I had a choice between sitting through four hours of church and a voters’ meeting or attending a four hour long worship service. Since moving to Malawi’s capital city of Lilongwe nine months ago I regularly attend the English language worship services held at Crown of Life Lutheran Church on the campus of the Lutheran Bible Institute. I am thankful for the the opportunity to gather weekly with my fellow missionaries and the members of the congregation to hear encouraging messages from God’s Word. The style of worship is familiar to any member of the Wisconsin Synod. We use the
WELS hymnal Christian Worship to sing hymns and psalms, accompanied by an electronic organ. The student choir of the Lutheran Bible Institute performs 3-4 glorious anthems in the Chichewa and Chitumbuka languages. The congregation also holds separate Chichewa language services that starts later in the morning. Once a month Crown of Life holds a joint English and Chichewa language service that can last up to two and a half hours. And just like many WELS congregations, Crown of Life also has (long) voters’ meetings.

It just happened that I got invited to attend a worship service in a rural congregation outside of Lilongwe on the same Sunday as the voters’ meeting. The Vacancy Pastor is only able to visit this area once a month. He ususally takes his motorcycle, which is able to negotiate muddy roads and narrow trails. This time we took my car – it wasn’t raining when we set off, but I kept my eye on the skies the entire time. There is a new tarmacked (asphalt) road that we followed for about a half hour, then we turned onto a dirt road which grew progressively rougher and narrower. At one point we were following a cow path through a cornfield. Thank goodness for four-wheel drive! We asked numerous people for directions because Google maps doesn’t tell you when roads are washed out.

Our destination was the village of Chilembwe, tucked inside the elbow of the Bua River. There are no bridges across the river or any main thoroughfares that pass through this part of Malawi, and I did not see any high wires connecting the village to the power grid. We arrived to discover that the church’s walls had collapsed due to the rains. The local Presbyterian congregation let us use their building, and they worshiped elsewhere. It was a very charitable offer, considering that congregations from five different villages came to Chilembwe for a joint worship service.

We started about two and a half hours late. People continued to trickle in during the entire service which, as I mentioned earlier, lasted four hours. I had a front row seat to a dozen different choirs, each performing 2-4 songs apiece. I witnessed 22 children and 4 adults become heirs of God’s kingdom through the sacrament of Baptism. I heard the Confirmation vows of 35 youths and adults to remain faithful to Christ unto death. I watched 167 people receive Jesus’ real body and blood in Holy Communion for the forgiveness of their sins. I heard the pastor preach two sermons – one was centered on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the other was about using gifts of time, talent and money
for God’s glory. At one point during the service the ushers came around with 2 bowls of raw corn, and to their dismay I tried snacking on a few kernels. My wife correctly observed that everyone else took a kernel from one bowl and put it in the other, as a way of counting those in attendance. The final number announced was 467, give or take a handful of corn.

After the worship service we introduced ourselves to the group in Chichewa and listened to various church elders introduce themselves. It took some time to shake everyone’s hand on the way out of church but we felt honored. The Pastor spent another hour teaching advanced Bible classes to three men who are preparing themselves for entrance exams at the Lutheran Bible Institute. Our hosts graciously prepared a lunch of nsima and chicken for us, then we started back with about an hour and a half of daylight left. We got directions for a better way to travel by car which, although longer in distance was much more suitable than the way we had come and eventually led us back to the tarmack.

It’s true here and in the United States that country life is much different the city. 80% of Malawi’s population lives in rural areas, some more remote than others but most with limited access to medical care, good roads and electricity. Most of the pastors of the LCCA Malawi live in the same rural communities as their members, in order to serve them better. This spring, five Malawian men will graduate from the Lutheran Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. Perhaps one of them will be assigned to serve the five churches of Chilembwe, Chingwakwa, Msokoneza, Kamwaza and Yotamu but it will not be easy for the congregations to support him. But what I observed during that Sunday in
Chilembwe shows me that God’s Spirit is actively working in the hearts of these people, who biked or walked many miles to receive the comfort of the Gospel. A lot happened during that four hour church service, but a lot more is happening out of our sight.

Missionary John Roebke 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. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

“Howzit goin’?” I used to hear
in the States.

Now: “Muli bwanji?”
(“How are you”?)

My wife Debbie, my son Drew, and I moved from Minnesota to
Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in early December 2019.

My future role: Theological Educator for the One Africa Team
of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, concentrating especially on formal
continuing education for African pastors in our fellowship.

My current role: Newbie. Learner. OAT called me to spend at
least the first 6 months here learning as much language and culture as
possible.

How is that going? There is too much to tell.

Pithy proverbs may help. That is, let’s zero in on 28
January 2020, one of the best days I have spent in Africa.

Malawian pastors Stanley Daile and Alfred Kumchulesi at the
Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi took many hours out of their day
to get to know me and help me get to know them, their lives, their city, their
heart language, and the future pastors they teach.

After a particularly comforting morning devotion by Pastor
Kumchulesi on God’s forgiveness as seen in Psalm 32, I went with Professor
Darlington Mwakatika to an LBI class which focused on English and Chewa
proverbs.

The easiest Chewa proverb for me to learn was the shortest: Safunsa anadya phula.
“The-one-who-didn’t-ask ate wax.” He could have had honey, the dummy, if he had
only asked for help.

That proverb sums up much of my last months. I keep asking abale anga, my brothers and sisters,
both Western and African, about their lives, their language, their customs,
their faith, their suggestions for what to do next, and more.

Otherwise, Nzeru za
yekha, anaviika nsima madzi. “Wisdom-of-himself — he soaked nsima in water.”

Only a fool would take a handful of his maize flour
porridge, nsima—an important staple
in central African diets—and dunk it in water. That would ruin it. But Mr.
Know-it-all did that.

New missionaries, thinking they are wise, can become such fools.
(“I am familiar with biblical Hebrew. I have been a pastor since 1992. I know
how things work in the States.”) But pride poisons everything. Pride offends
our holy God. It also ruins relationships with abale athu, our brothers and sisters.

Bought by blood, though, forgiven through faith in the true Nzeru za yekha, Jesus, who really is all
wisdom-in-himself—oh!

My family and I are so glad for the gospel preaching of our
pastor Chibikubantu Simweeleba; the seminary senior assigned to our
congregation, Justin Namakhwa; and the elders who also do some of the preaching
at Bethel, the congregation we attend.

We wish you could hear the youth and ladies choirs here,
too. Click this link to watch https://youtu.be/Fqjj1A6O8DE
For most Sundays, both choirs have learned four a capella songs. The youth choir sings a recessional as well. I’m
catching more Chewa words all the time, but from the first service we attended
in December—words fail. Such conviction. Such joy in the Lord in the choir
members, young and old.

One of our favorite new customs comes at the end of each
service. Out the door of the church building walks the pastor, then any special
guests, then all of us, one by one. Unlike your church, probably, here everyone
takes their place in a line outside stretching into a large circle. Everyone
shakes everyone else’s hand, taking a new place in the circle, while the youth
choir continues to sing and shake hands at the same time, at the end.

Such highlights are more important to share than

• what it has been like to wait for our shipment to arrive, or
• which American conveniences we miss, or
• what it has been like for Debbie and me to learn to shift with our left hands and drive a manual transmission Ford Ranger 4×4 on the left side of the road, or
• what the international school has been like so far for Drew.

How is it going? In short, we are part of great team. We
learn and adjust daily. We are especially learning to lean more on God.

One last Chewa proverb: Kuona maso ankhono kudeka. “To see the eyes of the snail [requires] to slow down.”

That big snail inched up a mango tree in our yard the other
day. Can you see its eyes, up at the top of the Y? Did you have to slow down
and look closely to see them, against the tree?

That is how it is going. Pang’ono,
pang’ono, “my friend,” munzanga, Mr.
Zulu, tells me all the time. I tell it to others, when they ask especially
about language learning: “bit by bit.”

“Slow but sure,” munzanga
Mr. Kalima put the proverb to me.

You too: Thanks for all your little-by-little, slow-but-sure
prayers and support for us and all WELS missionaries and their families. Keep
it up, slow-but-sure, for Jesus’ sake.

Missionary Dan Witte lives in Zambia

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

My wife’s parents were dairy farmers from Wisconsin whose lives revolved around the family, farm, and church. They had a great love for Jesus and his Great Commission. In 1963 my mother-in-law read a story in the Green Bay Press-Gazette about a Nigerian pastor who wanted to know about Christianity in the United States. That article prompted her to raise money in her congregation to purchase a bicycle for his ministry, and later she sent him some clothes. In a letter he replied, “I am really fat and would need to reduce if it was within my capacity. The raincoat did not fit me. It is still very needful since my wife has begun to use it.” Over the next three decades she maintained correspondence with Rev. E. Eshiett, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Nigeria.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Nigeria came into existence in the 1930’s following contacts between a Nigerians from the Ibesikpo tribe and representatives from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. The Ibesikpos had been part of a Presbyterian church body dominated by people of the Qua Iboe tribe, but did not feel that they were being treated fairly. The Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Synod partnered to support missionaries in Nigeria under the supervision of the Missionary Board of the Synodical Conference.

After the breakup of the Synodical Conference in 1961, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Nigeria remained in fellowship with the Missouri Synod. However, the Lutheran members of another Nigerian tribe, the Annang people, felt that they were receiving second-class treatment in the Ibesikpo-dominated church body. In 1960’s, several Annang Lutherans traveled to the United States to search for a new Lutheran partner. In 1969 the Lutherans living in the Annang majority territory of Abiaokpo established their own church body, Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria.

As the only ordained pastor in the new church body, Rev. Eshiett was sent to the United States to pursue contacts with the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation in 1971. Eventually Rev. Eshiett reached out to Rev. Edward Greve, a former WELS missionary who had taught in the Synodical Conference’s Nigerian seminary. It was decided that he should attend classes at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for a short time. While he was there, Eshiett was able to meet my wife’s parents and see their dairy farm in person. He wrote, “Farmers [in the USA] themselves are very rich.” When my mother-in-law responded that American farmers have to pay mortgages he wrote, “I did not know that these men are debtors. However, it is always good to be a good debtor, although debt can disunite men with Christ.” He also asked my mother-in-law about her newborn calves and yearling steer.

In 1981, WELS and CKLCN declared fellowship. Over the next decade, WELS sent missionaries on short-term teaching trips to prepare pastors for Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria. Rev. Eshiett helped train seminary students – and then in 1986 he resigned from his post and left CKLCN. In his last letter to my mother-in-law he wrote, “How are you faring with your farm? Every moment of my life I feel I am nearer eternity than before…I need your prayers daily.” He was a broken clay pot with Christ’s treasure in his heart (2 Cor. 4:7).

It is a testimony to God’s power and grace that he uses flawed humans – pastors, missionaries and laypeople – to build up his church. We stumble in our mission strategy, we make short-sighted decisions, and sometimes our helping hurts others. In spite of all our missteps God pours living water on his church and it blooms with the fragrant aroma of the Gospel. God used Rev. Eshiett to lay the foundation for his church in Nigeria, and he used my mother-in-law’s letters to strengthen him in his ministry. And God is using cracked pots like you and me to build up his church all over the world!

Missionary John Roebke 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. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa