“Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give you a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10)

 I heard my pastor say
those words many times, specifically after he blessed a new confirmand.  A good reminder of the confirmands promise to
stay faithful to the word of God, even to the point of death.

“Faithful”….that is a word that comes of mind to describe Pastor George Mpule, who was my pastor for 11 years in Ndola, Zambia.  During times of growth, prosperity and joy in his church, he was faithful.  During times of difficulty, suffering and struggle, he was faithful then too.   His life is proof of that…

Pastor Mpule was not raised in a believing home, but when he
was 24 years old he was invited to the Lutheran Church and heard the preaching
of Missionary Mark Wendland.  The Spirit
was at work and George recognized that this preaching was different than the
preaching he had heard before. What he was now hearing was the pure gospel,
based on the Scriptures alone.  Not long
after he became a member of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. 

 After serving as a
faithful member for several years, in 1977 he was recommended by Pastor Mbulo
to train for public ministry at the Lutheran Bible Institute.  It was during this time that he met his wife
Rose and they married in 1979.  Their
faithfulness to one another has been an example to countless young people in
the last 40 years.

In 1980 Pastor Mpule was assigned as an Evangelist at Mwiimba
and Sibbaba Congregation in Monze District. 
His quiet faithfulness caught the attention of Pastor Jeff Gunn, who in
1985 recommended Pastor Mpule for studies at the Lutheran Seminary.  After studying for 3 years he was sent to
Shabasonje Congregation, followed by the congregation at Seven, where he served
as a Vicar for two years.

In 1990 Pastor Mpule saw the rewards of his hard work and
faithful dedication, when he graduated from the Lutheran Seminary and was
assigned to the congregation at Seven, where he had vicared.  In 1992 Pastor Mpule accepted a call to Mt.
Sinai in Ndola, where he served until 2003 when he accepted a call to Matero
Congregation in Lusaka District.

Faithfully every Sunday, Pastor Mpule would literally point
to the cross during the sermon and remind us that our sins are forgiven through
faith in Jesus.  It’s been 16 years since
I was a member of Pastor Mpule’s congregation, but my husband and I recently
had the opportunity to attend his church for his farewell/retirement from the public
ministry, after faithfully serving his Lord for 39 years.  Faithful…that is the word that sums up Pastor
George Mpule.  Blessings on your
retirement, Pastor.

Karen Kroll and her
husband Dan serve as missionaries to West Africa and are currently based 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

Our mission team has a guiding motto, “Christ for All, Great News for Africa.” That battle cry inspires me. For twenty-five years, I have seen first-hand how little Christ is known in Africa. Church is too often about laws and customs, not Christ. But in our Lutheran churches, the gospel of Jesus is heard every Sunday in sermons our African brothers preach.

Our WELS Mission team in Africa (the One Africa Team) plays a key role in training those African preachers. Much of our resources and manpower is devoted to helping sister synods in the effort.

African pastors are far better equipped to preach to and teach in their own culture. But it’s also true that African professors are much better able to teach future African pastors. We’re making some newsworthy progress in this.

These past two months I’ve had the pleasure of working side by side with a cheerful new colleague on our Lutheran Bible Institute campus. Pastor Stanley Daile has joined us on the faculty. His focus will be to teach Biblical Greek. For the rest of this school year, he and I are working together to teach the Greek course. After next school year, he will take over the Greek instruction.

We have an aggressive schedule for bringing him up to speed. We meet for an hour, one on one, three times a week. Together, we are team teaching Greek to the students five class hours a week. In addition, after each class Rev. Daile and I chat for ten minutes, only in Greek. It’s great fun teaching and learning Greek together, but our best hour together comes on Fridays. On that day, we read the New Testament in Greek with our colleague Rev. Kumchulesi. The three of us dive into the Word using the original language and come out of those waters refreshed with the gospel.

The Wisconsin Synod has been training men for the pastoral ministry in the United States since 1865, teaching them to read the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek. One Africa Team desires to give future pastors in Africa the same advantage and blessing of being able to read the Old and New Testament in their original languages. When pastors are steeped in the Word and understand it well, the gospel wins. Their sermons and teaching and counseling will reflect the love of God revealed to us in the Word.

Philip Melanchthon wrote, “If we are to be devoted sons to our Father, surely we should eagerly strive to study and even emulate our most devoted parent’s language” (De Studiis Linguae Graecae, 1549). Pray blessings on Rev. Daile as he works at taking over teaching African pastoral students the language our Father used to tell us the good news.

Paul Nitz lives in Malawi and serves as the Principal of the Lutheran Bible Institute. He also serves as the Integrator of One Africa TeamPlease 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

“Come over and help us!”

This first century request came from a man in Macedonia (Acts 16:9).  Convinced that this plea was an outreach opportunity from God, a four-man team (Luke, Paul, Silas and Timothy) set out on a mission journey to answer the Call and share the gospel of Jesus.

They traveled to various locations, spoke to the local people, visited the places of prayer, “reasoned with the people from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead…” (Acts 17:2, 3)

The gospel did amazing things.  It gave the people…

New Hope.

“Come over and help us!”

This twenty-first century request came from a man in Bugiri,
Uganda.  Convinced that this was an
outreach opportunity from God, a three-man team was formed and set out on a
mission journey to answer the Call and share the gospel message of Jesus.

What Paul and his team did in Macedonia and beyond, the three-man team did in Uganda: traveled to various places, spoke to the local people, visited the places of prayer and expounded the Scriptures.  By God’s grace, the results were the same: the gospel worked wonders and it gave people in Uganda…

New Hope.

The first century mission opportunity came by way of a vision (Acts 16:9). Last month’s opportunity came via an email.  The request for help came from a man named Makisimu Musa, a pastor leading a fledgling church body in Uganda.  Back in 2008 he caught wind of a Lutheran Church body in America called the WELS as well as a synod in Zambia and Malawi called the LCCA.  (Pastor Musa was attending a school in Kenya and was told about the Lutheran Church, specifically about WELS and the LCCA in Zambia & Malawi.) He heard about their sound doctrine and practice and wanted to know more.  He consulted with his fellow Pastors and Evangelists and together they decided it was time for them to reach out for help. 

Frustrated with church politics, confused with false
teachings, discouraged with a lack of Biblically sound materials, and uncertain
of a God-pleasing way forward, they sent the message:

“Come over and help us!”

Those weren’t the exact words nor the only words but it was the bottom line message. It went first to Pastor David Bivens (Divine Savior Lutheran Church, Sienna Plantation, Texas), the Chairman of the Administrative Committee for Africa.  Pastor Bivens then passed it along and eventually it landed on the desk of Missionary John Hartmann in Zambia who is the One Africa Team (OAT) Outreach Coordinator for Africa.  He assembled a team, set the dates and planned the trip.  On 1 December 2018 Missionary Hartmann, Pastor Pembeleka, and Missionary Holtz touched down in Entebbe, Uganda. 

The mission journey began. (The outreach mission trip dates were set for 30 November 2018 – 13 December 2018.)

We stayed with Pastor Musa and his family in his rural based
home.  He had put together an aggressive
schedule for us:  travel to 8
congregations, meet 6 pastors and 5 evangelists, teach three days of lessons,
and attend two days of meetings.

In it all, we witnessed the Body of Christ in action:

• Church leaders attended 18 hours of  lessons and presentations (Justification, the Church, and Stewardship);
• Pastors preached the Word & administered baptism;
• The Pastor’s dear wife and others cooked our meals, washed our clothes and tidied our rooms;
• A Lutheran member drove us safely to all our destinations;
• Congregations prepared meals and traditional entertainment of plays, dramas, dances, and songs;
• Several people served as translators, turning our English words into Luganda and Lusoga.

Spending a dozen nights and covering over a thousand kilometers gave us a glimpse of the Ugandan people and their beautiful land.  Uganda truly lives up to her name: the Pearl of Africa.  So many natural wonders!  Among the many, Uganda boasts the second largest lake in the world (Victoria) and the source of the longest river on earth (Nile). We were blessed to see them both. 

But for us, the real Pearl of Africa is the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:45,46):  the gospel of Jesus Christ!

• It’s what prompted the first email from Pastor Musa;
• It’s what motivated our mission outreach trip;
• It was the foundation of our lessons¹ and the focus of our meetings.

And it will guide any future plans and discussions with these new found brothers and sisters in Uganda.

Dear Mission Partners, may I humbly send you a request, too?  Our plea comes from Uganda:

“Come over and help us!”

You don’t need to go there to answer the call. We simply, yet
resolutely, ask for your prayers.  Will
you put Uganda on your prayer list?  Pray
for this mission outreach effort.  The Lord
has given us this wonderful opportunity and the gospel is already doing amazing
things.  The Pearl of Great Price is the only
True Pearl of Africa…and the world! 

Oh, by the way, as these Christians in Uganda find their footing and forge ahead, it’s this “Pearl” that reminds them why they chose the name they did for their new church body:

New Hope.

Your Malawi Mission Partner,
John Holtz