Jake Vilhauer recently graduated from Martin Luther College (MLC) and is a new missionary for the One Africa Team.

Coming out of Martin Luther College I initially planned on becoming a high school history teacher. In history teacher fashion, here’s a crash course of the last eight months of my life. I was informed that I was being considered for an international call. I accepted that international call. I graduated from MLC and announced my call to my family, who were shocked – the understatement of the year.  I got married to Maddie Hockenbery on the 1st of June and shipped off to Zambia in August.

Learning Curve

Ten days after arriving in Zambia, my wife and I left for France to begin our French-speaking journey. We stayed in Strasbourg and went to French school every day, starting from scratch. Thanksgiving came quickly, and we left France to live with another missionary family in Douala, Cameroon to learn more French and to learn about West African culture. Soon we will return to Zambia and settle down in our own place.

The work that I have been able to do as a missionary with the One Africa Team is awesome, to say the least. I have worked with multiple groups of potential partners. Four seminary teachers from West Africa came to Douala and I helped them with educational strategies for the future. I have also taught online TELL classes with people all over Africa, studying the Bible in depth.

God’s Plan

There have been some challenges with being away from family, learning a new language, and learning a new culture. However, these past months have helped me to grow in my faith and learn how to work on a team. Although we are far from our families in the States, we were instantly provided with new families on the mission field. There has not been a lack of support from anyone, and I am truly grateful for that.

The past five months away from home have been a whirlwind. I never thought I would be a missionary. I would joke with Maddie about going abroad to annoy her. I had not heard of a World Missions call from MLC. People say that God hears our plans and laughs – that was true in my case. In the last year, God allowed me to graduate from MLC, receive and accept a World Missions call, get married, learn a new language, and live on three different continents. I pray that God blesses our missionary work here in Africa.

Jake and Maddie Vilhauer live 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. 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

Finding the best ways to communicate well is always something WELS missionaries are thinking about. That’s why, in mid-October, my family landed in Arusha, Tanzania. We planned to spend about 2 months in the country to learn to communicate in Swahili.

Old and Young Learners

I enrolled in two courses at MS-TCDC, a college focused on teaching Swahili to foreigners, for five weeks. Outside of class, there were plenty of opportunities to practice Swahili with people. We bought groceries, asked for directions, flagged down bijajis (3-wheeled taxis), and just said: “jambo” (hello)! The official languages of Tanzania are both Swahili and English. However, much more emphasis is placed on Swahili in Tanzania. It’s common to find people who speak very little or no English. This made using the language a must in day-to-day interactions.

My wife, Becky, and two youngest children, Katya (9) and Leia (6) joined me for the experience. Becky homeschools the girls, so temporarily relocating from our home in Lusaka, Zambia to Arusha didn’t interrupt their learning. Becky integrated quickly into the local homeschooling scene, and she and the girls made new friends quickly.

Connecting with Local Christians

I also interacted with Africa Mission Evangelism Church (AMEC), a Lutheran church body based in Tanzania. After carefully working through OAT’s Four Stage Process, WELS will declare fellowship with AMEC at this summer’s Synod Convention, God-willing.

Our normal practice is to visit one of our mission partners for about two weeks. After two months in Tanzania, we visited many churches on Sundays and deepened our relationships with church leaders. I also met with leaders from the Community of Evangelical Lutheran Churches of Central Africa (CEELAC). CEELAC is a new partner based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have been meeting in Tanzania due to security concerns in the DRC

Both AMEC and CEELAC use Swahili in their worship services. Attending worship was a great opportunity to put into practice what I had learned in my classes. Two months isn’t enough time to communicate like a native Swahili speaker. I was excited to see that I could understand much more and even teach a little in their language. I’m thankful for the opportunity to communicate the Gospel no matter where I live!

Missionary Ben Foxen lives in Zambia.

Listen to Leia Foxen communicate in her way about what she saw in Tanzania in this video posted on the One Africa Team’s YouTube Channel

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

One Africa Team Missionary Keegan Dowling and WELS Pastor Joel Seifert recently visited the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here is their story:

Just to date myself, I’m a fan of the Oklahoma rock group Flaming Lips. One time they released an album—four discs (dated again!)—meant to be played simultaneously—called “Zaireka”. They wanted a name that evoked chaos and joy… and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC) was the ultimate byword for chaos.

Not so, on OAT’s travels to Lubumbashi, a busy, thriving mining city in the southeast of the DRC. We need the government’s permission to go there and offer workshops to the confessional Lutheran church group—the MELC—with whom we are exploring the possibility of fellowship. The intelligence officers monitor OAT missionaries’ visits closely, both for their good and for ours. We have heard that they are happy to have us visit so that we can spread the word that Lubumbashi is safe, orderly, and open for business.

But we’ve also heard that they like what we’ve been teaching. As they’ve read reports of our pastoral training workshops, they’ve mentioned that they think the content—the Small Catechism of Luther—is wonderful. The Gospel Word is spread, sometimes in surprising ways.

In November, Missionary Keegan Dowling and OAT Adjunct, Pastor Joel Seifert, presented their second training workshop for the pastors and evangelists of the MELC, who came to Lubumbashi from as far away as Kinshasa in the west and Manono to the north. On Wednesday evenings, Missionary Keegan continues to hold French-language doctrinal studies on Zoom with the leaders of MELC.

Thank you for whatever ways you’ve been supporting this new mission field! Congo-reka! And soli deo gloria. Peace.

Missionary Keegan Dowling lives 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. 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