welsfriendsofafrica.com, Author at WELS Friends of Africa

March 4, 2020April 23, 2020

Howzit goin’?

“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.

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020

Letters from Crackpots

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.

January 15, 2020January 15, 2020

Who’s in Charge Here?

I wish I would have kept track of the number of times I said to myself, “Ok, I guess we are not in charge of these matters.”

In December of 2019, I was blessed to visit Uganda for a teaching trip on behalf of the One Africa Team Outreach Committee. I accompanied Missionary John Hartmann for the third meeting with a group of Pastors, Evangelists and other church leaders. Since this was my first visit, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleased with what I saw there -a solid and serious group continuing to hunger and thirst for the true righteousness only Jesus can provide (Matthew 5:6). These people were eager to know the truth and see how those teachings fit into real life. Most of them had experience in the church that left them thinking “there should be more to what I’m hearing and seeing from the leaders of my church body.”