You can’t believe how bad the roads are in Malawi during the
rainy season until you drive them yourself.

My first attempt to deliver books to Pastor Chumba was a
fiasco. I have no one to blame but myself. My first mistake was to drive alone.
With only Google maps to guide me, I lost my way near the town of Migowi. I
turned onto the first eastbound road, unpaved like the majority of roads in
rural Malawi. I soon met up with a trio of women warning me about “matope,
matope” (mud). The fields on either side of the narrow track were waterlogged,
so how was I supposed to execute a Y-turn? I kept moving forward.

My Toyota Prado is equipped with four-wheel drive, but even
in low gear it handles like an elephant on ice skates. I turned the steering
wheel hard left, but the car kept sliding towards the right-hand side of the
road. My all-weather, steel-belted radial tires became muddy donuts – skis
would have been more useful. I knew I was going to get stuck, and then I buried
my car up to the axles.

Due to Malawi’s high population density, there are farmers
everywhere working in their fields by the side of the road. They pushed my car
about twenty feet forward in the ditch, but I was unable to climb back up onto
the steeply banked road. My new friends had me back up, they dug out the soft
silt in front of my wheels with their hoes, and then pushed me out of my sticky
trap. This victory of man over nature was celebrated with shrieks of ululation (if you don’t know what that
is, click here) and
payment of the equivalent of $15 USD. I kept moving forward – but not for long.
The road narrowed, the ditches deepened, and the creek washed away half the
road. I was stuck between a rift and a wet place. I chose the water, knowing I
was going to require help to continue my trip. Sure enough, the locals came to the
rescue again with hoes, rocks and bricks. Twenty minutes and $15 later I was
moving forward again.

I picked up a local school teacher who wanted to hear me
preach. I don’t preach in the pulpits of the LCCA but I did use the opportunity
to encourage him in his work and to give him a Bible. I didn’t take in his
comment about “crossing the river” until the road we were following abruptly
ended at the banks of a swiftly running stream. I should have checked Google
maps’ satellite view – or even better, checked with the local pastor. My
passenger showed me an alternate route to a paved road, which I reached just
before the skies tore open above us. 

Second Attempt

Two weeks later I made my second attempt to deliver books to
Pastor Chumba. I met him in Migowi so that he could direct me personally. I
also took the venerable Toyota Landcruiser, a vehicle which truly lives up to
its name. Overcast skies let loose once we arrived at Namikundi church. The
boxes in the truck bed were soaked, but the books inside were safely sealed in
plastic. I witnessed the comforting power of the Gospel as a dozen children
were baptized, and Pastor Chumba and I distributed Holy Communion to the
members. In spite of human limitations, the Gospel keeps moving forward!

I took advantage of a break in the rain to drive Pastor Chumba back to his home village, using a dirt road shortcut. I saw the tracks of cars that had slid into the ditch and said a silent prayer of thanks to God. However, while we were visiting at Pastor’s house the second round of heavy showers passed through the region. I emerged from his home to discover an inch of sticky goo covering the yard where my vehicle was parked. I will never forget the drive home. Farmers dug canals to drain their flooded fields, shunting the water onto the road. I saw people pushing their bicycles along the road calf-deep in water, so I knew it was safe for me to pass. I saw streams turned into raging rivers. In Malawi, a “bridge” is often a concrete half-pipe that you use to drive through running water. The rain provided economic opportunity. At a larger stream, flooding had washed away part of the road leading up to the bridge, but an enterprising local man had already filled the gap with bricks and rocks and was collecting a toll from everyone who wanted to pass. I paid, but only after I successfully made it to the other side.

I came up behind a truck making deliveries to a local
trading center, totally blocking the one-car wide road. It took a few minutes
of grinding gears for it to get moving again. I took a wrong turn and ended up
in the uncharted regions of Google maps, but the locals kept me pointed in the
right direction. I passed through muddy stretches that would have stopped the
Prado in its tracks, but the Landcruiser’s knobby tires kept churning on. Finally,
I caught sight of the paved road – what joy! It took me two and a half hours to
get there from Pastor Chumba’s house – a distance of about 13 miles. 

Takeaways

As I write this it has been raining non-stop for three days,
due to tropical depression Desmond parked in the Mozambique channel. During the
rainy season, travel by car to rural areas is almost impossible. Some LCCA
pastors have access to motorcycles which they can push through muddy stretches.
Many pastors like Pastor Chumba use bicycles. When he makes the monthly trip to
Namikundi he gets home around 5 p.m. WELS is helping the LCCA by providing
funds to purchase motorcycles for pastors serving in remote areas.

Distributing literature to the congregations of the LCCA is
a difficult nut to crack, but people are extremely grateful to receive the
materials. In rural Malawi, people have no access to bookstores, television or
the internet so any printed materials are welcome. Unfortunately, groups like
the Jehovah’s Witnesses are flooding the country with high quality printed
materials. It is vitally important that WELS, through Multi-Language
Publications, continues to assist with the production and distribution of
Biblically faithful, Gospel-centered tracts, newsletters, sermons and books
here in Malawi and elsewhere in Africa.

The Gospel always keeps moving forward!

Missionary John Roebke
lives in Malawi and serves as the Communications Manager 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

Pastor Wisick Jeffrey is passionate about Sunday School for good reason. Not only is Pastor Jeffrey the School Coordinator for the Blantyre District of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa; humanly speaking, Sunday School is why he is a Christian today.

Pastor Jeffrey is a member of the Yao tribe, one of the
Bantu peoples who live in the countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
This people group of 2 million people is predominantly Muslim, due to historic
contact with Arab slave traders, with whom they cooperated to enslave their
fellow Africans. At the turn of the 20^th Century Yao chiefs as a
whole resisted the efforts of Christian missionaries, who were seen as agents
of the European colonial powers, and embraced Islam because it accommodated
their traditional practice of polygamy. Today the majority of Yao people live
in isolated communities and maintain their cultural and religious differences
from their fellow Malawians, who are predominantly Christian. 

While Wisick Jeffrey’s extended family follow the teachings
and lifestyle of Islam, his father was a non-practicing Muslim and did not
force religion on his sons. While he was growing up, Jeffrey became friends
with children who attended Sunday School at a local LCCA congregation. He
accepted their invitation to go to Sunday School with them, but he did not
attend Sunday worship services. Over time, the Holy Spirit worked through the
Gospel message Jeffrey heard in class and he eventually began Confirmation
instructions. At about the same time his mother began to pressure him into
memorizing passages from the Koran. On the day of his confirmation Jeffrey told
his family his intentions to convert to Christianity, and as you can imagine
they were not pleased. His uncles refused to help pay for his schooling, or for
the schooling of his brothers who also became Christian.

It was very difficult for Jeffrey at this time in his life,
but God’s promises continued to sustain him. Eventually he continued his education
in the town of Zomba, where Deverson Ntambo, the first Malawian pastor of the
LCCA Malawi, was serving. Pastor Ntambo is also from the Yao tribe, and he gave
young Jeffrey the encouragement and Christian guidance that was missing in his
life. Pastor Ntambo encouraged Jeffrey to consider studying for the ministry,
and began taking him through the LCCA’s pre-worker training courses known as
T.E.E. (Theological Education by Extension). Pastor Jeffrey was ordained in
2008 and currently is serving at Kanyepa Lutheran Church, the oldest LCCA
congregation in Malawi.

Pastor Jeffrey’s wife is from his home village. She was a
Muslim when they married, but with great patience and diligence Jeffrey
displayed Christ’s love to her in his words and actions. The change that the
Holy Spirit worked in Jeffrey’s life must have also made an impression on his
father, who became a Christian and was baptized days before his death. To God
be the glory!

We can learn a lot from Jeffrey’s story. Christian Education
of young people is not only important for passing the truth of God’s Word to
the next generation, it is also a means for children to reach out to their
peers and change lives for eternity. We can also once again wonder at how God
works faith in the hearts of people according to his timetable, no matter how
improbably or unlikely it may seem to us at the time. Great patience and love
are needed to reach out across cultural and religious barriers, as our Savior
demonstrated during his earthly ministry. “For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him” (John 3:17). As Christ patiently called us out our
sin-darkened ways of thinking and acting, may we show the same patience with
those who are still in the dark and lead them to the light.

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. 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

“Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give you a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10)

 I heard my pastor say
those words many times, specifically after he blessed a new confirmand.  A good reminder of the confirmands promise to
stay faithful to the word of God, even to the point of death.

“Faithful”….that is a word that comes of mind to describe Pastor George Mpule, who was my pastor for 11 years in Ndola, Zambia.  During times of growth, prosperity and joy in his church, he was faithful.  During times of difficulty, suffering and struggle, he was faithful then too.   His life is proof of that…

Pastor Mpule was not raised in a believing home, but when he
was 24 years old he was invited to the Lutheran Church and heard the preaching
of Missionary Mark Wendland.  The Spirit
was at work and George recognized that this preaching was different than the
preaching he had heard before. What he was now hearing was the pure gospel,
based on the Scriptures alone.  Not long
after he became a member of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. 

 After serving as a
faithful member for several years, in 1977 he was recommended by Pastor Mbulo
to train for public ministry at the Lutheran Bible Institute.  It was during this time that he met his wife
Rose and they married in 1979.  Their
faithfulness to one another has been an example to countless young people in
the last 40 years.

In 1980 Pastor Mpule was assigned as an Evangelist at Mwiimba
and Sibbaba Congregation in Monze District. 
His quiet faithfulness caught the attention of Pastor Jeff Gunn, who in
1985 recommended Pastor Mpule for studies at the Lutheran Seminary.  After studying for 3 years he was sent to
Shabasonje Congregation, followed by the congregation at Seven, where he served
as a Vicar for two years.

In 1990 Pastor Mpule saw the rewards of his hard work and
faithful dedication, when he graduated from the Lutheran Seminary and was
assigned to the congregation at Seven, where he had vicared.  In 1992 Pastor Mpule accepted a call to Mt.
Sinai in Ndola, where he served until 2003 when he accepted a call to Matero
Congregation in Lusaka District.

Faithfully every Sunday, Pastor Mpule would literally point
to the cross during the sermon and remind us that our sins are forgiven through
faith in Jesus.  It’s been 16 years since
I was a member of Pastor Mpule’s congregation, but my husband and I recently
had the opportunity to attend his church for his farewell/retirement from the public
ministry, after faithfully serving his Lord for 39 years.  Faithful…that is the word that sums up Pastor
George Mpule.  Blessings on your
retirement, Pastor.

Karen Kroll and her
husband Dan serve as missionaries to West Africa and are currently based in
Malawi.

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