Things did not go according to the plan. No, not even by a mile.

What was the plan? The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE) wanted to start a Lutheran nursery school. The plan was that there would be three age levels – something like nursery school, preschool, and kindergarten. In addition to the normal subjects, students would be taught the word of God. The LCE planned to offer these classes in the city of Bishoftu, in the building where their largest congregation gathers to worship every Sunday. They planned to enroll about 75 students, some from their own membership and others from their community. The LCE leaders contacted all the appropriate government offices. They were very careful to follow all the government rules and regulations. And if everything went well with the nursery school, then they would add Grade 1 the following year. That was the plan.

But things did not go according to the plan. In fact, none of it happened. Everything failed. There is no nursery school in Bishoftu. Not a single child is enrolled there.

A Snag in Plans

What happened? As the time drew near for the school to open, it became clear that things were not going to go smoothly. All along, the government officials had been saying, “Oh yes, everything is fine,” yet they were delaying and delaying and delaying. They were refusing to give their final approval for the school. No one would say what the reason for their refusal was, but the bottom line for the LCE was that the local government officials would not grant permission for the school. All their carefully laid plans had failed.

But God had other plans. Shortly after the bottom fell out in Bishoftu, the LCE was contacted by the Bureau of Education from a nearby town. The nearby town is called Dukem; it’s just a few miles from Bishoftu. The government officials from Dukem urgently pleaded with the members of the LCE, “If they will not let you have a school in Bishoftu… please, please, please come and have your school in Dukem!”  They helped the LCE find two buildings where classes could be held. The officials in Dukem promised that they would provide government land on which to build a new facility in the future. They strongly urged the LCE not to limit the enrollment to just three levels of nursery school, but also to include some higher grades as well. They quickly processed all the paperwork and gave the necessary approvals.

A Greater Opportunity

And what was the end result? A brand new school in Dukem with two separate campuses.  About 30 new teachers. Students in the 3 nursery levels, plus Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4.  Current enrollment: 759. That’s right, seven hundred and fifty-nine. That’s ten times more than the LCE had originally planned.

Do you ever end your prayers the way Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours be done”? How do you feel when you say those words? Honestly, when I say those words, I’m often thinking to myself, “My will is the best. God’s will is second-best, and I’ll be disappointed if that’s what I receive. So God, please help me to grin and bear it when I don’t get what I want.”

Our Christian brothers and sisters in the LCE did not get what they had planned or wanted. They got ten times more than that.

So go ahead and make your plans. Make those plans as bold and ambitious as you see fit. But in the end, submit yourself to the will of God – not because you have to, but because God’s plans are better than yours.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20,21).

Mark Panning 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

Half a lifetime ago I locked myself into a room with a Bulgarian pastor. We were reviewing translations of Bible commentaries and the Lutheran Confessions. We used to argue for hours over how to best convey complicated theological concepts and terms in the Slavic tongue. I learned the hard way that translation work takes great skill, patience, and flexibility. The Star Trek universal translator machine is ridiculous fiction. Google algorithms can translate individual words and phrases, but it always fails to see the forest for the trees. Computers lack the ability to analyze, decode and transmit human speech from one language to another. There is no substitute for the human mind.

Plans Change

WELS Multi-Language Productions (MLP) facilitates the production of Biblical Lutheran literature for use in its world mission fields. MLP encourages both the translation of existing English books as well as the production of original materials in other languages. The One Africa Team asked MLP to sponsor a translation workshop for WELS mission partners in Africa in 2021. MLP sponsored publications conferences in Lusaka, Zambia in 2018 and 2019. WELS partners from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Malawi, India, and Nepal attended.

COVID19 disrupted the One Africa Team’s plans to host an in-person publications event in Lusaka during 2021. We had concerns about the safety of our guests and the student families living on the Lusaka Seminary campus. That led us to adjust our plans and offer an online event. Over five days, Dr. Ernst R. Wendland used the online teleconferencing program Zoom to present his material. Dr. Wendland has served WELS missions for over half a century. He teaches Biblical languages at the Lusaka Seminary and has coordinated translation work for the United Bible Society of Zambia.

Workshop Takeaways

Translators have to change the form of the original text to convey its meaning accurately. That may mean changing the word order or even the order of the sentences. This may mean eliminating words that are redundant or have no local equivalent. They may need to add words or phrases that convey a concept similar but are not identical to the original. It may be necessary to replace a technical term with a generic word, like translating “Paraclete” with “Helper.” There are many other kinds of changes that a translator must make to the form of the original text. Otherwise, the original meaning will be lost or presented incorrectly. It took many months and many heated discussions with my Bulgarian counterpart for me to understand and appreciate this concept. I was very uncomfortable with changing the form of the original text, but a word-for-word translation doesn’t help readers either.

A second takeaway from the workshop is that translation work is both an art and a science. The legend that 70 Jews individually produced identical translations of the Old Testament into Greek is laughable. There is more than one way to translate any text, but some ways are superior to others. Every translation can be improved by a review. The best translations are not produced by superstar solo artists, but by collaborative bands working in harmony. An ideal translation team consists of the translator, language consultants, a reviewer(s), and a copy editor. It takes a lot of time and money to publish a book. As a publication has a long-lasting influence on future readers, it’s worth the effort to produce a high-quality translation.

A Worthy Legacy

Dr. Wendland is a world-renowned linguist and translation expert. However, the principles he shared at our workshop can be used by anyone interested in and committed to translation work. He modeled the importance of asking questions about the meaning of the original text.

In my experience, translating a text from one language to another gives you a better understanding of its meaning. When you translate a text, you must ask yourself what the author originally meant. It’s painstaking work, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But producing a high-quality translation of a theological book is a church body’s priceless legacy. We thank God for men like Dr. Wendland who have slashed through the jungle and shown us the path forward.

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

Oh, the hills. How striking they were as Howie Mohlke, his wife Leslie, and I drove east from Lilongwe, Malawi down toward Lake Malawi.

So were the sloping tea fields and the hills and valleys in the Sondu area of western Kenya when I saw them a few weeks later with Anariko Onunda: stunning.

Why tell you about hills?

From Flatlander to Hill Runner

For years I was a flatlander. I had not lived among hills since I was a vicar in Marrietta, Georgia (1990–1991), whether our family was in Illinois (1992–2001), Florida (2001–2015), or Minnesota (2015–2019).

Since December 2019, though, my wife and I have lived in Lusaka, Zambia, 4,200 feet above sea level. For exercise, I run hills.

I recently picked up my new U.S. passport from the U.S. embassy here in Lusaka. The complex sits atop one of Lusaka’s tallest hills. On many runs I look for it, gleaming in the morning sun.

Lusaka’s hilltop embassy makes me think of friends and family I miss in the States, as much as I enjoy serving the Lord and you here in Africa.

True Stories, Well Told

September 20–29 I had the privilege of traveling from Lusaka to Malawi. There I met with six pastors of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa – Malawi Synod. Pastors Chumba, Macharenga, Mandevu, Mitengo, Mukhweya, Mulinga, and I studied African church history biography together as part of their formal continuing education.

Since that week, each Malawian pastor in the course has sent me a story suitable for a 7–12-year-old, a story about a figure in Malawian church history.

In part, those projects are to help that pastor’s own family and congregation. In part, they are to help pastors in other countries in our Bachelor of Divinity (BDiv) cohort—pastors in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. And in part, all the pastors’ efforts to research and communicate “true stories, well told” (our motto for the week) about fascinating figures in their country’s church history are to help me.

Receiving the Crown of Life

It is not just that I am new to African, as well as African church history. More importantly, stories about important believers from different parts of Africa, once we collect and distribute them all to all our BDiv brothers, will allow them to teach each other about real-life faith and love. 

Due to Covid-19 related issues, the twenty pastors in our cohort have not been able to meet yet face to face, though we began classes over a year ago. Pray with me that face-to-face classes for us all begin in 2022.

Back then to true stories, well told. Such stories not only have the potential to build up brotherhood, by God the Spirit’s power. They can break down super-tall hills, hills which so easily divide those whom God wants united: hills like time, distance, and cultural misunderstandings. These are stories where brothers can see trials our Father has sent in the past. These stories can connect us to believers in distant places and times.

 Be faithful, even to the point of death,” good stories remind us—stories like those of some of Africa’s first martyrs for Christ, Perpetua, and Felicity, remind us. In our classes, we watched a video about them. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Jesus promises this to persecuted believers in ancient Smyrna and to us too.

Across the Rift

October 8-18 I traveled to Kenya to teach my BDiv level course. In both Malawi and Kenya, the pastors and I did not just talk history. We also discussed being faithful today, even to the point of death. We conferred about the confirmation classes which the pastors supervise and teach, and the steep hills young people climb as they learn to follow Christ.

One difference between the church history biography course in Malawi and the one in Kenya was that on October 10, before the class in Kenya started, I had the honor of preaching in Kenya for the consecration of the new building of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Ramba parish, served by Pastor Samwel Omondi. He translated my sermon from English into Luo. It was a joyful Christ-centered service, complete with the Lord’s Supper.

It was my first trip to Kenya, so I had much to learn. The pastors and I met in the shade of the center brick-and-grass open-air hut.

After the week’s class, Pastor Onunda drove me back up to Nairobi, a city even higher in elevation than Lusaka, and three times bigger.           

On October 17 Pastor Onunda introduced me to part of his city congregation, a much smaller group than the rural congregation the previous Sunday. In Nairobi some Christians Pastor Onunda serves are starting to meet separately as a daughter congregation. Elders were leading the service of that new congregation the morning I visited.

The King of the Hill

Such outreach efforts, even for an experienced pastor, get bumpy. Make that hilly. Sometimes we all feel as if we are barely able to put one foot in front of another, trudging uphill. Demons, this dying world, even our own deadly flesh whisper “give up” when hilly slopes get steeper.

But our Lord said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). That’s true of both Nairobi and wherever you gather with other believers for word and sacrament.  Someday even the mightiest mountains will fall. But not God’s promises of mercy to us in Christ crucified.

 Jesus lives. We have been baptized into him.

 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10).

Missionary Dan Witte lives in Lusaka

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