April 2025 saw a small group of five journey north with two purposes; Ingrid to teach Sunday school teachers and leaders of Sunday school teachers, and Michael and Ross to teach Pastors and leaders from two books, The Living Church by John Stott and The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshal and Tony Payne. Peya was on the team to translate and Muriel to supply hospitality to the team and also do some preparations for the larger team due up in July.
Ross, Muriel Ingrid and Peya departed from Cape Town at 07h00 on 28 Mar and arrived at Grunau for the night. Then travelled from Grunau to Windhoek to collect Michael from the airport, meet with the Bishop and visit NETS to collect a laptop.
In Windhoek the team met Bishop Lukas Katenda
LtoR: Ingrid Kjonstad, Michael Simmons, Ross & Muriel Bartholomew, Bishop Lukas Katenda and Peya Hambunda
We overnighted at King's Highway in Okahandja and then travelled the rest of the journey on 30 Mar to Ondangwa. Our host's home was not easy to acces due to much water from heavy rains. I think that water everywhere was the one very different feature on this visit to all previous visits. We could not get over seeing water all over where there is normally very dry sand. Wherever you wanted to go, water had to be taken into account. The frequent experience was driving down a road only to find that you couldn't progress due to huge lakes of water.
Once at our base we made preparations for the week of ministry ahead of us. 31 Mar saw us up and ready to serve.
This is the group of people ready to be trained by Ingrid either to teach Sunday School, or to train teachers to teach SS. Since there is an ECD running in the church building at Christ Church during the week, a tent was arranged for this teaching.
Ingrid working with some of the people. Many commented how wonderful this teaching was and how much it is needed in the churches. Many of the churches were represented here.
In the evening we went to the Imago Dei church in Oshakati West. This image shows the building they are now renting from another church. The inaugural service was the following Sunday, so we got to have the first event in this new place. Here you see some of us with the Nagolo twins, both pastors.
A good crowd arrived for the teaching here. This session ended rather late for us and we only got back to our base after midnight! All glory to God despite.
The following day we were at St Pauls in Ohangwena. As always the people arrive throughout the service so there were more than seen in this image. What amazed me again is how the people are happy to sit for many hours without break listening to the Word being taught.
Also in attendance at this session was a delegation from our church in Angola.
After ministry at Ohagwena, we visited a parcel of land that might be useful for a number of buildings in the future. This plot is in Eeshoke near to Oshikango which is on the border with Angola. There is much potential if this proves viable.
On day 3 we visited New Jerusalem Church in Ongha, where Kambauh is the Pastor. Here you can see him translating for Michael. The group also grew as time went on. Michael and I were very encouraged here to see how this church is growing their ECD (Early Childhood Development) school. Currently they have 3 classes with 75 children. They plan to build a small hostel to house about 30 more as many parents from far want their children at this school due to it teaching Biblical truths.
On our last day of ministry we were in the far north with Pastor Conradie Shilomboleni (seen just to the right of the pole). We could not get to his church so these folk travelled through water to get to this village where we could get to. The journey here was amazing as on both sides of the road there was water for as far as one could see. This was just south of Outapi.
After our teaching a few of these people expressed their excitement at hearing that they could take the Gospel to others. They had heard on radio that only pastors could do this. Praise the Lord!
Ingrid with the happy teachers with their certificates. May this be the beginning of a great movement in Namibia among the children.
After saying all our goodbyes, and thanking our hosts for their gracious hospitatlity, we had a good night sleep. We departed at 03h00 on 04 April, for our long ride south, gradually leaving all the water behind us. After a few stops along the way we dropped Michael off in Windhoek for his long flight back to the USA, and then we proceeded to Grunau for our sleepover. Saturday saw us tackle the last leg of our journey, arriving in Cape Town at 15h30.
We praise the Lord for all the support we received before, during, and after the trip. Please continue to pray for the people we met and ministered to, that they would grow in their walk with Jesus and become more impactful for the Kingdom in their villages and towns.
Soli Deo Gloria