Namibia - Special Thank You
This is a special thank you to all of our donors and supporters this month.
At the beginning of the month we attended some Prayer & Fasting meetings which were about raising support.
Those kinds of discussions just make me really reflect on how grateful we should be and are for the provision we have been given and the ones God has used to provide.
Thank you to our brand new supporters and for those who have been with us from the beginning until now.
We are sincerely and humbly grateful. Earlier this month we reached the half-year mark of our first year in Namibia.
Our original goal was to be here for 2 years, and now it looks like we will want to stay here longer than that. We know at least that we are very willing to stay here for more years.
We're taking it one-day, much less than one-year, at a time.
Please pray for my (Todd's) parents that are visiting early next month. It should be an awesome time.
Namibia - Okahandja Development
Apparently there is no development in Okahandja, the town of about 20,000 people where we live in Namibia. At least that's what a recent letter to a nationally circulated newspaper says. I'm still growing in understanding of the political situation here but I do understand most of what is in the letter.
No Development in Okahandja
I WOULD like to air my views about lack of development in Okahandja.
The town council of Okahandja lacks the necessary skills to turn round the town because people who are elected as mayors or councillors are not qualified in town development and management issues as well as in social development, modern business environment and interaction with the public and the media.
In the past someone who could be elected as a mayor of a town had to be somebody with integrity, either a prominent businessperson or a knowledgeable person in society.
Today anybody who attends Swapo meetings and wears a Swapo T-shirt can become mayor and this leads to more problems because giving someone a task beyond his or her capacity it is a disaster.
Surely an ordinary government clerk cannot lead a town anywhere.
This lack of seriousness on the part of political parties in Namibia makes things look like a circus.
Just look at the profiles of many town councillors in Namibia and you would agree with me that the knowledge possessed by many of them is not sufficient even to run a tuck-shop.
Another observation is the boring annual announcement of the mayor of Windhoek.
Why do you need to re-elect someone over and over until the person gets old in that position? Is there nobody else who can be given a chance? There should always be a plan for succession in order to create room for new ideas and plans.
If you keep recycling or re-electing Mr Shikongo over and over he will develop that syndrome of being re-elected and he will never give way to other people.
Anyway, congrats to his Worship! I really urge political parties to review their candidates' skills if they want sustainable development in Namibia to take place.
J Fern Windhoek
Namibia - Gate
The new header photo for our blog is a shot of the gate of the house we are renting in Okahandja. It represents the beauty and the untrusting nature of this place.
Whereas razor wire might be a strange sight around a house in America, we are now quite used to it, as well as jail-like bars on all of the doors and windows.
The gate is also a symbol of an entry-point. Welcome to our world.
Also, a reminder, that this page looks
far better in
Firefox vs. Internet Explorer.
Namibia - Stunning
When I walked out of the MPMC yesterday, the view of the mountains was stunning.
I didn't have the camera. I just looked. Wow, I was in awe at the glory of God.
Everything here makes me think of Jesus Christ.
Namibia - Evangelical Baptist Church, Okahandja
The Evangelical Baptist Church in Okahandja is marked by its humility. It's not like a lot of churches we have been to here where spiritual elitism, condemnation, and judgment rule, not to mention heresy.
The church is strong in its love. There is a special program for the children that no other churches have that we have seen. The choir, which I cannot describe in a way that does it justice--just don't think of it as the kind of choirs you're used to, is awesome. The smiles of the people are different there, and more humble than other places. Kuna goes there as do many of Michael's relatives.
It is not a strong church, in a lot of senses. The order of service is without much order and the planning is not very involved. The teaching is not very strong and it is obvious they are looking for something better.
Buddy spoke there on a Sunday morning and I took an opportunity to speak there on a Friday night. Any of us could go back any time and they have asked but we have not taken the opportunity.
It is a place where we could definitely get very involved and do a lot of work if we wanted to. It is a wide open door. Being open as it is, it is something I have thought and prayed about a lot. But so far the Spirit has not led us in that direction.
We enjoyed our visits there. Erin, Amanda, and Buddy even expressed interest in joining the choir.
There is a lot we could do there. And maybe we should. Until the day arrives, we will continue to pray for Evangelical Baptist Church, Okahandja, for Pastor Felix, for the young men he is training, and for the humble congregation.
Please pray for us also.
Namibia - Corporal Punishment
Corporal punishment has recently been outlawed for teachers working in Namibia's schools.
This is about a letter I read yesterday in the Namibian newspaper online about that. I have some thoughts to share and I would post the letter here because I'll refer to it a lot but basically I only refer to the 'clean' parts. In and of itself, it's not objectionable per se but the author talks about reality in a way that might be objectionable or make you think words and thoughts you don't want to think about.
Here is the link:
Letter by Peet Venter, published 4/28/2006It will open in a new window if you click on it. Come back here to read my thoughts and the prayer request at the end, or you can just read my part and you'll probably understand enough.
The author of the letter basically has it right. This is self esteem gone wild: "[C]orporal punishment... is intended... to result in acute pain and suffering which invades [the] dignity and the self-respect of the recipient."
So it's not physical reasons. It's not practical reasons. It's emotional, social, self-esteem garbage that has officially ended corporal punishment in Namibian schools.
The letter-writer has a point in the beginning when he calls it "Utter nonsense," and says, "It was and never will be the intention of any professional teacher, with integrity, self-respect and dignity to inflict pain, cause suffering and invade a juvenile's dignity and self-respect by resorting to physical punishment."
I don't think he needs the long example he cites but it is a big reality check for a lot of politicians and intellectuals whose last visit to the schoolyard was 20 years ago.
Then he shoots himself in the foot when he comes back around to the same self-esteem argument for the sake of the teachers: "Teachers ... [have] their self-esteem, pride and dignity left in tatters."
No offense to Peet--He might think it clever to say what is meant to be protected in students is violated in teachers, but how clever is it when he first bases his arguement on the teachers' "self-respect and dignity?"
Did these originate from the corporal punishment or did they come first in order to govern their corporal punishment? It's a case of the chicken coming before the egg. And if it was there before the use of corporal punishment gave it to them, how can it be taken away by the loss of corporal punishment?
Personally, I would argue from the Bible. The research stuff is good too. If you don't like the Bible, stick to the scientific studies, practical reasons, and rationale for corporal punishment. Don't make it another emotional argument.
Look, in the end it's going to take more than corporal punishment to turn the tide of what is happening in classrooms like the one he describes. If corporal punishment has been there thus far, obviously it isn't all that's needed. But I fear—I fear with the fear of God for all those kids in those schools. They are going to get discipline or punishment somewhere, sometime.
America is kind of past this. It's been a while since teachers personally regularly administered any physical discipline. They've gotten creative and there seems to be a lot more options there. But this is Namibia. We're talking about a country of less than two million people with a lot of bad dynamics like poverty or unequal society everywhere, little to no economic opportunity, fatal morality, and hostels where a ton of kids live at the school without any parental guidance or anything. It's like a cross between a dorm and prison.
My aim is not to be a political kind of satirist or rant or anything like that. My aim is love. And my hope is that you'll pray because God uses something like this to make you want to pray; for Namibia, for the kids here, and in last place for us who God brought here to tell you why they need prayer and to be here for them when He decides to do something in their lives.
It's Jesus' corporal, subsitutionary, atoning, and propitiary punishment on the cross that they need. The hostels aren't going to go away anytime soon. With the numbers of orphans rising, economic opportunity actually declining, and the number of people of all ages that are going to be dead in the next 15 years, we're going to have a lot of problems in Namibia. It's Jesus, not corporal punishment, that's going to solve them. But pray for the people who could use both.
May the nation become a school of the knowledge of the glory of God,
T L