The first day of camp is always a bit awkward. A beautiful park-like setting offsets the discomfort of sleeping in a strange bed. You tour the campus. You settle on a place to sit in the cafeteria. You recognize old familiar faces, and you introduce yourself to new friends. You bid your established routine farewell and embrace a new lifestyle, at least for a little while.

A Widely Spoken Language

For the last two weeks, I was a guest on the campus of the MS Training Center for Development Cooperation. Located near Arusha, Tanzania, MSTCDC has been operating a Swahili language immersion school since 1967. According to Wikipedia, over 200 million Swahili speakers live in the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

As One Africa Team’s liaison to the LCMC-Kenya, I have been picking up Swahili words and phrases every time I’ve visited over the last two years. In addition, I’ve downloaded a Peace Corps Swahili language course and I listen to the audio recordings on my daily walk.

Until now, I’ve never taken a formal Swahili language course. Our mission team set the goal of missionaries acquiring the ability to work in two new languages. We identified French and Swahili because these are two of the most widely spoken languages on the continent of Africa. One Africa Team’s long-range vision is that in ten years, among our partners there will be over 200,000 communicants who regularly gather around Word and Sacrament and are shepherded by well-trained leaders.

That’s how I found myself in Swahili camp. I enrolled myself in the intermediate level because I reckoned I was past the stage of learning greetings. Still, I found myself swimming, or drowning, in a strangely familiar yet different tongue. Swahili belongs to the Bantu family of languages. Grammatically and linguistically it is very similar to Chichewa, the language many people speak in Malawi.

However, during the Middle Ages, Arab traders interacted with the natives living in coastal cities of East Africa and Zanzibar. Between 20%-35% of the Swahili language is of Arabic origin. Every once in a while I stumble across a word I recognize from the time I spent on the Balkan Peninsula half a lifetime ago. I smile when I hear Swahili words like “faida,” “mzeituni,” and “bakshishshi” – these are words of Arabic origin that also entered Bulgarian conversational usage via the Ottoman Turks.

Boot Camp is Hard

Maybe you’re wondering why a fifty-five-year-old man is learning to speak a new language. Yes, it’s connected to my work responsibilities, but honestly, that is not adequate motivation. In most instances, I can get by with English or use a translator. Why have I invested so much time in learning to speak this foreign language (or any other)?

People open their hearts when they hear you struggling to string five words together in their native tongue. They recognize the effort you are making to understand their language, their culture, and their worldview. And when you speak through a translator, you lose the ability to connect to another human being directly.

God has given me both the ability and the interest to learn foreign languages. To whom much is given… I am putting myself in the uncomfortable position of talking at the level of a three-year-old. I dedicate my Swahili camp experience to God’s kingdom and glory.

Whether or not you speak a foreign tongue, the same principle is true. Sharing the good news of Jesus’ salvation with another human being requires humility. It requires us to listen before speaking. It means we strive to understand where someone is before we point him in the right direction. And it takes time.

These two weeks I’ve spent at Swahili camp is just another small step towards the realization of St. John’s vision of people from “every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:9) I don’t know what language we will be speaking in heaven, but God will have no trouble communicating his love for us all.

Amani ya Bwana nanyi (may the peace of God be with you)

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi.

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

A picture is worth a thousand words – in any language. Members of the Obadiah Lutheran Synod (OLS) in Uganda speak English, Luganda, Lusoga, and many other Bantu dialects. It is a challenge to communicate Scriptural truths across linguistic and educational barriers. It’s even more challenging to explain abstract concepts like justification, redemption, and Christ’s humiliation and exaltation to students in Confirmation class. But a well-drawn picture can tie timeless truth to a tangible target.

Dr. Terry Schultz is an experienced WELS Missionary who creates print and music materials for WELS Multi-Language Productions. Dr. Schultz supports WELS’s mission work around the globe. OLS President Maksimu Musa requested One Africa Team’s assistance training Sunday School teachers. OAT turned to Dr. Schultz, who has graphically portrayed the Apostles Creed with full-color illustrations. He and Missionary John Roebke engaged 35 Sunday School teachers and OLS pastors with the task of translating these illustrations into lessons.

The Pictures

The 1531 edition of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism contained 23 pictures printed from woodcut images. Like these images, Dr. Schultz’s drawings help a teacher tell a simple story to explain a complex teaching. A courtroom scene depicts a young man standing before a judge with his accuser to one side and his attorney to the other. The next scene shows him standing before God flanked by Satan and Jesus.

Another picture unfolds the drama of a kidnapping and payment of ransom. The next scene represents the divine story of Christ’s redemption – not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood. A comic book panel of pictures illustrates each of the stages of Christ’s humiliation.

A composite illustration presents the stages of his exaltation. Dr. Schultz carefully crafted each picture to maximize understanding and teaching. A teacher’s manual with minimal text supplements each picture, bearing in mind the target audience’s literacy level. WELS MLP has produced three booklets to date – one for each of the three articles of the Apostles’ Creed. Dr. Schultz is finalizing the illustrations for the Sacrament of Baptism, with the other chief parts of the Catechism to follow.

The Teachers

Attendees began each day of the workshop with animated singing and dancing. In addition to performing local melodies, the group learned a few African American spirituals from Dr. Schultz. OLS pastors delivered inspiring devotional messages in English. Dr. Schultz infused his own brand of energy into the workshop as he introduced each picture to the participants.

After this, the Sunday school teachers broke into smaller groups of 3-5 people. In each group, an OLS pastor walked through the concepts behind the picture. Thirty minutes later, each small group took turns teaching the lesson to the larger audience. Some teachers appeared more confident than others, but by the week’s end, all of them had made significant improvement. 

The Picture Ahead

Unfortunately, time did not allow for Dr. Schultz to present all 45 teaching posters to the group. The teaching posters and manuals remain with the OLS in Uganda. We encouraged the pastors to work through these materials with their Sunday school teachers. The pastors have a much better grasp of both Lutheran teachings and local culture.

Regardless if Dr. Schultz returns to Uganda, the OLS now has a powerful instrument for instructing youth and adults. Can you picture their faces gathered around Jesus’ throne someday?

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi

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

Tiptoeing: it’s something my cat Magic does when she wants to go outside. She tiptoes to the threshold, noses around, and then suddenly bounds through the doorway and dashes off on the hunt.

For the past year, the One Africa Team (OAT) has been “tiptoeing” around the Democratic Republic of The Congo (DRC). I was called to Africa to connect with French-speaking church groups. As soon as I arrived in Africa, I was given an interesting French-speaking contact: a Lutheran pastor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This pastor soon put me in touch with his church group’s secretary-general.

For a year, we texted and talked on WhatsApp and email and eventually held regular bible studies on Zoom, along with the pastors and evangelists. This year, they formed their own synod, la Mission Évangélique Luthérienne au Congo (“Evangelical Lutheran Mission to The Congo”—MELC).

A Country with a Painful Past

Although Zambian and WELS pastors have made occasional, brief visits to The Congo, this hasn’t happened since the 1990s, and it has never happened using French. As the MELC began the process of exploring the path to church fellowship with the WELS, we at OAT felt it was important to visit our friends. After getting approval for the trip and taking some special precautions, Missionaries Howard Mohlke and Keegan Dowling (me) flew to Lubumbashi, DRC, for face-to-face meetings with the leaders of MELC.

What do you know about The Congo? It suffered terribly for generations under the brutal, exploitative rule of Belgium’s King Leopold and then of Belgium itself. In the 1990s, it was flooded by refugees from the Rwanda genocide, which led to an international African war that killed millions in the DRC. Today, The Congo is famous for its rich deposits of “rare earth metals”—scarce elements essential for the manufacture of advanced electronics, such as phones, missiles, and computers. Warlords still exploit the mines for these—and other—precious minerals, causing much turmoil and pain. If you follow current events, you probably wonder why anyone would dare to go to The Congo.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t dramatic for us at all. The DRC is a huge country (the world’s 11^th-largest), and Lubumbashi turned out to be a sea of tranquility while we were there. We went because we have Lutheran friends there who want to walk together with the WELS. Face-to-face visits show honor and respect, which is why OAT missionaries live in Africa: so that we can regularly visit WELS’ many partners and prospects throughout the continent.

Evidence of God’s Kingdom at Work

In The Congo, we visited MELC worship services at a house church and a large meeting tent. The people of MELC use both French and Swahili, two languages that are mushrooming in their significance for OAT’s current outreach efforts. The pastors of MELC have a heart for sound doctrine and a heart for evangelism. At the end of the visit, OAT and MELC shared a traditional Congolese meal in celebration of our friendship. Our goal is to see each other—and as many people as possible—at the Lamb’s ultimate, eternal feast in heaven!

The Democratic Republic of The Congo: been there… done that… going back. God willing, OAT missionaries will return in 2024, after the DRC’s elections, to conduct a doctrinal workshop with MELC. Over the following months and years, we hope to grow in our understanding of God’s Word and each other. We are tiptoeing no longer, but taking the plunge. Diving into ministry in a land of people Jesus loves.

Missionary Keegan Dowling lives in Zambia.

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