Sing to the Lord New (Old) Songs

Sing to the Lord a new song…for great is the Lord and most worthy of praise (Psalm 96:1,4)

In the closing days of August, Rev. Dr. Terry Schultz from WELS Multi-Language Productions and Rev. Ben Foxen of the One Africa Team traveled to Uganda.

The goal? Fulfill a request made by our brothers and sisters in the Obadiah Lutheran Synod (OLS) to help them sing new songs with Christ-centered lyrics.

A Workshop for Creativity

Thanks to funding provided by MLP, we gathered about 20 musicians from the various districts of the OLS in one place for 5 days of training, encouragement, and hands-on work to compose and sing new songs. MLP also provided funds to purchase equipment that the OLS will use to train future musicians in their church body.

During this workshop, the assembled musical talent and creativity continually amazed us. In a short time, these men and women composed and recorded 68 new songs which showed incredible diversity. Since the composers came from different parts of the country, they composed songs in no less than 7 different languages. The musical styles differed, ranging from traditional Ugandan beats to more of a hip-hop style, to chant and chorales. It was eye-opening to witness how the people of OLS sought to incorporate all these different styles, showing that all of these musical styles are part of their cultural heritage.

The content of these songs also differed, some focusing on themes of praise and thanksgiving (among them my personally favorite melody, “Nebaza Musumba Wange,” or “I thank you, my Shepherd”); others focusing on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; others on sin and repentance; and others a recasting of the timeless songs of the liturgy.

Nebaza Musumba Wange (I thank you, my Shepherd)

Let All the People Sing

One of the goals of this workshop was to preserve any music that the musicians produced. So, a handheld recording device was used to capture the compositions as they were performed for the group, and handwritten lyrics were transcribed into a Microsoft Word document. Both were then transferred to microSD cards that church leaders could share with all the congregations of the OLS. In this way, the entire church will benefit from this workshop.

OLS leaders have plans to take this project further. They want these composers to continue producing new melodies and lyrics, focusing their talents on the various seasons of the church year. In time musicians might produce and record an entire OLS hymnbook. It’s an ambitious project, but they have the talent to accomplish it.

Through it all, we rejoice in the amazing gifts that God has given to his people. God’s people have always created new songs to praise and glorify our God and teach people about his amazing deeds and love. The OLS may be singing some new songs to the Lord now, but they’re also singing the same old song that God’s people have always sung—Christ for us, and Christ in us. All glory and praise be to his name, with whatever melody or language you sing!

Missionary Ben Foxen 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

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

One Thing Leads to Another

One thing leads to another – in this case, an online Bible school has led to new contacts in Gambella, Ethiopia.

WELS’ Multi-Language Productions offers an online Bible school called TELL. A large majority of the school’s students are located in Africa. However, people all around the world find TELL very encouraging and use it as their primary source of spiritual growth. One of our participants is moving into a new and fairly untested level that requires him to confess doctrine agreement with the WELS.

Meet the Students

Opiew Adiew Okugn is from Gambella, Ethiopia. He has been faithful in the TELL program for roughly two years. He is ready for a TELL Counsellor to work with him at the Multiplication Level of the TELL program. This is challenging Opiew to make use of the knowledge he learned from the TELL program. The first step, again, is for him to make a statement of agreement with WELS teachings.

When I met with Opiew at Addis Ababa I was reminded about how “one thing leads to another.” Opiew came with three of his brothers from the Gambella Lutheran Church to discuss some essential points of doctrine. Alfred comes with a degree in teaching. He had been in another church until he saw the false teaching there. Both Ochalla Omod and Otong Omod have training in another Lutheran Seminary. They also found false teaching and a lot of church politics that they wanted to get away from. These four men actually started their own congregation in 2015, and have been looking for an international Lutheran group to join for several years.

Missionary Dan Kroll reviews Bible teachings — *Reviewing Bible teachings together in person is a great blessing*

Looking to the Next Thing

We studied together for four days. We built good relationships in our study of the truth of Scripture. Those studies were enough to move Opiew into the Multiplication Level. I was happy to get to know all four of these men personally and especially to hear their doctrinal stand on some important issues. We will have a good group to study with for the coming years to confirm and build up their ministry. We might even have the opportunity to bring them close to our brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia. Sometimes things get tangled, but God uses those entanglements to lead from one thing to another.

Dan Kroll lives in Malawi and is the One Africa Team Liaison to West Africa