Julius Sporket

Julius Sporket (born February 2, 1868 in Barmen , † June 19, 1955 in Novo Hamburgo ) was a German Protestant pastor and missionary.

Training as a missionary

Sporket was the oldest son in the family. He was confirmed in 1882. When choosing a career, Sporket decided to do missionary work despite his poor health. He began training as a missionary at the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft . There was close cooperation between the Rhenish Mission and English and Dutch mission societies . As a result, in addition to South Africa and the Namib , where the Barmer began their mission, what was then the Dutch East Indies , now Indonesia , including the islands of Borneo , Sumatra , Nias , as well as those of the Mentawai archipelago and Enggano, became their respective fields of work belonged.

The training in the Rhenish Missionary School in Barmen lasted from 1889 to 1895. One year of this training was dedicated to the development of medical knowledge. The missionaries of the Rhenish Mission had the task of doing missionary work and at the same time providing medical help in emergencies.

ordination

On August 7, 1895 Julius Sporket was a missionary ordained .

First missionary assignment

Sporket was to serve as a missionary on the island of Nias. Before he was sent to the Rhenish Mission, he met his future wife Anna Jacobs (born 1869). Only the engagement followed because her father did not agree to a wedding. At that time, the age of majority was only granted at the age of 30. So he had to leave for Sumatra on October 4th, 1895 alone. Anna stayed in Holland, where she learned languages ​​and studied nursing.

The trip

The journey by ship from Genoa to Padang , Sumatra lasted from October 17 to November 11, 1895. On the way to his place of work on the island of Nias, missionary Sporket met other local missionaries. At that time there was a missionary Landwehr on the island of Pulotelo who was sick with severe malaria . On November 21st, Sporket arrived in the port of Padang, Sumatra and was received by the missionary Schrey. The journey to Silinden in the interior of the island was arduous and led via Pea Radja , where missionary Metzler worked. During the trip Sporket learned the native Batak language.

Missionary work on Nias

On April 25, 1896, Sporket arrived in the port of Gunungsitoli on the island of Nias, where on March 14, 1897 he was given the management of the Lahagoe station. This station was on the banks of the Ojo River , ten minutes' walk from the nearest settlement. Sporket struggled with malaria, fever and conflicts with the local chief, who had forbidden his subjects from attending the mission and worship. On August 17, 1897, Sporket fetched weapons and ammunition in Gunungsitoli, as headhunters made the area around the mission unsafe.

Sporket was the first white man to visit the Lolomboli settlement in the interior of Nias. He was the mistrust of the residents who feared he was a slave trader who wanted to deprive them of their freedom. Missionary work and medical care for locals in the area around the Ojo River followed.

On December 5, 1898, he married Anna Jacobs.

Mission inspector Schreiber visited the Lahagoe station and gave Sporket the task of founding a new mission in Moro'o. Anna was placed in Lolovoca because she suffered badly from malaria. Sporket went to Moro'o. The huts there were decorated with idols and skulls. After Moro'o converted to Christianity, the settlement was threatened by surrounding villages. The locals feared the loss of their freedom.

The daughter Martha was born on February 9, 1900, son Julius Adolf on May 24, 1901, who died of malaria on Sumatra on February 18, 1904. On May 13, 1904, the daughter Maria was born, she too was attacked by malaria. The region was teeming with headhunters, and the situation was made more difficult by conflicts with Muslims and violent earthquakes. Julianna was born in 1908. Julius and Anna Sporket had another son, Walter (born October 12, 1902), and a daughter, Emilie (born March 11, 1906), a total of 6 children. The daughter Maria drowned at the age of 16 in the Rio Taquari in Asilo Pella / Brazil while trying to save a child.

After staying at Nias for 10 years, Pastor Sporket and his family had to return to Germany for health reasons in order to be treated for tropical diseases.

New order in Brazil

Since there was a better climate in the south of Brazil than on Nias, Sporket decided on a parish in Picada 48, in the south of the country.

Later, Pastor Sporket took care of the Evangelical Congregation in Nova Petrópolis-RS, Igrejinha , Taquara, and Sapiranga. He visited his communities on horseback. It went through rough terrain. He often had to remove branches of fallen trees with a small saw on the way to allow his horse to get through.

His wife Anna died on February 17, 1951. Pastor Sporket died in Novo Hamburgo on June 19, 1955.

bibliography

• Patro, Herta: Além do Horizonte, Biografia, A vida de dois missionários pioneiros nas selvas da Indonésia; Editora Amém 1992.