Team Leader
Anette Jackson, James Le Roux, Danie De Waal, Spha Saneyi, Muriel & Ross Bartholomew, Blake Du Preez, Marion Edmonds-Smith, Kathy Noland, Paul Jackson
Greetings in the precious Name of our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ.
2022 was a special year for us. Our last team to visit was three years ago in 2019 - due to Covid-19 restrictions etc. One of the things that we find amazing is that on every trip we make we learn more, experience things not encountered before and meet many new friends. Much is new for every trip.
Our task this year was to visit some of the new churches. We shared the Good News of the Kingdom with them from Romans 8, enjoyed fellowship with them, gave assistance to the new Early Childhood Development schools established and some building material for the growing churches. Here are some images from each of the churches we visited.
Video of our trip
Onandjandja - St Phillips
Onimiindele - Nazareth
Okwayuufuko - St Barnabas
Oshipya - Calvary Community Church
Synod
On our way north we passed through Otjiwarongo and met the new church there
St James
We had a challenging trip but one with many blessings. All glory to Jesus our Saviour. We want to thank the many people who helped make this trip possible with their donations.
The great need that was expressed countless times was for the Scriptures in their own language. At one church the people pleaded with us to supply Bibles - they wanted 500! On many occasions we noticed that in groups there were only a very few Bibles. These people cannot use Smartphones since they are in the bush with no electricity and no mobile phone coverage. They need printed Bibles. On one occassion we encouraged them to try and copy portions of scripture so that they could share what they had.
My challenge is twofold:
- Could I please ask you to mobilise your church to set aside a few hundred Rand monthly in their budget for the Churches for the next mission trip and to help churches in Namibia? This will enable us to travel there and be able to minister to these people with less of the current financial burden. Most of our team have to take leave or use holiday time for the trip. Bank account details are below.
- Could I ask each or you to consider sponsoring 1 Bible per month? This will cost R160. Please challenge your friends and family to do likewise. I can only imagine the impact if we are able to subsidise 50 or more Bibles per month. This year we had no Bibles since they were still being printed by the Bible Society. The need is huge! Banking details also below.
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Banking Details for the annual mission trip: |
Banking Details for Bibles: |
To the glory and honour of our precious Saviour Jesus Christ!
Ladies
I was so excited and looking forward to this trip to see how God had been at work in Namibia in my 5-year absence. Our heavenly Father went beyond my expectations. 35 churches planted since 2017.
Anette, Regina (our translator) and I were privileged to use the Discovery Bible Study for the women. The object is to teach a portion of Scripture. The women have discussion, take what they have learned, share it with another lady and then the next week to report back to the group how it went. God willing this method would grow the group and also have opportunity to begin other groups.
We taught the women from John 10:1 – 11 Jesus is telling Pharisees and his disciples that he is the Good Shepherd.
We told them of the history of God placing kings, priest and prophets to shepherd His people bus as they are human they failed at the task they were given. God then promises a perfect Shepherd. He sends his Son Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.
Jesus tells them that He calls them by name and they need to hear the voice. Respond to the call and Jesus, the Gatekeeper of the sheepfold will open the door and let his sheep enter.
The sheep are to beware of thieves and robbers who will find other ways to get into the sheepfold with the intention of destroying and killing the sheep.
The Good Shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep to protect his sheep from the thief who would destroy and kill his sheep.
Anette and I then did a skit of the Lost Sheep from Luke to illustrate how the Shepherd goes and looks for his lost sheep. This was well received.
We were sad to see that in groups that averaged 23 women there were only 3 -4 Bibles amongst them.
It was encouraging to see some women taking notes and writing down the verses to presumably for discussion amongst themselves of what they had learned.
God willing next year I can return to Namibia the see the spiritual growth in the women and they share how they have set up Bible Study groups.
Marion Edmonds-Smith
Anette Jackson
Men
This year the men’s ministry team consisted of myself, Danie de Waal, and Paul Jackson. We are both from St Matthews Table View. It was my first mission trip to Namibia although not my first time in Namibia. Paul is also a seasoned visitor to Africa due to several trips work related.
Although Ross tried to prepare me for the trip ministry-wise, I was still quite out of my depth. I think the aspects that threw me were noted in earlier reports being the lack in general of men attending, the low level of biblical knowledge, the lack of Bibles and the language barrier. The result was that my preparation was at completely the wrong level. Fortunately, I was very ably assisted by my teammate Paul who was very supportive and at the end of the day we were able change our approach and get good interaction from those men that attended.
What did encourage me was the hunger for God and His Word among those men present, their enthusiasm and awesome welcoming attitudes. Their dedication showed in the great distances they had to cover to attend our services.
I felt to teach from Romans 8:1-11 for two reasons: 1. To encourage the men in their salvation and 2. To bring a clear and direct gospel message of salvation by God’s grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. After grappling with ways to deliver the message we were able to convey the above two messages clearly, assisted by two very able translators. It must be emphasised that good translators are of the utmost importance.
While great enthusiasm is good, more will have to be done to reach men. We need to pray for boldness of the existing pastors in this matter, and more equipping for the existing men to reach other men.
I believe that God calling Reverend Lucas Katenda as the Bishop to be a pivotal point for the Church in Namibia. His keen love for God, the Bible and the Church is truly heart-warming.
Thank you, team, for your love and support.
Danie De Waal
Paul Jackson
Youth
I’d like to start by saying that missions was never something that peaked my interest nearly as much as it does now. The entire trip was one filled with much growth, community, and worship and seeing the Lord working out his purposes in the lives of his people in Namibia. In this particular mission trip I was put in charge of any youth ministry that was to take place on a given day, which included teaching and games and general interaction with the youth.
To keep the report short and sweet I want to start by saying one thing I found particularly comforting was that majority of the youth’s ability to communicate in English. I must say that I dreaded the thought of having to try teach and manage the youth with them being unable to understand a single word I was saying. Since we only had one active translator part of the team, hearing that majority of the youth could speak English was a great encouragement to me as it allowed me to speak a lot more freely. However, three out of the four occasions of ministry I was provided with a translator from among the local congregation which did help with communication and cultural barriers.
Games were a standard part of the program I had prepared which consisted of one or two ice breakers and maybe one main game depending on our time left. The game often included a soccer ball which we provided for all the churches we visited. After games I introduced myself to the youth and depending on the group size, I asked for their names. I then gave a brief introduction on the book of Romans which was the book I taught from
Concerning the material which my teachings were based on, being Romans 8, I had to find a way to relay the deep theological and doctrinal truths found in it. To my experience, I found that with my preparation and the help of local translators, the message of Romans 8:1-11 came across quite clearly for the young people. Most days not enough time was available after everyone else was done for me to engage with the youth on what I had just taught. They were also particularly shy and when I found myself asking them question during my teaching I was met with awkward silence. With most youth, even common here in South Africa, there were some I could see who were genuinely listening and I could see those whose minds were elsewhere. Nevertheless I continued to proclaim to them the truths found in Romans 8.
I did find that as I taught the same lesson over and over I became a lot more comfortable with my notes and was able to speak a lot more freely and openly, not being as note-bound as the previous time. The benefits I found from that was that I felt I was speaking more to their heart. I felt that the biblical truths I was relaying to them, I relayed with a lot more urgency. It slowly started to shift mere teaching towards more of a preaching nuance if you will. The result of that I found was a lot more attentive listeners, not because there was anything particularly impressive about what I had to say but that I felt the Sprit was working in the hearts of some of the young people.
For some further information, on an unrelated ministry day where we visited St. Peters church for their Sunday service, one of our ladies, Kathy, decided to do a children’s talk after the service. Five young girls, who were not in the church service joined in with the crowd and from hearing the talk wanted to give their lives to the Lord. I was particularly asked to talk to them. I presented them the Gospel and they all wanted to follow Christ, and so I prayed with them.
I hope that the Lord truly did a work in those young girls’ hearts that day.
It is my prayer that what I taught the many youth in Namibia did not leave them unchanged. That along with my growth from this experience, they too grew and that some came to acknowledge Christ as Lord over their lives.
Blake Du Preez
Children
She was a nameless little Ovambo girl in a bright orange dress. Her name was lost to me in the excited squeal of village voices, and I was glad that the Lord knew her name, even if I did not. She looked to be no more than 8 or 9, and carrying a small baby less than a year old. Was this a sibling? Yes, it had to be that - It surely must be that? She stood shyly at the back of the many excited children and wanted so much to be a part of our ‘pass the parcel’ game that we were playing with them. But she had the infant to look after. I could see in some shade further away that Marion and Anette had already started the Discovery Bible Study lesson with the village ladies and I hoped that the girl’s mother was among them.
We continued the game and soon little ’Orange dress’ joined us, with the baby now tied onto her small back. She seemed happy enough, yet my heart ached for this child.
Through our translator, who was only a teenager herself, and using games, puppets and storybooks with bold pictures, Sphamandla, Jamie and I brought a simple gospel message to these children of Northern Namibia. We had a superb teaching aid in ‘The Good News’, a device put out by Global Recordings Network –GRN, which is an evangelistic Bible teaching audio-visual tool. It presents a short Bible overview as well as basic teaching on the Christian Life, all pre-recorded in the Kwanyama dialect with corresponding images. It is particularly suited to teaching oral communicators in the bush, and does not even require a translator.
Would Orange dress respond? It was in the hands of a loving Father from here on.
Every day we navigated sand and sun, deep into the Namibian bush, and met with grateful villagers who embraced us as family in their corrugated iron and pole churches. I have not felt this welcome in any Cape Town church. After our lesson we were invariably served refreshments and on two occasions the team was offered gifts. Baskets of beans, millet and cooked ground nuts were formally presented to us along with football sized squashes and white crispy watermelons. Several churches had prepared us a meal of fragrant chicken cooked in marula oil served with many vegetable and grain dishes reflecting the produce of the land.
This is a rare privilege that I relish every year, to be able to reach out, in our case to several hundred children over two weeks, with the simple story that Jesus loves them and died so that they could know Him.
Many children this year responded to the call to follow Christ. Solo Deo Gloria!
Kathy Noland
Spha Saneyi and /James Le Roux
The great need that was expressed countless times was for the Scriptures in their own language. We got to meet the team of translators who are currently working on new versions of both the main languages spoken in Owamboland, Oshindonga and OshiKwanyama. We saw them working on large screens with the Hebrew or Greek text, plus a number of English translations and then the current version and what they are newly creating. This is a huge task and not expected to be completed before 2027!
My challenge is twofold:
- Could I please ask you to mobilise your church to set aside a few hundred Rand in their budget for next year, for the Churches for Namibia mission trip? This will enable us to come here and be able to minister to these people with less of the current financial burden. Most of our team had to take leave or use holiday time for the trip. Bank account details are below.
- Could I ask each or you to consider sponsoring 1 Bible per month? This will cost R150. Please challenge your friends and family to do likewise. I can only imagine the impact if we are able to subsidise 50 or more Bibles per month. We managed to move 385 Bibles while here due to many people getting involved, to whom we say a huge thank you. The need though is still huge, and people were pushing money into our hands trying to get Bibles… even when we had run out completely! Banking details also below.
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Banking Details for the annual mission trip: |
Banking Details for Bibles: |
To the glory and honour of our precious Saviour Jesus Christ!