The end of a great adventure!

First, I would like to apologize for the delay in this final posting. To be honest I have been putting it off for a couple of weeks. It is hard to know how to summarize all that happened in the past six months. It is also extremely sad to admit that my time there is over. What a blessing it was!!! I learned more than I ever could have imagined. I saw the Lord work in mighty ways! It was incredible to watch my friends grow in their faith and in their knowledge of the Lord. The two Bible studies that I was able to lead blew me away in terms of their commitment and desire to study God's Word. During our last meetings together, each person shared what God had been teaching them and what they were taking away from the study. It was so encouraging to hear from each of them. One young boy even said, "you have made us qualified to study the Bible on our own" and that group has decided to continue meeting on Saturday afternoons. I will in no way take credit for "qualifying them", but I was honored to be a small part of it and have the opportunity to watch God work. The goodbyes were extremely hard! It seemed that they would never end. I felt like I was saying one goodbye after another for two weeks straight. It was painful to leave friends that have become so dear to me.

I am still processing all that happened and what it means for my time at home. What I do know is that I am overwhelmed with gratitude! I am thankful for God's mercy and faithfulness. I am thankful for all the amazing people that I was able to meet. I am thankful for the opportunity to experience a different culture. I am thankful for all of the prayers and support that I received from home. I am thankful for all that I have learned and for the opportunity to serve God in the States. I am returning home very excited to see what the Lord has planned next!

Praising God and Requesting Your Prayers!

Yesterday I experienced an incredible reminder of how big God really is!  Before I share that story, I have an urgent prayer request.   A family in my church here (Evangelical Bible Church) had a house fire over the weekend.  This is one of the most heart breaking stories I have ever heard!  The family lives in two separate huts – one for the parents and one for the kids.  The hut with the children caught fire and they were unable to escape.  The father woke up and saw the fire.  He ran to hut and began to try breaking down the door.  He was able to pull four of the children out of the flames, but the fifth child was hiding in the corner because she was afraid.  The house collapsed and the little girl was killed.  The other four children were rushed to the hospital with severe burns and placed in intensive care.  Another one of the children passed away on Tuesday.  I was able to visit the family yesterday at the hospital and pray with them.  Seeing those children was by far the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen.  I imagine that every inch of their bodies is in severe pain.  Please pray that God would heal them!  Please pray that God you bring them comfort, ease their pain and allow them to sleep as much as possible.  Also pray for their dear family members – that they would experience God’s love and mercy in intimate and tangible ways.

Before I went to the hospital, I was waiting for my friend Anita in front of a store in town.  As I waited, I decided to take a seat on a bench and read my Bible.  While I was sitting there, a teenage boy came up behind me and asked, “what church do you go to?”  I was a little startled because I did not know he was there.   I told him where I attended and asked where he goes to church.  He told me that he does not go to church and then he asked me, “how does someone get saved?”  I was pretty surprised by the question and excited to have the opportunity to share with him.  I invited him to sit down and asked him if he had ever been to church.  He told me that he had not.  I introduced myself and he told me that is name was Isaac.  I began to share with him how someone can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  He stopped me and said, “can you talk slower, I am not knowing much English”.  I said, “no problem” and slowly walked him through the gospel.  He leaned in and listened so carefully the entire time.  I started by telling him there was good news and bad news.  He said he wanted to know the bad news, so I told him that because of the bad things that we have done – we can never reach God.  I explained that God is perfect and He cannot have anything bad around Him.  I asked Isaac if he had ever done anything wrong, he hung his head and answered yes.  I told him that I had done many wrong things – all of us have.  I explained that each of us will have to pay for the bad things we have done and I gave him the example of stealing something from a store.  If the person is caught, they will have to pay for what they have done.  Each of us will have a consequence for the bad choices we have made.

Then I asked if he wanted to hear the good news.  He smiled and nodded his head.  I told him that God created him and loves him very much!  He looked surprised.  I told him that God wants to know him and be his friend.  I shared that God loved him so much that He sent his son to die for him.  I explained that Jesus paid for our sins, so that we would not have to and that by trusting Jesus and choosing to follow God we can be forgiven.  I told him that if we are truly sorry, God will forgive us of our sins and we can know Him.  Isaac looked very sad and responded, “but I have done many bad things”.  I told him, “me too!” but God is big enough and strong enough to forgive all of our sins.  Isaac shared, “some people told me that there is no god and I believed them.  Now I am confused.”   I told him that God wanted him to know the truth and that he could talk to God any time.  He immediately responded, “how!?!”  He had no idea that we could talk to God or that God could hear us.  I shared my story with him about when I decided to follow Jesus and the ways God had healed and rescued me.  He asked, “you came all the way to Africa to tell people about Jesus?”  I told him yes and that I think it is the most important thing that we can share with people.  I said, “Isaac, I think God planned that we would meet today and that He wanted you to hear these things.”  He looked up and responded, “I think so too”.  I asked if we could meet again to talk some more and he agreed enthusiastically.  We are meeting again tomorrow.  Please pray that God would soften Isaac’s heart and give him eyes to see the truth. This interaction just reminded me how incredibly big God is and how He loves us in such personal ways.  I think it is amazing how He crossed our paths and allowed us to meet. I am so excited to see what God will do!

Watching the Lord work!

I am very excited to finally write the most recent update on ministry here in Namibia! God has been doing incredible things and working in the hearts of the people here. It has been so exciting to watch! I have jumped feet first into ministry opportunities and have tried to take full advantage of the time I have left here. I have been helping to run the project two days a week, facilitating Home Based Care (where we go into the community), tutoring three ladies, leading two Bible studies, updating files and gathering information for the future team and also doing some mentoring. All of these opportunities have been extremely rewarding and exciting!

God is doing amazing things in both Bible studies and my tutoring sessions. I can really see growth and the work of the Holy Spirit. I am so honored to be a part of what He is doing. The dear friends that I have made here are asking great questions and really learning from God’s Word. I will share two exciting examples of this. We have been studying 1 Timothy in both Bible Studies. One of the reasons that I chose this book was Paul’s discussion of false teachers. There are a lot of lies that have crept into the church in this area. Specifically issues dealing with witch craft and sexual immorality. It is sad to see Christians believing these lies. I thought it would be great to encourage these believers to turn to Scripture to determine what God says about these topics. Well four of the teens from my Bible study, were approached by a man as they were walking home. This man told them that he was in town visiting churches and sharing a message. He shared with them that there is not going to be a judgment day and that everyone is going to Heaven, whether or not they know Jesus. He suggested that they not worry about how they live because only those who have already died will be judged. What in the world???? Anyways, the sweet teens responded by telling him that he was a false teacher and what he was doing was wrong!!! Then one teenage boy said, “I remembered what you taught us Nicole and so I asked him to show us where in the Bible it says there will be no judgment!” He couldn't and so they replied that they would not believe him. I was so encouraged by God’s protection and by what these teens had learned.

This past week I was leading a discussion about the purpose of the Bible. We talked about 2 Timothy 3:16 where we are told that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living”. I asked if anyone had learned something from the Bible that changed their life. One teenage boy shared that he has been reading his Bible more and learning what it says about sex. Side note - we have been talking to the teens about sex in some of our lessons. We have explained that sex is good, beautiful and created by God. However, God’s design is for sex to be within the context of marriage and whenever we take something out of God’s design, it becomes sin and there will be painful consequences. Well, the teens pretty much thought we were crazy! We continued to field questions and present what the Bible says about this issue. Now, imagine my surprise when this teen shares that after studying Scripture, he has decided that as a Christian he needs to save sex for marriage. THAT IS UNHEARD OF HERE! He went on the say that he has decided not to have a girlfriend right now. He shared that he had heard people tell him to wait in the past, but it wasn’t until he understood what God says about this issue that he decided to change. Please keep him in prayer – his name is Ernest.

The last update is also pretty exciting! Towards the beginning of our time here, Tricia and I made a friend who drives a taxi. He was the first taxi driver that we met and has been extremely generous and reliable. His name is Seketa and I have really enjoyed getting to know him. I shared in the last blog that he even called to check on me when he had not heard from me in a while! The Lord has really blessed our friendship and we have had some neat conversations. Last week Seketa was driving me out to the village and had a serious look on his face. “Can I ask you a question, Nicole? It is important.” I responded, “of course”. Seketa proceeded to ask me, “How does someone become a Christian?” I was so excited and blown away that he would ask that question. We had an amazing discussion about God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus. I explained that we are separated from God because of our sin, but when we turn away from our sin and place our faith in Jesus – we are forgiven! We talked in more detail about what this means and what the Bible says. He listened very carefully and said that he would like to ask more questions in the future. I am praying for more opportunities to talk with him. Please pray that God would open his eyes to truth!

This has been exciting month!!! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for July! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

And then there was one ...

As many of know, I travelled to Windhoek (the capitol) over a week ago to say goodbye to my dear friends Daryl and Sabrina. They have faithfully served in Namibia for one year and are headed back home to Canada. The goodbye was tearful and hard. I had the blessing of spending the following week travelling with friends and hanging out with the AIM Windhoek team. The week was very refreshing and encouraging!!! I was a little hesitant to travel back to Rundu, knowing that things would be very different. But nonetheless, I took the eight hour bus trip last night. However, before the journey began something very interesting occurred. A nicely dressed Namibian man stepped on the bus and called for everyone’s attention. He introduced himself as Pastor Danny and explained that he had a message to share with the passengers of the bus. He began to read some passages from the New Testament and communicated how we can each have a personal relationship with Christ. He shared that each of us are separated from God due to our own sin, but that through Jesus we can be reconciled with God. He explained that by trusting in Jesus and following Him, we can have a relationship with God He encouraged all of us to think about where we stand with the Lord. This in abridged version- his presentation was both eloquent and sincere. I couldn’t believe that this man had just sauntered on the bus and was speaking such bold truth! Then (to my surprise) he asked if anyone felt led to make a commitment to follow Christ. “Easy there buddy”, I thought. I was relieved that everyone was even politely listening, but what were the chances that someone would be brave enough to make a decision in front of this group of 30 passengers? Well, good thing I wasn’t in charge! Wouldn’t you know that one man raised his hand and Pastor Danny prayed for him! It goes to show that God works in a variety of ways and uses our faithfulness to reveal Himself to those around us. After Pastor Danny prayed for the man, he prayed for our safety and blessing upon our trip. It was an unexpected encouragement. I arrived around mid-night and was welcomed home by my sweet friends – Monica and Hansie. They are a couple from South Africa and they each have a tremendous heart for people and the Lord. Monica is a general practitioner and Hansie is a dentist. I was touched that they were willing to pick me up so late.

I woke up this morning wondering what the day would be like. For those of you who do not know, I am now the only member of the AIM team here in Rundu, but fear not – there are many people within the community who will be working along aside of me. I will tell you more about them in upcoming posts. I decided to jump right in and keep myself busy. I set up several times to meet with people for discipleship and fellowship over the next week. I tried to reconnect with many friends whom I haven’t seen in couple of weeks. I needed to go into town to grab some groceries (the fridge was pretty empty) and stop by the Post Office. I called my and Tricia’s friend, Seketa. He is a local taxi driver and extremely reliable. His greeting was beyond encouraging! “It was been too long with no seeing. It is very good you are here”. I knew he genuinely meant it because I had missed him too. It was like being reunited with an old friend. I also received kind text messages throughout day of friends welcoming me back. I arrived at the Post Office hoping that there might be a card waiting for me. Much to my surprise, there were two cards and FOUR PACKAGES!!!! Four packages!!!! What in the world?!?! I couldn’t believe it! How sweet of the Lord to have those packages arrive on my first day back. How sweet of my dear friends to send such kind things.

All this to say – I do think that this transition will be challenging, but I felt extremely loved and cared for today! Thank you for all of your love and encouragement!!! Please continue to pray that I would remain focused on the task that God has for me and that I would not waste any of the time I have left. Also pray that God would continue to soften the hearts of the people of Kaisosi and reveal Himself to those who do not yet know Him.

Cultural Experience of Lifetime!

Have you ever experienced something so unusual that you were certain you would never be able to explain it to your loved ones? Well, that pretty much describes a recent experience that I had! I am not sure that I will be able to do this next story justice, but I certainly will try. I had the privilege of attending a week long EBC (Evangelical Bible Church) Youth Conference and Choir Competition. Close to 50 members from our local church were able to travel to Katima for this conference. For many of the choir members, this was their first trip outside of Rundu! Needless to say they were very excited! So Daryl, Sabrina and I spent the next week camping on the church property with 1,000 of our closest friends. Along with a few others, we brought a tent. While the rest either slept on the ground or stayed in cardboard structures put up by the church.

The toilet situation was quite interesting. There was an area sectioned off by plastic tarp that was for peeing and bathing. The idea was that the washing would help to rinse the away the rest. I’m not sure that this idea really worked out and the stench was pretty intense by the end of the week. Bathing was also limited to occasional rinse. Thankfully Sabrina and I were both sporting weaves, so we did not have to wash our hair. I am really glad that the Lord blessed me with the opportunity. Many of you know that I not one who often has the desire for “roughing it” in the wilderness. However, there is something empowering about knowing that if needed I can go without the comforts of home for a period of time. It also helps to increase my thankfulness and appreciation for the blessings the Lord has given me!

Food during the week was another cultural experience. At the beginning of the week, my friend Daniel invited me to watch as he slaughtered a goat for the group’s dining pleasure. I thought “of course I want to watch!” What an experience – I have never seen anything like it. Well as I rounded the corner I saw the goat standing in the back of the truck and he was pacing nervously. He began to make some anxious noises and I knew I could not watch. “I can’t do this”, I said as I ran away. When I got back to the rest of the group, I explained why I couldn’t watch and they laughed hysterically. Over the next several days we ate goat for many meals and slaughtered another in the process (I did not watch). It was actually delicious! The only down side was the decision to post the two goat heads on a stick for all the world to see. As you can imagine the smell was pretty rancid by the end of the week and a little unsettling to look at while eating.

Sabrina, Daryl and I stuck out a little more than usual as we were the first white individuals to ever participate in the choir competition. The Luchazi word for white person is chindele. Everywhere we walked we would here, “chindele, chindele”! I have a new appreciation for frustration with the paparazzi. We had people taking pictures of us all the time: while we were visiting, walking, eating, washing our faces and especially when we would perform with the choir. As a side note – participating in the EBC choir has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Not only are all the songs in a foreign language, but none of the songs are written down. So sweet Sabrina has worked hard to collect and write down as many songs as possible. Besides learning (and pronouncing) all the words – there is the performance aspect. Dance is an imperative part of the choir performance. If this were a shoulder shaking culture (as many of you know), I would be fine. But it's not - it is a hip shaking culture and not the hip shaking I am used to. So here I am trying to learn these dances, with what limited rhythm I have. All the while people are laughing and pointing. Needless to say I tried my best, but there were some moments of humiliation. People were so excited and would go crazy when Sabrina and I would perform! There were photos and video recordings taken inches from my face. Screaming, chanting and scarf waving along with hugs while we were performing. We even had individuals run and grab our hands only to thrust in the air as if we had won some sort of championship. We were often approached after we sang only to hear rave reviews and comments such as “I have never seen a chindele dance before”. I even had one guy who told me he liked my “stylee”. All through out the week we were asked to pose for photos with many "new friends" :)

All in all it was a great week, filled with meaningful conversation and relationship building. We were able to hear the preaching of an amazing pastor from Zambia. He boldly proclaimed the truth and addressed many important issues pertaining to this region. Pastor Moses even had a time where he invited individuals to come forward to be prayed for. We were thrilled to see many of our choir members go forward! He and his wife also met with many people individually for additional prayer and counseling. After speaking with the pastor, several choir members expressed interest in meeting to study the Bible after we get back! I had the chance of speaking with Pastor Moses and it was so encouraging! He is passionate about sharing the love of Christ and pouring into the local church. The conversation renewed my hope and reminded that God is often at work in ways that we do not see. I was able to share how the Lord had been working in Kaisosi. Pastor Moses smiled and said, “I see we are working in the same field.” It was a true blessing to meet him! Please continue to pray that I would be sensitive to God’s leading and obedient to what He has called me to do.

For another version of this priceless encounter please visit Sabrina and Daryl’s blog - Neufeldsinnamibia.blogspot.com

Amazed By Blessings!

Well it has officially been three months since I stepped foot in the beautiful country of Namibia! Time is just flying by! For those of you who do not know, Tricia has traveled home to the States and is safe and sound. She has started back to work and is transitioning back to life at home. She is greatly missed (not only by me) and all of our friends here in Namibia have been asking for her. It was apparent what an impact Tricia has made here during our last time of Bible study and devotion with the volunteers. We were asking some discussion questions when Anita (one of our most consistent volunteers) began to share some insight. She said “this reminds me of what Tricia was teaching us” and presented clearly to the group a lesson that Tricia had taught. It was so exciting to see that Anita had learned and was able to apply biblical truth! I have no doubt that this is one of many examples of how Tricia has left a lasting impression.

Saying goodbye to Tricia was harder than I expected and the transition has been pretty challenging. Fortunately I feel like I am finally back into the swing of things. And what a swing it has been! Things have been extremely busy and rewarding over the past week. Towards the end of Tricia’s time here, we began to brainstorm ways to bless the kids we are serving and use the money we have raised wisely. We started talking about possibly buying each child a Bible. Our teenagers are constantly asking questions about Scripture and a few have explicitly asked to have Bibles. The Children’s Bibles are always the first books in our library to be checked out, so we knew there was a strong interest. However, I truly thought it was long shot. Where in the world were we going to get 180 Bibles in two weeks time? Daryl had the brilliant idea of calling a friend in Windhoek (Namibia’s capitol) to see if she might know of an organization that could help us. Turns out she did! Less than 24 hours later, Tricia and I were buying 200 children and youth Bibles at an exceptionally low price. Because of the generosity of our supporters, we were able to fund this purchase solely the money we had raised.

Daryl and Sabrina were also brainstorming how to contribute to the big give away. Winter is coming in Namibia and very few of the kids have any sort of bedding. So they decided to buy blankets for each of the children. Sabrina wisely went to a local store in town (Pep) and asked if they would be willing to provide a discount or donation. After countless visits to the store and multiple calls to managers, Pep agreed to donate all 180 blankets to the OVC project!!! We were blown away! God is so good! In turn there was money left over (that was intended for the blankets) and so they were able to purchase: a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, a notebook, eraser, pencil sharpener and colored pencils to all of the kids! We were also able to give pens, pencils and candy from packages sent by our supporters. It was an exciting day!!! Daryl and Sabrina were also able to provide funds for an incredible feast. Each child, caretaker, volunteer and committee member enjoyed chicken, rice, potatoes and soft drinks. I was told that most people in the Kaisosi village only enjoy a meal like this once a year (Christmas) and sometimes never. Needless to say everyone involved was thrilled.

Thankfully we had enough Bibles to also give to the volunteers. So the day before our big giveaway, we met with the volunteers to thank them for all of their hard work. We also discussed plans for after Daryl and Sabrina leave. They were so encouraging and assured me that I would have their help and support. When we gave them the Bibles, you would have thought we had given them a million dollars. They were so excited!!! Several volunteers said that they did not have words to thank us. Ben, volunteer and choir director, said, “Nicole, you have given me the greatest gift – you have given me the Word of God”. It has been amazing to watch God provide and bless the people of Kaisosi. The kids were equally thankful and excited. On Sunday we saw several people with their new Bibles at church. Please keep praying for our time here and that we would be sensitive and obedient to what God is doing! Also, I am leaving today to go to a choir conference. It is five days long and should be an extremely interesting cultural experience. Please pray for us!

Relationships

Once again I feel like there is so much we could write in here and not enough time to do it! We have had some amazing opportunities in the last couple of weeks and some huge blessings from the Lord! Nicole and I have been praying that God would allow us to form some solid relationships. I think we talked earlier in the blog about the struggle with forming genuine relationships here. It has definitely taken some time, but I think it has finally happened! Relationships seem to be popping up all over the place.
I mentioned before that I was leading a small devotion time for the volunteers. That mainly consisted of me doing a scripture lesson and then opening it up for discussion where Nicole and I would talk and the volunteers would sit and stare at us. I was thrilled when I got a head nod or a, “yes, yes” from someone. Well, imagine my surprise when one of the teenage boys that we have been working with, Ernest, opened up about his life! It was incredible! All of the sudden we actually had a discussion going! I was thrilled! We had a great talk about what it looks like to glorify the Lord with your life and how we are to look different to the world. Since that miraculous day, we have had a few more discussions at devotions. It is mainly the teenage boys that are willing to share. Ernest has continued to share struggles in his life with Nicole and me. He is such an amazing boy and we think that he truly understands the gospel. He has shared with us that he has seen his older brothers make several foolish mistakes in their lives and he doesn’t want to follow in their footsteps. This is a hard thing to take on because so much of this culture is based on tradition and family. To step outside of the cultural norm and follow the Lord instead of your family is huge. We are praying hard for him and would appreciate your prayer support as well.
Nicole has also had some great breakthroughs. She has been leading the “story time” for the older children at project. They have been able to discuss some really tough issues like what the Bible says about sex and finding your identity in Christ. Some of the teenagers have actually thanked her for talking about this stuff with them. They said that no one in their lives wants to talk about this with them and they have so many questions. We have been so encouraged by their eagerness to learn and all of the questions they’ve had. It’s incredible! The teenage girls that wanted nothing to do with us at the beginning are now asking to hang-out with us. Nicole has already spent one afternoon with them making jewelry while I was tutoring one of the volunteers. I’m so sad to be leaving now. I feel like we are just getting started. I am very thankful that Nicole still has time here with the children. I really feel like God is working in their hearts and I’m excited to see how these relationships develop.
On top of all the breakthroughs with project, we have met some really neat people around town. Just last week we had dinner with a local Namibian couple who are starting a church with the Bushmen. It has been rare that we meet locals that are on fire for the Lord. Marcus and Fula are definitely on fire and doing their best to follow God’s call and spread His truth. I wish I had time to write more about them, they are an amazing couple! We have also formed friendships with some women in town who are interested in learning about the Bible. Nicole is hoping to start up a Bible study with them soon. There seem to be so many opportunities for friendship and mentorship popping up. The Lord has been faithful to answer our prayers. It seems like there are many people in Rundu who are hungry to know the truth. Incredible!
On a sad note…I can’t believe that my time in Namibia is up. I remember people telling me that these three months would go fast. I don’t think I believed them, but they were right. My time has flown by and although I can’t wait to be home to see family and friends, I’m so sad to leave everyone here. I wish I could fly my loved ones to Rundu and keep building relationships with my new friends. Goodbyes are so hard and not something I like to do. I know that the remainder of Nicole’s time here will be well spent. I can’t think of anyone better to stay here and continue sharing Christ’s love and truth. I will be back home praying and anxiously awaiting updates just like you all reading this! Please continue to pray that God would grow these relationships and that the friendships would point them to Christ. Also, please be in prayer for my journey home and Nicole’s transition here. Love you all and I’m excited to see you in less than two weeks!