Back Online
Hello everyone.
After a long period of not being able to connect to the Internet from our home in Namibia, we are back online.
We should be responding to emails more quickly now, and catching up on a lot of thank yous, apologies, and other important stuff.
Humbly yours,
Todd & Erin
Namibia Journal - December 16th, 2005
Friday, December 16th
Erin and I woke up and studied and read and prayed and waited for Heinrich and Mouna again like yesterday. They were a little late because they went to the bookstore to buy Erin a birthday card! That was very very nice of them to do. Today when we had lunch with them in a common area at the Center, Vincent & Fetske from Holland and with Christ's Hope Namibia joined us. We thought it was good for them to meet some more people with Christ's Hope and for Vincent and Fetske to meet some of the people we are working with. They talked a lot about the similarity between the Dutch language and Afrikaans—Afrikaans is sometimes called “baby Dutch.” They had a good time.
Instead of going out with Heinrich and Mouna today, Erin requested that we stay in town and do some things, spend some more time together, and she needed time to bake her own birthday cake for the Firm Foundations Bible study tonight.
The cake took a long time to make and we had some extra things to bring so we decided to take a taxi to Heinrich and Mouna's. For some reason the first four taxis we saw didn't care to stop for us. They are usually desperate for fares. At any point in this story we could have realized that since we were going to teach on angels and demons tonight that maybe we were experiencing the influence of the latter. We finally got a taxi, climbed in the back, and thought everything was great. Then we found out the young lady in the front seat was going the opposite way of us. That was fine, but before she got out, our cab driver decided to let another guy in. We didn't think it was possible that he was actually stopping for another passenger but yes he was.
We figured out that's what he was doing and I said, “Oh no, he can't fit. This isn't going to work,” but he was already at my door taking our backpack and two 5-liters of 'cool drink' into the trunk. Now most Namibian men are small, and it wouldn't usually be a problem to fit another guy in the back except that we were running late and Erin still had the big cake pan on her lap. But this Namibian had to be one of the biggest men we have seen in the country yet. Maybe the #1 biggest guy. He was big. At least top 5. I was nervous about the fit. I got over as close to Erin as I could and started to pray.
Somehow he got the door closed and seemed to be a nice guy. In fact, we became comfortable. The cab driver was still a problem. He drove all the way out to 5 Rand which is outside of town to the south and dropped off the young lady in the front. With that out of the way, we were finally headed in the right direction. The big guy was still next to us and the front seat was empty but that was okay. Then he pulled into a gas station. Why? I checked the gas gage. At least a quarter tank. What could it be? Oh, he just wanted to stop and talk with his friends. (Erin and I, despite being holy missionaries, began to get a little irritated.) We resumed our journey five minutes later, realized our struggle, and started to pray specifically about it. It was then that Erin pointed out that maybe our experience was going to be prophetic for the night's teaching.
Now, we had told the driver where we were going when we got into the cab so when he turned onto Mike & Josh's street we thought it must be for the other guy. Because we were Americans, the driver ignored what we told him and assumed we were going to Mike & Josh's house. Despite being a holy missionary, and praying, I said with a little irritation that that was not what we said. We needed to go to “Chateau #2”. The cab driver looked confused, and he was looking at us like we were crazy. Normally we would understand that most people would be very surprised that two white people want to be driven into one of the poorest parts of Okahandja. But this time we looked at him like he should think it completely normal. The big guy next to us, even though he only said the very same things we did, got the job done and got him to the right spot. Finally, Heinrich helped us out of the cab and by then the prayers for peace and non-irritation were working. We were so glad to be at our destination.
At Heinrich & Mouna's we found about a dozen children and a few adults waiting to start the Bible study and have birthday cake. We had plenty of cake and maybe I'm talking from the position of being in Namibia for too long already but it was the best cake I've ever had.
Mouna had the children ready and they sang many special birthday songs—all Christian songs and “Happy Birthday.” At the end of singing “Happy Birthday,” in Namibia, it is customary to say “Hip Hip Hooray!” three times. The children did this exuberantly and little Mikey, only two years old, was so into it that she kept going. Everyone laughed when she repeated again, “Hip Hip!” and waited for the “Hooray!” that never came. We were all just laughing.
I was also dancing with the children and we spent a lot of time with them before settling down to begin our study. Firm Foundations lesson 3 is about God's creation of the spirit beings—angels that became demons and Lucifer who became Satan. There is a lot of misunderstanding around these subjects and we didn't want to rush any of the material. So with everything else that was going on tonight we ended the lesson early to allow things time to sink in. Still, we always take time for prayer and allow everyone time to pray.
Namibia Journal - December 15th, 2005
Thursday, December 15th
Happy birthday to Erin!! My lovely wife of one year and almost 3 months turned 25 today. I was very happy to pray a special prayer for her on her birthday. Otherwise we didn't do anything special for her birthday today. Those plans are for tomorrow.
Heinrich and Mouna came over to the Center at 11AM as we had planned yesterday. We had some lunch together and some personal discipleship and language-learning time and then headed out. Mouna had to go do some things so she left us and Heinrich had some more people for us to visit.
Our first stop today took us to the opposite side of town from where most of Heinrich's relationships are at. The house is in a part of Nau-Aib called Grys Blok. The people Heinrich wanted us to meet were a couple named Brongarious and Adelaide. They were just starting to eat something when we arrived and seemed a little distracted. We told them we would be happy to come another time but they accomodated us happily. Another person, Kulu, was also there at the home. I had been praying silently in my mind on our way to the house and since we had been sitting there about what to do with this couple. The only thought I had is that I would like to talk about the first commandment, of the 10 commandments. But I thought that would seem random and, objectively, didn't seem appropriate. But it was all I had. Then we simply asked Brongarious and Adelaide what questions they had or what they would like to talk about. Adelaide had nothing. And she clearly seemed to be the most spiritual of the two. I didn't expect anything to come out of Brongarious. But then he said, “I'd like to know about the 10 commandments. And, maybe, Psalms.” Okay, Lord! So we spent the next 20 or 30 minutes teaching the commandment and promise of Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me,” with references to the psalms, such as Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” We explained what the commandment meant—that we couldn't trust the gods of money, alcohol, or sex and still be trusting God—and, we explained the commandment as a promise—with God as our God, we don't need any other Gods! He alone is enough and covers everything. Heinrich and Adelaide were teaming up to do the translation for Brongarious' and Kulu's sake. We also prayed together, and then we left. It looks like Brongarious' schedule might be hard for us to match. We were fortunate to catch him on his lunch break today. And we will try to do that again in the future.
I didn't write about it but yesterday one of the people we ran into was a guy named Spurro. Erin and I first met Spurro over a week ago near Sam Staan in a little area called Ehafo Tuiste that used to be the disability homes. He and his friends were drunk and invited us over to join them in drinking. When they found out we were missionaries, they started talking about their credentials in Biblical studies and making false statements about the new birth. When we saw Spurro yesterday he had a hangover and seemed rather broken and sad. We talked to him about how even though he had studied the Bible “from Genesis to Revelation”, if it hadn't sunk into his heart, it wasn't any good yet. Heinrich seemed to know something about him and he was familiar with Spurro so he could talk to him. We asked him if he would like us to come by and talk more today. He was reluctant at first but it struck me to hug him and tell him that I cared about him. I felt a supernatural infusion of love for this strange guy. He said yes we could come by, that he would be home all day. But when we found his house today, he wasn't home. His family didn't know where he was.
From there, we stopped in at the Herero House of Prayer. It was a small crowd today, just Gertrude, Grandma, Beverly, and the boys. We read the Bible in English and they read it in Otji Herero. Then we prayed together for a while and I prayed again at the end for Grandma's legs. While we were praying, Mouna came in! She looked for us there as her errands were now finished.
The next stop on our journey today was with an old drinking buddy of Heinrich's. According to his explanation in English and sign language, they used to go all over town together, north side, south side, east side, and west side. I got the impression that this guy really was a good friend of Heinrich's and he was passionate about teaching him the Gospel with us.
Just as we were going into Pumway's fence, Mouna realized where she was and suggested Erin and her go next door to check on a friend who was supposed to come to the Firm Foundations Bible study at Velma's house last night.
Heinrich and I spent some time with Pumway. He said he thinks the Bible is a 'very good book' and would like to come to 'study about religion' with us. Normally I might not do this but Pumway being a young, strong, and obviously a little prideful, I told him bluntly that's not what our Bible studies are for. I told him we don't study the Bible just to learn facts about God or study a religion. I said the purpose of our Bible study is to know God, not just to know about Him. We don't do Bible study to learn about a religion. We do it to know the Truth. We do it because the Word of God is God's way of revealing Himself to us. Another reason why I was saying this was to reinforce it for Heinrich's learning because it was all a review from last night's Firm Foundations study. I asked if Pumway would prefer to join us for a Bible study meeting at Heinrich's house or if he would like to have one at his place. Heinrich jumped in and said that Pumway would come to his place. Heinrich is very interested in God saving this guy. From drinking in bars together to witnessing for Jesus all over Okahandja. I hope he comes and, in any case, we will see him again.
While we were next door, God was with Erin and Mouna working on a miracle. They found the woman they were looking for named Martina laying on the ground, moaning and in terrible pain with an incredibly high fever. She explained how for weeks she had been praying for a job and God answered her prayer in the last couple days. However, she was praying to God that IF he gave her a job, then she would follow Him. Martina, like so many residents of Okahandja, has been very caught up in alcohol (and smoking). When she prayed for God to help her out of that, He answered her prayer. But she was basically praying that if He didn't give her a job, then she would go back to it. That seems like a very wrong way to pray. But God did give her a job. The only problem now was that she was terribly sick, too sick to go to work. She felt so bad last night after her first day of work that she wanted to die. She thought she was going to die! She was giving her children phone numbers to call if she died. Some family members she said to call, others she said not to call. She borrowed enough money from neighbors to go to the clinic and they thought she must have Malaria. She knew she didn't but her fever was incredible. She was up all night, couldn't sleep, couldn't even keep down water, throwing up. She said she was trying to pray for herself and couldn't even pray. She asked her small children to pray for her and they just cried and cried. She had been laying there for some time now just waiting for God to send someone to pray for her. That's all she knew.
Heinrich and I arrived at the house just as Erin had finished giving her opinion that God was ordaining Martina to be sick in order to discipline her and teach her a lesson. She told her that she cannot put conditions on following God. Either she will follow Him in the good times and the bad, whether He gives or takes away, or she won't follow Him at all. 'Whoa', she seemed to be thinking, as she sat up. I stood there for a few seconds getting filled in and then she spoke. She said that she was understanding that she was wrong and that she was very sorry for what she had said. She said she understood what Erin told her and wanted to follow God no matter what. “Good,” we said, “praise God.” But she was still so sick and needed to go to work or she would lose the job that she knew only God provided. I didn't catch that whole story but apparently it was the first miracle in this sequence of events. The miracle I witnessed came next. When we stood around in a circle to pray, I started by holding Martina's hand, and she had the warmest skin I've ever felt on a person. I thought she must have been holding onto something hot on the ground, even though she was sitting in the shade under a shelf in the entry way to her shack. Erin put her hand on top of my hand to take Martina's, and from there I moved my hand onto Martina's arm. It was even hotter! I couldn't believe it. I put my hand on her back as we prayed and even through her shirt it was uncomfortably hot to the touch, hotter than any fever on anyone I have ever felt. Erin and I were even sunburned recently when we were at Swakopmund and our skin was not as hot as Martina's.
I prayed first, truly believing that Martina would be able to work tomorrow. Erin prayed, and then Mouna. Then we kind of let go of hands, but not because we were definitely done praying. Martina had been crying during our prayers and Erin, only led by the Lord, hugged her. She began to weep, and not only that but to pray. She was praying and weeping, praying and weeping for I don't know how long. Heinrich, Mouna, and I stood around them. Then Mouna held her and they cried and prayed, more quietly. Heinrich and Mouna were both very touched. I was too, but not visibly emotional like they were becoming. She seemed to be getting better. I thought that she might be more likely to be able to work if she could take a taxi into town rather thank walking so I offered her money for the ride. She was very glad for that. I gave her the money and then I felt Martina's skin again, on her arm. Just then Erin and Mouna were noticing it also, touching her hands. Her skin was going back to normal... it was even getting cool. In fact, all signs of the fever were quickly vanishing.
Martina began speaking rapidly and clearly in English. She was excitedly repeating back the truth that Erin had told her and how she was going to follow God no matter what. She was still amazed that she would never get sick in the past, while she was drinking and smoking, but now that she had a job suddenly fell sick. But she was amazed now at God. She was no longer angry or complaining. She had only been speaking in Afrikaans with Mouna translating before and now was speaking fluently in almost perfect English. She began to walk and to dance! Her children were so happy! Her daughter who was 7-9 kept hugging Erin over and over again. I couldn't believe it. She was not faking. She had no idea we were coming. She did not expect to get any money from us for a taxi or anything. This woman's skin was HOT. I'm telling you it was like if I kept using this laptop for another hour, the battery compartment would get very hot, but this lady's skin was hot. I didn't even know how she was standing when I felt her five minutes earlier. Now this lady was dancing. I almost asked for the taxi money back!
It was a miracle! What kind of gifts could someone want on their birthday than this? It was a very special birthday for Erin.
Updates
- 3 New blog entries posted yesterday and today below this one including a journal entry from December that demonstrates why they are taking so long to post
- flickr site updated with mostly kindergarten photos for the sake of those who donated
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diposablechristian- tracking page here:
http://www.disposablechristian.org/photoskindergarten- Howard & Rhonda had an amazing visit with us. They encouraged us through sharing life with us and becoming a part of what we are doing. There is a journal capturing many moments, thoughts, and events from their trip. Email us or them for a copy.
Namibia Journal - December 14th, 2005
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
We hadn't left the Center yet this morning when Heinrich came and found us. We didn't know if he knew where it was or not but he figured it out. That was great as we got to spend some extra time together on our walk out to Nau Aib.
Like a lot of new believers, Heinrich's unsaved family has really been on his heart since God saved him earlier this year, particularly his mom. His first priority in the Lord today was to take us to her house where he was also excited about us seeing her in the traditional Herero dress. The traditional Herero dress is what we call the Victorian-era with many layers (we've heard 5-9) of petticoats and a long dress. As the story goes, the style was given to them by some of the first Europeans to enter this area a couple hundred years ago. The 'tradition' stuck with the addition of an interesting hat that goes with the dress resembling the horns of a steer. It reflects the Herero tradition of raising cattle which pre-dates the Europeans.
We spent a lot of time at the house just getting to know some people and being introduced. Heinrichs' mom's name is Constantia. There was a pretty good sized crowd just hanging out in Constantia's front yard. Heinrich's sister Georgina was there and also in a traditional type of clothing. I couldn't begin to repeat everyone's else's names now. I also couldn't begin to explain how kind of eccentric the place and everyone was there. They definitely thought it was something special that we had come. And I prayed that it was because Jesus would be there.
We spent a lot of time talking and then got into some prayer. We also talked about what it meant to be “born again” and how important it was. I'm not sure what we said exactly that provoked this response but Constantia told us she would like to be born again sometime in January. Knowing that it is entirely up to God when that actually happens, I still thought it was kind of a good thing for her to say and think we'll definitely talk about that more later.
We didn't make a specific time to come back to Heinrich's mom's house but I know we'll be back there soon. This might be a house that we never have any sort of appointment at but will go there out of the relationship that is forming between us and Heinrich. We're not sure who all exactly but many of Heinrich's family members live at the house. In Namibia, it is common to refer to cousins as brothers and sisters. We have to ask if the mothers are the same in order to find out the relation in our language.
There are two pictures of this meeting on our picture site, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/disposablechristian/76021153/ (with Erin)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/disposablechristian/76021355/ (with Todd)
One of the people that showed up at Heinrich's mom's house was a neighbor that lives two doors down the street. She asked us if we would come pray at her house and said her husband would be interested. Heinrich was already familiar with this family and told us that the man of the house is a police officer. He also seemed excited about this new opportunity.
We entered the house and found the police officer, Manuel, with his three sons in the living room. He was honored, it was obvious, to be with us. We sat down and began to talk about why we were in Namibia—that Jesus had sent us here and that He put love in our hearts for the Namibian people like him before we even knew them.
Manuel expressed to us that he is struggling with alcohol, not really wanting to drink but going back to it occasionally and then missing work or being away from home for more than a day just wandering about. The second thing he mentioned was frustration over not having been promoted after over 15 years of service with the police force. The connection was obvious to us that he might have a better chance at a promotion if he didn't miss work due to being drunk.
We prayed with Manuel—Heinrich, Erin, and I. And I had a hope that this would be another house where we would see Jesus bring a lot of change. But mostly I was interested in how enthusiastic Heinrich was about meeting with this guy. If nothing else, it would be a real-life place of discipleship. The things we would teach Manuel there would sink deeply into Heinrich as he heard them and attempted to translate them for us. We agreed to meet there again at 3PM on the same day next week.
We walked around some more in the part of the neighborhood between Manuel's house and Heinrich's house and found one of his cousins. Heinrich introduced us and told his cousin who we were and gave him a quick introduction to what we were doing. Basically it was something like, “This is Todd and Erin. They're from America. They've come to do Bible studies.” Now this person wasn't interested in our mission at all. But he immediately said he would love for us to show him around America “when he comes.” That would be fine I told him but what about Jesus? He was emphatic that the traditional Herero beliefs were good enough for him. The traditional beliefs consist of praying 'to God' through ancestors and using the “holy fire.” That sparked a conversation between him and Heinrich. The cousin was fond of poking Heinrich as he spoke and Heinrich took it well. This guy was a very large Namibian, at least 3 inches taller than me, and with a mouth full of irregular shaped and chipped teeth. I couldn't even tell if they were the right ones in his mouth. You know how almost all people with teeth have the two big ones in front and the rest kind of follow a typical pattern of lengths? His were more of a slanted row of evenly shaped chompers. It gave him quite an intimidating composure. He was giving Heinrich some guff for abandoning the 'holy' fire and said he would stick with it because it was the tradition. All Heinrich or we could do was shake our heads and pray the cousin would be more open to listening to us on another day.
Next, we found ourselves at a very new place to us here in Okahandja. We didn't even know it was here. There is an old folk's home in the middle of Nau-Aib. Heinrich took us to see an elderly man that he and Mouna had found sleeping in the middle of the street one night. They were able to get him a place to stay at the home which is paid for by the municipality. Heinrich and Mouna have a huge heart for this place and are very compassionate toward the residents. Stephen was a nice older man. We spoke to him in Afrikaans through Heinrich's translation. We read the Bible with him and prayed with him and another man staying in the same room.
Looking back I am realizing that this was a very busy day. Our next stop was at the Herero House Of Prayer where we found Peter, Gertrude, Beverly, Grandma, and most of the children there this time. We bought an Otji Herero language translation of the Bible for them yesterday at Spar and gave it to them as a gift. They were very happy as it was the only time they had ever seen the Bible in their own native language. The first passage we read with them out of the new Bible was 1 Corinthians 13. The chapter seemed to affect Peter deeply. We emphasized practical examples of the ways that they could show love in each way that is mentioned in the verses to each other. I also emphasized the latter verses in the chapter about maturing from childhood to manhood for Peter's sake and for the sake of the children in the house. We had a wonderful time of prayer after that and the Lord blessed our time.
Before our Bible study tonight in Firm Foundations, we had to run back to the Center to pick up a whiteboard we were going to use. The whiteboard belongs to the Apex team. Mike used it at camp to post the daily schedules. We are getting a lot of exercise walking back and forth so much! (It's about a 45 minute walk out to where Heinrich and Mouna live.) We got the whiteboard and walked back to Heinrich and Mouna's where we were to meet up before heading over to the place for the study. We got there on time, but not as early as we wanted to. When Heinrich and Mouna were ready we left for Mouna's sister's house.
Mouna's sister's name is Velma and she has at least 4 children. Her oldest is around 10 and the youngest is just a few months. We're not sure how many, if any, have come from her current boyfriend Monathan. He was the drunk guy we ran into with Heinrich on Sunday afternoon. The 'house' is a shack about the same size as Heinrich and Mouna's, located in Sam Staan (formerly spelled by me as “Sam Stand”) area. It is pretty close to the place we identified as Nicodemus's house. The main difference between their place and Heinrich & Mouna's is that they have electricity running to it. The electricity seems to be used for a refrigerator, a TV, and a light bulb. Velma works at a dry cleaner's in town (the only one I think) and Monathan doesn't work as far as we know.
This lesson was all about some very important differences between God and man. Erin does a great job teaching with a whiteboard and laying the differences out in two columns so she taught a lot during this lesson. The first big difference was that while man is born and then dies, God lives forever! God has no beginning. And no end. That's not just a neat fact about God. That's a cause for worship! That's why it's in the psalms! “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)
Other differences we taught were:
Man is only one person in one being. God is a Trinity of 3 persons in one being.
Man has many needs to survive. God needs nothing to survive.
Man has to learn and forgets. God always knows everything.
Man has a body of flesh and blood. God is not restricted by a physical body.
Man is under authority. God is the highest authority.
Heinrich, Mouna, and Velma all very much enjoyed the lesson. Velma said that Monathan took off just before we got there because he found an excuse to leave. It was nice to have a lightbulb for light when it got dark in their house but we don't think we'll use that location for any more studies because it's too difficult for all of the other people around Mouna's house with children to walk over there. Praise God that we have these kinds of options to take! What a wonderful thing He is doing in this place.
Keano - ILKV
Indigenous Leader with Kingdom Values
(Keano pronounced "Keen-O")
An Excerpt From Rhonda's Africa Journal
Erin's parents, Howard & Rhonda, came to visit us from the end of March to the beginning of April. Rhonda is now busy with a journal and report of every wonderful (good, bad, and inbetween) thing that is going on here. This is an excerpt I felt it would be cool to share about one of her and Howard's walks to town:
We enjoyed a pleasurable two mile walk into town with Fernandez and we talk about many things. She talks about how most white people are that come to their location. She shares with us that the people in their location see the difference between most white people and the team: Todd, Erin, Buddy and Amanda. She says, “You are different, you are white people and you come to be with us, to live and walk among us. The people see the difference – we know you really care about us.”