Rundu prison graduation

Taking Jesus to school

Walvis Bay - a brief history

According to archaeological findings the coastline was home to small groups of Khoikhoi (Topnaars) and the Aoni for thousands of years. It was discovered by the western world in 1487 when the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomeu Dias anchored here while searching for a sea route to the East. He named the bay Golfo da Conceição.

Three centuries after Dias threw anchor in the bay, the next group of westerners exploited the area. With the abundance of plankton in the cold Benguella current the waters drew many whales, and from the 1780s, North American and European whalers used the bay as a hunting ground. Whaling activities continued well into the early 1900s. Soon the Europeans recognised the harbour’s strategic value in relation to the sea route around the Cape and vied for it. By 1670 the first European settlers came to live in the Walvis Bay area.

In January 1793 the Dutch flag was raised over the Bay, but their rule was short lived. After occupying the Cape, the British quickly seized control over the area, more for administrative convenience and safe passage of ships. Fearing the increased interest of the Germans in the country, Great Britain annexed the habour and settlement area on 12 March 1878.

Six years later Walvis Bay was transferred to the Cape Colony and in 1910 incorporated into the Union of South Africa.

In the meantime, Germany had established sovereignty over what was then known as German South West Africa and declared a dispute with Britain over the area’s boundaries. The dispute was settled in 1911 and Walvis Bay was allocated an area of 1 124km². When South African forces defeated the Germans in 1915, Walvis Bay was under martial law as part of South Africa. Following the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the League of Nations assigned South Africa mandatory powers over South West Africa.

In 1922 the area was placed under the administration of the South West African Administration. This remained the status quo for more than 50 years. On 31 August 1977, the territory’s administration was once again transferred to the Cape Province in an apparent attempt to avoid losing Walvis Bay to a possibly hostile SWAPO-led government. The South African government re-imposed direct rule and reasserted its claim to sovereignty based on the original British annexation. The United Nations strongly condemned this move and its Resolution 435 of July 1978 called for the reintegration of Walvis Bay into Namibia.

Even when Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990, South Africa refused to relinquish control over the area. Only after increased international and local pressure, Walvis Bay and a string of off-shore islands were finally reintegrated into Namibia at midnight on 28 February 1994.

(quoted from www.walvisbaycc.org.na/history.htm)

Children's ministry training at Odibo (Anglican HQ)

As many of you know, the yearly visit of the 'Churches for South Africa' Team is upon us. I am enjoying being part of the group who visits local schools and explains the Gospel through drama and music. Last week the children and I visited 5 schools. As the schools' group have no musician with them this year, I had to blow the dust off my guitar and apply my non-musical self to leading the music!!

With David away (in the far East on NETS business for a week), and Nicky away (enjoying a special visit from an Aussie friend), and me being booked to go to Odibo (near Oshikango) for this past weekend for children's ministry training, our children were delighted to sleep over with their friends, Johan and Hané, on Friday Night.

And, as you can see by the photos below, I had a grand time with a lovely group of ladies at Odibo, which really is in the sticks! I had dirt road most of the 90 minute way.

A few more schools to visit next week, plus joining the Eluwa (deaf and blind school) daily ministry is to be looked forward to (and the packing fitted in around it - only 1 Sunday left in the Far North!).

Thanks for your prayers for this last phase of ministry here, and for our imminent transition period. You will have no excuse not to visit us now, as we will be but a short plane ride away from Johannesburg!!

Children's ministry workshop weekend - Odibo

Sin now, pay later

The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause [indulgences] provoked Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses, protesting against what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence)

We may be tempted to think that such abuses within the church are long dead and buried. We would be wrong! In some churches in Namibia the practice remains – at least, in a form that would ‘shock’ reformed evangelicals in other parts of the world

Imagine this ‘hypothetical’ case – you are a single girl, in your teens or early twenties. You have been involved in fornication, become pregnant and then given birth. You desire your child to be baptized, to ensure your child is Christian (and therefore will go to heaven). But you can’t because you have been involved in sin.

So, this is the procedure:

1. You have to go and confess you sin to the pastor;
2. You have to go to ‘school’ at church – a special series of ‘classes’ for those who have ‘sinned’ (This ‘sinning’ rarely includes any other kind of behaviour; fornication is name of the game);
3. You have to be interviewed by the pastor (and perhaps church elders) who will ask you ‘funny’ questions (to quote the locals – meaning ‘personally invasive’) about why the event happened and the exact details of the event;
4. Having survived this (these) embarrassing interview(s), you will then be required to attend a service of ’repentance’. (The service is usually arranged when there are a predetermined number of ‘takers’ – this is quite a common sin so you can’t have the services too often!). At this service you will be formally pardoned by the church, and granted remission of sins. Of course, this service is not ‘free’ - it comes at a predetermined price you have to pay;
5. Voila! You are back in fellowship with God and the church, and you are ready to have your child baptized, as a full member of the church!

Be careful! If you fail to go through this procedure, and your child happens to die, it will be buried OUTSIDE the cemetery. Hopefully, you will still be able to find a pastor who is willing to do the ceremony in the church; in most cases the fee you will pay for the service is enough to persuade him/her.

We thank God that, in one of the NETS study guides, there is a clear Gospel presentation which is made up by a number of pictures, many of which portray the "false" things people trust. It shows us how sin separates from God and how our attempts to try and build our own way back to God are doomed to failure.

Many Namibians put their trust in their baptism to qualify them for heaven. Some people trust ‘the church’ to mediate between us and God. This is actually a huge issue, based on a flawed misunderstanding of John 20:23 – “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”. People also trust in money to ‘bring us to God’. One can see how the latter two beliefs are actually being encouraged by church practice.

May God grant that, one day, these people will clearly understand that it is the cross of Christ which is the reality - justified by faith alone in Jesus' atoning death.

AMEN

The hunt is on!