Once you’ve become a friend of Africa, you’re a friend for life. Today’s post is written by Noah Schroeder, a college student who recently held a video game fundraiser for our mission in Zambia. His story reminds us of our Lord’s words, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (Mt. 10:42)   

Noah’s Story

I attended Wisconsin Lutheran High School (Wisco) and was selected to go on a mission trip to Zambia after my junior year of high school. I went with 5 other students and Mrs. Karen Kilchemann as the chaperone in August of 2013 to do a Vacation Bible School at the church by the LCCA seminary in Lusaka, as well as teach lessons at other LCCA churches and schools and a couple of bush churches.

Chris Pluger, a former teacher at Wisco, and his son were our guides for the trip. At the time of my visit Chris was translating the Bible into the Nsenga language and living in the town of Petauke, in the Eastern Province of Zambia. We were in Zambia for a total of two weeks, and they are some of the most memorable and impactful days of my entire life. It was very busy, hectic, and stressful at times but this trip was one of the most incredible things I have ever done.

The Zambian people were incredible. Their joy and love was pure and truly amazing. It was special to see that I had brothers and sisters in Christ all the way across the world. However, the experience that touched me the most was participating in the week long Vacation Bible School held at the church located on the campus of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA) Seminary. It was a lot of work, and we were constantly adjusting our lesson plans. We had close to hundred kids show up every single day, and getting to know them and teach them about God was the most rewarding week of my life.

It was a great week, but I wanted to do more. Many of the kids that we were teaching were very poor and did not have any shoes. As I was leaving Zambia I promised myself that I would not forget my experience and if I could, I would help in the future.

I am currently enrolled as a senior at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) in Milwaukee, WI. This fall I’m taking the COM 333 Leadership and Communication course. Our big project this semester is to run an event that benefits a cause. Zambia made such an impression on me that I took advantage of the opportunity to give back.

On November 16, 2017 I hosted a video game tournament at our school. We had Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, lots of cookies and brownies, and two TVs set up for the FIFA18 tournament, but more important than scoring goals on the screen was our goal of helping the churches and schools of the LCCA in Lusaka, Zambia. We raised a total of $217 as a result of our efforts! Many thanks to WLC for their support.

My experience in Zambia was a great blessing to me and the happiness and kindness of the Zambian people is something I will never forget.

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

I first met Missionary Daniel Kroll when my wife and I returned to Lake City, Minnesota following five years of service to the Lord as a planned giving counselor for the Arizona-California District of WELS. Dan and Karen had recently been recalled from Africa because of budget shortages. He was now serving as my Pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Lake City. Just a short time later I was elected Chairman of that congregation, so he and I worked hand in glove. Little did I know we would repeat this experience years later in Cameroon.

Through my 40 years of teaching in WELS schools prior to Planned Giving work, I have always been interested in the missionary work WELS does in Africa. I have heard story after story about groups of people eager to hear the good news and the joy they have when they hear it. It did not take a lot of persuading to convince me when Missionary Kroll asked me if I would be interested in teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Kumba, Cameroon. My only hesitation was I did not wish to go to Cameroon alone for seven weeks. When Dan told me he also had plans for my wife Johanna to teach, the deal was done!

In June of this year (’17) I had a heart attack. A few days later I had triple-by-pass surgery. We put the whole Cameroon trip on hold for a while, waiting for several doctors to give us the “thumbs up.” I was very dutiful with the physical therapy following surgery. God blessed those efforts with good reports and those “thumbs up.” So, on Sunday, October 22 we boarded an airplane in Minneapolis, Minnesota and just about exactly 24 hours later got off a different plane in Douala, Cameroon.

After 20 years of teaching experience, Johanna now teaches a basic Grammar course and Music. I teach World History and Human Biology. We both delight in instructing the ten young men God has placed at our Bible Institute. I am impressed with their diligence and their willingness to learn. Their love for their Savior and the desire to share His Word are both clearly evident. In just a short time (on December 15) our Cameroon Connection will come to an end as we journey home to Minnesota for Christmas. I will always carry the friendship of Dan and Karen Kroll in my repaired heart. It will also have room for ten young Pastors with big smiles. I would love to return to Cameroon in 2021 when they graduate. Soli Deo Gloria!   

Harry and Johanna Mears are serving the Lord in Cameroon 

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 November of 2016, Rev. Daniel Finn, an Evangelical Lutheran Synod pastor with a congregation in Brisbane Australia, was contacted by Rev. Jean Claude Maniragaba from the Reformed Lutheran Church of Rwanda (RLCR) through Pastor Finn’s church website. They began an email conversation that led to a recent mission exploration trip by WELS representatives.

The RLCR has been a legally registered church body since 2014. Six pastors and eleven evangelists serve 400 members. Although their church is very young, the RLCR wants to be a confessional Lutheran body.

Pastor Finn dovetailed a planned visit to the USA to attend the ELS yearly General Pastor Conference with a visit to Rwanda. His close relationship with Rev. Maniragaba was indispensable for this trip. He prepared two carefully put together presentations to the RLCR on the history of the Lutheran Church and on church fellowship.

Joining Pastor Finn on this trip was Rev. Forward Shamachona, a Zambian national pastor. In addition to serving four congregations in the Mwembezhi District, he is also the chairman of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa – Zambia (LCCA-Z) Mission Board. I also accompanied Pastor Finn as the WELS representative.

Rev. Shamachona and I arrived in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda early in the morning on Friday, the 22^nd of September. As we exited the immigration/customs area of the airport we saw a man holding up a sign with the name “Philip” on it. We greeted each other, got into their waiting car and were taken to the Hillview Hotel. Rev. Shamachona and I went to our rooms, showered and then got some needed catch up sleep having taken the overnight flight from Lusaka to Rwanda. Around 10:30 a.m. we took a leisurely lunch at the hotel restaurant when suddenly my cell phone rang. The anxious voice on the other end was Rev. Maniragaba asking where I was.  He had been to the airport and could not find us! An hour and a half later, we met up with Rev. Maniragaba at our hotel. It was then we learned from the hotel that there was another “Philip” who had not gotten his ride to the Hillview hotel. We, on the other hand, were not staying at this hotel.  We were going on to Nyagatare some 80 km to the east and north of Kigali after we picked up Rev. Finn at the airport. 

Nyagatare was the base from which we visited 7 of the 11 RLCR churches. On Saturday morning, we were driven to a church located in the village of Kabarore, where 50 people are currently meeting in a rented house. Songs were sung by a children’s Sunday School choir and an adult choir. A drum at this gathering and every subsequent gathering we attended in Rwanda played a very important part of the singing. Dancing was also integral to every church event we attended in Rwanda. We were read a “prayer request” by this church asking for property and help to put a church on the property. We were impressed by this congregation, which has existed for only 4 months.

On Saturday afternoon we were driven to the village of Karoma. The drumming and dancing in this church was phenomenal with both adult and children’s choirs dancing and singing and then everyone in the church joining in. I was somewhat uncomfortable by the level of “enthusiasm.” Several of the woman who were dancing almost appeared to get into a “zone” where their eyes rolled back into their head as they danced away. The drumming then almost became hypnotic. It was not quite rolling in the aisles and there was no speaking in tongues but it was very close to a Pentecostal service.  At the end we three visitors were all asked to speak. We used the chance to encourage the leaders to attend our Wednesday, Thursday teaching sessions.

On Sunday morning we went to church in Rukomo. Pastor Munyondomitza Bernard led the worship service. Pastor Bernard had donated the land to the congregation. This was no small gift as the parcel of land on which the church sat was worth USA $1,000. The church was really a larger house with its room divisions still intact. They hope to remodel it to serve as a church. They have been a congregation for less than a year. The service structure was very loose. From 9:30 until 11:45 the adult and children’s choirs sang and drummed. Rev. Maniragaba gave a short law and gospel sermon.

It was at Rukomo we learned of the RLCR’s charity program to orphans.  The community has quite a few orphans. Most all these orphans have some extended family, but little or no opportunities for school.  This is where the congregation was trying to help out. The congregation and the pastors try to fund school supplies for the children who cannot afford them. They encourage the orphans’ church attendance and act as an additional support group for them.

In Rukomo we held teaching sessions with RLCR leaders for a day and a half. For each topic we were given two hours, but each topic had to be translated from English into Kinyarwanda by Rev. Maniragaba so in effect, there was only an hour to present our content. Rev. Finn started off with a brief Lutheran Church history. I talked about the importance of confessional statements to unite Christians who have the same beliefs.

Pastor Shamachona from Zambia shared an explanation of the structure of the LCCA-Z together with its worker training system. One of the great “AHA” moments of our teaching took place when Rev. Shamachona drew a simple triangle on the blackboard to illustrate how members of the congregations, at the base of the triangle, support their church, their pastors and leadership structure as we go up the triangle to its top. This simple fact was all the more impressed upon the group because it was a Zambian pastor saying this. His presence proved to be invaluable on this trip.

I also made a presentation on the topic of worship. Worship in the RLCR is a mostly one-way course of the people giving to God and very little of God giving His Word to the people.  The fifth and last topic was church fellowship. Rev. Finn distilled a difficult subject to a level that his audience could understand. He talked about the importance of joining in fellowship with those who teach God’s word correctly as well as keeping away from those who teach falsely.

We observed lots of interested visitors at the churches we visited. At every church, interested community leaders were in attendance. Rwanda’s door is wide open.

Missionary Philip Birner serves as the Acting Principal of the LCCA Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia

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