A kickoff always signals the start of a football game.  This past week (2-9 September), we kicked off a new organization in Africa. The One Africa Team brought together two leaders from each of WELS’ three partner church bodies in West Africa: Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria (CKLCN), All Saints Lutheran Church of Nigeria (ASLCN), and the Lutheran Church of Cameroon (LCC).  These six men sat together to solve some very sticky issues involving budgets, curricula, and staffing of their Seminary programs. 

We set up a WhatsApp chat group to communicate throughout the week.  It was useful for communication about what we had done in the Conference Room, meals, etc. We also came to understand that we could also use this forum for a monthly meeting.  That meeting is currently scheduled for 8 am the first Thursday of each month.  Regular communication will greatly assist us in making plans and holding one another accountable so that things get done.

Our biggest topic of conversation was to gain an understanding of the One Africa Team’s vision for “Quarterly Ministry Plans.”  Much has changed since the days when missionaries resided in Nigeria and Cameroon. Due to security, WELS missionaries do not live in West Africa.  In those days our partners were quite free to come and tell us, “We need ____ to carry out our ministry.” Then the local missionary would see what he could do to provide it for them. 

Now, our West African brothers are writing their own plans. They are very clear about the programs that they are planning to implement. These plans include the purpose of the proposed program and who will be the participants and the teachers. Plans also include where the proposed program will take place, and benchmarks to gauge the program’s effectiveness.  The focus of ministry planning must remain on reaching people with the Gospel. However, detailed estimates of expenses and funding sources are important for successful planning. We now have a good understanding of what our partners need for the October-December quarter. With some minor adjustments, our partners will be ready to move forward with assistance from the One Africa Team.

We have opened a line of communication between the One Africa Team and the West African Leaders group. After the initial kickoff, the ball is now rolling.

Dan Kroll lives in Malawi and is the OAT Liaison to WELS Mission Partners in West Africa

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

A little flock gathered in Douala, Cameroon Monday, August 28 through Friday, August 31.

We were six sheep. Six shepherds.

Two from Christ the King Lutheran Synod of Nigeria— Pastor Idorenyin Joshua Udo and Pastor Aniedi Paul Udo;

Two from the Lutheran Church of Cameroon— Pastor Mesue Israel Muankume and Pastor Ngalame Gervase; and

Two from the WELS One Africa Team— Pastor Dan Kroll and Pastor Dan Witte. Kroll lives in Lilongwe, Malawi. I live in Lusaka, Zambia.

My brother in Wisconsin asked me before the trip, “Why are you going there?”

I told him, “It’s kind of a week-long faculty meeting.” Four West African pre-seminary and seminary professors meet with two missionaries. They have experience helping West African Lutheran seminaries.

But it was more than a faculty meeting, brother. Sister, it was more.

It was a prayer meeting. We prayed before all our meals together. We prayed at the start, middle, and end of all our meetings.

One of the Cameroonian pastors set the tone on the first day.

Pastor Israel led us in singing and prayer. He focused us on  Luke 12:32. There Jesus tells his twelve disciples, “Have no fear little flock, for your Father was delighted to give you the kingdom.”

The kingdom. The reign of God is most merciful in human hearts.

But the men Jesus is talking to will run away from him in fear the night he needs them most.

One of them will deny Jesus first. One will betray. Jesus knows. Oh, does he know.

So, “Have no fear little flock,” Jesus says, “for your Father was delighted to give you the kingdom.”

The kingdom. The one-and-only.

The cumulative impact of all the Father has always been doing, royally, redemptively, through his Son and Spirit, and always will.

Imagine.

Who is this man, talking to these twelve other men in Israel?

How does this man know what made their Father happy?

He is God’s Son, you say.

Okay. How can he claim that his Father is their Father too?

How humble is Jesus, not telling these men, “My Father was tickled to give you our kingdom”?

How humble is he, when he should be the one most afraid, as he goes to the cross, telling them not to be afraid?

And you, brother. You, sister. You, sheep of the Good Shepherd.

In Doula met six sheep for a week-long faculty meeting, a prayer meeting, a preparation-for-the-upcoming-school-year meeting, a let’s-become-better-educators meeting.

We were six men from four countries in a friendship meeting. We laughed a lot.

We could have cried a lot too.

We discussed problems. We could have opened up more about our worries. So many fears, we harbor. Those are hard to admit. We six—secretive sinners. But Jesus laid down his life for us all.

And Jesus lives.

Who are you with today as you read this? Are you by yourself? Are you with a few other believers?

Your Father was thrilled to give you the kingdom.

Why do you ever fear anything, when Jesus’ Father is giving you everything?

Have no fear, little flock.

Pray for the same fearlessness in the five students who will soon start again studying for pastoral ministry in Kumba, Cameroon. Pray in Christ for the ten students starting a new school year soon in Uruk Uso, Nigeria.

Our sister ministry training schools in West Africa are small. Difficulties? Huge.

Bigger than anything: “Your Father delights to give you the kingdom.”

Missionary Dan Witte lives in Lusaka, 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

Fresh fish! Look at these fellas and the catch of the day! For one week in the middle of June, two One Africa Team missionaries got to work by the sea in Cameroon with a group of church leaders, not only in English but also in French. As far as anyone can tell, this may have been the first time WELS World Missions has provided in-person training in Africa in French!

Sweating in Douala

Missionary Dan Kroll (with many years of experience living in Cameroon) and I (Missionary Keegan Dowling) went to the port city of Douala, and the church leaders traveled from their inland homes to meet with us there. Douala is a dank, green city on the Gulf of Guinea—and just about smack-dab on the Equator. As a matter of fact, I used to sweat as a pastor in Canada, so you can imagine I was soaked during my week in Cameroon. (Sometimes, I went through 4 shirts in a day!)

Douala is Cameroon’s biggest city and a major port. Where we stayed was right next to where the huge freighter ships docked. And there was PLENTY of fresh fish to eat—even HUGE, spicy prawns. (Fun Fact: The country of “Cameroon” was named after the Portuguese word for “prawn”!) We got so much fish on the street that the sellers got to know us… and rival sellers would tussle over us, trying to physically direct us toward their stalls.

Fish for Souls

But the real reason Missionary Kroll and I were there was not to eat but to catch fish. More specifically, we were there to help train some local fishermen: a group of leaders from Holy Trinity Lutheran Synod, whose calling from Jesus—like each of us Christians—is to fish for people, not necessarily for fish.

Holy Trinity is not yet in church fellowship with the WELS. They are just beginning their journey of exploring the road to church fellowship. This starts with an emphasis on doctrine—specifically, a comprehensive overview of doctrine like you would find in a bible information course at a church in North America. I’ve known French since I was a teenager and would read Le Monde newspaper and listen to Radio France Internationale and collect French films in college.

But I can be thankful now that the Lord called me at Seminary graduation (2013) to serve as a pastor for 9 years in Orléans, Ontario, which is the eastern part of Ottawa, the capital city of Canada: Ottawa is the largest bilingual city in the country. While there, seeing and hearing French every day, I soaked up a lot of detailed vocabulary which is coming in handy now in Africa, where 167 million people speak French.

Teaching God’s Word in French

WELS Multi-Language Productions (MLP) gave us permission to put my favorite bible information course—Basic Bible Christianity, by Pastor Jon Buchholz—into French, and use it in our training workshops. We spent time with our new friends in Cameroon honing in on such aspects of doctrine as communion, baptism, Law-and-Gospel, the history of the Bible, and confession, among others. We plan to meet with these very same men at all our upcoming workshops so that we can forge personal relationships and make progress as we grow deeper in our studies and our planning together.

When we were men about town, Missionary Kroll and I both got a lot of exposure to French: It’s the language of the city of Douala. It is still a new and fresh experience for us, to use French in our ministry. It was also a new and fresh experience for our friends from Holy Trinity Lutheran Synod to explore biblical doctrine systematically with a bible information course presented both in French and in English. Missionary Kroll and I hope we grow stronger in our use of French with each visit we make to Cameroon. And we hope the leaders from Holy Trinity will also grow stronger in their understanding and use of God’s Word—which sounds sweet in any language.

Missionary Keegan J. Dowling lives in Lusaka, 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