I’m on a plane flying back home to Malawi. We just spent some intense days planning what our focus will be for the WELS One Africa Team in the upcoming year. We have a solid plan in place that I’m very pleased with. There’s no way this plan would be as good as it is without the help of the three business minded laymen on our team. I’ll tell you how they helped, but I also have a request. Pass on this post to a couple of your Christian business friends. I think they would be happy to see how business planning skills are a part of the success we are enjoying in our mission to Africa.

With apologies I’m going to let loose with my new business lingo in this article. If some of it is foreign to you, ask your business friend about it. Use it as an excuse to talk about what we’re doing together in Africa.

Let me give you some context. I had set four objectives for our annual meeting. Our Spiritual Growth objective was very well met by the preaching (x6), prayers (x25), and enjoying Lord’s Supper together. Our Team Building objective was met specifically by a discussion of Trust and Healthy Conflict, plus by all the fun we had being together. We had a good run at our third objective of knocking off some Major Issues, but we got through fewer than I would have liked. With 11 missionaries and 6 board level members visiting us from the USA, it was a bit hard to have a snappy discussion.

Writing our V/TO (Vision/Traction Organizer^TM) for the year was the big objective, and one we could only do with a face-to-face meeting like this. That objective was accomplished. As I said, I really have to thank the three non-pastors at our meeting for help with reaching that objective. We couldn’t have done it without their contribution to our team.

The newest member of our team is Stefan Felgenhauer. He was just hired as our head of Operations and will be living in Lusaka, Zambia. As a brand-new guy, he could have sat in our meetings and said nothing, but he did contribute. He said to me that the team building segment of our meeting about Healthy Conflict perfectly matched his business experiences. “That healthy conflict we talked about is just what my CEO demanded when we would have meetings. I couldn’t just sit and say nothing. I had to say something to show I was really in the discussion and on board.”

At one point in the meeting we were having trouble setting measurables. How do you put a number on the ministry we do? One of our meeting attendees grew up with a successful entrepreneurial father. Now Hank Hoenecke is an experienced WELS teacher at a school which uses the same organizational tools we do. He helped us see that though it might be difficult to give everyone a number in a ministerial context, it is possible.

In the final stages of our planning we ran into a cloud of confusion as we reviewed our ministry strategy. Tim Hansen, a very experienced business man made it so simple for us. He pointed at our V/TO and said, “Look guys, here’s your Target Market: the confessional sister synods we are currently working with and new contact groups. Our niche is helping with ministerial training and encouraging church leaders. Your Uniques are here. We have a Proven Process of how we carry out this ministry and we have a Guarantee, ‘We bring you Truth.’” I felt a bit dumb to have not understood it all fitting together before, but so thankful to have that aha moment of getting how this organizational planning tool can work for us.

At another moment during our 3 days together, we missionaries began obsessing about limitations we have because of resources. Tim steered us again. “Let’s come up with an ambitious, righteous plan. We have resources and if we need more, we’ll find it.” So, that’s what we did. We are aiming big. We will pursue five new contact groups around Africa and try to get three of them through our vetting process within the next year. We’ll propose how we might continue to help our sister synods with their ministerial training, while also meeting the many requests to do training in new places. We are going to significantly and measurably advance the work started by a WELS pastor with groups in Liberia. Through these and five other one-year goals, we will do our best to serve the Lord.

Soon we’ll be landing back in Malawi. I’ll leave it at that. I urge you again to share this with some Christian friends who do business planning. I hope they see some familiar best business practices in what we do as we carry forward our Purpose, Cause, and Passion, “Christ for All, Great News for Africa!”

Missionary Paul Nitz is the Principal of the Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi and is also the Integrator of 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

Stefan Felgenhauer has recently been hired to serve WELS Missions in Africa as the Director of Operations for One Africa Team. Stefan and his wife Kathy have lived in Malawi previously and served WELS through the Kingdom Workers organization. Listen to Stefan as he (re)introduces himself in this week’s post:

Felgs on the move…..this has become our theme.  We’re about to move to Africa for the 3^rd time and we couldn’t be more excited!  My wife and I met in Bali, Indonesia, got married in New Ulm, MN and lived in Germany, Canada, the USA and in Malawi (twice).  When we sat down to think about it we realize we’ve never lived in the same house for more than 2 years.  Currently we live in Kansas and it’s true that we there is “no place like home” – we are in this world but not of it and heaven will be where we completely settle down for eternity.

Having grown up in Communist East Germany, I certainly couldn’t have imagined the plans the Lord had for me.  Looking back at my experiences I see God’s hand in leading me to this new opportunity to work as the Director of Mission Operations for One Africa Team.  My love for Africa really began when my wife and I were engaged.  She was teaching in Lippo Karawaci, Indonesia and I was in the military in Germany – together we traveled to Blantyre, Malawi to visit my in-laws.  My father-in-law, Missionary Ron Uhlhorn, was the first WELS urban missionary to Malawi (1998-2003).  It was an awesome experience to travel around with them seeing the mission work first hand, and a year or so later after we were married. Soon we returned for another visit to this intriguing place, which was already growing on our hearts.

In time I heard about a position opening to be the Business Manager for our mission in Malawi. This position description encompassed engaging in all “non-Word work” to free the missionaries for their “Word-work”.   We moved from Germany with our newborn daughter Louisa with the intent of staying only 2 years. We left 6 wonderful years (and 3 houses) later with two more children, Benjamin and Anna, who were born in Blantyre.  The idea of a business manager on field was a success and the Warm Heart of Africa had become home.

We then engaged in a four year adventure to Canada, Germany and the USA, calling several more houses and apartments home before another opportunity came knocking that brought us back to Malawi.  This time I worked directly for Kingdom Workers as their Field Manager. My wife and I developed short term volunteer opportunities for VBS events in rural villages, and eventually a ministry to the disabled using Jesus Cares materials translated into the Chichewa language.  Our growing children attended the international school and we felt right back at home.

Two houses and three years later we returned to the USA to live in Manhattan, KS and then Salina, KS where my wife held calls as preschool director and teacher. Our children picked up the American way of life and I found continued work in serving those with special needs.

I appreciate all the different fields of service that the Lord has given me. All of these experiences have helped me develop continued skills to now lead my family to Lusaka, Zambia in the coming months.  Working for One Africa Team, I look forward to the challenge of supporting the mission and ministries in many different African countries!

Stefan Felgenhauer and his family will be based 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

No one had to tell the crowd to be exuberant with praise. They just were. (Luke 19:37-38)

No one had to convince the people to shout. They just did. (John 12:13)

No one had to force them to make a welcome carpet out of their clothes. They just had to. (Luke 19:36)

You can no more prevent a song gushing up from the depths of a heart than you can stop Old Faithful from erupting from the deep of the earth.

It just comes up and sprays out.

Did the Palm Sunday throng fully “get” what was happening when Jesus traveled to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey?  Were they understanding the real reason for His entrance into their city?  Or the deeper meaning of their cries of Hosanna? (Matthew 21:9) Hardly.

But the 38 choir members at the Lutheran Bible Institute do. They know what Palm Sunday is all about. And it’s not about palms.

It’s about Jesus, the humble King.  It’s about the Christ coming to Jerusalem to fulfill His Father’s will.  It’s about the Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, the Ultimate Sacrifice for sin.  No one was taking Jesus’ life from Him, He was willingly and obediently giving it up.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!

No one has to tell the nineteen men and their wives to be enthusiastic to worship with song.

They just are.

Sopranos, Altos, Tenors and Basses all coming together in a chorus of harmony and a symphony of sound.  These Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) families have every reason to sing as they do because they know what happened, not only to Jesus but to themselves:

Baptized into Jesus’ name.
Redeemed by Christ’s blood.
Saved by grace through faith.

Their voices are Yellowstone geysers.

That’s why I apologize for the pictures.  You are merely seeing what I prefer you would be hearing.  The photos just don’t do justice to the experience itself.  It’s like passing in front of you a dinner plate heaped with a tantalizing meal but not allowing you to taste the flavors nor smell the aroma.

I’m sorry.  This article should be audio.

I wish I could have given, not your eyes but your ears a chance to be the pathway to walk alongside Jesus as He rides into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting and singing and praising.  Christ-centered psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are tour guides for the heart. They know the way and escort us up close to the main attraction: the Fountain of Life. (Psalm 36:9) Stand under the spray and feel the mist.

The medium is the music but the message is the Messiah!  Not only does it have the power to move us but has the ability to stir within us and from us our own gush of praise.

A hymn we can’t help but sing out…
From a voice we can’t help but lift up…
With a gratitude we can’t help but express forth!

And out it comes.

All Glory, Laud and Honor!

Walking by faith the Jerusalem road we see Jesus for who He really is (the Savior from sin) and for whom He really came (the entire world!)  We realize that the song of salvation, composed by Christ with His life and death and resurrection, was already welled deep within.

On Palm Sunday, out it came. (Just imagine what’s going to happen on Easter Sunday!)

No one cut down branches or waved palms at Crown of Life on the 25^th of March 2018.  No one spread their cloaks on the road.  But all the LBI choir members did wear brand new ones.  The tailoring was finished just a week or so ago. The sewing machine is still warm from use.  The 25^th of March 2018 was the first time the choir wore the crisp new robes.

Palm-branch green.

The color was stunning but not near as much as the singing.

Instruments?  None.
Pitch pipe?  No need.
Sheet music? Not that either.

Just a God-gifted, “pitch perfect” choir with exquisite harmony singing praises to God.

But the LBI choir members were not the only ones raising their voices in song on Palm Sunday.  So did the children, the women’s choir as well as the congregation itself.  Though one of the hymns we sang on Palm Sunday is actually found in the Advent section of Christian Worship, the words are most fitting:

The advent of our King
Our prayers must now employ,
And we must hymns of welcome sing
In strains of holy joy.

The everlasting Son
Incarnate deigns to be,
Himself a servant’s form puts on
To set his servants free.
(CW 1:1-2)

Lord Jesus, Redeemer King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas sing (CW 131), please accept our hymns and our hosannas as our worship to You. Not just on Palm Sunday but every day!  Even if we keep quiet, somehow in some way, as you said on that first Palm Sunday, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40).

All Glory, Laud and Honor!

With Palm Sunday joy,

Missionary John Holtz
Your Malawi Mission Partner

John Holtz and his wife live in Lilongwe, 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