“We Are Different.” It was a saying often repeated during our time together. For two weeks, Gambela Evangelical Lutheran Church leaders studied God’s Word with Missionaries Dan Kroll and Joel Hoff. Time spent in Scripture helped the leaders become more confident in their beliefs. It also helped them better understand what made their church different from all the others in Gambela, Ethiopia.

We believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus. We are different. We believe that we do not decide to believe in Jesus or accept him as our Lord and Savior. We are different. We believe that sin is serious and that there are serious consequences because of our sin. We are different. We believe that God’s big love was revealed to us in Jesus through whom we have forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. We are different. We believe that baptism is God’s work and intended for all sinners no matter their age. We are different. 

The members of the GELC were able to demonstrate this difference in confession as well as in practice. Over two days, 74 souls were baptized into God’s family. Many of those precious souls were little children. This is significant because baptizing children is unheard of in many churches throughout Africa. 

From conception, the Bible describes our condition. Sinful… hostile to God… dead in sin… lost… blind… hopeless. But God makes us different through baptism. Through water and Word we are forgiven… children of God… alive in Christ… found… seeing with the eyes of faith… and clinging to the everlasting hope that is ours through our Savior Jesus Christ. 

The leaders and families of the GELC believe the Word of God spoken through Peter on Pentecost when he said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38,39) 

By God’s grace, the GELC church leaders will continue to study God’s Word and teach what they have learned to their members. By God’s grace, the families will continue to gather around God’s Word and impress the truths of Scripture on their children. By God’s grace, the leaders, the families, those 74 souls and we are different.

Joel Hoff lives in Lusaka, Zambia and coordinates TELL outreach. For more information visit www.tellnetwork.org

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

God builds a family in unexpected ways. That thought filled my mind eleven years ago as I first looked down at my son in my arms.  I was standing in an orphanage just outside Kinshasa (the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the DRC).  My son was nine months old, but it was the first time I’d held him.  Through earthly loss and God’s unsearchable providence – with no small amount of paperwork and prayers along the way – he became my son, and I became his father.  And the strangest thing was how it didn’t feel strange at all.  Unexpected, sure.  But without a doubt, we were family.

This April, that thought came echoing back.  I was back in the DRC.  This time I was standing in a small classroom in Lubumbashi.  I had spent the last week visiting local Lutheran churches and teaching catechetical classes on the Apostles’ Creed to a group of Congolese pastors, evangelists, and choir leaders together with missionary Keegan Dowling.  As I began to say farewells (through an interpreter), we called each other brother and sister.  We didn’t speak the same language and we knew so little about each other, but God’s Word had brought us together.  Without a doubt, we were family.

The One Africa Team Adjunct Program

I was in the DRC as an adjunct member of the One Africa Team (OAT).  Much of the OAT’s work is following up with African churches that are seeking guidance as they grow in the Word and develop strong Lutheran churches – and many churches are reaching out to us.  To help serve the great need, OAT has begun recruiting “adjunct” members of their team: US-based WELS pastors who can travel to Africa for a short period and partner with an OAT member to work with local church bodies.

Missionary Dowling and I worked with church workers from the MELC (la Mission Évangélique Luthérienne au Congo, or “The Evangelical Lutheran Mission to The Congo”).  Some of the challenges they faced were familiar: the large local church drawing away members, and the temptations to avoid conflict by comprising on doctrine. Some of them were foreign to me, such as a lack of Bible translations available in the local language, the challenge of worshiping in the rainy season without a building, or local pastors bringing in pagan practices.  But the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word was strong, and it was beautiful to witness.  The men and women were faithful students of the Word and eager servants of the church.

World Missions Come Home

I serve a congregation on the north side of Atlanta.  Our local WELS churches have been talking about ways we might serve the large immigrant population in Atlanta and connect them with the gospel.  During my time in Lubumbashi, several of the workshop participants shared that they had relatives who had recently immigrated to the States – and all of them had gone to Atlanta!  They were eager to share their contact information with me, with the hope that I could connect them with one of our local churches.  It was a wonderful reminder that the gap between “Home Missions” and “World Missions” isn’t so wide.  It’s a privilege to bring the gospel to people overseas, but we dare not miss that God has brought so many people from overseas to our cities and neighborhoods.

I often get emails and WhatsApp messages from our friends in The DRC – even the occasional phone call, though we don’t speak the same language!  We share photos, updates, and prayers.  While I didn’t expect to be communicating with people half a world away, that’s what family does!

Rev. Joel Seifert lives in the Atlanta area and serves the members of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Marietta, GA

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

Have you ever heard people use the phrase, “That’s a dangerous prayer”? It means when you ask God for things that he will almost certainly grant it will also probably mean challenging times for the person praying.

For example, you could pray each day that God would bring challenges into your life so that you would be drawn closer to him. You could pray each day that God would give you an opportunity to witness about Jesus with somebody. These could be considered “dangerous” requests because God will likely grant those requests, but it might mean hard or uncomfortable times for us.

How God is Challenging Us

In the Outreach group for the One Africa Team, we often pray the prayer, “Lord, present us with more opportunities to reach more people with your gospel in Africa.” You could call that a dangerous prayer. What if God actually granted that request? What would we do with all the opportunities?

By God’s grace, that’s exactly the position we are finding ourselves in. We find ourselves high in opportunities and low in the ability to take advantage of them all in the way we would like. In addition to the 8 African mission partners we’re already in fellowship with, we are currently actively working towards fellowship with another 8 church bodies!

These are located in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2 church bodies there), Liberia, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia (2 here also, different from the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia, which joined our fellowship a few years ago). We are also offering support to two of our sister churches as they reach out to establish fellowship with other churches in their areas. In addition, at any given time we usually have around 40 individuals that come into contact with us online that we are trying to get to know better to see if we can work together in gospel ministry. Finally, many of the churches and contacts we are beginning to work with are in countries where the predominant language is French. We find ourselves in need of more people who are capable of working in this language.

What We are Praying For

Admittedly, these are great challenges for us to have to face! We thank God for his grace in leading us to all these opportunities. Now we ask that he also give us the capacity to overcome the challenges we are facing.

Please join your prayers to ours about these things! Pray that God would send us more workers to fill the three empty positions on our team. Pray that we can excel in language learning so that we can better communicate the truths of the gospel in different countries. Pray that these new groups would have a love for the pure word of God and that we would find ourselves in agreement with them on doctrine so that we can work together for the sake of the gospel.

And yes, pray that we will have even more opportunities for gospel outreach in the future! It may be a “dangerous” prayer, but is one filled with God’s blessing!

Missionary Ben Foxen lives in Lusaka and coordinates One Africa Team’s work with new mission partners

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