Mark 10:29-31“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
On the statistical chart, at 95%, Namibia must rate as having one of the highest percentages of Christians in the world.
In a place like Walvis Bay, there seems to be a church on every corner. Well, not quite, perhaps. But you catch our drift.
However, we heard an interesting story today, about a young lady called Lucia. She is a member of the evangelical Baptist church of Namibia. She lives with her aunt, a member of the same church, in a small village up North called Ondobe. She was 17 years old and in grade 9 at school, when she heard the Gospel preached. She decided to repent and follow Jesus. She also decided to confess her faith as an adult by being fully immersed.
The problem was she was already ‘belonged to’ a church – a large mainline church that does not easily accept that people can/need to be 'born again' after they are baptized.
So, this young lady had to pay a price that many ‘Western’ Christians would never even consider having to suffer. Because she took this stand for Jesus, she was driven out of the family home - with only the clothes on her back, without even any bedding. Her aunt took her in, and then supported her through her schooling. Her new siblings had to share their clothes with her, as well as their bedding.
She has finished her schooling now, and works in a ‘restaurant’. I asked the person who knows Lucia if she ever sees her parents. I was told, “If she goes to visit them they tell her, ‘We are not your parents, you are not our child. Go to find your real parents’.”
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