A city set on a hill...

On a hill far away from the dust and business of the city, pastor Emmanuel started building a church. Five years ago he felt called to leave his job and commit himself full time to evangelize an area he had discovered to be completely ignored by both government services and churches alike. I got to know him through the teaching at Logos, and this weekend I finally fulfilled my promise to visit.

In the picture you see the arrangements being made for the worship service. He checks whether his elder is on the way, while the two ladies in the background look out over the villages to see attendants climb the hill.

He said: there was nothing here. Only a few kilometers from town, but no Gospel witness. It even became a place to hide if anyone is after you; the government has no presence here. The school is beyond the river; in the rain season most kids stay home. Many adults are illiterate. His smile never leaves his face - even when he is talking about the little the church members can contribute to his support and about the slow progress of building construction.

Because the walls are not even finished yet, they meet under an improvised grass roof. This only protects from sun, not from the rain water that freely enters the building each time. During the service, some goats and donkeys walk in, obviously accustomed to appreciate the shady area. The young herdsmen join in during the preaching, only until an alarmed call outside alerts them that the goats are running off.

What touched me afresh was the joy in worshipping the Lord. Often the songs teach short Bible lessons that really touch the people and helps them keep their hearts focussed on the Lord. I preached from Hebr. 4:16 - times of need was the part where they had the least difficulty understanding. But taking them to the throne of grace was such a rewarding service. A throne where presidents and beggars line up together and only call on grace in the name of Jesus.

After the service, we formed groups per village, praying for their neighbours. The man to the right came from a far place. He beseeched the Lord that salvation would come to his home area.

The hill is a beautiful location. Today, the church is still slightly hidden, because the walls will grow greener with all this rain. But imagine what the church will look like when they manage to roof it with the shiny iron sheets.

They called the church on this far away hill Calvary Baptist Church!

Growing up

My parents were missionaries in Papua (Irian Jaya) from 1974-1987, my dad was church planter, pastor, Bible school principal and lecturer. he discipled and baptized many first generation Christians.

I was never aware of  'under dressed' people, this is where I grew up. In the morning women would come to our house and sell veggetables from their gardens or ask for medicines in case of sickness. me and my sister helped my mom ofcourse!

First years my mom homescholed us, later we got a volunteer teacher from Holland. Saturdays we would go down to the river (Landi) and swim.

The mission post where my parents raised their kids...the church and our house on the right of the grass runway.

We depended totally on the MAF services for all sorts of supplies and resources. I boarded those MAF planes just the way my kids now board our Landcruiser.

I had great friends, the kids of the carpenters my dad used to build the mission buildings. We had sleepovers, pick nick's, hiked through the rainforest and sit together in Sunday school

My mom taught Sunday school

I am so thankful for growing up at the mission field. Little did my parents know they were raising future missionaries themselves. Three of us serve in foreign mission and my other three siblings serve the Lord in The Netherlands. Not to boast in my parents or myself but to boast in the Lord.

Now we are raising our own kids at the mission field. Here Joas and Rhoda back in 2006 when we first came to Zambia. They spend many many hours at the College farm, harvesting the maize.

Roasting hotdogs over a charcoal fire birthday party and many more adventures...

Obed and Moses learn how to dry a goatskin and make a nice rug from it.

With our kids growing up in Africa we realize we might be raising future missionaries as well. God knows, we would be honored. To be disciples of Jesus Christ is all that matters, where ever it will be.

It takes courage!

The sun was setting but mommy wasn’t home yet, still looking for a little ‘ganyu’ (work) to be able to buy ‘ndiyo’ (something to go with Nsima (maisporrige) like vegetables or meat (mice, caterpillars, termites, mushrooms). Boy (I don’t use his real name) was just starting a little fire in his dark hut when someone came in and blindfolded him. First Boy thought it was a friend joking, but it wasn’t. A deep voice said ‘come’ and pulled Boy outside. It seemed darker then dark for Boy. He was pushed forward, the man holding his hands had no mercy when Boy tripped with his bare feet over the treestumps. It seemed like ages when their journey finally came to an end. The ground felt soggy and the sound of dancing and drumming people made Boy’s heartbeat even go faster. Where was he? What was going on? Fear almost choked him as he discovered he had entered the secret grounds of the Nyau, the society of the spirits. ‘No, no, no, not me’ hammered a voice in him but there was no way out. His blindfold was taken off and he looked straight in the eyes of….his grandfather, the headman of his community. Suddenly he was surrounded and welcomed by masked men. Boy received his secret code, learned many secret words, rules and behaviour including ‘sexual education’. Boy was forced to initiation into the Nyau society. Now he got some assignments to prove his manhood (like stealing hot charcoal) and learned to listen to the advice of the spirits. At the final day he was shaved in presence of all the members to show childhood was finished now. Boy was now a man! Eventhough he was instructed to never say a word to non-members about it, to stop going to school (while with our help he had just started going to school) and not go to the Bible programs anymore, something, or I should say Someone was making him still go. Boy knows the price he might pay for disobedience to the Nyau authority; threats of all kinds. Being robbed (of what, he owns basically nothing that a school uniform), having to pay fines and most likely to be witched (witchcraft is a big problem here!). Yet, Boy still comes and was one of the wise men in our nativity play during our wonderful Christmas celebration. He is not the only boy who was kidnapped and forces to this initiation. Please pray for these kids, growing up with so much fear for spirits and who almost don’t have a choice then just ‘go with the flow’ of worshipping them. It takes a LOT OF COURAGE to disobey them and stand up for the Name of Jesus. But this example shows us that it is possible. How? God!

These 394 kids can never say they didn't know about Jesus the Savior coming to this world to save sinners!

What a privilege to enjoy Creation in Africa! This was new years eve...the quietest of all, we camped in this part of Malawi, being the only ones there since everyone else chooses the busy bustling places to celebrate.

On our way to Zomba platuau. Malawi is beautiful, especially in the rainy = green season, we love it!

Discouraged by Nyau, Encouraged by God

Today Grace and I found out that many youth in ‘our’ community and even some  boy’s of our Bible teaching program have been initiated and joined the Nyau (some probably forced). We cry. We are discouraged. We pray and read Gods Word.  Eph. 6 speaks of the struggle  against the rulers, authorities, powers and spiritual forces of this dark world. It commands us to be strong and stand firm, putting on the Armour of God. Also to pray on all occasions with all kinds of requests. Dear friends, please pray with us for the people of the community we reach out to. We feel so discouraged right now, but John 10:10 says: “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, I (Jesus) have come that they may have life”. We will continue teaching the Bible message: “Repent! Turn away from all your offenses. Get a new heart and a new spirit. I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. REPENT and LIVE!” Ez.18:30-32

The Nyau is a secret association of male dancers among the Chewa tribe. Membership is restricted to initiates. Their identity while dancing is concealed with masks of wood or cloth. Other parts of the body are painted with ashes or mud. When our boy’s Obed and Moses saw them they asked me: “Why do they want to look so scary? Are they people? Why do they want to scare others?” The devil recruits his servants by fear, the Lord calls His servants by love. Whenever you encounter  Nyau you have to show respect by bowing down or running away in fear. Gladly, Grace and I are excused by the headman!

Revelation of Nyau secrets is severy punished. The Nyau are considered wild animals (masks) re-incarnating the spirits of ancestors. Nyau dancers look frightening, they make animal like sounds. They might appear during the day to terrify women and children and to steal chickens. During this season we often get distracted by the Nyau, sometimes kids stay at home, hiding, being scared. Some of our youth’s are hiding because they are afraid to get caught and forced to become Nyau.

The Nyau like to dwell in graveyards where their secret gathering place usually is. Some boys want to be initiated into the Nyau, to know what real men know. Today, even Christian boy’s go the the Nyau to ‘buy their way” (apply and pay the fee to the chief) to ensure their safety. The Nyau gives men stronger sense of identity. While the Chewa have their strong morals reflected in behavior, the Nyau show the opposite behavior of what is valued in the community. They curse, fight, chase and assault women and children, they shout obscene language, steal chickens from the community and commit other offences. Because they are spirits, no juridical action can be taken because by definition spirits are outside the law. The Nyau is the embodiment of tradition & resistance and not open to change. That is why mission work among communities who preserve their traditional culture by means of Nyau sometimes feels like plowing on rocks.  

But we know Who won the victory already! “With God we shall gain the victory and He will trample down our enemies.” Psalm 60:12 “Thanks be to God, He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Cor 15:57-58

Sledgehammer

Rather exhausted I sat down after the last of five two-hour sessions of teaching in two days. It had been rather warm, too. One of the pastors who had courageously attended all of it, stood up to give the customary public response. But when he used the words ‘axe’ and ‘blunt’ in one sentence, he somehow made me sit up a little straighter. I had made some strong statements, but did he really mean I had been using the sledgehammer at them?

The area

This was at the close of our last Logos seminar. We have had a group of 25-30 pastors come for training every other week at the Logos Resource Center in Lilongwe. To enjoy a time of concentrated learning and interaction, we invited them to a conference center out of town, beautifully situated at the foot of the mountains. I have learned that this location is key to the success of the conference: there is hardly any cell-phone network, which means that the pastors are honestly out of reach and free to study! 

Breakfast

Not only is the seminar conducive for study, but also for bonding - not in the last place between us who teach. One afternoon, my colleague at Logos, Rev. Chisauka, invited me to join him for a sundown walk across the fields. He is from the area, and could almost point at his home village where his mother still stays. The stories he shared really make us understand the entire context so much better. About his mother who hardly wants to look him in the eyes when she greets her son as a ‘Reverend’. Quite unlike what she told him when he expressed his desire for ministry. “Don’t you know that you will always be a beggar if you become a pastor!” By now, she has come to respect his dedication to the Lord and is more than happy to offer ‘the beggar’ a meal from her scarce resources. But also about the fields, and the pride a man takes in preparing the land for the sowing season. When the black soil is turned up and rows are straightened, one knows he is a man who is ready to do what he can to provide for his family. “Although with job at Logos I am able to buy corn, it still doesn’t feel right. For a big man like me to just collect it from the shop…” 

Rev. Chisauka teaching

Back at the conference we all enjoyed the meal together. Several participants shared with me the challenges they face in the ministry. For some it is the coming rain; the church’s grass roof had decayed from years of rain and hot sunshine. “Where do I shelter my people?” Some serve in congregations where no member holds a job that generates some cash income. “All I get in the offering is some food, even at special fundraising events, the most we collect is five dollars.” 

 

The group of Logos students with lecturers Rev. Chisauka and Rev. Cees

But across the field, all the pastors talk about one thing, whether they serve in remote villages or in Lilongwe town: “We are desperate for more training. In the city, most pastors have attended a hundred and one seminars and workshops, but that does not mold them for ministry.” More and more people in town hold degrees. They look down at the pastor who has nothing to show for any training. In the villages, men become elders simply because they can read the Bible and own one for themselves, and are respected in the community. “Why can’t you start to offer degrees, part-time programs, for us pastors from various churches.” Or: “Please come to our church and train our elders to preach.”

With those urgent pleas in mind I had entered the last day of the conference. I perceived them as positive indications that the training that was conducted by the colleagues and myself was well received. Therefore, the blunt axe took me my surprise. 

Taking a break!

But I shouldn’t have worried. As usual, the words were used quite differently. “You have given us an axe. When we buy a new axe, it is hard to use at first. It is still a little blunt. But this teaching provides us with a tool, and the tool will get even more useful as we set out to work. Often we see the job before us, but feel as those without the means to face it. But brothers, we shouldn’t excuse ourselves any longer. We’ve got this blunt axe – let’s go on and use it.”

And with that, I relaxed. Everyone felt like he had hit the nail right on the head. John Calvin asked for wood to carve more ‘arrows’ in the Lord’s army. Here we are asking for more axes – even if they are blunt! They will sharpen as they are put to work! And of work there is no shortage… 

These students come from the South, waiting for the bus

Sledgehammer