2023

Team Leader

Team 2023

Melody Curtis, Megano Jeremia (our host), Ross & Muriel Bartholomew, Paul Jackson, Nathan, David, Sarah, Adele, Hannah, Mia and James Hill, Kathy Noland (behind them), James Le Roux, Susanna and Lindsey Manley

Greetings in the precious Name of our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ.

This year as a team of 15 we visited 8 churches and shared with them how there are significant Prophets or signs in the Old Testament that point very strongly to the Great Sacrifice of Jesus, through whom alone we are saved.

While we were on mission we made a call to other of the Lord's people to help finance materials to help build some of the new churches. Funds raised enabled 3 new church structures to be built - all Glory to God!!

Christ Church – Ondangwa

Christ Church Children Christ Church Ladies Christ Church Youth

St Paul’s Church – Ohangwena

St Pauls Children St Pauls Ladies St Pauls Men St Pauls Youth

Bethel Church – Ondjadjo

Bethel Ladies Bethel Youth

St Thomas – Onanime

Onanime Children Onanime Ladies Onanime Youth

St Peters Church – Onamambili

St Peters after the service St Peters preaching

St Lukes – Omungwelume

Bethsaida Children Bethsaida Ladies Bethsaida Youth

Bethsaida – Ongali

Bethsaida Children Bethsaida Ladies Bethsaida Youth

Fountain of Life Church – Oshakati

Fountain of Life Children Fountain of Life Men Fountain of Life Women Fountain of Life Youth

Nakambali - visited by some of the team

Nakambali

This was a very full trip and we had the opportunity and privelege of ministering to many of our Ovambo friends. All glory to Jesus our Saviour. We want to thank the many people who helped make this trip possible with their donations.

Unfortunately the Bible Society of Namibia had run out of Bibles in the local languages so we couldn't supply any - apparently they will only be avaiable again next year some time.

Banking Details for the annual mission trip:
First National Bank
Acc Name: Churches for Namibia
Account number: 62310038014
Branch code: 201409 (250655 if using EFT)
Account type: Current Acc/Cheque

Banking Details for Bibles:
FNB Namibia
Bible Society of Namibia
Account number: 55570917730
Branch Code: 281972
Please use Ref: BAR002
Account type: Current Acc/Cheque

To the glory and honour of our precious Saviour Jesus Christ!

Ladies

For those of you who like statistics, I can tell you that our team of 2 this year taught the bible to around 60 ladies at 8 different churches in northern Namibia on our 14 day trip. The churches varied from established community buildings (with pews and loo) to iron and pole huts and, in one case, four lone walls under a few trees. On many sites our port-a-loo came into its own. Each church was different but all of them were filled with beautiful people.

Amongst these beautiful people were many delightful women, all of different ages and stages of motherhood and womanhood. Each one was facing her own unique challenges, just as we do here in South Africa. In some venues we heard that the ladies had walked for several hours in soft sand, carrying babies and small children, just to hear the bible being taught.

Our task was to present Christ to the ladies using the OT narratives of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jonah. The account of John the Baptist tied all other accounts together in presenting Jesus as the Lamb of God, prefigured in the Old Testament.

If we were outside without shade we just presented our teaching in the blazing sun with sunhats and lots of blockout. Many of the church ladies had their own Bible (which looked pretty well-thumbed to me). Some ladies came out of curiosity so we made a gospel appeal part of our teaching at most sites. Several ladies responded.

For those of you who like stories, here is one told to me by Meme Anna, wife of the pastor in one of our REACH churches in a remote part of northern Namibia. (Meme is a term of respect for an older lady and is pronounced meh-may)

Melody and I had been sitting with the ladies inside Anna's roofless, mud-shell of a church. It was hot but the ladies were attentive and engaged. We had been sharing with them, in scripture, about Adam and Noah and how the accounts of both of these men pointed to the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for us on the cross. We had explained to them, through the Oshikwanyama interpreter, the hope of Christ found in the Old Testament.

When we finished and were saying our goodbyes, Anna sent her daughter Fredericka to call me aside because she wanted to share something with me.
Anna took my arm as we slipped into the shadows under a thorn tree. She looked at me earnestly, asking her daughter to translate.

'Meme Kathy,' she began,
'This teaching is important ...
five months ago one of our young ladies was married in this village'.

By now Anna was almost crying

''and today we are burying her....
'.... She hung herself last week.'

'Please, Meme Kathy,' she continued, ''please come back again to tell us these stories about Jesus, we need to hear these stories. Our women need to hear them because they have no hope.'

It wrenched my heart to see the way she was begging us to return.

'Please come back,' she kept saying 'and when you come again, please bring bibles with you'.

Now I don't know when was the last time someone begged you to teach them the bible? It doesn't happen that often in Cape Town.

In another church, this time in urban Oshikati, a young woman told us 'I never saw before how the blood on the Passover door in Egypt tells me about Jesus'

Her friend next to her said 'Now I can learn how to trust Jesus in Proverbs 3:4-5'.

In every place we visited we were entreated to come back to continue the teaching. Who wouldn't want to return?

Now, my question is this ... will you be part of the Nam Team to go help teach these ladies in 2024?

Kathy Noland
Melody Curtis

marion bottom

Men

I was blessed to be part of Reach Namibia 2023.

In truth it started well before the day we departed in convoy in the early hours of Sunday 25^th June. It started the day we (my wife Susanna and I) were accepted as members of the team as the leaders and the Lord would have it. We had gone through the arduous process of applying for our passports but thankfully they arrived in good time. We then had to raise the funds to finance our cost to attend this year’s mission so we held a fundraising soup and quiz evening at St. James Church to which we are grateful to the staff for allowing us to. The evening was a success and fun was had by all. Most importantly we were able to raise awareness of the impending outreach and garnered prayer and financial support. Due to the great generosity of supporters we were able to contribute over and above the required amount which would be used for outstanding outreach costs and also hopefully enough to purchase Namibian language Bibles.

Our days of ministry began with early morning devotion – hymn singing, a devotion shared by a team member and prayer to dedicate the day to the Lord – a great way to focus our attention to the mission that lay ahead. I was assigned to work with Ross, our team leader, in ministry to the men.

In general there were not many men that attended the gatherings as they were held during the week. Our first day of ministry was to two churchmen with the translator. Ross was explaining the “signposts” depicted in the Bible that show us the way to “the Great Sacrifice” as represented in the Biblical accounts of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, John the Baptist and Jesus. For me it was a good quick crash course in the presentation of the gospel and a very useful teaching tool to explain how these famous heroes of the Bible displayed the various aspects of God’s Salvation Plan. The men were listening intently and attentively taking down notes.

In the ensuing days due to the paucity of men I did ushering duties as well as greeting folk. It was the fourth day and I was carrying chairs so that the womenfolk could sit in “the church” which was actually a space on a raised bank enclosed by four walls with two entrances where doors were supposed to be (and no roof). Here Kathy was holding the ladies’ meeting with Melody along with their translator.

I left them and was then met by a gentlemen in a bright colourful shirt. He was introduced to our group as the pastor’s son who lived in a house about 100 metres from “the church”. I said “Hello” and asked his name. He introduced himself and I asked how old he was to which he answered “54”. I said “I’m the same, born in 1969!” I discovered that he could speak Afrikaans which was a better way for us to communicate as I do not know the local language. And by God’s providence I had just finished scribing for an Afrikaans pupil in the weeks leading up to our departure for Namibia! He said “Come and follow me, I want to show you where we are going to build the church”. So he led me to a clearing to the other side past where Adele was busy ministering to the kids under a tree.

While in the middle of this field I chatted to him and said “O you must know all the Bible stories from since young as you’re a pastor’s child?” To which he replied “Yes, I know them all – Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah…”. “Oh” I said “you know about Jonah?” “Yes” he said “Jonah was in the belly of the fish”. I said “Yes!” So I asked him “How many days and nights was Jonah in the belly of the fish?” To which he replied “…..A week”!

And so he began to speak about Jonah and the Ninevites and how Jonah had disobeyed God etc. So then I asked him “Can I show you in the Bible how many days and how many nights Jonah was in the belly of the fish?” To which he said “Yes” and so I downloaded the Afrikaans Bible on my phone to show him Jonah 1:17 – Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. “Can I also show you the significance of the sign of Jonah being three days and three nights in the belly of the fish? Jesus spoke of this sign in the New Testament” to which he replied “Yes, why not” and so I turned to the gospel of Matthew chapter 12 reading from verse 40: (in Afrikaans)

“Soos Jona drie dae en drie nagte in die maag van 'n groot vis was, so sal die Seun van die mens drie dae en drie nagte binne-in die aarde wees. Die mense van Nineve sal op die oordeelsdag saam met die mense van vandag opstaan en teen hulle getuig. Hulle het hulle immers op die prediking van Jona bekeer.”

So I asked him “Het jy al bekeer?” (Have you repented, have you converted?) To which he answered forthrightly “No”! So I asked him “Would you like to repent?” to which he answered “Yes! I want to see God.”

There with the two of us standing in the middle of the sand and shrub field he committed his life unto the Lord.

Thanks to Ross and Muriel for their tireless efforts in organising and leading these outreaches to the Reach Namibia churches every year. It was also heartwarming to meet the young men studying at seminary who are being trained in ministry and who acted as our translators. May God bless you all.