I Wish I’d Been There: A Balodgahan Welcome

By Eldon E. Hostetler

 

I wish I could have been present at the Mennonite Mission Compound in Balodgahan, India on July 10, 1909. Four years earlier the Mennonite Mission Board had purchased an entire 800-acre Indian village for $2,600. That morning, a large number of Balodgahan natives rose early in the morning and proceeded to decorate both sides of the lane leading into the mission compound. At the yard gate they erected a huge arch decorated with assorted greenery supporting a large WELCOME sign. On both sides of the arch, they set up leaf-covered posts with flags stuck on the top. At the far end of the lane toward the road, another arch held a similar welcome sign. This decorating was done by native people all at their own expense, all in anticipation of welcoming home two very special people.

When word was received by telephone that the honored guests were leaving Sundarganj by tonga, people began pouring out of the city to greet them. By the time the guests arrived in Balodgahan, from three to four hundred cheering natives were following their tonga. Before entering the mission compound, a short welcoming service was held after which the honoree and his wife greeted the cheering crowd. To show that their appreciation was genuine, many surged forward to express their “salaams,” some presenting gifts of money to the Memsahah, in all amounting to nearly four dollars.

No, the natives were not welcoming English royalty. The recipients of this celebration were two very humble, Mennonite missionaries, who just happened to be returning home from a seventeen-month furlough in the United States. Former Nebraska farmer Mahlon Lapp and his wife, Sarah (Hohn) Lapp, had served as “resident landlords” of the village of Balodgahan for the past four years. The Lapps, who arrived in India in 1901, had earned this respect “the old-fashioned way,” by honest, hard work and by tender, loving deed.

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Eldon Hostetler is a retired Nebraska farmer living in Milford. Eldon serves as president of the Nebraska Mennonite Historical Society and edits the historical newsletter published twice each year. Eldon is the author of three books: Early Milford Stories, a history of the town of Milford; A Good Place to be From, a story of the Milford Mennonite experience; and Pioneer Farmers in Faithful Evangelism, the story of the Roseland, Nebraska Mennonite church.

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Mennonite Historical Bulletin, July 2001