A’s Africa Story

Our last trip to Namibia was marked by long delays, much snow, and Paris. This trip went much smoother. As a matter of fact it went as smooth as a trip could be expected to go. God of course gets the thanks for that but He did a great job of putting together a team of people who allowed that to happen. At the beginning of our trip two ladies had never been in an airplane and 5 of the 13 had never been to Namibia. We ranged in age from 14 to 67 and hit each generation in between with the exception of the 20’s. With occupations that were as dispersed as our ages God still brought a group of people together and used them for His good. It was amazing to see God calm nerves and comfort people who were missing loved ones. God truly is good and He demonstrated to us just how good on this trip. I was blessed to be a part of such a marvelous team of people that were dedicated to serving God.

Any trip to Africa would not be complete without hours waiting on a meal, and ours came the first night in Namibia. Our lodge was supposed to have a buffet ready for us when we arrived. They did not. Not being surprised we got a shortened menu of three choices to make selection and preparation of the food quicker and easier. Then of course the normal happens. After taking our drink order the waitress never came back with the menu to allow us to order the food. An hour later we get to order and then it takes another hour to get our food. So much for planning and making things simple. AWA (Africa Wins Again) Fortunately our team had been told that things like this might happen and they all showed patience and none were heard whining. I did say heard because I kept my whining to myself.

Once in Outapi our plans continued to change. We had planned to meet with the principal on Friday to confirm all that needed to be confirmed and make final prep for our VBS that would be held at the Vision Primary School, but the school was on holiday and we were unable to accomplish that goal. No problem, we will just come back Monday morning since our VBS was not supposed to be until after school around 3 that afternoon. At the 9am meeting with the principal she expressed a desire for us to do the VBS during the school day so at 10:30 we leave the school, go to the hotel, pick up our material and come back to have VBS. Needless to say the first day was a little crazy. It went well after that and we had the privilege of sharing Christ with 159 kids for 3 days. That is a lot of seed planting and watering. God will cause the growth and one day bring in the harvest.

The group of people we have been working with are still continuing to meet. The three men that have been together have split into two groups due to some differences and some character issues with one of the men. It is hard to know all of what really happens when you are not with them so we leave it with God and pray we have wisdom in making the decisions we make. We continue to teach them about serving God and about leadership. They understand missions and the need to reach out to the people around them and we continue to reinforce that they cannot just sit around and be happy like most American churches. They have to be about spreading the word and starting new groups. Our goal is to plant a church, but our prayer is that it will be God’s church that He can use and that it will not be an American church. This is hard in a culture that idealizes the West and has Roman Catholic and Lutheran influence. God has provided men though who love Him and have a desire to serve Him as He would be served. Pray that they will remain humble and open to the leadership of God.

As stated earlier our tip was a good trip. It was great to see God work in the lives of the Namibian people and our team. I will give you and overview of what some of our team members overcame. Two ladies who had never flown before were on airplanes for at least 20 hours each way with our long flight being 16 hours. These two ladies left multiple children at home with husbands to care for. These men also need to be mentioned as they allowed their wives to go with strangers for 2 weeks. Two of our team are severe diabetics. They were faithful to go and God was faithful to take care of them even when meal schedules were crazy and most of the food though good was not on their regular diet. One of the women suffers from Lupus and has chronic pain from that and arthritis. Needless to say sitting in a plane for 16 hours does not help that type of issue. One of our team is very reserved and suffers from anxiety. Leaving your husband traveling around the world will definitely cause anxiety, but she did amazing and shared the love of Christ with many people. One of our men is 6’6” and he was stuck in a middle seat for much of the plane ride. Another gentleman left a wife who had just broken her ankle and was going to have surgery while he was gone. That is hard on newlyweds. Along with all of these I had to leave Cameron with 3 handfuls to take care of all by herself. She of course did an amazing job and even got a new battery in the van when it died. She truly is amazing and puts up with more than most people even have a clue about. On top of all that she painted my office for me while I was gone. Between dealing with me as a husband, tending to our girls and our home she has to deal with being a pastor’s wife. Unless you are one you really do not comprehend how difficult that truly is and what pressure is placed on them. Thank you Cam. I love you and appreciate all that you endure.

On another note that seems to be becoming a common thread on my trips to Namibia I want to mention France. With our last trip taking us to Paris and the darkness that I saw there Europe is still on my mind and the way that American and its churches are headed the same direction. Coming home and trying to move my thought pattern back to our church and ministry here this fear of what will happen to us if our churches don’t change looms heavy on my heart. (I am getting to how this is relevant.) Ell had the window, I had the middle, and a lady who spoke German had the aisle beside me. A little bit into our flight from Windhoek to Joburg she spoke to me in English. She of course was multilingual which we as Americans, myself included, should be. We began a general conversation that led to things going on in the world and to of course church and God. Her and her friend were faithful to church and she seemed to have a relationship with God. We talked of God and church, but never about what denominations either of us were and it was clear that she had a good knowledge of scripture and displayed characteristics of a believer. She spoke of a walk with God and sharing her faith. Her job is to be a tour guide on a boat that sales the Walvis Bay in the Southwest part of Namibia. She is married to a Namibian but is from South Africa. As we began to talk about seeing the beautiful country that is Namibia she told me she wanted to ask me a question and since I was a pastor I may be able to answer. At this point I always begin to get nervous because you just never know what people are going to say next. She begins to tell me how sometimes they see whales in the bay and that is one of the big draws. She then asked me why French people in general did not know about the Bible. She usually makes reference to Jonah when she sees the whales as she talks to the people and she is noticing that many Europeans do not know what she is talking about and it is much worse amongst the French. She told me I would be amazed at the crazy looks she gets from them when she mentions Jonah. They do not simply not know question as best as I could. What I saw was simply that one generation of people stopped seeing the importance of God and most likely that was due to the problems in the Church. The lack of being different from the world and the corruption of the organization lead people to rethink why they should be a part of something that makes no difference in the lives of those who are in the group. Christianity due to the poor influence of Christians loses its appeal to people. They see no value in being a part of a group that has the same problems and issues that every other group has. After the first generation does this then it becomes much easier for the next and the next. I told her that France was most likely only a generation or two ahead of the rest of Europe in this way and the America was most likely only four or five generations away. I now see that I was off and we are much closer to this than we think. I was reading the book Transformational Church Goes to Sunday School and in it the author puts us as being two generations away from where Europe is currently. I think he may be correct and that scares me for my children and my grandchildren. We as the Body of Christ are either going to wake up and make some serious changes or we are going to become completely irrelevant in our own culture. Our churches will become museums and shopping malls. Where once we had what we call worship tourist will pay to see the great buildings we built while we failed to build the church. If you think I am being to hard on the American church then look around. We have plenty of people in our pews on Sunday morning, but not many living for God the rest of the week. Our children are smart and they will be impacted by what they see in us and not by what we say about church and God. If we do not live it they will not be changed and the next generation will question the validity of the Word of God and God all together. Two generations is not much. Will we change or just go the way of Europe and France. How long until our kids don’t know the stories of the Bible?