Looking Forward and Back

Today’s post is written by Missionary Howard Mohlke, the leader of One Africa Team. He has been waiting for over a year in the USA for his work papers, which he recently received.

On Saturday, April 17, 2021, Leslie and I landed in Lilongwe, Malawi. As we landed and looked forward to our new life living and working in Africa, we also looked back to 1991 when we first landed in Zambia to serve as part of the mission team. Back then we arrived with two daughters ages 4 and 2, and one son who was 6 months old. Now, it’s just the two of us and those three and two more are all grown up. Back then we left behind our parents and “took their grandchildren away” as they would remind us at times. Now, we are leaving behind our grandchildren.

Back then we were a young family and I had just been assigned from the Seminary to serve in Zambia. Now, Leslie and I have been together for over three decades and have been blessed in many ways as we lived in Zambia, Nebraska, Idaho, and Arizona. Now we look forward to being blessed as we live again in Africa and wonder a bit what the Lord has in store for us. That said, we know for certain that just as the Lord saw us through in the past, he will be with us and bless us this time too.

Many Changes

It is said that you can never go home, meaning that our memories of home remain the same but time changes everything and things are never as we remember As Leslie and I returned to Africa, we kept reminding ourselves that this would be true and indeed it was.

Back in 1991 we arrived in a country that had suffered from years of socialism and one-party rule. The consequences were a ruined economy and infrastructure. It was a challenge to procure the most basic of needs. Now, even though there are differences in name brands and price, almost anything can be purchased at a local store. Back then it was big news when certain items were available at the store; now one can compare prices and the quality of items that you want to buy.

Back in 1991, the only forms of communication with family in the states were airmail and long-distance calls that cost $1.00 per minute – that is if the phone was working at all. Now with cellular data, there are multiple means of voice and video communication – if the electricity is on. I guess some things do stay the same.

Nothing New

Rev. Medson Mitengo is the President of the LCCA – Malawi Synod

As with water and electricity outages, other things remain the same. The biggest constant is the need to share the good news of Jesus. People continue to struggle with sin and guilt and need the comfort of Jesus. The work of sharing this comfort is still carried out through Christian congregations who gather to be blessed through Word and Sacrament and are willing to share the truth with their neighbors. Nowadays, the congregations are served by locally trained Pastors and Elders, but the work remains the same.

Something New

Back in 1991, my work was to serve a dozen churches, visiting them every four to six weeks. In between my visits, the work of shepherding the congregations was in the hands of faithful men and women who read sermons on Sunday, taught basic instruction, and Sunday school. They visited the sick and managed the affairs of their congregations. When I would visit, I conducted worship and offered encouragement and training to those who were serving so faithfully.

Serving congregations in rural Malawian villages

Today, WELS Missionaries in Africa are not serving as Pastors of congregations or overseeing congregations but are working with the Pastors and leaders of church bodies throughout Africa. Back in 1991, there were missionaries doing what I was doing in Malawi and Zambia. Now, the mission team works with partner church bodies in Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, as well as Malawi and Zambia. We also are working with Multi-Language Productions offering basic Biblical and shepherding training to individuals anywhere in the continent. Our prayer is that all these relationships and partnerships would be blessed by the LORD so more people may hear the Good News of Jesus in Africa and beyond.

Always

As Leslie and I begin this new stage of mission life, we know that it is the LORD who has called us here and will bless us. For this we are thankful.

The Lord be with you all,

Howie
aka Rev. Howard Mohlke. One Africa Team Leader

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

Christ is Certainly Risen!

This week’s post is written by Rev. Brad Wordell, a member of the faculty of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s Pastoral Studies Institute. He also serves as the liaison between the Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR) and One Africa Team. As our mission efforts continue to bear fruit in Africa, the CICR plays a vital role in establishing formal relations between church bodies on the continent and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

During this Easter season, we might say that the CICR stands for Christ Is Certainly Risen. It is true! Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! Our Savior is risen indeed!

His resurrection changes everything for us. Because our Savior lives, we live. We have life (peace and fellowship with God and the privilege of serving him) now and in the world to come. And our holy, Christian faith seeks to be active—in worship, in the proclamation of the Lord’s name, and in love to him and the people around us. What a blessed life we have! All praise be to our Triune God!

The seal of the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia

The members of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod are heirs of the Lutheran Reformation. We believe that the Bible is the only source of faith and doctrine (sola scriptura), that sinful mankind is saved by faith in Jesus and not by good works (sola fide), and that everything we have is a gift from our gracious God in heaven (sola gratia). We believe God has determined the times and places that we should live, and that it is his will that we proclaim his name among the nations. We believe that God works through the means of grace—the gospel in the Word, in Holy Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper—to create, preserve, and strengthen our faith, and to produce in us the fruits of faith. We believe that the Lutheran Confessions as recorded in the Book of Concord of 1580 are a faithful exposition of the Word of God. We rejoice that like-minded Lutherans are singing Hallelujah to the Lord all around the world, and we rejoice in this blessed fellowship as we wait for the glorious return of our Savior.

The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia is headquartered in the city of Bishoftu, Ethiopia

The WELS enjoys this blessed fellowship of doctrine and practice with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) in the States, and with more than 35 church bodies around the world in the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC).

In order to extend and conserve the true doctrine and practice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod through its Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR) keeps itself informed on doctrinal trends in other church bodies. This commission, made up of ten members and four advisory members, serves under the Conference of Presidents and represents the synod in doctrinal discussions with other church bodies who are, or are not, in fellowship with the synod, in order to “extend and conserve the true doctrine and practice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.”

To accomplish this the CICR keeps itself informed on the doctrinal trends in other church bodies and works to preserve and strengthen the bonds of fellowship with church bodies with which there is complete unity of doctrine and practice. Additionally, the CICR seeks to extend the bond of confessional fellowship with other church bodies where such unity becomes apparent and to offer testimony and assistance to groups which show a desire to grow in their understanding of evangelical Lutheran doctrine and practice.

The members of Kitengela Lutheran Church worship in a storefront

On the continent of Africa, the CICR does its work in collaboration with the One Africa Team. As a member of the CICR, I am pleased also to be a part of the One Africa Team. In 2017 we rejoiced as the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) joined our fellowship, and in 2019 we rejoiced as the LCMC-Kenya joined our fellowship. May the Lord continue to guide and bless us all! May the good and gracious will of the Lord be done in us and through us! May His name be hallowed! May His kingdom come!

Rev. Bradley Wordell lives in Mequon, Wisconsin

Christ Be Exalted!

God decided. It was God’s choice and God’s timing. And that is the way it should be.

What was this decision, this choice at this time? God determined when Willy’s life on this earth was over. The placard that led the funeral procession now marks the fresh grave and reminds visitors of the days and years that the LORD had ordained for Willy:

Born: 14 June 1964.
Died: 30 January 2021.

57 years of God’s undeserved but abundant grace bookended between 1964 and 2021. This span of time gave Willy opportunity to accomplish a lot of things: grow crops, play football, get an education, marry, raise a family, even become a full-time worker in the church. In all he pursued in life, Willy strived to do what the Apostle Paul wrote passionately about in Philippians 1:20, namely, to exalt Christ.

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will…have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or whether by death.”

Whether by life

Willy’s full name was Willy Matengula Gama. Since 1999 Willy had been serving as an Evangelist in the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. Evangelist Matengula and his family had been living in the southern region of Malawi in an area called Mpemba. For the past 19 years he has been serving a four-congregation parish union. Like the Apostle Paul, Willy joyfully preached “Christ crucified” and loved to sing praises to God.

Willy had a special appreciation for life. After all, he nearly lost his in 1996. It was then that he was involved in a serious road accident. A minibus and a bicycle collided, and the one on the two-wheeler was Willy. Remarkably the collision had not taken his life, but it did take his sight.

From that point on he lived life in total darkness. He could have cursed the minibus driver (and for that matter, God Himself) but he didn’t. He could have become bitter and withdrew from everyone and everything – but he chose not to do so.

He saw clearly that he could use his lack of vision as an opportunity to exalt Christ with his life. He used his sightlessness to God’s glory. He devoted his time to learn and to teaching. He learned Braille and taught confirmation class to the youth in the congregation.

Willy and his wife Margaret accepted the suffering that God allowed. Margaret stuck by him during those dark days. For better or for worse. For three years he groped around in darkness. But then God gave him a spectacular gift: vision. No, not a vision, but…vision! God restored his sight! Talk about amazing grace! Was blind…but now I see!

It was then that God called him into the full-time ministry as an Evangelist in the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. With his life devoted to full time preaching and teaching, Willy exalted the One who not only restored his physical sight but his spiritual sight as well.

Seeing one’s wife and children and congregation is a tremendous blessing, but oh, to see the Savior with the eyes of faith! Twenty-two years later, God called him again. This time, not to another congregation in Malawi, but to the Church Triumphant in heaven.

On 30 January 2021 God called Willy to his eternal home. The home purchased for him by Jesus Christ.

Or whether by death

On 30 January 2021 Willy exalted Christ with this death. But how could that be? Wasn’t Willy’s body in the coffin? Wasn’t the coffin lowered into the grave? Wasn’t the hole filled in and the ground heaped up?

Of course. Willy’s eyes were closed. His mouth silent. He obviously could no longer preach and teach and sing…but others could and did! Just because Willy’s earthly existence was gone does not mean the wonderful message of the Savior was!

Willy’s death gave the opportunity for hundreds of people to hear the death-defeating gospel of Jesus Christ on the day of his burial. Pastor Patrick Magombo preached the funeral sermon on 2 Timothy 4:5-8. Even though the Apostle Paul wrote the words and Pastor Magombo preached them, it was as if Willy was speaking them to those who had gathered:

“The time has come for my departure” (indeed, it had). “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, “I have kept the faith” (indeed, he had). And on that day of the funeral, it was as if Willy, like Paul, had passed a baton.

Pastors on the way to the graveside service

The songs and hymns Willy used to sing? The ladies and the choirs sang them. The Scripture lessons that Willy used to teach? The pastors were speaking them. The sermons that Willy used to preach? The pastors were preaching them. The prayers that Willy used to say? Many were praying them. The funeral was Willy’s, but it was all about Christ.

Christ had given Willy 57 years of grace, desire to serve and joy to share. Christ went to the cross and to hell itself so that Willy wouldn’t have to. Nor would we. The One who brought Willy into the world in ‘64 now, in His wisdom took him out in ‘21. God brought him into a place like none we have ever experienced before. A home in which he could exalt the name of Christ forever! A home with no more tears, suffering, crying or pain or…death.

Don’t you long for such a place? Are you ever a bit eager to get there? Ever wonder when God will call you home? Ever hope it would be today? Ever wish it would have happened already? If you had the choice to go to heaven today or stay for a while longer on earth, which would it be?

That is the same quandary in which the Apostle Paul found himself. Torn between the two. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Yet what shall I choose? Paul knew the choice was not his. Nor is it yours or mine. God decides. God’s choice and God’s timing. And that is the way it should be.

At that moment in Paul’s life, God chose not to call Paul to his heavenly home. He had more work for Paul to do. More lives to touch with the gospel. More opportunities to exalt Christ with his life. Death would come soon enough. It did for Willy. It will for me. And for you.

Hast my soul from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer.
All but heav’n is transitory,
God’s own hand shall guide you there.
Soon shall end this earthly story.
Swift shall pass the pilgrim days,
Hope soon change to heav’nly glory,
Faith to sight and prayer to praise. (CW#465 v.4).

Willy’s faith has now become Willy’s sight. Face to face with the Savior! To live is Christ. To die is gain. Whether by our life or whether by our death, may Christ be exalted!

Missionary John Holtz lives in Malawi