Go in without expectations.  That’s a maxim I’ve found useful when I’ve had to cross cultures.  Many years ago as a seminary graduate, I moved to Malawi to serve as a missionary. I tried to go in “empty”, but it wasn’t easy to do.

It is difficult to go into a new place “empty” of expectations. People often want to find out everything they can so that they feel prepared. After graduating from seminary, it took five long months to wait for a visa so that we could move to Malawi.  I suppose I should have studied up on Malawi, gotten a head start on learning language, and talked to  many people to get advice. I didn’t.  Someone had told me not to build up expectations in your mind before moving to a new place.  They said that was a sure way to make the culture shock be worse. 

So I went in empty and uninformed. I learned what Malawians were like by talking to Malawians.  I figured out what it took to live in the country by living in it. I learned the language by using it.  That worked well for me. But in spite of my best efforts to be entirely empty going in, there was one expectation that I had built up in my mind. I had the picture in my mind that our WELS mission was huge in Malawi.  What I found was that there were many, many large Christian churches already well established in Malawi.  I was feeling disappointed.  Did we need to be here?

But my attitude changed when I started learning the local language.  I walked around the neighborhood and used what I knew, adding a new phrase or two every day.  After a few months, I had gotten to the point of asking things much more complicated than, Muli bwanji? [How are you?].  I was going around asking things like “If King David in the Bible was a murderer, then how do you think he got to heaven?”  Through thousands of conversations with Malawians, I became very happy that I had been sent as a missionary to Malawi. I found that no one I talked to (even the churchgoers) had actually heard the gospel.

I started to serve our Lutheran churches once I knew enough Chichewa.  I found that so many people were hearing the gospel for the first time.  During my ten years preaching in churches,  not a week went by when I did not see that eureka of the gospel in an adult’s eyes.  A few times I literally saw tears of joyous amazement over the grace of God in Christ.  And then there were over one thousand babies I brought the gospel to through baptism. 

After those ten years, I began teaching at the ministerial school.  I’ve had the blessing of teaching dozens of men who are now pastors or will be pastors.  They are now going out and seeing the eureka of the gospel, baptizing, preaching, teaching, and giving the comfort of the Lord’s Supper.

In the past four years, I’ve also been blessed to lead our team of Africa missionaries. Our focus is on building up the 125+ African pastors in our sister synods in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Malawi, and Zambia.  We offer advanced classes and workshops and we also still support the training of new pastors.  On top of this, we’re finding new places to bring the gospel. There are groups of pastors and their congregations that have called us in to teach the Word in countries like Liberia, Rwanda, and Uganda.

It’s been a wonderful blessing to be a missionary in Africa. It has exceeded expectations!  Now we’ll be moving.  My new job will be to support all our world missions worldwide as a missionary advisor.  We’ll be living in the United States again.  After 27 years away, that’s almost a foreign country to us.

I’m already trying my best to go in empty, without expectations.  I know the USA and culture has changed hugely since 1993.  We’ve had a dozen long visits back to the USA and seen some of it, but we haven’t lived in it.  It will be a big adjustment, but one we trust God will bless.  We will try not to build up certain expectations about how people act, what traffic is like, or how great the pizza is.  We’ll wait, and live it, and learn it as it comes.  But we do have one big expectation. We expect we’ll keep on being surprised by grace in our own lives and seeing how powerful and effective his Word is in the lives of others around the world.

Paul D. Nitz will continue to serve WELS World Missions as the One Team Counselor

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

የሱስ እረኛዬ የሚመራኝ

በሕይወት ጎዳና የሚወስደኝ

እርሱን አገኘሁት የማይተወኝ

ጓደኛ ዘመድ ሲከዳኝ

(English translation)

Jesus, my Shepherd

The One who guides me on the way of life

He found me who never leaves me

While all my friends and relatives deny me.

Christianity’s roots run deep in Ethiopia, yet the Gospel is struggling to make purchase on this rocky soil. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church enjoys a privileged position in society, and the pews are filled at the high festival days – but the people are told that their salvation is an ongoing process and not a completed fact. Many large Protestant churches of the charismatic variety are also gathering many converts through promises of prosperity and healing to those who are worthy.

The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) was registered with the Ethiopian government in 2013 by Dr. Kebede Getachew Yigezu and 56 founding members. By the grace of God, the LCE opened Maor (Hebrew for “light”) Lutheran Theological Seminary as a Christ-centered, Bible-based and Reformation-driven confessional Lutheran theological seminary, which is authorized to offer bachelors and masters degrees and also doctorate programs. In 2017 the LCE and the WELS declared fellowship and since then have been collaborating to advance the Gospel in Ethiopia.

Last December, the LCE held its 6^th annual General Assembly meeting in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. The delegates who had gathered gave thanks to God for the many blessings he had poured out on their small but dedicated church body over the past year. One of those blessings was the third historic graduation of students from Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary on October 27, 2019. The ceremony took place in the midst of political unrest that Ethiopia was experiencing at the time. (https://wels.net/unrest-in-ethiopia-affects-wels-sister-churches/)

Delegates also gave thanks to God for the construction of a new five-story multi-purpose building on the campus of Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary. Thanks to the oversight of LCE Assistant Deaconess Werknesh Negash Degefa and Brother Wondirad Balcha WoldeSemayat and the generosity of WELS donors the building reached the finishing stage in one year’s time. It is the LCE’s ardent prayer that this new building will help bring the Gospel light to the people of Ethiopia.

The LCE also celebrated its partnership with WELS Multi-Language Productions, which hosted an Africa region workshop in Lusaka last summer. Dr. Ernst Wendland, who has served WELS World Missions for over 50 years and also participated in translating the Bible into the Chichewa language, shared his considerable experience and insight into the translation process. Using that knowledge, the LCE was able to translate the evangelism tract, “God’s Great Exchange” into the Amharic language.

In an email Dr. Kebede writes, “We were surprised that getting the right wordings with the right meaning in our language for words like “Exchange” in the literary context of the tract on “God’s Great Exchange” was not easy. Indeed,  the lessons we received at the MLP Translation Workshop and  Publication Expo under the instruction of Professor Ernst Wendland in Lusaka have helped Brother Shambel and me a lot to lead our team so that we reached at the best translation which  communicates the right meaning clearly both theologically and linguistically.” The LCE sent the translated Amharic text side by side with the English text to WELS MLP graphic design artist Michele Pfeifer, who completed the final layout.  

Looking ahead to the future, one of the most pressing tasks the LCE faces is to renew their church body’s registration with the Ethiopian government. The current registration was good for six years (2013-2019). Please pray that God continues to let the light of the Gospel shine in Ethiopia through the work of the LCE and Maor Lutheran Theological Seminary.

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

There’s an unusual quiet on the campus.

The Lutheran Bible Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi is normally in session; there’s usually a beehive of activity that makes the campus hum:

Classes.

Homework.

Study hours.

Work detail.

Classroom learning & break out group discussions.

But now?

No power points presentations, no lectures nor recitations, no storytelling, no Professor jokes nor student laughter.  No opening day devotions or communicative Greek dialogue.

No break-time chatting, checkers, or chess. 

Student houses stand menacingly vacant.

The campus church building stands eerily quiet.

No one is kicking up dust on the football pitch.

No one tending to the maize in the fields.

No students or their families to be seen. Gone without a trace.  It’s as if they all vanished.  Disappeared. 

Well, in a way they have.  In fact, I might add, rather quickly.

Due to the world-wide Coronavirus pandemic, the Lutheran Bible Institute has also been affected.  Just like every other school in Malawi. And most in the world.

On 20 March 2020 Malawian President Mutharika declared Malawi a State of Disaster and ordered that all schools be closed as of 23 March.

That mandate turned into a mad scramble for the faculty to quickly get the students back to their home villages.  It wasn’t an easy doing.  Especially for the Zambian students.  It first meant countless hours in the Immigration office to sort out remaining issues with passports, student permits and for some, birth certificates for kids recently born in Malawi. 

And to think…

This was the final year for the LBI students.  The 3-year program was coming to a close June’s end. The 14 students and their families and the LBI Faculty had anticipated a joyful – and eventful – graduation service.

How things can change and change quickly!  There just was no time for a special “cap and gown” service; there was no class speaker, no class song, no diplomas received, no gifts given.    

It wasn’t that there were COVID-19 cases in Lilongwe.  In fact, at that time, there were no officially confirmed cases even in all of Malawi!  This comparatively tiny country stood with few others as having zero infected people. 

So why cancel the classes if the virus wasn’t evident? 

Because the fear was. 

Maybe you’re seeing – or experiencing – something similar.  Panic buying.  Anxious thoughts.  Worrisome nights and troublesome days.  Some are struggling with lost jobs and new-found questions:

Do I wear a mask or not?

Quarantine or not?

Do I have it?  Did I give it to someone else?

Do I get tested?  Can I get tested?

The fear and the questions spread as quickly as the virus itself. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

Price hikes, long queues, and empty shelves.  And it’s not just schools that have been cancelled.

Flights? Cancelled.

Hotel bookings? Cancelled.  

Long-awaited vacation? Cancelled.

Cruise?  Rally?  Convention?  Even an election?  Cancelled with a CAPTITAL C.

A red-letter disappointment.

But despite the cancelled classes and graduation service, this class will still proceed onto the Seminary in September 2020. Each of the 14 students have met the qualifications and the faculty recommends them!

And so there were still hopeful smiles on the campus. Before the 14 LBI students parted ways, with a hoe they parted the earth and made time to do one last class activity:

They planted a tree. 

Wouldn’t you know it? With a lighthearted touch, they hung a sign on the tree.  More than a sign, it was the name that they gave the tree; a name that you could probably guess considering these times:

Corona.

Did you know that Corona means “Crown”?  The virus, presumably so named, because, in a way, it resembles one.

The Coronavirus has brought a lot of sickness and death to our world.  But it looks like we are adjusting to the situation: masks, social distancing, hand washing, working from home, and studying at home.  

What a golden opportunity we also have been given: to fix our eyes on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  Stop and pause this week.  What a week it is! 

Whom do we see?

• A Palm Sunday donkey-riding Servant King making triumphal entries, not just into cities like Jerusalem, but into hearts like ours.

• A Maundy Thursday Passover Lamb that offers, not just bread and wine, but Body and Blood.

• A Good Friday Center-Cross “Criminal” who, even as people taunted and mocked, still was breathing out forgiveness.

• A Devil Destroyer who went to hell to proclaim his victory!

• An Easter morning Death Defeater who came out of the tomb fully alive and victorious, guaranteeing our own resurrection and life.  And victory!

• A Powerful Ruler sitting at the right hand of God controlling all things. 

And by faith, what Paul the Apostle knows is also what we know:  “in ALL those things (even in a State of Disaster) God is working for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

THAT you know.  What you maybe didn’t know (but now you will!) was where on the campus the LBI students planted the tree.  They dug the hole and placed the tree right next to the campus church where they worshipped most every morning and every evening. 

The place where law and the gospel was preached.  The house of God in which the name of Jesus was held high.  The location where forgiveness was proclaimed and where the sacraments were administered.  Where they learned to preach devotions and to preside over the liturgy.  

Perhaps what you also didn’t know (but now you will!) was the name of the church: CROWN of LIFE.

What a paradox!

A tree of death. A Crown of Life. Or is it a Crown of Death and a Tree of Life?

As you’re thinking about that, think about this:  There is another tree that comes with the same paradox. The tree on Golgotha.

A tree of life or a tree of death?  A crown of life or a crown of death?

Actually, both.   It’s the place where law and gospel meet.  The epicenter of God’s full wrath and full love.  A converging torrent of anger over sin and love for the sinner.  So, when God gives you the opportunities this Holy Week and beyond,

Sing your Hosannas!

Feast at the Lord’s table!

Answer the hymn writer’s question: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”  (CW #119)

Remind yourself that Satan has been defeated.

Peer into the tomb and find it for what it is: empty.

And the next time your sins trouble you and you wonder if God has forgiven you, remember that the written code was nailed to the cross.  (Colossians 2:14)   

And the debt you owe because of your sins?  

Debt cancelled

Missionary John Holtz 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