Home is where the [blank] is

I often question: What does HOME mean? Obviously, it depends.

After all, during our 30 years of marriage caring for 12 cats and 2 kids, John and I have set up households 16 times. The longest we have lived in any dwelling is 8 years. We have been involved in church work in Europe, North America, and now Africa.

“Home is where the [blank] is”: What is the best way to fill in the blank? Where can we get clarity? This impacts my life now! How you answer shapes your well-being too.

The Word of Christ in our home

Recently my husband and I assisted with running a marriage workshop with Kenyan Lutheran couples. The majority of them live in their communities as pastor families. The schedule emphasized the importance of our relationships as we serve others in and out of our own households. I especially was intrigued to be there since it was my first time in this part of Africa. John started visiting Kenya in 2019. It was fantastic to share this experience with him and all the other attendees.

home is where the blank is — *Sharing a “Ra-ha” moment*

We encouraged each other to practice the unique roles clearly given to husbands and wives in the Bible:

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord (Colossians 3:18)

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them (Colossians 3:19)

Together we put our married lives into context: We are “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved” (Colossians 3:12) who are to “let the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts, since as members of one body [we] were called to peace. And be thankful (verse 15).

We practiced what St. Paul encourages all of us to do in the next verse:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.“

So here is how I would fill in the missing idea in the opening paragraph:

Home is where THE WORD of CHRIST is.

We focused on the Bible’s spiritual guidance for our married life as well as digging into practical themes. We adapted “God on Marriage” by Dr. Daniel Akin and “Distracted Marriage” by Pastor Randy Hunter (WELS Adult Discipleship). Pastor Onunda presented in both English and Swahili.

My husband directed whole-group activities and ensured private couple time to discuss God-given roles and overcome problems. We recommitted ourselves to give our marriage the attention it needs and to initiate meaningful conversations with each other. We reviewed how to build in time to discuss issues and to understand each other better. Most importantly, we realized we can forgive each other because of how God forgives us through what Christ did for us.

And quite fittingly, our marriage workshop concluded with the baptism of baby Milan, the only child in attendance.

*The baptism of Milan Bruce Omuse happened at the end of our workshop*

Living together on this side of heaven

God gives us this gift of Christ’s promises in that Word. From it, we have the vital message that Christ has saved us and has prepared an eternal heavenly Home. This puts our earthly situations and relationships into perspective. Christ gives us faith, peace, unity, thankfulness, wisdom, and fellowship even as we may struggle with where exactly we belong here in our lives.

Sometimes we show frustration with how best to relate to others–even to our spouse whom we promised to love! But because Christ lived perfectly and died instead of us for our stubbornness and pride, we have forgiveness. This is not because of what we couples do but because of what Christ did for us. His sacrifice is perfect whereas our material and emotional sacrifices are not. Because Christ draped us in His perfection, God welcomes us to His home. Meanwhile, He gives us the strength to love our families even better each day.

Here are some of the comments we received after the workshop ended:

“On behalf of my family l would like to thank the LCMC Kenya office for planning the retreat in Mombasa, It has refreshed our family and taught us new things that will strengthen our staying together and our work in the Lord’s vineyard too. It was a good encouragement too. Be blessed.”
“I and my dear wife want to thank God and those Leaders who planned the pastors’ trip to Mombasa. May almighty God bless you all servants we are so grateful for the unity and love we had.”
“I too and my wife dearly say thank you to almighty God, the Lcmc leadership, and our mission partners for the opportunity of bringing us together. We wish to have this annually for the health of the family of which we are the role model.
Any member with useful material please share.”

Please pray that God uses the time we spent together to strengthen Christian love in our homes.

May God help us keep the Word of Christ in our relationships as we are headed for our heavenly HOME!

Nancy Roebke lives in Malawi with her husband John.

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

Fish for People in French…in Cameroon?

Fresh fish! Look at these fellas and the catch of the day! For one week in the middle of June, two One Africa Team missionaries got to work by the sea in Cameroon with a group of church leaders, not only in English but also in French. As far as anyone can tell, this may have been the first time WELS World Missions has provided in-person training in Africa in French!

Sweating in Douala

Missionary Dan Kroll (with many years of experience living in Cameroon) and I (Missionary Keegan Dowling) went to the port city of Douala, and the church leaders traveled from their inland homes to meet with us there. Douala is a dank, green city on the Gulf of Guinea—and just about smack-dab on the Equator. As a matter of fact, I used to sweat as a pastor in Canada, so you can imagine I was soaked during my week in Cameroon. (Sometimes, I went through 4 shirts in a day!)

Douala is Cameroon’s biggest city and a major port. Where we stayed was right next to where the huge freighter ships docked. And there was PLENTY of fresh fish to eat—even HUGE, spicy prawns. (Fun Fact: The country of “Cameroon” was named after the Portuguese word for “prawn”!) We got so much fish on the street that the sellers got to know us… and rival sellers would tussle over us, trying to physically direct us toward their stalls.

Fish for Souls

But the real reason Missionary Kroll and I were there was not to eat but to catch fish. More specifically, we were there to help train some local fishermen: a group of leaders from Holy Trinity Lutheran Synod, whose calling from Jesus—like each of us Christians—is to fish for people, not necessarily for fish.

*the leaders of Holy Trinity Lutheran Synod*

Holy Trinity is not yet in church fellowship with the WELS. They are just beginning their journey of exploring the road to church fellowship. This starts with an emphasis on doctrine—specifically, a comprehensive overview of doctrine like you would find in a bible information course at a church in North America. I’ve known French since I was a teenager and would read Le Monde newspaper and listen to Radio France Internationale and collect French films in college.

But I can be thankful now that the Lord called me at Seminary graduation (2013) to serve as a pastor for 9 years in Orléans, Ontario, which is the eastern part of Ottawa, the capital city of Canada: Ottawa is the largest bilingual city in the country. While there, seeing and hearing French every day, I soaked up a lot of detailed vocabulary which is coming in handy now in Africa, where 167 million people speak French.

Teaching God’s Word in French

WELS Multi-Language Productions (MLP) gave us permission to put my favorite bible information course—Basic Bible Christianity, by Pastor Jon Buchholz—into French, and use it in our training workshops. We spent time with our new friends in Cameroon honing in on such aspects of doctrine as communion, baptism, Law-and-Gospel, the history of the Bible, and confession, among others. We plan to meet with these very same men at all our upcoming workshops so that we can forge personal relationships and make progress as we grow deeper in our studies and our planning together.

When we were men about town, Missionary Kroll and I both got a lot of exposure to French: It’s the language of the city of Douala. It is still a new and fresh experience for us, to use French in our ministry. It was also a new and fresh experience for our friends from Holy Trinity Lutheran Synod to explore biblical doctrine systematically with a bible information course presented both in French and in English. Missionary Kroll and I hope we grow stronger in our use of French with each visit we make to Cameroon. And we hope the leaders from Holy Trinity will also grow stronger in their understanding and use of God’s Word—which sounds sweet in any language.

Missionary Keegan J. Dowling lives in Lusaka, Zambia

Who was in Sondu?

Who was in Sondu? This is my friend John. He was in Sondu, Kenya. We helped lead a workshop for church leaders and treasurers in the Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ (LCMC). He is an experienced financial professional and a dedicated Christian. He led parts of the workshop. So did two other laymen. John was his usual cheerful, helpful self.

This is a new acquaintance, Pamela. She is the treasurer of her small church. She teaches in a school too. I asked her to facilitate part of the discussion on the afternoon of day two. She did a great job—better than I would have.

Who else was in Sondu? This is my friend Anariko. He is the LCMC president, but he did not lead the stewardship-and-financial-reporting workshop. Laymen did. Anariko helped coordinate it, and Anariko helped me with the part I led on the second day. He met with many people privately during the workshop. He and I conducted the communion service. He taught online during the workshop evenings. He is a hard worker.

Here is the whole group singing. They were all in Sondu, of course. Almost 60 of us were. They came from at least 16 congregations. There were only a few pastors.

I was in Sondu too. The photo of the whole group did not turn out well, so here is a better photo. It is of Pastor and President Anariko Onunda, me, and a gentleman whose name I did not get.

Who wasn’t in Sondu?

I would like to tell you a bit, though, about people who were not in Sondu. Why? They were very important to the workshop.

For instance, Dr. Al Sorum from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary was not there. He and I both helped at the last LCMC workshop in October 2022. Years ago Al was the first WELS representative to get to know Pastor Onunda face-to-face. Without Al, humanly speaking, LCMC and WELS would not be partners.

Pastor John Roebke was not in Sondu either. John, who lives in Malawi, is our WELS liaison to LCMC. He teaches LCMC students online. He works with LCMC on ministry plans, mercy ministry, and more. He visits Kenya often. If it were not for John, I would not have been there at the Sondu workshop. I had scheduled class to teach with three LCMC pastors in mid-May. As long as I would be there for one reason, John had an idea. “Why don’t you coordinate with Pastor Onunda on a workshop right after the class?”

John also helped me when I flew into Kenya. There had been some snags with transferring workshop funds from the States. John helped me sort them out.

So did Stefan Felgenhauer, our WELS World Missions operations director. Without Stefan, I could not have managed in Kenya for three weeks. I want to thank him and others who work with him at the WELS Center for Mission and Ministry.

Here is our One Africa Team leader, Pastor Howie Mohlke. Like me and my wife, Howie and his wife Leslie live in Lusaka, Zambia. Howie was not in Sondu. I was the only one from OAT there. But without Howie I would not have been there. Howie coordinates most OAT meetings. In them we pray and discuss how best to work with our partners and support their shepherding of God’s flock. Howie asks the rest of us good, hard questions.

Who is Behind Me

Here is my wife Debbie and our whole immediate family. This photo of our six children and our son-in-law is from three weeks before the workshop. Our daughter Daria had just graduated from Wheaton College. A week later I flew from Tampa, Florida through Frankfurt, Germany to Nairobi, Kenya. I flew out on Mother’s Day evening. My wife and I knew we would be apart for 5.5 weeks. It was hard to say goodbye. It always is.

I could not do what I do in Africa without the love, prayers, and support of my family.

Last but not least: You. You were not there in Sondu, Kenya 29 May–1 June. But you and everyone else in WELS let me be there. You gave the offerings. You were praying for me and other missionaries. You were praying for our Kenyan brothers and sisters. You do so every time you don’t pray, “My Father … .” You pray, “Our Father … .”

I wish you could have been in Sondu. You might have giggled at my baby Swahili attempts. You would have rejoiced in the way the group asked to stay an extra half day so they could make more action plans. You would have laughed for joy at the love in the room for Jesus and for each other.

Your heart would have burst with mine as believers sang unaccompanied in harmony. They sang by Jesus’ Spirit. They sang to God’s glory. They sang at scheduled devotion times. The women at the conference formed an impromptu choir and sang at breaks.

Thank you for letting me be in Sondu, Kenya I was the only muzungu (white man) at the LCMC planning and commitment workshop.

God was there, indeed. But thank you to everyone pictured above who was not there. Asante sana. Thank you very much.

*On June 1 five laymen, Anariko Onunda, and Dan Witte dedicated land near Sondu, Kenya. LCMC plans a new church there. The man nearest the camera is Duke*.

Missionary Dan Witte is based in Lusaka, Zambia. He is part of the WELS One Africa Team.