Thanks for coming!

Comments from NETS Distance Students

“I cannot leave my people in sin. They are suffering under Satan. I am prepared to suffer a bit so that these people can hear the word of God. I don’t worry about money.”
Anton Mberema, Mbukushu
Anton leads a group of 11 people, studying NETS material. He has refused employment in a different part of the country in order to continue teaching his group in Mbukushu.

“I just want to express, on behalf of all of us, our gratitude. We have no resources and you came and helped us as a missionary yourself.* When someone asks us a question, and we do not know the answer, all we have to do is refer to our books and then we can answer them. Then we appear as someone who knows. We wish you could come and visit us more often.”
Daniel, Opuwo
*Some of the students present are themselves ‘missionaries’ – which means they are lay preachers in out-stations of the Lutheran church who receive a meager subsidy from the Luther Church.

“Here at Ruacana there are many churches. However, the churches are all divided and won’t work together. Many of the pastors teach the same message every Sunday but there is no depth to their message. Many of their church members know more than them. So, we really need this course to be used here so that pastors can be educated and churches can work together.”
Salamo, Ruacana

“I want to express how much this course means to me. Many of us in prison have a very dark past and have lived very bad lives. We did not even know right from wrong. Now, since we have been brought to repentance by God, we can see that our lives were bad. But we also have hope because, when we leave here, we can show that, even in prison, our lives can change. We are eager to teach others the things we are learning as we take our resources to our families outside.”
Joseph, Divundu prison

These comments were made to David on two recent workshop trips. People are so grateful to have someone to teach them, and resources from which they can learn.
At a recent workshop, David drew a map to help the students see where Israel is. His plan was to draw Africa, get them to point to Namibia, then show where Israel was in relation to Namibia. David soon hit a big problem in that none of the group knew the location of their own country. Some pointed vaguely to where Sudan is.
Another woman asked David to get her an Oshindonga Bible as she only had a Kwanyama Bible. Bible maps only appear in the back of the Oshindonga Bible.
If you own a Bible in your mother tongue and have access to even one other Christian book, then you are better equipped than many church leaders here.