Juraine Jimmy Hornig

1. 10/7/1932 Huron, South Dakota USA
2. 12/8/2008 Rapid City, South Dakota USA

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Lorene Margaret (nee Bich)

Children: Paula Lorene (Warren) (1956), Leah Rebecca (Walker) (1957), Lois Anna

(Jackson) (1959), John Philip (1959)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1957-1969 Philippines Evangelistic Missionary

Medical Missions Board

1982, 1983 India Consultant

1985-1989 Philippines Chaplain, Pastor

1997-2001, 2003 India, Philippines, Sudan Short-Term Missionary

 

Biographical Summary

Juraine and Lorene Hornig are both native South Dakotans.  They were baptized, confirmed and married in Trinity Lutheran Church in Yale, South Dakota.  Both graduated from Yale High School, after which Lorene attended St. John's School of Nursing in Huron, SD, graduating in 1954 as an RN.  Juraine attended St. John's College in Winfield, Kansas, and he graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1957, having served a year of vicarage in Antigo, Wisconsin.  They were married in 1955, and their daughter Paula was born in 1956, with daughter Leah following in 1957.

 

Once Juraine graduated from seminary, the Hornigs’ very first call was to the Philippine Islands, where they served as evangelistic missionaries in Mountain Province from 1957 to 1969.  Their first assignment in the Philippines was to serve on Mountain Trail, where two small congregations had already been formed, and they began five new congregations in this area.  In 1960 they began missionary work among the Kalangoya-speaking people of Ifugao and Nueva Viscaya, to the east of Mountain Trail.  Eventually, about ten congregations were started among the Kalangoya-speaking people, giving the Hornigs a total of fifteen congregations to serve, which was only made possible because about half of their time was spent teaching laypeople, who would then do most of the preaching and teaching.  In 1961, a missionary residence was provided by BFMS at Abatan, Buguias, Benguet, so that the Hornigs could live among their people.  During this time of mission work, the Hornigs had two more children, twins Lois and John, in 1959.

 

The mission field among the Kalangoya happened to be the most blessed, in terms of numbers, of the various LCMS mission fields in the Philippines.  A certain portion of this gift can be attributed to the fact that the Kalangoya were completely animistic before Lutheran missionaries entered the area, and they were ready for change.  But in large part, the Spirit blessed the ministry of the laypeople of the area.  The Hornigs had so many people to care for that it was necessary to use laypeople to conduct the majority of ministry in the area, and those laypeople served well and faithfully.  Each congregation would choose a lay leader, who would teach Bible class, lead worship services, and administer the Sacrament.  Although there was some concern about laypeople giving communion, the Lord blessed that ministry by pouring His spirit on the community.  Juraine notes that the Sacraments truly are God’s work.  If done in a Christian community, it’s actually rather difficult for those administering the Sacraments to get in God’s way.  “I would rather have a layperson conducting a baptism or communion service than I would have them preach the sermon.”  Later, a number of students (5-10) from the Kalangoya people did graduate from the seminary and were ordained as pastors.

 

While Juraine served as missionary to various congregations, Lorene kept their home and watched over their young children, including home-schooling all four children for several years.  The remoteness of the area meant that Juraine could be gone for journeys on foot of several days, and Lorene was responsible for family life during those times.  Though trained as a nurse, Lorene did not serve officially as a nurse in the Philippines, but she kept first-aid supplies in the house and did general first aid and caregiving as necessary.

 

In 1967, a hospital was built and dedicated at Abatan.  Juraine was chairman of the board of the medical missions program for many years.  Also in 1967, in part connected to the building of the hospital, the Hornigs were adopted as son and daughter of Buguias, Benguet, Philippines.  The people of the area felt the Hornigs had truly become “one of them.”

 

In 1969, the Hornigs left the Philippines, having accepted a call to St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Ogallala, Nebraska.  They lived and served there until 1985.  Still, they continued their work in foreign missions on a more short-term basis.  At the request of the Board for Mission Services of the LCMS, they traveled to India once in l982 and twice in 1983 to serve as consultant to the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was facing political problems.  While in India, they also assisted Dr. Alice Brauer, who served as secretary-treasurer of the IELC trust association until 2007.  The Hornigs later returned to India several times to continue assisting Dr. Brauer.

 

In 1985, the Hornigs accepted a call from the LCUSA to serve as chaplain of the Lutheran Service Center in Olongapo City, Philippines.  Juraine’s primary assignment was to minister to U.S. military men and women.  In 1987, the ELCA and LCMS dissolved the LCUSA organization, and the center was given over completely to the LCMS and became a congregation, for which Juraine served as pastor for a time.

 

Juraine and Lorene officially retired from foreign mission work in 1989, when Juraine accepted a call to serve as pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Howard, South Dakota.  They maintained ties to the community they had helped to establish in the Philippines, however: in 1996 they attended the 50th anniversary convention of the Lutheran Church in the Philippines, and in 1997 Juraine taught several classes at the Lutheran Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines.

 

Although the Hornigs retired from their work with the LCMS in 1997, they continued to take on short-term assignments in foreign mission fields.  They again traveled to Ambur, India to assist Dr. Brauer – once in 1997, twice in 1998, once in 1999 for three months, and once in 2003.  In 2001, the Board for Mission Services requested that they travel to Sudan to assist in teaching lay leaders in the scattered congregations.  However, because the board was able to obtain only one-month visas, they were able to attend a Peace Conference but did not have the necessary time to conduct classes for the laypeople.

 

In 2007 the Hornigs observed the 50th anniversary of their ordination.  In retirement, they resided in Rapid City, South Dakota.  They have, in addition to their four children, thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.  Juraine Hornig was called to eternal rest with his Creator in December 2008, leaving behind a faithful life of ministry in the service of the Gospel.

 

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

The largest issue with which the Hornigs, along with other missionaries in the Philippines, dealt was the question of whether to use laypeople to administer the Sacrament during lay-led worship services.  Most of the congregations in remote areas had no ordained pastor and would have to wait weeks for a missionary to visit them to give communion if a layperson did not do it.  In places where there is not an ordained pastor to administer the Sacrament each week, the question remains open.

 

In the Philippines, but also in India where the Hornigs went to assist the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, the mission failed to properly train and prepare indigenous leadership for the church when missionaries left the field.  The churches in both countries have had political problems and have often gone in the wrong direction, and these problems might have been averted with better effort to train leaders appropriately.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

The opening of mission work among the Kalangoya people was a contribution the Hornigs were blessed to make to the Lutheran Church in the Philippines.  Also, they were instrumental in the building of the hospital at Abatan, and the hospital is still open and operating even though the LCP has gone through difficult times.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

The LCMS continues to work with the Lutheran Church of the Philippines as a partner church.

 

Lessons Learned

• The Spirit of the Lord blesses the ministry of laypeople, not because of the great input of the missionary, but because the Lord does His work using the frail human beings who serve Him.  In the Philippines, there were laypeople who could conduct worship services after one or two classes in worship leadership – 3 weeks previously, they were worshipping their ancestral spirits, and suddenly they would be leading worship services.  The Lord blessed their ministry.  The pastors who did eventually go to seminary were those laypeople who were already ministering by conducting services and leading congregations.  It was their experience in worship leadership that inspired them to study at seminary, and the Lord has also blessed their studies as well.  (5-10 have already graduated from the seminary in Baguio City.)
• It is important that both the missionary in the field and the sending church feel a sense of financial responsibility for the mission.  This can happen most easily if some part of the funding for mission work is provided by the sending organization and some part by the missionary’s own fundraising.  The Hornigs were completely supported by the Board for Mission Services when they were in the Philippines, but some missionaries today must raise all their own funding support; a compromise in the middle of these two extremes is probably the best solution for missionaries as well as administrators.
• Every missionary comes from a unique background, but Juraine and Lorene did find that their upbringing – both were raised on farms – was helpful in their mission work.  Somehow it seemed that growing up on a farm gave them both physical ability and the ability to relate to those in the culture which they served.

 

Best Practices

• Learning the language and learning it well is absolutely necessary.  You cannot understand the culture and thought processes of a person until you understand and speak his or her language well.
• The missionaries in the Hornigs’ area found it best to work with the elders in the villages they visited.  Even though these elders were the ones leading ancestral worship, the missionaries respected them and did not treat them as enemies but as friends.  Eventually, the vast majority of the elders became Christian and helped to influence others to Christ.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Juraine had not considered foreign missions until he entered seminary.  He was raised on a farm and did not have family in the ministry.  During the first part of his seminary studies the dean of students suggested that, given this circumstance, he would benefit from some extra exposure to pastoral work.  Therefore, he went to Indianapolis for a summer and made mission calls for about two months.  Perhaps this experience made the mission board consider that he might be a good candidate for mission.  In any case, after his vicarage year Juraine was asked whether he might be interested in foreign missions.  He and his wife replied that “if you think we’ve got the ability, we’re ready to go.”  Once he graduated, he was called to the Philippines.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

• In the early 1960s, Juraine was on a trip among the Kalangoya people.  A typhoon was affecting the islands, and it was raining hard as he was walking toward the community of Balete.  On the way, he met a few people who were carrying large loads of meat, which he knew meant there was a pagan celebration going on somewhere.  One of the group asked, “Where are you going, pastor?” and, when told, informed him that it was no use to go to Balete, because all the people were at the celebration in a different village, Luhong.  However, the group said, he could accompany them to Luhong, especially since he had planned to go there later.  The pagan celebration in Luhong was a huge one with many people.  That evening, Juraine met with some young people, sitting on a platform above the area where pigs were kept.  They told Bible stories, sang songs, and visited together.  Finally at about midnight, two young girls came to him and asked, “Why don’t you ever come to our town?” of Tawangan.  So the next day, the girls got up at 4:00am and started walking home in the pitch dark; Juraine followed at 6:00am with a little torch of pine wood.  When they arrived at Tawangan, the people were gathered together for another pagan celebration.  He met with the people and they said that they did want to learn about Christianity, since no one had ever come to teach them before.  Juraine began by telling them that God’s people worship regularly, and beginning on Sunday they must have a worship service in their village. That afternoon he met with four young people chosen by the village to lead the worship, who by the grace of God were prepared for worship leadership in one class session that day.  All of those four would eventually study for the ministry at seminary.  The next month, Juraine returned to Tawangan to find that one hundred people were gathering for worship.  This community at Tawangan has always been the most successful in his time in ministry.  Later, the people from Tawangan started another congregation in Ballay nearby, without any other foreign missionary ever having visited Ballay.  Years later, the congregation in Tawangan became so large that a large church was needed.  The Lutheran Church of the Philippines said that it would pay for the metal roof if the congregation built the rest, but the congregation insisted on building and paying for it all themselves.  At this point, fully 90% of the people in the village were Lutheran.

 

• Juraine visited the village of Luhong once a month for about two years.  Its residents included an elderly man named Cuyahin, one of the oldest men living in that area.  Cuyahin used to come to the Bible studies and worship services that Juraine conducted when he visited.  He was dirty, had only one eye, and was somewhere between eighty and ninety years old.  Juraine recalls that he used to wonder what such an old man was doing attending Bible study, thinking it strange that after worshipping the ancestors for 80 years this person would think of becoming a Christian (“the thoughts of a sinful missionary”).  However, when the series of lessons was finished after two years and Juraine asked who would like to be baptized, Cuyahin raised his hand.  Once he had been baptized, Cuyahin told Juraine that he wanted his wife to be baptized as well.  Juraine didn’t even know that Cuyahin had a wife, having never seen her in Bible class.  Cuyahin, however, said his wife was at home, and he wanted Juraine to come with him to his house, to which Juraine agreed.  As they were walking back to his home, however, Juraine began having second thoughts, realizing that he was going to baptize someone who most likely had never attended a worship service in her life.  He asked Cuyahin what his wife knew about Jesus, and Cuyahin said that she knew everything Cuyahin had learned, because whenever there was a Bible lesson he would come home and teach the lesson to his wife.  Continuing, they approached the small grass hut which was Cuyahin’s home, and Juraine saw that his wife’s feet and hands were very arthritic, making it impossible for her to come to worship or Bible class.  Feeling somewhat uncomfortable in this tiny hut with a dirt floor and two people he hardly knew, Juraine suggested they have a short worship, but Cuyahin pressed him on why he wanted to keep it short!  Juraine said, well, your wife doesn’t know any of the songs; but Cuyahin replied that no, she knew all the songs, because whenever he came home from worship they would sing the songs together.  At this point Juraine stopped questioning, held the worship service and baptized Cuyahin’s wife.  This experience continues to remind him that missionaries are sinful human beings who don’t always understand everything they’re doing.  Missionaries do the best they can, and it’s the Spirit of the Lord that blesses the ministry and creates dedicated believers like Cuyahin and his wife.