Pastors in the United States spend a lot of time alone. They work alone to prepare sermons and Bible studies. They sit in their office getting themselves organized for meetings and various events. When a member drops in for an unannounced visit, most Pastors welcome the interruption. I feel the isolation even more acutely as a world missionary. There aren’t any church members that might drop in for a visit. I work remotely with the leaders of national churches across the continent of Africa.

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to give an online presentation this month. The LWMS Central Office passed on my name to the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit part of the Befriend a Mission (BAM) program. The women of the circuit pray for the mission and missionary. They also and encourage him and his family in various ways for a period of two years. Their cards and gifts always seem to arrive at just the right moment.

I’d given a few online mission presentations before so I felt comfortable with the format. Any group can host a virtual world mission speaker regardless of their proximity to the Upper Midwest. The members of the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit gathered at Arizona Lutheran Academy in Phoenix, AZ. I gave my presentation from my living room in Lilongwe, Malawi. I was able to sleep in my own bed that night and preach the next morning.

Most WELS congregations have a reliable connection to the internet, a digital projector, and speakers on hand. The LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit used Zoom to host their online mission rally. Other platforms like Google Meet or Facebook live are viable alternatives. It’s vital to find someone who knows what they’re doing and get them to help you with the setup. It’s also important that they can also be there during the presentation in case things don’t go as planned. We ran into some minor audio glitches the day of the event. Nevertheless, I was able to field questions from both the live and virtual audience in attendance that day. They were able to hear me clearly.

Pastor Ben Foxen, the Spiritual Advisor to the Grand Canyon West Circuit, was a great help. He facilitated the connection with the WELS Missions Promotions Office and was my main point of contact. As a former world missionary, Pastor Foxen understands what my wife and I are facing here.  He wrote me the following: “Seeing and hearing about your blessings and challenges and those of the people you serve reminded me of my times in Russia. The challenges were different in some ways, similar in others. The blessings of seeing God at work in the hearts of his people, though, are universal. Your presentation brought all that back for me.”

I am grateful for the friendship of the members of the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit. We are closely connected to each other through Christ (and the internet) as we carry out his Great Commission.

You can request a live or virtual mission speaker for your next event at www.wels.net/speaker-request

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi and manages the Communications 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. 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

Lightning? From a cloudless sky?

It is Zambia’s dry season. But like a bolt out of the blue, Esther gets sick. “It’s meningitis,” a hospital doctor tells her husband of 16 years.

“Dear God,” he prays.

She dies almost lightning-fast. It is Monday, 13 September 2021.

Justina, her 13-year-old daughter, their only child, grieves. Pastor Frank Shonga, her 49-year-old husband, aches. Serving Sinda Parish in the Lutheran Church of Central Africa Zambia Synod, Pastor Shonga has conducted many funerals. “This is so different,” he tells himself.

It feels different too for fellow LCCA-Z pastors and One Africa Team missionaries in Zambia. “When was the last time an LCCA-Z pastor’s wife died while her husband was actively serving a congregation?”

“We can’t remember,” people keep answering.

A flurry of arrangements follows. Three LCCA-Z pastors, a missionary, and the OAT operations director hastily pack, then drive to the funeral for Amai Abusa (Mrs. Pastor) Shonga. The trip takes twelve hours over two days.

Some 400 mourners have gathered by the time the five arrive in the village, near Lundazi. Men have dug a grave by hand 1.5 km away. “That is one of the deepest graves I have ever seen,” a veteran missionary later notes. (“Why deep?” you may ask. The more honored the person, the deeper the grave.)

“Please, may we use your Land Cruiser later? Could you transport the pallbearers and coffin to the burial site? It is too far to carry. The path is too narrow for the truck.”

“Of course.” Katundu (luggage) is rearranged.

Guests of honor sit in the shade on mats. Women, sing, wail, and carry the coffin outside onto another mat. The funeral begins. A young man explains in Chewa who will speak, in what order.

Choirs sing. Grief erupts. Hope swells.

Pastor Banda speaks. No, the Spirit speaks through him.

Is this sudden death nothing but the lightning and thunder of God’s judgment?

Not in our risen Lord. “I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so they will rest from their labors since their works follow them.'” (Revelation 14:13)

Pastor Mumba speaks God’s Word last. “God took his sinful people into exile,” he says. Their exile seemed death. Every death is an exile.

Yet God told his people of old, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you” (Jeremiah 29:13–14).

From all the nations?

From all the nations, in “Christ, the life of all the living, Christ the death of death our foe.”

Choirs sing again, two Chewa songs at the same time, as the funeral becomes a procession. Both choirs sing of ulendo, “the journey.” Mourners journey on foot to the grave through the bush.

It is the dry season. Eyes get wet, though. Young men scoop dirt over the lowered coffin.

In the dry season parched hearts moisten with hope. Believers pray, “ufumu, mphamvu, ndi ulemelero nzanu kwamuyaya” (“the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, forever and ever”).

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky,” Jesus said after his 72 disciples came back from preaching the good news of his kingdom (Luke 10:18).

They had told him, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (10:17).

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky,” Jesus could have also said in 2000 when Frank Shonga, a Muslim, a man who had memorized 17 of the 30 suras in the Qur’an, was baptized.

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky,” Jesus could have said too when Frank confirmed his wife in biblical Christian faith in 2007. He had helped her learn God’s Word.

“What was it like for you before?” the missionary had asked him in April.

“In Islam,” Pastor Shonga wrote back, “we learned that we should keep all the commands of the Qur’an in order to enter heaven. But […] I learned that God offered his Son Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky.” The missionary even sees that invisible truth on the long return to Lusaka. The Land Cruiser which had carried 5 now holds 14.

What do eleven hot, cramped people on the vehicle’s backbenches do for hours while the OAT operations director drives, negotiating pothole after pothole? A mother nurses her baby. The other ten belt out holy hope. Pastors and their wives sing hymn after joyful hymn. The missionary sings along as best he can.

His heart still sings.

The hymn the group in the Land Cruiser sings is “Kwathu Sipadziko,” “My Home Is Not Here.” In English, its refrain goes like this:

Lord, you are my friend, for sure.
What if heaven were not ours?
An angel motions in welcome to heaven’s door.
And this world I do not think of as mine.

Missionary Dan Witte lives in Zambia

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

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end so that what you hope for may be fully realized (Heb 6:11).

In November 2019 I was ready to pack my bags and move to Nairobi. Then COVID19 ended all international travel. One Africa Team Missionaries canceled all their planned trips to Uganda, Liberia, and other parts of Africa – full stop. But the global pandemic didn’t stop God’s kingdom or the Gospel ministry of the LCMC Kenya from moving forward.

The LCMC Kenya declared fellowship with the WELS in the summer of 2019. Due to the pandemic, no WELS representatives paid them a formal visit. Some LCMC Kenya members wondered if they truly enjoyed a relationship with other confessional Lutherans outside of Kenya. They had to hope that their leaders were telling them the truth.

For twenty-one months, I kept in touch with OAT’s ministry partners in Kenya from a distance. I helped coordinate ministry support from 1,200 miles away in Malawi, using email, instant messaging platforms, and online teleconferencing. I received regular updates and phone calls. I taught Biblical Greek to students I had never met in person. Since I’ve always believed that “the house going pastor makes a church-going people,” I questioned my own effectiveness. I had to hope that God was in charge.

There was evidence of activity: photos of church building projects, expense reports, and videos of joyful church dedications. There was evidence of progress. There was evidence of financial support. But can a long-distance relationship last without meeting face to face?

In August 2021, One Africa Team leader Howard Mohlke and I visited our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Kenya. We wanted to solidify our partnership. We also wanted to give the members of the LCMC Kenya a chance to say, “Thank you” in person. There is a phrase in the Luo language that captures the goal of our visit. “Pakuwa pakhawa” means, “Our hope has been realized.”

Masaai Land

The area around Nairobi is the homeland of the Masaai people, who traditionally were hunter-gatherers and raised livestock. Near the Masaai town of Ngong, Pastor Frank Koyo serves a Masaai congregation at Olissi Lutheran Church. The church building is located at the end of a dirt path on top of a mountain. It is a most beautiful, if not remote place from which you can see the surrounding countryside. A Finnish Lutheran missionary helped the congregation put up a simple tin shack. Built a decade ago, it is still in pretty good shape. Pastor Koyo works as a plumber and has to walk down a steep hill to catch a bus to town. During the rainy season, the road is so slippery that it is impassable even on foot.

About 45 minutes away by car is Kibiku, the location of another Masaai congregation that is currently inactive. Since there’s no road, we made our own path up a hilltop. We found a Pentecostal church put up next to the Lutheran chapel. Pastor Koyo was serving the church but eventually stopped since the congregation’s offerings didn’t cover the cost of his transportation. The harvest is great, but the workers are few.

We then drove about two hours to another Masasi congregation in Elkimasek. Before his death, a member of the LCMC Kenya donated his land for a church building. A dozen or so adult men and women greeted us under a shade tree. The arid land sits on a volcanic plain where sheep and goats graze on scrub grass. The closest elementary school is 6 km away. Students occasionally encounter elephants and hyenas on their morning walk to class.

Western Kenya

There is a large concentration of LCMC congregations in Western Kenya. We drove 7 hours from Nairobi to the town of Sondu. We passed through mountain forests, deserts, and huge fields of wheat and corn. We saw lush tea plantations and hills covered with cultivated farm plots. Some parts of Kenya are in the rain shadow and receive little or no rain throughout the year. Other areas are perpetually dripping with rain.

God Miaha is a beautiful chapel in the woods. Patrice Omolo recovered from a near-fatal illness in 2014. He vowed to finish constructing a church building for the congregation that his parents founded. Such thankful giving is evidence that Gospel hope produces real fruits of faith.

The members of Ramba Lutheran Church worship in a metal shack they constructed by themselves on rented land. It’s located next to a noisy indigenous Africa Christian congregation. Their whose members were banging on drums and metal bars the whole time we were there. But the Kenyan Lutherans didn’t seem to notice their next-door neighbors. They hope someday to buy land and build their own permanent structure.

One of the churches that WELS funds helped to build is St. Peter’s in Kindu town. The congregation began meeting under a shade tree. They started building on land donated by Mr. Mzee, who was in attendance along with a dozen or so of his relatives when we visited. WELS helped the congregation put a roof on their sanctuary, just in time before the rainy season begins.

Former Zambia Missionary Dan Sargent wrote a blog post that featured Nyang’un Lutheran Church. The congregation has 120 members, half of which are widows. Many men age 25-45 died in the AIDS/HIV epidemic, leaving their wives and families behind. But the WELS has not abandoned LCMC Kenya. Our visit proves that LCMC Kenya has fellowship with Lutherans outside of their country.

WELS funds helped complete the construction of a chapel for the members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in the village of Ponge. The owner of the land where they were intending to build their church refused to join the LCMC Kenya. The majority of the members left and began building on another piece of land donated by an older woman. Samson Mambo, one of my Greek students, serves as their evangelist.

Preaching in Luo

I miss the privilege of preaching to a congregation every week. I was overjoyed and grateful that the members of St. Peter’s LCMC invited me to present a message from God’s word at their Sunday worship service. LCMC Kenya treasurer Paul Mboya picked me up from my bungalow in his Honda Odyssey. It’s not a vehicle built for dirt roads. He wound around in a corkscrew pattern to avoid the worst parts of the route. We left the minivan safely parked a quarter of a mile away from the sanctuary.

The congregation conducts its worship services in the Luo language, so the pastor translated my English sermon sentence by sentence. I spoke on the Gospel lesson from John 6. Jesus told his followers they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to live forever. The text goes on to say that most of the people abandoned Jesus after hearing this. So many people hope that God will perform miracles and shower financial blessings on them. This is a false theology of glory. True hope is found on the way of the cross, with real suffering and a real reward at the end. Jesus will remain with us forever.

After the service, we passed by the LCMC Kenya congregation in Othoro. These people started meeting on a rented piece of land. Then the owner forced them off of it when they joined the LCMC Kenya. They have made a down payment on a plot of land. It sits in the middle of a cornfield, where they have erected a simple chapel. They want to build a permanent structure after they finish paying for the land.

Leaders’ Workshop

We met with local LCMC Kenya leaders for a workshop at Kadie Lutheran Church. I presented a Bible study on Biblical principles of stewardship. Missionary Howard Mohlke gave a presentation on Church and Ministry. LCMC Leader Rev. Mark Onunda summarized what we said in Swahili because many of the older attendees did not speak any English at all.

The leaders’ workshop was a perfect opportunity to share God’s Word digitally. We gave each attendee a microSD memory card with audio Bibles and the JESUS film in both Swahili and English. Most of the people had either a phone or a tablet with a memory slot. Some of the card slots were under the phone battery. Other phones had a tray that ejects when a metal pin is inserted into a hole. I improvised with a staple that I straightened out with my pocket tool.

Immediately after we installed the cards the room was filled with the sounds of the Bible and the JESUS film. Each card came with an 8 GB memory capacity, of which half was taken up with the prerecorded content. That allowed users to download other digital content that I had brought with me on a separate device. It’s a local wifi hub that serves as a digital library with 160 GB of Bible commentaries, movies, and music. WELS Multi-Language Publications made these gifts possible.

On the way back to Nairobi we stopped at Nyamarimba church. The building is a simple brick structure with mud daubed walls and iron sheet roofs. It is located on the property of one of the members. We also swung by Erandi, Rev. Mark Onunda’s home village. He started a congregation because the local Lutheran pastor wouldn’t let them use the church for his son’s funeral.

Nairobi

We held a second leaders’ workshop in Nairobi. The attendees knew English so Rev. Onunda didn’t have to translate into Swahili. Their spiritual maturity about the opportunities and challenges of raising support for church work made an impression on me. They understand that stewardship is a matter of the heart, not technique.

Mwingi village is located about 3.5 hours east of Nairobi. It is a dry and dusty place where water is precious. WELS is helping the local congregation of 80 families complete a permanent structure. By themselves, they had laid the foundation and built up the wall about 3 feet off the ground.

I finished my visit to Kenya the same way I finished my first visit in 2019. I preached at the LCMC congregation in the town of Kitengela. A lot has happened since then. Three church leaders, including the pastor, went home to heaven. Because of COVID, the Kenyan government stopped churches from meeting for seven months. Because the congregation in Kitengela did not meet, they were in arrears in their rent payments. The landlord placed a padlock on their front door. After two months, the members came up with the money they owed. They hope to purchase a plot of land and put up their own building.

The members of the LCMC Kenya have great hope for their church body’s future. They have taken advantage of their own members’ resources. They also enjoy the assistance of their ministry partners in the WELS. The members of the LCMC Kenya are working hard to turn hope into reality.

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