JFK a la Namibia

Étienne has turned into a really enthusiastic music composer and it is fun in the evening to hear him and David play and sing his compositions accompanied by piano and/or recorder.
This morning the three of them went for their regular bike ride. Caris is really a keen cyclist.
You can see a pic of a woman and a married couple flanking her. She is Afrikaans and she pays for the NETS correspondence course which she then, in turn, teaches her enthusiastic but illiterate friends who then go into their communities and teach the material in their own language.
Can you see the fungus thing? It appeared in our garden and the flies LOVED it. anyone know what it is?
Also posted is a picture of John Kenedy. We wrote the accompanying article (below) for Checkpoint magazine (CMS) which has just come out so I can now post it for all you other folk to read.

A LIFE TRANSFORMED BY CHRIST
The car was plastered with “Jesus film Project” logos. Its driver climbed out, well-dressed and smiling, and walked over to us immediately to greet us.

This is John Kenedy. No, not JFK resurrected, but he has experienced a resurrection of a different kind. Previously a hardened criminal, his job since the completion of his prison term is with Campus Crusade for Christ, travelling around villages of Northern Namibia to show the Jesus Film (newly-released in Oshikwanyama). He establishes those who respond in small discipleship groups, and teaches evangelism.

How did this radical change come about? John tell of he coming to know Jesus personally through the NETS (Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary) Christian leadership program – also known as the TEE (Theological Education by Extension) course.

John describes how the course influenced him: “I learned how to extend forgiveness to other people. Previously I could not face challenges, and that is the reason I resorted to crime. I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour when I was doing the course. I used to be only a hearer of the Word. Now I am also a ‘doer’ of the Word. I now know the fear of God.”

Sergeant Nestor Nghifenwa is the spiritual care officer at Oluno prison. He has seen the effect of the NETS leadership programme on prisoners. “Almost every day I have prisoners wanting to participate in the NETS programme. They see the changes in the fellow prisoners who are students, and they want to share in those changes……”
Recently, he also became a participant in the NETS course.

Church is a compulsory activity for all prisoners, unless they are not ‘Christian’. Most of the preaching is shared amongst prisoners who have demonstrated a Christian commitment, and a desire to lead. This includes 5 NETS TEE students, past and present. Thus, they have weekly opportunities to preach about things that they learn. NETS students also run baptism and confirmation classes. On certain days, they visit the local hospital to share the Gospel with patients and to pray for them. These prisoners have a great impact on the prison as a whole – as well as the community ‘outside’.

I have the privilege of living close to Oluno prison (30kms), and running weekly workshops there (the two other prisons I visit in Northern Namibia are 600km and 800km away respectively). Generally, I try to discuss the content of the NETS TEE study guides, which include topics such as Old Testament, New Testament, Christian leadership, happy marriages, dealing with AIDS, building disciple-makers and preaching.

However, the workshops are casual affairs, and often follow whatever spiritual issues the prisoners want to discuss, including personal issues and current affairs. At the last workshop the issue of a recent funeral was raised - featured on national news – when a Lutheran pastor of a small town in Northern Namibia refused to bury a deceased, unbaptised, young child in the church graveyard. We discussed such issues as:
Are all babies automatically children of God, and going to heaven?
If not, then what does baptism achieve?
Do all babies that are baptised automatically go to heaven?
If not, then why baptise babies at all?
We examined Bible passages and tried to work out if our beliefs were consistent with biblical teaching.

We are about to sign up our first female student in the prison, and pray she will be able to influence the other lady inmates.

Not only prisoners do the NETS courses. Northern Namibia spans 1250km by 400km. Participants include pastors, elders, deacons, evangelists, chaplains in the defence force, or spiritual officers in prisons; none of whom can afford to move to Windhoek to study theology fulltime.

One of the reasons Theological Education by Extension is so rewarding, is that it makes us realise how much we have been given. Simply understanding the ‘big picture’ of the Bible is a blessing enjoyed in most Bible-centred churches in Australia. Not so in Namibia, even amongst the pastors.

Bad theology leads to many errors churches. Recently I met a lady, Meme Justina Haiyambo, well-known as a “prophet” in Namibia, considered consistent with the prophets of the Old Testament. She prophesied that the world would end in 2000 – but had to make some adjustments when it didn’t ...! Now she calls people from all churches to make their dwelling in her village and wait for a ‘star’ which will fall on Namibia. She has freedom to speak in most Namibian Anglican and Lutheran churches.

We earnestly desire that leaders, trained to ‘correctly handle the word of truth’, will be able to protect Christians from being deceived by the devil in subtle ways like this. We pray that the NETS courses would be used by God to do just that.

If you are capable of leading a Bible study, why not investigate where TEE leaders are needed in the world, and how you could prepare yourself to be one? Otherwise, why not contribute to the CMS bursary funds for Namibia? “…..from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48 – NIV)