Lutheran Headwaters

As many streams flow together to drain West Africa into the Bight of Bonny, so also many fervent desires and events flowed together as the headwaters for the “Lutheran Mission in Nigeria.” Stream One: members of Lutheran “Negro Missions” in America’s South lobbied for a Lutheran mission to Africa. They raised $6,000 for this work by 1930 ($83,000 today). Stream Two: the Synodical Conference of North America wanted to open a new world mission for its 50^th anniversary. Stream Three: the congregations of the Ibesikpo in southeast Nigeria wanted a new mission sponsor.

Let’s chart the flow of these three streams. Rev. Henry Nau (LCMS) headed Immanuel Lutheran College in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Ibesikpo people sent Jonathan Ekong, the son of a local chief, to America to study and to find a church mission sponsor. Ekong was a very brave young Christian witness, who had already influenced his father and other leaders to become Christians. At Immanuel Lutheran College Ekong met Rev. Nau. They urged the Synodical Conference committee to choose Nigeria as its new overseas field. That committee sent three men, including Nau, to explore Nigeria’s potential in 1935. The Synodical Conference sent Rev. and Mrs. Nau to Nigeria in 1936 to prepare the field for the first permanent missionaries.

Nau lived on the Nigeria field for 18 months, the last six months overlapping the arrival of the first permanent Synodical Conference missionary, Rev. Bill Schweppe (WELS) and his wife Leola in 1937. Under Schweppe, the Lutheran Mission expanded in every direction. His partners were missionaries, teachers, doctors, and nurses representing LCMS, WELS and ELS. Equally important was the work of many faithful Nigerian pastors, teachers, and leaders. The “big station” mission strategy was typical for that time: churches, elementary schools, Lutheran high school, teaching training school, clinics, hospital, and seminary. These mission efforts were the tributary streams of a broad river named The Lutheran Church of Nigeria.

When the ELS and WELS left the Synodical Conference, the work in Nigeria was left to the LCMS. By 1962 WELS no longer participated in the work in Nigeria.

Diversions and Confluences

When civil war came to Nigeria in 1967, Lutherans were caught in the conflict. In just three years, the Biafran war brought horrible suffering and atrocities. The Lutheran Church of Nigeria also became divided against itself. In 1969 Lutherans of the Anang clan north of Abak withdrew from the LCN and formed Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria (CKLCN) with one pastor, two seminary seniors and fifteen congregations. Many Lutherans resisted this division, sometimes with violence. Some leaders of the new movement were arrested.

Several sons studying in the U.S. during these years lobbied WELS to link with the newly-formed Lutheran synod in Nigeria. Rev. E. H. Wendland, Rev. Theodore Sauer and a number of other WELS missionaries and pastors made teaching visits. In 1981 WELS declared fellowship with CKLCN. The confluence of these two rivers brought the CKLCN guidance, training, and support from WELS. Starting in 1985, WELS Counselor Rev. John Kurth made repeated visits for several years. Christ the King Lutheran Seminary started its first class with Rev. Larry Schlomer and Rev. Prof. Harold Johne as instructors and graduated its first class of six in 1994.

In 1991, a second diversion from the Lutheran Church of Nigeria developed 250 miles to the northeast in Ogoja. This group registered as All Saints Lutheran Church of Nigeria (ASLCN). They also suffered some arrests and violence. It is interesting that Rev. Nau had completed a round trip to Ogoja by cycle, canoe, lorry, and by foot already in 1935. ASLCN people were unaware of CKLCN and of WELS. They thought they were standing alone in the world, but the Master Weaver knit the strands together. God led the leader of ASLCN to worship at a CKLCN congregation in Calabar, 175 miles from his home. CKLCN and WELS made visits to the Ogoja area and joined in mutual doctrinal studies. In 2000 CKLCN and ASLCN declared joint fellowship. In 2001 WELS declared fellowship with ASLCN, completing the confluence of these three rivers of God’s grace. At the time, All Saints Lutheran had two pastors and twenty congregations. All Saints accepted the hand of church fellowship without expecting WELS subsidy for salaries and synod expenses. Even so, there are many benefits for ASLCN, the most important of which is training for their new pastors. Since 2004 ASLCN has ordained 15 pastors who were trained in partnership with CKLCN and WELS.

Our River of Grace in Nigeria Today

For the last 15 years, the WELS river guide on the confluence of CKLCN, ASLCN and WELS was Rev. Douglas Weiser. After Weiser’s retirement in 2017, Rev. Jeff Heitsch answered the WELS call to be a missionary to both Cameroon and Nigeria. He and his wife Stephanie moved to Bamenda, Cameroon where Heitsch will assist pastors and congregations of the Lutheran Church of Cameroon. He will also continue making visits to Nigeria to assist the two synods there and to provide WELS oversight for the theological training of pastors. It’s a multi-task call, and we trust the Lord God to provide and sustain.

Without resident WELS missionaries, the two synods of Nigeria must be more independent than most. They do not enjoy the level of face to face contact and financial support that many other WELS missions have, but they persist because they believe in the need of the Nigerian people to hear the pure message of the Gospel. In this 49^th year of CKLCN and 27^th year of ASLCN, pray for the Lord’s continued blessings on these two synods and the WELS missionaries and volunteer instructors who ply the river of God’s grace with them.        

For further information about the history of Lutheranism in Nigeria click here

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Go to this link to learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts  https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

In October representatives from the Lutheran Church of Central Africa – Zambia Synod, the Pastoral Studies Institute and One Africa Team visited the countries of Kenya & Ethiopia. Missionary John Hartman writes:

On 10 October, Pastor Simon Mweete and I flew from Lusaka, Zambia, to Nairobi, Kenya, to begin a two-week trip to visit three groups of African Lutherans from different nationalities at three different levels of development. The days were full of God’s grace and favor on display working among the people of eastern Africa!

The three groups are the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, in Kenya; the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church, made up of members of the Nuer tribe from South Sudan, but presently living in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia; and the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia, founded by Dr. Kabede in Bishoptu, Ethiopia, which is in fellowship with the WELS.

On the day we arrived in Kenya, we met with leaders of the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.  We were joined by Professor Allen Sorum from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Wisconsin, and Pastor Mark Onunda, President of the LCMC and also our chauffeur and guide. We visited  with both LCMC members and pastors. At each place Pastor Mweete taught on Church Fellowship, Prof. Sorum taught the Doctrine of the Church and I taught on Pentecostal issues.

Our purpose was to teach the people what the Bible says on these topics so that the members of the LCMC may decide if they agree with us. I look forward to April 2018 when a delegation from the LCMC will be traveling to Lusaka and meeting with the LCCA-Z Doctrinal Committee for more formal discussions as the churches work toward fellowship.

You can read more about the LCMC Kenya visit at  https://welsfriendsofafrica.com/true-friends-of-the-bible/

On 16 October Pastor Mweete and I started the next leg of our journey.  We flew into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and were joined by Missionary Terry Schultz from the USA and Pastor Peter Bur. Pastor Bur is a South Sudanese of the Nuer tribe who immigrated to the United States several years ago and graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2015. Because of flight connections we had an overnight layover, which gave Terry Schultz time to go shopping for clothes because his luggage had not arrived from the USA. It also gave us time to visit the Orthodox Church where Emperor Haile Selassie is buried. The stained glass windows and stone statues made us think we had arrived in Europe!

On 18 October we flew out to Gambela, Ethiopia where four refugee camps are located. Because of a civil war within the country of South Sudan, over one million people have fled the violence into neighboring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.  Pastor Bur has been teaching Lutheran pastors and church leaders who have organized themselves into the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church within the refugee camps.

A choir of singing and dancing men and women came out to greet us as we dismounted from our Bajaj taxi, a three-wheeled vehicle with room for three passengers. We were led inside the church yard and seated on a bench, where the women took off our shoes and socks and poured water over our feet. That was a welcome I have never experienced before!

The ten pastors and six evangelists who had gathered are from the Nuer tribe. The Nuer are easily recognized by the traditional practice of scarification. Men have scar lines across their foreheads and women have scars on their cheeks.

Over the next few days, Terry Schultz taught the leaders about the doctrine of Justification. Pastor Bur taught from Luther’s Catechism, which he had translated into the language of the Nuer. Pastor Mweete and I each taught a lesson and conducted a devotion. Pastor Bur was busy as he taught his own lessons and translated for the rest of us. Each day we rode the Bajaj taxi to our hotel, where monkeys watched us as we ate our meals. We never used the horse-drawn taxi-carts, one of which almost ran over us one day!

Plans are in the works for further training and encouragement of our Nuer brothers and sisters in the refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Please pray that the fighting stops soon, so that they can return to their homeland in South Sudan and be a blessing to the church there.

On 21 October Pastor Mweete and I flew back to Bishoptu, Ethiopia in time for the installation of a new pastor in the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia and the second graduation of the Maor Theological College and Seminary. Maor Theological College was founded and is run by Dr. Kebede Yizgezu. Dr. Kebede is the founder and President of the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia as well as the primary professor of the College and Seminary.  This year’s graduating class numbered 34 students in six different levels of theology. Dr. Kebede was the only pastor in the church until the ordination and graduation of a second pastor, Shambel Hordofa Robi. Prof. Allen Sorum from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary preached at the service and Pastor Mweete and I assisted with the presentation of diplomas.

Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary currently sends its professors on short-term teaching trips to Maor Theological College. We pray that this arrangement may continue, and that other avenues of training the leaders of God’s church in Africa may be explored as well.

These are our brothers and sisters in Christ from Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan! All of them rejoice with us in the Scriptural truth of full and free salvation! All of them are thankful to celebrate the 500^th Anniversary of the Reformation! Let us give thanks to God for our fellow Lutheran Christians and pray for their growth in the truths of his grace!

Missionary John Hartmann lives in Lusaka, Zambia and coordinates outreach for One African Team

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Go to this link to learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts  https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

At Christmas time my family and I display some of our nativities in remembrance of our newborn King.  When setting them up and seeing them displayed, my mind immediately recalls the time I once bought a crèche in an open air market here in Lilongwe, Malawi. Picture this:  Mary and Joseph and Jesus, some shepherds, the Wise Men, a star, a cow, a couple of sheep, a donkey or two…and a hippo.

Ok, granted, it is Malawi. It is Africa.  And hippopotami are abundant here.  And to top it all off, it is a very different culture from the USA.

But a nativity scene hippo?  Hmmm…maybe this explains a few things.

For years I always pictured that Joseph was wide-eyed in amazement because of the birth of the Baby.  Now I’m wondering if his eyes were like saucers because he was a bit worried and astonished that the three-toed barrel-shaped beast with the beady eyes, big mouth, and bad breath was meandering just a bit too close to the manger.

We all love to sing Silent Night and we seem to think that all was indeed calm, but now I doubt if it was really all that quiet. I mean if the cattle were lowing, the sheep were baaing, the donkeys braying, and now the hippo gets a bit edgy and chimes in with its snorting, grunting, bellowing and blowing, then maybe the Baby was crying after all with the noise!  And yet we faithfully and confidently proclaim “No crying He makes” when we sing Away in a Manger.

The INCARNATION!

The “ten dollar” word that means God became Man.

The second Person of the Trinity, True God, became the “first-born among many brothers,” True Man! (Romans 8:29).  Born to die! Died to live! Descended to earth so that we might ascend to Heaven!

That means we can sing Joy to the World with gusto all year round if we want!   We have untold, incalculable, immeasurable, even indescribable joy!  Not just on the 25^th of the last month of the year.

That gives us reason to worship every day of the year!  All around the globe Lutherans are worshiping this Christmas season.   Which brings up something to ponder again at this time:  Lutherans worship in different cultures and different cultures worship in different ways.

Lutherans in fellowship worship in different ways.  Even at Christmas.

The instruments played in your church may not be the ones in ours.  Dancing choirs may be common place here, but not there.  Your congregation dresses one way, but they do so differently on the other side of the world…or maybe even on the other side of town.

There really wasn’t a hippo in the stable on that first Christmas in Bethlehem, but it didn’t seem to bother the marketer much that he included one in the nativity set he sold me.   I walked away with a good deal and a good deal to ponder each Christmas in Africa: there are many differences at Christmas time in Malawi compared to an American Christmas in Wisconsin.  Here are some:

No snow!  While you may be singing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” we are opening up our umbrellas because it’s the front end of the rainy season.

Decorations?  There are a few but there are probably more in one Wisconsin Walmart than in the whole country of Malawi. 

I’ve never seen a Christmas tree set up in a Malawian house.

Strings of lights framing houses?  Are you kidding?  Most houses don’t have electricity hooked up and the ones that do don’t have power most of the time anyway.

The most common and most favorite Christmas meal in Malawi seems to be chicken and rice.

I have never seen or heard of a Living Nativity in Malawi enacting the Christmas story.  (Maybe it’s because it’s too difficult to get the hippo to cooperate). 

Plenty of differences, but there are also similarities. God’s people gather for worship.  Sins are confessed and songs are raised. The Word of God is preached. The Bethlehem Story is pondered. Gospel news is shared.  Fellowship is enjoyed. The Babe in the manger is honored with humble gifts and worshiped with happy voices.

I just have to smile….at the absurdity of it all.  There are many things more surprising than a hippo in a Nativity set!  Imagine… A God in love with us! A night sky of angels exploding in song! Shepherds who seek! A virgin birth! A believing husband-to-be! God becoming Man! A leading star! Wise men who followed and those who still do!

And there still are missionaries who live in far off lands who, at Christmas time, still set up trees, decorate their houses and string lights even though there’s little power. Some still display nativity sets…with or without a hippo.   On behalf of the Lutheran Mission in Malawi I wish you a most blessed Christ-filled Christmas!

Missionary John Holtz lives in Malawi

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Go to this link to learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa