Last Sunday I brought my guitar along to The Grace and The Glory Community Church. They have no musical accompaniment unless someone feels like drumming that morning, so it was quite refreshing to those who have missed it, not to mention fun for me as it is my only real musical outlet.
On Monday, Buddy had to go pick up some friends from the airport so I led Bible Study at the school all on my own. We went through Mark 10 where Jesus says we need to come with “faith like a child” but the rich young ruler tried to come with what he could do. He ended up loving his riches more than God which breaks the very first commandment, so he really wasn’t as righteous as he thought. That was a good one to start with because I could preach that passage all day. Though I must say, it was interesting teaching about the futility of riches to those that have very little. It’s easy to teach to materialistic Americans because their idolatry is obvious, but even Africans can put the little material possessions they have or desire before God. The best part was on Wednesday when Buddy came back and did some review questions, they remembered it all wonderfully. Even I was impressed.
Thursday morning’s Bible Study is kinda cool. We meet under a tree behind the woodcarvers market. Aside from the loud trucks that drive by, it reminds me of Paul when he went to Philipi. They worshiped on the Sabbath down by the riverbank. We’re actually studying through Paul’s letter to the Romans. This study started with one guy, Tiago, and Buddy just chatting about spiritual things. After a couple weeks of his questions they decided to study verse by verse through the book of John. Soon other people started joining in and they continued from John right into Acts and on into Romans where we are today. Paul’s message of salvation by faith alone and not by works of the law is very potent in a culture where everyone goes to church but very few understand that truth.
It is more blessed to give than receive
Friday Night Lights
Our first Coffee Bar was Friday night. They told me it’d take about 10 minutes to set up if everyone was there, so I showed up 10 minutes late ;) and Buddy & Julia were the only one’s there. We set out some tables with board games, card games, National Geographic mags, and encyclopedias. Yes, encyclopedias. Some kids are really bored.
Dance Praise was exceptional. Contemporary Christian culture at it’s finest. It was totally just DDR with Christian rock songs. The only Crowder song they have is O Praise Him from Sunsets & Sushi, but they also have some Seven Day Jesus and Steven Curtis Chapman’s Live Out Loud, so I guess it’s ok. After a warm-up dance, I just barely beat Mervin in a duel, though I still need a lot of practice before I can beat Buddy. He’s smoking.
Overall it was a slow first night. It was mostly just the teens from the Ark and the high school Bible Study, but that was fine with me because I’m still getting to know everybody. Even though there wasn’t much need for security, Buddy brought along his walkie talkies, ear buds and all. They were phenomenal. I think we were having a little too much fun with them though because his battery wore out in about an hour.
It just so happened that a high-up Herero chief had died this week and his funeral was today. Now in Africa a funeral is a huge deal. They stay up all night before singing and dancing around the fire until they loose their voices. They cook tons and tons of food (more than we bought for our breakfast). The next morning they have a long procession to the cemetery for the burial then go back and eat all the food. Because this was such an important chief, everyone came out. There were cars all up and down the road with tents next to them for people that came from out of town. Even the President of Namibia came out for the occasion.
All that to say, Joan took the kombie out to get the first group of teachers and got caught up in this funeral procession. She finally got back with that group and had to make the second trip, and got caught in the procession again. Finally around 10am everyone had arrived. They ate and socialized and prayed together and by 12:30 we had most everything cleaned up and dishes washed. All that for breakfast. That’s when I went back for a nap. I have much more respect for those that help out with CCA Men’s Breakfasts and I will never work in a hotel.
January showers bring yellow flowers
The good news is we’ve had wonderful rains these past few days. The bad news is the phone lines down the street were blown out by lightning. That’s why I haven’t been able to get online lately. But with the rains everything turns green. The mountains look like rainforests from far off. Out of the dirt sprout these lovely yellow flowers all over the place. And it also brings out all sorts of wonderful insects and critters. :) I’ll get some pics up on my Flickr page next time I’m in Windhoek.
Coffee Bar also starts up this Friday. It sounds quite similar to a Java Jam except without the bands. They’re pretty excited to have another guy to help with security. We’re quite official. Somebody’s bringing us matching security shirts, and Buddy has walkie talkies with ear pieces. Apparently ‘Dance Praise’ is a big hit. It’s basically ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ to upbeat praise music. I’ll have to check that out.
Photo of the Day
Someone donated enough of these pencil cases filled with school supplies for every student at Vyf Rand School. I got to go with Joan to take photos for the donor on the day they were delivered.Photo of the Day
You haven't seen many pictures of me because I'm alwaysBack To School
I wasn’t kidding when I said Joan’s preschool teachers make activities out of household garbage. With school starting this week we packed the kombie and went around making deliveries. Every school gets the typical things like crayons, paint, rulers, staplers, etc, and also two boxes of trash. With the contents they’ll come up with all sorts of creative activities. It was cool to revisit many of the schools and even see a few I hadn’t been to yet. (Lisa – Vicki sends her greetings.)
Saying ‘school starts’ is a very generous way of putting it. Basically kids slowly start filtering back in and by February the little shacks and schoolrooms will be packed. Some suggest this is because people don’t want to pay school fees for the month of January since it’s only two weeks. I’m sure the kids aren’t complaining.
There’s a Canadian team coming over in July who raised a bunch of money to install toilets at some of the preschools that have none. We visited the manufacturer and he explained to us all about the dry system they use. They install two wells underground, each with a hole up to a corner of the room, one is capped, the other has the toilet on it. When that well is full you simply switch the toilet to the other corner. In about a years time the first well is completely dry. It’s quite a fascinating system considering water is so scarce and expensive and in most of these places plumbing is not an option. So now for only about US$750 a preschool that’s been using a metal ring and a paint bucket can have a permanent, freestanding, perfectly sanitary toilet that they’ll never have to pay to flush.
Under open skies
Across the horizon to my left, lighting from three different storms flashed across the sky. To the right, I watched the red sky sink behind the lights of the city. After fruitlessly trying to capture lighting on film for quite some time I eventually just sat back and enjoyed the light show spread across the vast sky before me. Yet another reason why I’ve come to love Africa so much!
Toward the end of the conversation as we were talking about how Abram believed in God’s promises, Buddy told a story about when someone asked him recently, ‘how do you really know for sure that you’re going to heaven when you die.’ So he posed the question to Crystalfine. Her response was similar to what you’d hear from many, even those who call themselves born again. ‘Well, it depends on what you do while you’re here. If you do many bad things then you will not, but if you do many good things then you will go to heaven.’ Unfortunately that’s a prevailing opinion throughout much of the world today, not just Namibia.
We explained to her about grace and took her to Ephesians 2:8-9. I told her why I knew I was going to heaven when I die, because I’m trusting in what Christ has done on the cross and not on my own actions. By the end of the long explanation you could tell she only assented to understand because it would be impolite not to. And that’s exactly why we’re going through this Bible Study, because she doesn’t have the foundational knowledge about God to understand that even our good works are “as filthy rags.” There’s nothing that we can do to improve our situation as sinners. All we can do to pay our debt is to die…forever. That’s why the gospel is such good news, because He sent a Deliverer, promised to Adam and to Abram and to Israel, and that’s Jesus Christ! That’s why I’m here, to help people like Crystalfine know and understand that truth.
Ministry partners
Joan’s preschool ministry in this community is pretty much amazing. She helps train and support around 30 private preschool teachers who have no formal education, but a heart for helping these kids. They can quite resourcefully use household garbage (like used tea bags, egg shells, bottle caps, grocery bags, etc.) and turn it into activities that involve every developmental area of a child. Their students have been recognized for their significant advancement over the other grade one students who did not attend preschool. But above all her mission is to share Jesus Christ with every one of these kids. With the disastrous state of education in Namibia, this is a bright spot permeating the hopelessness.
I got to meet a few of those teachers this morning and see the small shacks most of them have built next to their homes to house the schools. I also got to meet Kuarna. She heads up the Community Center in Vyf Rand, a squatter’s camp on the outskirts of Okahandja. They house two of the preschools, but also have after school programs and a soup kitchen for orphans and vulnerable children. Everyday they serve meat and rice, or some equivalent, to upwards of 170 kids who may not see another meal that day. They’re all children who are staying with relatives because their parents have died. But even though relatives take them in, there’s no additional support provided for them. More mouths to feed, but no greater household income. This soup kitchen, and others like it, helps supplement this need.
Rain
It rained! It finally rained! The humidity and the clouds and the wind have all looked so promising for weeks, but yesterday afternoon the heavens finally let loose with the water so essential to life here. We got a good downpour in the early afternoon, but a light rain continued through the evening allowing it to soak into the ground. Today everything seems a little greener, and everyone a little more chipper.
A few prayer requests
You can be praying for the students who come to Bible study as they desire to grow spiritually and mature in their faith. You can also be praying for God to prepare specific discipling relationships for me amongst those students. More personally, please pray for God to soften my heart to be attentive and hear what He has for me. And lastly, pray that God would make my extended visa application go through quickly and smoothly. (We’re turning in the application for a work permit on Tuesday with a special note to the guy who denied the volunteer visa.) Thanks so much for your prayers and supplications and all your support and for reading and commenting. It means a great deal to me. peace
Unwelcome houseguests and fast friends
Somehow the natives must think they can get free room and board with me, but for the most part they are quite unwelcome. At 11:30 last night when I got back all I wanted to do was go to bed, but no, this fellow had other plans. After taking a few snapshots for Lauren, the battle for supremacy of the domain ensued. It looked dire for a moment, but in the end it was man that prevailed. (Basically that means I trapped him under a bowl, took him outside and squashed him with my shoe. I tried to find a big soldier ant to fight him against like Richard suggested, but I couldn’t.) I searched my entire room to make sure he didn’t have any cohorts before finally settling down to a nice sleep.
Todd is very well read and knowledgeable about his theology. He’s also protective against false teaching and not afraid to be confrontational about it, as evident in our first encounter. But he’s definitely passionate for God’s glory and grace and sharing it with the people here. (His daughter is named Gloria Grace.) Erin, on the other hand, is very much his complement, quite friendly and caring. We talked a lot about their story of getting here and my story of getting here. I shared quite a bit about Christ’s Church and how we’ve learned missions from our trips to Namibia. Both he and Buddy seemed pleased about the way that we’ve gone about doing things. (For example, they’d never heard of a church sending a survey team before.) After spending the day with them I’m really disappointed they’re moving to Windhoek. I’m quite selfish and want them to stay in Okahandja! :) Before coming here I was anxious about finding people my own age I could relate to, but these two couples, Todd and Erin, and Buddy and Julia, definitely seem to fit the bill. God must’ve been shaking his head thinking, ‘My child, why to you worry.’ He knew well in advance and indeed had it planned before the foundations of the earth.
The man, the myth, the legend
As he got out of the car he kinda looked like a Buddy, short stocky guy, probably a little older than me, with a friendly smile. He’s from Ohio and moved over here about three years ago. Recently he got married to a Namibian named Julia. They are very loosely associated with Christ’s Hope International and focus mostly on discipling believers. He leads a Bible study at Okahandja Secondary School on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, another on Wednesday nights, and one on Thursdays at the woodcarvers market. Friday nights they have a coffee bar where they sometimes get up to 150 kids. They just come hang out, play games, listen to music, because there’s nothing else to do on the weekends but go to the shabeens (basically house bars). He told me that’s easily where I’ll make the most relationships with kids.
During the Bible Studies at the school he’s working through a book called Firm Foundations. Joan let me borrow her copy so I could familiarize myself with what they’re studying before I jump in. I’m loving the material already. It’s basically a 50 lesson evangelistic study guide starting with creation going all the way through the death and resurrection and promised return of Christ. The guy who wrote it, Trevor McIlwain, was a missionary in Papua New Guinea who came to realize that the Christians in the churches didn’t really know what the gospel meant but just followed along because that’s what the missionaries wanted. They would go to church and close their eyes when they prayed and didn’t get drunk and they trusted in all those things for God’s acceptance. (Sound familiar?) So he started at the very beginning and traced the historical message of the gospel through the whole Bible. Basically he started preaching the gospel in Genesis rather than in Romans 3:23 where we usually start. He taught that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Praying a prayer, responding to an invitation, even our tag phrase “accepting Jesus into your heart” (which isn’t found in the Bible) is not the gospel. The gospel is trusting in Christ alone and His work of salvation. He used the Old Testament stories of how God interacted with His people to explain how we’re sinners before God and how sin was punishable by death, but how He is merciful and provides a sacrifice for sin. With the historical foundation of the gospel found in the Old Testament he found great success bringing people to Christ, not just to church.
So I must say, I’m looking forward to getting out to some of these Bible studies and checking out their church on Sunday. Buddy was quite excited to hear that I play guitar and was a worship leader at Christ’s Church. Apparently that’s been quite lacking at their church for some time now. First Bible study tomorrow night; I’ll let you know how it goes.
Three's a crowd
Meet my latest former roommate, Benny the bat. At first he seemed innocent enough, quietly sleeping all afternoon. I thought he would be a great addition because he too would eat my insects, however the confinements of a roof were never meant for a bat. At about 2:30am I was awakened by something nudging against my feet. Since I’m here alone, needless to say, I was quite startled, but I’d seen him earlier in the day so I had a pretty good idea that it was him. I quickly flipped on the light and after he circled the small room quite a few times at great speed, he finally landed on the floor. I threw my blanket over him and “escorted” him out. I think I’ll stick with my gecko, Linus, for a roommate. He’s much less intrusive and doesn’t try to snuggle at night.
Photo of the Day
“The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.”Photo of the Day
“Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you?”One down, eleven to go
Today I have officially been here for an entire month. This is the longest I’ve been in Namibia and it’s starting to wear on me a little bit. The past couple days I’ve been thinking a lot about people back home and what I might be doing if I were there. I think it’s partly because I’ve been so idle lately and I hear about all the cool things people are doing back home. But hopefully this next week things will kick into gear.
On Monday I’m going to meet this guy named Buddy. Apparently he’s the guy to talk to about youth ministry in Okahandja. He’s an American who’s been here for 3-4 years and it pretty heavily involved. He said he runs a Bible study at the high school on Mondays and Wednesdays and has a coffeehouse on Fridays. I look forward to meeting him to see how I might get involved. Please pray that we get along because it sounds like I might be working with him a lot. :)
I caught the sunset on Monkey Mountain tonight, joined by about 20-30 baboons. Today’s photo of the day is for all those people who’ve been there and still haven’t seen why it’s called Monkey Mountain.
First blog post of 2008
After two weeks in Arandis for the holidays, it’s nice to be back in Okahandja (minus the humidity) where they got some good rains while I was away so everything’s nice and green. I made a mistake on the bus time today so I showed up an hour late, but it was not a problem as I’m getting quite used to this hitchhiking thing, plus it ended up being N$30 cheaper.
But I must say, my time in Arandis was well spent. I got to spend a lot of time with Toivo, getting to know him and his situation better. I spent many walks around town asking him questions about biology and business and WWII to help him get ready for mock exams when he goes back to school. I got to hang out with Tresford a bit, teaching him some new praise songs and listening to his ideas for the ministry. He invited me to come back in February to help teach some workshops at a little worship leaders conference he wants to put on. That’ll be good because my friend, Boniface, was away with his family for the holidays, so I’d get to see him then in February. To the ‘07ers who went to the high school, I did run into Jesme. She sends her greetings and asked when you’re all coming back. :) And it was great to chat a bit with Brenda. She was a great resource for helping me understand different cultural dynamics of doing ministry here and catching up on what’s going on with Hope’s Promise. (Sorry, Molly. Revival was in Windhoek the whole time so I didn’t get to see her.)
So now that I’m back in Okahandja and people are starting to come back from vacation I’ll be able to make contact with some of the youth ministry people around here. Schools start up in the next week or two. So hopefully I’ll be starting to get a better idea of what everyday ministry will look like around here. But for now I’m gonna sign off so I can go catch this stellar sunset. peace
