In Forward in Christ, we report the news but aren’t always able to follow up. “Where are they now?” is our way of giving you the rest of the story.

In December 2005 we told you about the installation of Neng Lor as pastor to the Hmong people in the Sacramento, Calif., area in August 2005.

Here’s a recap

Lor, a Hmong pastor, was partnering with St. Andrew, Sacramento, to reach out to an estimated 25,000 Hmong souls within a five-mile radius of the church.

So what is happening now?

Lor is no longer in the full-time ministry, though his outreach to the Hmong—and to others—continues in a different way.

Lor’s ministry in California started out strong. Approximately 30 people were attending worship services regularly, and Lor was making inroads in the community.

But after a trip to Minnesota to visit relatives in January 2006, Lor began to feel feverish and his face started swelling. Doctors initially couldn’t determine what was wrong. By the end of January, Lor was in intensive care, where he would stay for more than a month. His stroke-like symptoms included an inability to speak or to move the right side of his body, swelling, and headaches. Still unable to pinpoint the problem, doctors weren’t sure if he would survive.

The doctors finally diagnosed him with a brain infection but were not sure of the exact cause. By the end of March, Lor was finally well enough to leave the hospital, but he needed to go through extensive rehabilitation. “Physically he was no longer able to carry out the duties of the ministry,” says Pastor Leon Piepenbrink, Hmong ministry coordinator.

After resigning from his call, Lor and his wife and eight children moved back to St. Paul, Minn., where many of his relatives live. There he went through the slow process of learning how to speak and walk again. “It was frustrating for him,” says Piepenbrink. “For a guy who had been so busy and so active and so used to being around people . . . now his whole world was just within the four walls of his house.”

Gradually Lor made progress. Now he can walk short distances with a cane, have conversations, and move his arm and hand. “The Lord certainly used a lot of people—Pastor Pheng and his congregation [Immanuel Hmong], Neng’s [extended] family, and a variety of WELS members—to support and encourage [the Lors], to pray for them, to visit them regularly, and to provide help in whatever way they could,” says Piepenbrink.