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.”

One of the problems we have run into here in Africa is the overwhelming temptation to bring our own American logistical organization into the African contexts in which we work.  Since most these logistics are NOT doctrinal, we are currently making a conscious effort to avoid setting up American methods and standards for non-biblical matters.  It will be more truly “African” if our new brothers take ownership of those logistical matters and our missionaries focus more specifically on the doctrinal matters as they are presented in Scripture.  In order to do that, our WELS missionaries must remind themselves regularly to “go with the flow” because we are not in charge of these matters.

Here are some examples to help us remember who
was and was not in charge of this program:

• Because one of our planes was late getting into Entebbe, we were not able to stay where we had planned on the first night.
• On the first full day, we waited about 4 hours on the side of the road for a drive shaft to replace the one that had fallen off the car.
• Since food is such an important part of the culture, we ate twice on our arrival: 10pm and midnight.  We are not accustomed to such hospitality, so it was a good reminder that we are not in charge of these matters.
• “Starting teaching time” = “when everybody is present,” by somebody else’s evaluation. We learned flexibility.
• We were late for Sunday worship at Nairika Congregation because of a broken wheel, due to incessant rain and an odd stone that appeared in the road.  The members were patient, waiting until 2 pm for us to arrive.  Maybe they also recognized that they were not in charge of the situation.  Our return “home” was delayed by 1) getting stuck in the mud and 2) a broken-down sugar cane truck on a one-lane mud road.  We made it back to Pastor Musa’s house in God’s (good) time, since he himself (God) was in charge of these things.

Rather than being in charge, the members of the One Africa Team are working hard to fit into the program of Obadiah Lutheran Synod there in Uganda.  We came to do the teaching.  The what and the how of that teaching activity is absolutely in our hands (unless God himself intervenes again), and we consider ourselves very much blessed to be subject to the culture and methods of our brothers where those cultures and methods do not conflict with God’s will.  We are not in charge of any other logistics regarding when and where that our teaching would take place.  Pastor Musa, together with Pastor Edward, Pastor Isaac and Pastor Wilberforce were taking ownership of this program by making decisions about those logistics. It was a great blessing to see these men take control of their own church body while we filled them with the Lord’s good counsel to guide their hearts.  We are planning for three more visits in the coming year or so, to build a strong, Ugandan-owned and operated church body.

Dan Kroll lives in Malawi and serves as the OAT
liason to West Africa

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

God has blessed each and every one of us through the faithful ministry of our pastors. They have helped us to gain a much greater understanding of God and his will for us through their preaching and teaching of his Word. Every church needs a pastor who understands the Bible’s complex teachings and can explain them in a simple way. Church members need a pastor who can apply the truths of Scripture to their lives in a loving, Gospel-centered way. Pastors need to be well-prepared before they begin to serve, because the eternal welfare of the souls under their care is at stake.

God has blessed the congregations of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa – Zambia Synod with church workers who have been thoroughly prepared in worker training schools that were established by WELS missionaries in the 1960’s, and have been staffed by both WELS missionaries and by Zambian national professors. The current teaching staff at the Lutheran Seminary in Lusaka is made up of 3 Zambians and 3 Americans. This is the story of Chibikubantu Simweeleba, the newest Zambian national professor.

Upon graduating from the Lusaka Seminary in 2008, Simweeleba was ordained and assigned to serve Sinda-Chiyanjano parish, a cluster of rural congregations located in Zambia’s Eastern Province. In 2015, Rev. Simweeleba received a call to serve Mt. Sinai Lutheran Church in the city of Ndola, located in the Copper Belt, the most important copper producing region of Zambia near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a parish pastor, Rev. Simweeleba was involved in helping prepare candidates for the LCCA’s worker training program by leading classes in the Theological Education by Extension (T.E.E.) program (see https://welsfriendsofafrica.com/t-e-e-ing-up-students-for-success/ for more background).

The Lord saw fit to give Rev. Simweeleba synodical duties in addition to his congregational responsibilities. From 2010-2019 he served alternatively as the LCCA-Z Mission Board Chairman, Synodical Vice Chairman, Secretary of the LCCA-Z Board of Control (akin to the WELS Synodical Council), and finally as the Chairman of both the Board of Control and the Joint Worker Training Board. These roles have provided him experience in various aspects of leadership skills, planning, and administration for use in the Seminary as an instructor. Additionally, Rev. Simweeleba holds a BDiv degree from the Greater Africa Theological Studies Institute (GRATSI), a post-graduate program for pastors in Zambia and Malawi, and he is currently pursuing an MTh degree with GRATSI.

In addition to his professional skills, one of the greatest blessings that Rev. Simweeleba brings to the Lutheran Seminary in Lusaka is that he has an insider’s understanding of his students’ lives and can relate to them much more naturally than his American counterparts. He is from the Tonga tribe of Southern Zambis, which makes up about 14% of the population of Zambia. One of his Zambian colleagues at the Lutheran Seminary is from the Chewa tribe in the Eastern region, and the other is from the Nkoya tribe in the West. The LCCA Z has congregations spread all over the country, and the melting pot of the Lusaka Seminary gives students the opportunity to learn to appreciate cultures other than their own.

Rev. Simweeleba will begin his service at the Lutheran Seminary by teaching courses on Church History and Isagogics (Bible History). He will free up his fellow Zambian professor Rev. David Kamwata to prepare taking over the duties of teaching Biblical Greek and Hebrew from Dr. Ernst R. Wendland.

In the next several years some significant changes will be taking place in the shared worker training program of the LCCA Zambia and the LCCA Malawi. There is talk of each synod establishing its own separate program for training pastors. Two of the current American professors in Lusaka are nearing the age of retirement. One Africa Team is exploring the creation of the Confessional Lutheran Institute, a new continent-wide initiative that would not only offer post-graduate education but also consulting services for national synods’ worker training programs and enhancement of the skills of current pastors through professional development programs. 

With these changes on the horizon, gifted men like Rev. Simweeleba will be essential to the success of preparing the next generation of faithful pastors. Pastor Simweeleba hopes that “LCCA pastors will be able to defend and proclaim the true teaching of the Word of God without fear. As Seminary instructors we hope to see [current] LCCA pastors who won’t doubt or regret the kind of training others will have received but to envy it.”

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi and is the Communications Director for One Africa 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

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s historic countries
with rich long-standing influence of Judaism and Christianity. It is widely
accepted that the Queen of Sheba mentioned in the Bible had brought Judaism back
with her to Ethiopia. Furthermore, it is believed the Ethiopian Eunuch who met
Philip (Acts 8) brought the true Gospel to the Ethiopia of those days, and that
Jewish merchants who were also followers of Christ later strengthened the
Christian movement in Ethiopia. Coptic Christianity became the state religion
in 330 AD and was later named the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC)

Since Coptic Christianity became the state religion of Ethiopia, government leaders have bestowed favored status to the church. For example, the government granted one-third of the land in Ethiopia to the EOTC. The EOTC has in return supported government leaders by anointing kings and approving their coronation. Similar to what happened in the Roman Catholic Church, Ethiopian government leaders wanted to exert influence over the church, especially King Zar’a Yacob who introduced many teachings and practices contrary to what the Bible teaches. Over time the truth of Christian faith was compromised and the preaching of the Gospel was forgotten.

Prior to the time of Dr. Martin Luther there
were individuals who attempted to reform the EOTC from within. In the 15^th
century the monk Abba Estifanos advocated the teaching of salvation by grace
alone through faith and condemned the veneration of saints. In the 17^th
century the theologian and philospher Zer’a Yacob (not to be confused with the
aforementioned king), who rejected church tradition in favor of Scriptural
authority. This proves that God wanted the reform of His Church and raised men
for this purpose. The EOTC however resisted their efforts and persecuted them, often
to the point of death. 

In the late 19^th century, Lutheran
missionaries from Northern Europe and America first arrived in Ethiopia. When
the EOTC resisted their efforts to reform the church and persecuted the EOTC
priests who were the first converts to Lutheranism, the Swedish, German and
American Lutherans agreed to establish a new church. It’s name is the Ethiopian
Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). “Mekane Yesus” means “Dwelling Place
of Jesus.” In 1959, the EECMY became a legally registered national church.

Rev. Dr. Kebede Getachew Yigezu became a
Christian in the EECMY at the age of 15 in 1987 and had been serving as a youth
leader, choir member, solo singer, lay preacher and later as theologian for a
total of 25 years. After being involved in various voluntary services for 18
years in the EECMY, Kebede studied theology at Mekane Yesus Seminary and
continued serving in the EECMY. In 2007, Kebede joined Concordia Seminary in
Saint Louis, Missouri, and received advanced theological training. While there,
his were eyes opened to confessional Lutheran theology and Kebede ascertained
that the WELS understanding and practice of the doctrine of fellowship is more
in line with the Bible’s teaching than the EECMY’s understanding of fellowship.

Kebede left the EECMY for doctrinal reasons to
remain faithful to confessional evangelical Lutheran theology of the Law and
Gospel and the truth of the Scriptures. In compliance with the Ethiopian
government’s requirements Kebede and 56 founding members registered The
Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) as a confessional Lutheran church body in
2013. The LCE also founded Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary (MLTS) as a Christ-centered,
Bible-based and Reformation-driven confessional Lutheran theological seminary,
which is authorized to offer bachelors and masters degrees and also doctorate
programs. More background information about the church and seminary are found
at https://lcemtc.weebly.com/college.html

Soon after the establishment of the church and
seminary in 2013, Kebede was ordained in the LCE and reached out to WELS with
the purpose of establishing fellowship. In 2014 and 2015 the LCE was visited by
Professor Edward Allen Sorum and Professor Kenneth Cherney of Wisconsin
Lutheran Seminary, Rev. Peter Bur-Chairman of the Global South Sudanese
Outreach, Rev. Paul Nitz-delegate of the WELS Board of World Mission, and Rev.
Davison Mutentami-CELC Africa Region President.

After several years of talks with WELS
representatives, the LCE and WELS declared fellowship in 2017. WELS has been
collaborating with the LCE on the work of training church workers by sending
professors for short-term intensive teaching trips, and by providing funding to
purchase property and to complete the construction of a five floor
multi-purpose building where the LCE operates her Gospel ministry and
theological education programs.

The LCE is a small church body bringing the Gospel truth to light
amongst more than the one hundred million people of Ethiopia. Like Luther, Kebede
and the members of the LCE are standing against many opponents of the Gospel
truth. It is not an easy path to follow but by the grace of God the latest
statistics show:

• Baptized national members = 421
  • Organized congregations = one very active
    congregation in Bishoftu and four active preaching centers (Adama, Addis Ababa,
    Wukro and Dukem)
  • National pastors = one
  • National evangelists = four (volunteers and
    active witnesses in life and ministry)

One of the greatest blessings that have come
from the declaration of fellowship between LCE and WELS is our partnership in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
which is based on our unity of faith, love and purpose. In view of
this, we rejoice at the many opportunities God is giving us to make this unity
visible. The LCE and MLTS enjoy the wonderful blessing of fellowship with
like-minded brothers and sisters in the WELS and CELC member churches, who
share their beliefs and gladly pray on their behalf to our heavenly Father. The
Lord is blessing the humble beginnings of the LCE. We praise God for giving the
members of the LCE the endurance to run their race in Him and to pass the baton
of the Gospel truth to the next generation of Christians.