“Your weapon is more powerful than mine.” He wore green camouflage.  Emblazoned on his uniform were the letters, UWA: Uganda Wildlife Authority.  Comfortably cradled in his arms was an aged and scarred rifle.  As he spoke the words, he patted the barrel. “Your weapon is more powerful than mine.” I knew what he meant because he knew who we were.

We were a group of Lutheran Pastors.  We carried no weapons crafted from steel or fashioned from wood.  No guns or knives or spears were in our hands.  The only weapon we bore was a book.  No, not just a book but THE book, the Bible.  Inspired. Inerrant.  Enduring. Living.  Active.

Powerful.

After visiting with the UWA Officer for some time, he knew, not only what we represented (The Lutheran Church) but who we represented: the Lord Jesus Christ.  He made quite a statement.  More like a confession: “Your weapon is more powerful than mine.” Indeed it is.  And it was with our “weapon” that we came to Uganda.  Again.

Pastor Pembeleka,
Missionary Hartmann and I returned to the “Pearl of Africa.”  We made our 2^nd mission outreach
trip to Uganda.  Like our first one in
December 2018, it was planned for several purposes:  visiting congregations, meeting the pastors
and evangelists, building relationships and teaching God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit is
on the move.

From the way it’s
developing, the Lord certainly seems to have opened the door for us into Uganda!  A wonderful opportunity
to step through it!

Visiting the
congregations allows us to see how extensive this Lutheran synod is and to
observe what’s “on the ground.” 
Attending worship services, listening to sermons and talking with the leaders
gives us opportunity to evaluate messages and doctrines being preached; this in
turn helps inform our teaching approach and course work.  We aim to design and teach the classes that
can have the most impact as we move towards declaration of fellowship.

Please pray for us!

We planned an aggressive
course schedule.  The topics we covered to
date:

• Justification
• Church and Ministry
• Stewardship
• God’s Great Exchange
• The Bible
• The Work of a Christian Congregation
• The Trinity
• The First Article -God the Father
• The Second Article – God the Son
• The Fall into Sin
• Jesus – His person
• Jesus – His Work
• The Judgement – The Last Day
• The Third Article – God the Holy Spirit
• Conversion

I know, “tip of the
iceberg,” right?

There’s a lot more of the Bible to share.  More congregations to visit, more leaders to meet and many more lessons to teach.  So much witnessing to do! Even in the unplanned situations.  Especially in the unplanned ones!  As when we were found ourselves in the office of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

We had just finished visiting a group of people from the Acholi tribe in Kitgum.  We were on the road in our van traveling to our accommodation for the night.  From our vehicle we noticed a waterfall. We stopped to take in the view, then hoped that we could walk closer.  We soon discovered, however, that we could only do so if we obtained permission from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

We were directed to an office and that’s where we met up with the uniformed man – and another opportunity to witness and share our faith. We explained who we were, what we were doing and why three of us had come to Uganda.  It was during this conversation then that he confessed: “Your weapon is more powerful than mine.” Even so, I’m glad he had his.  Because when permission was granted to go to the waterfall, there was one requirement:  we needed an officer escort – an armed one!

Why an officer
toting a high-power rifle? Because we’d be
hiking through an area (Karuma Forest Reserve) which was home to big “Tuskers.”  Elephants!

So with the rifle slung over his shoulder, UWA Officer Mr. Waako led us through the dense forest on the way to the waterfall. 

We came upon signs
of elephant but didn’t actually see any. But as we trekked behind him – and
even to this day – I couldn’t help but think of his words…

Your weapon is more powerful than mine.

His weapon is man-made;
Ours is God-given.
His can scare away elephants;
  Ours can send away the devil.
His can bring death;
  Ours can give life.
His will rust and deteriorate;
  Ours is eternal.

Talk about “high-caliber”
weapon!

And with it we came
to Uganda.

The first time we visited Uganda in December 2018 the leaders of the church excitedly told us that they had chosen the name New Hope for their synod.  However, at that point, they were not registered with the government.  When they did a little more digging about registration procedure, the government of religious affairs informed them that another organization had already registered under the name New Hope.  So that name was no longer available.

A few weeks ago, the synod leaders met again and opted on the name, Obadiah Lutheran Synod—Uganda. They now are fully registered with the government.

But why Obadiah?  Pastor Musa explains:

“(We) chose the name Obadiah because we’re a small growing group of worshipers of the LORD and Obadiah means ‘worshipers of the Lord.’   Obadiah is a minor prophet…it’s the shortest book…when you look at our synod it is also minor.  We are (still small) and at a growing stage…”

Big or small, long time in existence or short, well established or still organizing, an assembly of be-lievers in the True God is part of the body of Christ! We rejoice with you, Obadiah!  And thank God for the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus and bring His Word among you. 

Exactly what Satan
wouldn’t want to happen. Speaking of the
devil, imagine for a moment this scene…

We are in his office talking frankly.  He snickers and sneers and tells us about all the tricks up his sleeve that he uses on people to try to get them to abandon their Christian faith. His arsenal is scattered around the room: lies, deception, half-truths, doubt, despair, enticements. He snidely informs us that he picks and chooses his weapons accordingly. 

But then we remind
him of the cross, the empty tomb and our living Lord.  His eyes drop and he sinks down in his seat. Before
we get up to leave, we ask him for one thing. “We know you’re the Father of Lies, but just for once tell us something
that you know in your heart that is true but that you don’t want to admit
outside this room.” 

He scans his office
at his own armament then sullenly speaks…

“Your weapon is more powerful than mine.”

 Sincerely,

Your Malawi Mission
Partner, John Holtz 

It’s Sunday morning. You wake up and get yourself dressed
and ready to go to church, just like you do every Sunday. You arrive at church
and quickly get caught up in a conversation about your favorite football team’s
chances of winning the Super Bowl this season. The bell starts ringing and you
quickly slip into the fourth pew from the front on the left side, where you
always sit next to Mr. & Mrs. Keaton, the delightful retired couple from
Michigan. The quiet rumble of friendly chit chat immediately ceases when the
organist introduces the first hymn…and then you notice that the pastor’s chair
is empty.

Have you ever been to a church service without a pastor? Maybe your pastor is on vacation and has left an elder in charge of conducting worship. Maybe your pastor has taken a call to another congregation and you’re in the process of calling a new one. Maybe your congregation shares your pastor with another congregation, and you listen to his sermons online.

It is possible to worship God at church without a pastor in
the pulpit. But what if there’s no sermon? What if the person leading worship
is unable to present an encouraging message from God’s Word to you? Even if
every hymn that day is one of your favorites, and the choir’s anthem echoes the
praises in heaven, and you hear the lessons and the Psalm read with dignity and
clarity, you’ll come away from church that Sunday still hungry, as if you’d
just finished a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. The sermon is the part of the
service you look forward to most.

On any Sunday in the LCCA Malawi, an ordained pastor serves at worship in only a quarter of the congregations, and laymen lead worship in all the rest. Although the LCCA is diligently training new church workers, there are only so many pastors that the church body can support. Many pastors serve parish unions of four or more congregations. These congregations pool their limited financial resources to pay the pastor’s salary. These parish unions would dissolve without lay leaders conducting worship on the Sundays when their pastors are serving elsewhere.

Lay worship leaders are spiritually mature men with a good
name in their local community, but most of them live in remote areas and are
not well educated. To ensure that church members are being spiritually fed with
the pure word of God, the LCCA has relied on books of sermons that the lay
leaders can read during worship. The sermons were written by American
missionaries, translated into the local languages and then edited by an
American missionary responsible for overseeing the publications program.

But the multitude of new opportunities for outreach are driving OAT missionaries to reexamine their mission strategy in Africa, and to engage their local partners in much different ways. There is no longer one missionary dedicated to publications work in Malawi. Instead, one missionary is responsible for facilitating publications work across the entire continent, working closely together with local pastors and publications committees to produce the materials they need the most.

In Malawi, a national pastor oversees the production of new
sermon books. This pastor sets up a schedule and assigns sermon texts to other
Malawian pastors, who are able to write sermons in their native tongue and to
include examples from everyday life. The Malawian pastors produce sermons that
flow much more naturally than anything an American outsider could ever write.  It is somewhat of a challenge to collect and
compile the sermons, since most LCCA pastors do not make regular use of email
or internet in their homes. Still, under this new system the LCCA has published
five volumes of sermon books so far, and the plan is to keep producing new
books once a quarter in two of the languages spoken in Malawi.

In the West, we are drowning in a daily deluge of downloads
and data. It’s hard for us to imagine the life of a Malawian villager, who
might listen to the radio every once in awhile but otherwise has little
connection to the outside world. For that Malawian villager, attending church
on a Sunday morning to sing hymns, to sway with the choir, and to hear a
Gospel-centered sermon on Sunday is the highlight of the week, the place where he
may “eat what is good, and delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:2).

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi and manages
Communications and Publications for One Africa Team

Please
pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story,
engage with future news and receive updates. Go to this link to learn more
about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in
people’s hearts  https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

Recently I’ve been digging through old photos,
looking over the 25 years I’ve lived in Malawi as a missionary
wife. There are an amazing amount of memories that come to mind looking over
those pictures. My husband, Paul, was assigned to Malawi when he graduated from
the Seminary in 1993. In remembering those early years, and comparing them to
our life here today, several things came to mind.

We didn’t know much about Malawi when we
arrived in 1993 with our one year old son. Paul was called to serve rural
congregations in the North of Malawi. We knew he was called to teach God’s
Word to the people there. We had something valuable to share and were willing
to do it.  What we didn’t
know at the time was that Malawi, and the millions of people who live here, had
something valuable to teach us. 
Reflecting back, I can clearly see how God provided for us in big and
small ways.

Our second child was born in 1995 while living in the small town
of Mzuzu.  When the doctor who delivered
my baby asked if I had packed a flashlight I realized that I wasn’t
as prepared as I thought I was. Power cuts and dim lights are common. I learned
to be ready for scenarios I hadn’t had to think about living in the
U.S.

After our daughter was born we had planned to travel throughout
Malawi. I learned that some items, like disposable diapers, were impossible to
find in Mzuzu. I was resigned to traveling for 10 days with a toddler and a
newborn with only cloth diapers. It was then that I learned that God is much
better at planning ahead than I am. 
Weeks before I even knew I would need them, a group of Christian women
in the U.S. had a baby shower for me and shipped an enormous box of disposable
diapers to Malawi. The diapers arrived two days before our trip. God’s
timing was the best.

As Paul and I met the people of Malawi, we saw that many
Malawians struggled with the effects of poverty. Shortages of food, water,
medical care and jobs impacted people’s daily lives. As the needs of
Malawians were made known to us and we sought ways to help,  Paul and I were learning a lesson about
giving and hospitality that Malawians had to teach us.

From our early days of language learning and visiting people in
their homes, to traveling to remote villages with Paul to greet people who had
never seen a “European” woman and her  baby before, we were welcomed with clapping,
singing, smiles.  Chairs appeared out of
no where for us to sit on while our 
Malawian hosts sat on the ground. If possible, a bottle of CocaCola or
Fanta was procured for us. We never left empty handed. Mangoes, green maize,
sweet potatoes, a live chicken – these people were happy to share with us. Not
because we needed theses things, but because they wanted to show their love to
us. Malawian’s have a phrase, “ Tikulandirani ndi manja awiri! We
welcome you with both hands! ” 
They welcomed us  not just with
their hands, but with their hearts as well.

Yes, I’ve learned a lot during my years in Malawi.  I’ve learned to drive on the left hand side of the road. I can navigate muddy, rutted roads that look impassable to the uninitiated. I’ve treated our neighbors’ dogs who had venom spat in their eyes from encountering a huge spitting cobra. I learned it’s not really a good idea to pick up a giant horned chameleon on the side of the road and try to to take it home in the car. These are all good things to know to live well in Malawi. But most of all, I’ve learned that God’s people love each other no matter where they are in the world.  God’s people in Malawi have shown their love to me and my family for 25 years, and by God’s grace we’ve been able to join with them in worship, Bible study, English classes, Sunday School, weddings, funerals, births and graduations.  While my own family is growing up and moving away, and I can’t physically be there for them in all the ways I wish I could, I am learning God provides for all our needs, big and small, in ways that I never even imagined He would.

Written by Susan Nitz, missionary wife in Malawi, Africa