Lars Olsen Skrefsrud
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Lars Olsen Skrefsrud (February 4, 1840 – December 11, 1910) was a Norwegian missionary and language researcher in India. Together with Hans Peter Børresen he is regarded as the founder of the Norwegian missionary organization Santalmisjonen (from 2001 a part of Normisjon). He was followed by the missionary, linguist and folklorist Paul Olaf Bodding.
Skrefsrud originally came from the small place of Fåberg north of Lillehammer in Norway. As a young man he was imprisoned for three years, and during his incarceration he became a Christian and started to study both the Bible and languages, and became one of Norway's foremost linguists.
The mission he established in India has grown to a church with over 150,000 members in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. In the 1950's it became an independent institution - The Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (NELC)
