care.  The missionaries decided to ask the leaders of Hewa groups each to appoint one young man who could be trained at the mission station as a “doctor-boy” (the commonly-used word for a nurse or medical worker), learning the rudiments of first aid and dispensation of medicine and receiving very basic supplies.  The work of the mission to ensure some sort of health care for the Hewa people “gave the evangelistic work some bite” and made it more possible to share the Gospel in that region.

 

One major accomplishment in which Ron participated was the opening of a Bible school in the Ipili region in 1979.  The Lutheran church in PNG had a Pidgin language seminary, but the people in the area in which Ron worked were not educated and most could not read and write, which made it impossible to send potential church leaders to the seminary.  Ron was one of three faculty members at the small Bible school, training men from four language groups as evangelists, using a curriculum but gearing the training toward those of a lower educational level.  This idea worked so well that the church as a whole picked it up, and for a time there was a Bible school in every region of mission work in PNG.  The school in the Ipili region has now functioned continuously for 30 years, with at least 250 men trained, including some who later went on to learn at the seminary and were ordained.  About the time that the Bible school was opened, the Ralls also helped establish a primary school in the area for grades 1-3, which eventually expanded to grades 1-6.  This opportunity for early education has helped the people of the Ipili region greatly in advancing their further education and quality of life.

 

In 1981, the Ralls returned to the United States.  Though Ron and Mary Anne themselves had been fortunate health-wise, their daughter Emily had problems with asthma and needed better care than she could receive in PNG.  Ron was making headway with mission to the Hewa people at the time and was sorry to leave his work, but the family decided they would be better stewards of their health and family life by leaving their overseas mission work.  When they returned to St. Louis, Ron studied for an S.T.M. degree at Concordia Seminary, worked part-time at Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church, and served from 1983-88 with the Board for Mission Services as the manager of mission interpretation.  He developed communications materials for congregational mission education and promoted and developed Personalized Missionary Support.  He was called to be head pastor of Timothy in 1988 and has served on the district Mission Education Committee as well as with Partners in Urban Ministry.

 

Ron and Mary Anne have kept their connection to Papua New Guinea and the work they did there.  Both are members of the PNG Mission Society, which in 2004 sent them back to PNG to assess what was happening in the Lutheran church there and how LCMS might appropriately assist.  They wrote a report with proposals, including the suggestion that former LCMS missionaries be sent back to the church in PNG, which is still in need of training and support, to teach and train pastors and church leaders.  Ron returned once again in 2007 to translate and coordinate for BFMS representatives who were visiting Papua New Guinea, and in August 2008 he undertook some short-term teaching and the Ralls were able to attend the dedication of the New Testament in Ipili!  They remain committed to the Lord’s work both at home and abroad and involved in matters of mission, particularly relating to Papua New Guinea.

 

Nota Bene

Ron is the author of an S.T.M. thesis and doctoral dissertation.

S.T.M. thesis: “Communicating the Gospel into the Tribal World: A New Reality and a Language,” at Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis.

Dissertation: The Effectiveness of Illustrations in Preaching: Understanding and Retaining Biblical Truths, Thesis (D. Min.). St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 2006.

Timothy Lutheran Church was awarded a Good Samaritan Grant from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Wheat Ridge Ministries in 2005 for its work with African immigrants.

 

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

The largest theological issue with which the mission in PNG dealt was that of polygamy.  At first, the church would not allow a man with more than one wife to be baptized; that rule was revised to allow a person who already had more than one wife to be baptized, though men who were already baptized members and were not married (or were married to only one wife) were not allowed to begin a polygamous marriage.  The change happened in part because forcing a man to separate from all but one wife was actually very damaging in the lives of the women who were left behind with no one to support them.  In general, however, the issue of polygamy remained a thorny one, because to have more than one wife was such a status symbol in the culture.  Even church leaders would take more than one wife in a quest to become a “big man.”  A man who practiced polygamy was not permitted to take communion, but this was not always a sufficient deterrent, and the issue remains a difficult one today.

 

The Ralls arrived in PNG just as the Seminex split in the LCMS was developing.  The missionaries in PNG worked intentionally, and by God’s blessing successfully, to make sure that the problems of the church in the United States did not affect the mission in PNG.

 

An issue that arose in PNG during the Ralls’ tenure but did not seriously affect their own region until they left was that of charismatic or Spirit-filled movements, which continue to bring up issues of theology of worship and have caused splits within the PNG church.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

Ron and Mary Anne’s work was really a pioneering endeavor in the area to which they were assigned.  With God’s help, they were part of the inspiration for mission within their area, and the people of the region continue to share the Gospel with others.  Several groups in their area of PNG have been and are being evangelized, both during and after the Ralls’ tenure.  Most particularly, Ron was one of the first missionaries to have contact with the Hewa people and to tell them the Good News.

 

The mission work of the Ralls was also very influential in helping educate and train leaders for the Ipili people and other groups, and for the church in PNG as a whole.  The Bible school begun in 1979 has been in continuous operation and inspired other similar ventures.  In addition, the primary school was a great educational benefit for the people of this remote region.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

The Good News Lutheran Church of PNG is an LCMS partner church, and missionaries and volunteers are in PNG as medical missionaries, as Bible translators, and as teachers at Highland Lutheran International School, as well as for volunteer projects.  However, the Lutheran church in PNG is still in need of support and training from the LCMS that it is not currently receiving.  The PNG Mission Society, including the Ralls, has pushed for the sending back of former missionaries for (even short-term) teaching and training at the seminaries and elsewhere.  The church leaders in PNG have a sense of abandonment because missionaries left relatively quickly from the area and more assistance is needed.

 

Lessons Learned

• Missions should be careful to establish structures and institutions that can survive after the missionaries leave.  In PNG, some development projects that were initially staffed by missionaries or foreign volunteers were too complicated and could not continue after the foreign missionary had left.
• A missionary presence should be maintained even after a partner church has developed in a mission field.  Missionaries can assist primarily in the area of theological education, but no matter what work is needed, the presence of workers from the sending church body demonstrates that the partnership is valued.

 

Best Practices

• The opening of the Bible school in the Ipili region was a very important step for mission work in that area.  For a group of people who did not have access to education, the Bible school allowed church leaders to be trained to continue God’s work.
• The coordination of evangelistic, medical, and education ministry that took place in PNG was very valuable.  It’s important for missionaries to assess the needs of the people with whom they serve and to meet those needs.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Ron recalls that when he was growing up in western Kansas, he loved to read and spent a lot of time at his grandmother’s house reading her books.  She owned several books about missionaries who served in remote areas, and he was drawn in by their stories.  So from the age of 6 or 7, Ron had a desire to do mission work.  He was encouraged in this calling by pastors and teachers as he grew older, and he began seminary studies with a firm sense of his calling to do mission work.  This led to his request to do vicarage in Panama and later to his call to PNG.  Interestingly, his experiences there were almost exactly like the stories he had read as a young child.

 

Mary Anne knew from the start that she wanted to work for the church, and she was likewise excited about mission work from an early age.  During college, she had an opportunity to visit friends who were doing mission work in Peru, and the experience helped to solidify her desire to serve overseas.  Once she had finished her education, she set about finding a way to do mission, and eventually she was called by World Brotherhood Exchange into what turned out to be both mission work and family life in a foreign country!

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

 

“A couple of miracles” as told by Mary Anne:

 

• When Emily was 2 years old she had a very severe asthma attack.  Ron had gone on patrol (visiting congregations) in the Maramuni area.  I was home at Yuyane with the three children and Emily started having difficulty breathing late in the day – too late to get her to the airstrip in time for a plane to come in daylight.  All night long she struggled to breathe.  We left our generator on all night, instead of the usual 2 or 3 hours.  People from all around the area came into our house, laid hands on Emily and prayed for her.  The prayers of the Ipilis were soothing sing-song words and they always calmed Emily down a little.  After a very long night, I was able to talk with a doctor in the morning and ask for a helicopter to evacuate us.  I was told that there were no helicopters that could reach us in time.  Just then, a copter flew directly over our house.  The hospital was able to radio the chopper and he landed near our house, unloaded his passengers, loaded our family and flew us the 1/2 hour flight to the hospital.  Emily survived, only by the grace of God.  He sent many people to pray for Emily, He sustained her through the night and He brought the helicopter to our area that morning.

 

• While I was awaiting the birth of our first child, Ron had to attend a meeting at Paiela, an area accessible only by plane.  He was on a 185 with 2 pilots, another missionary and a translator.  After the first leg of the flight, the pilots told Ron that they had to off-load 200 pounds.  Since that was Ron's weight, he got off the plane.  Minutes later, it crashed.  Ron waited for a long time at the Pogera airstrip where he had been left before he heard that the plane had crashed.  Another plane picked up Ron to help in the search for the downed plane.  The general area of the crash was found, but the weather was closing in, so Ron and a medic were dropped by helicopter near the crash.  They walked to the site and ministered to the injured all through the night.  Although the four passengers were seriously injured, they all survived.  Ron and some of the local people built a landing pad for a helicopter on the side of the mountain and the next morning, the injured were taken to a hospital.  The seat where Ron had been sitting on the plane had a large tree through it, from floor to ceiling--Ron would have been killed instantly if he had been on that plane.  As with Emily, Ron survived by the grace of God; He sustained Ron through the night and enabled him to minister to the pilots and passengers of the plane.  For this we give thanks and praise!