October, 2004

Church Distributed in Action:
Update on Lon and Val in Namibia

By Distributed Pastor Lon Garber

Everything is going wonderfully. We are settling into our new home, and we are getting back involved in our ministry connections in Namibia. I have resumed my weekly Bible study in the Babilon squatters’ camp. I have been teaching a weekly Bible study at Omgulambasha Baptist Church #2 since last October. This church is closely associated with the Bible Baptist Church in Vyf Rand squatters’ camp near Okahandja. Both congregations are from the Kavango tribe, whose tribal homeland is in the northeast part of the country along the Kavango River. They are the woodcarvers of the country.

Last week I started a series on finances. I will be teaching them from the Scripture verses used in the Crown Financial material. Each week I will teach a biblical financial principle and help them learn a verse in English. Last week I taught the principle that God owns everything. During the study, I asked the question: “Does God love rich people more than poor people because He gives them more money?” A student named Mateas responded with the following answer:

No, God rather watches what we do with the money He has given us. If we spend it selfishly, He is disappointed with us. If we are generous and share it with others, He is pleased. His pleasure is not determined by how much He gives us; it is determined by how we spend whatever He gives us.

The distributed church continues to spread its wings. In October I will be traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to lead a retreat for 50 pastors in Kinshasa and to plan a follow-up retreat for January that will be attended by 500 pastors. God is good.

One Sunday in July 2003, after worshiping at Pastor Thomas Mbundu’s Bible Baptist Church (Vyf Rand, Okahandja) with Rebekah Richey’s mission team, visiting Pastor Mathias Nsamba introduced himself to me and said: “Pastor Thomas has much help from Americans in this church. There is no one helping our church in Babilon. Will you come help us too?” So we began forming a relationship with them. We visited him and his wife, Sirrka, in their humble home made of corrugated metal combined in the fashion of a patchwork quilt. Sirrka runs a small preschool that is attached to their home. I was taken by the simple plaque on their wall, which reads: “We may be poor, but we are rich in the Lord.” As is my custom (I think I learned it from Joel before leaving for Namibia), I asked them: “How can I best help your church?” Mathias replied: “Come teach us the Bible. We love the Lord, but we don’t know much about the Bible.” So that is what I have been doing.

My two star students are the pastors themselves. They have no training as pastors, just a willingness to lead and serve. I began by teaching them my Panoramic Tour of the Bible course. I felt it would be an excellent backdrop for everything else I would teach them from the Bible. It would give them context and an ability to see how it all fits together. Each week my assistant, George Steinbach, would go with me. It was the third time he had been through the same material. George has a true servant’s heart. He is very shy and therefore likes to serve quietly, behind the scenes. And yet, a small voice within me whispered that he yearned to be a teacher. So one day I asked him if he would ever like to teach a portion of one of my lessons. To my surprise, he eagerly agreed to teach the next lesson himself. So the next week, he taught the whole lesson and did a wonderful job. So I became his teaching mentor, and he taught several more lessons under my direction. As a result, when we had to leave Namibia in February, George continued and finished teaching the course on his own. Isn’t God good? And now George has moved on to serve the Lord in Botswana with Youth for Christ there. A major part of his new job: teaching. God is very good! That is why I love to mentor.

The Democratic Republic of Congo
The invitation came from Pastor Mushadi Ntambue. He is a friend of Jos Holzhausen, and Jos has traveled many times to the Congo to minister with him in Kinshasa. Jim Laird met him through Jos. Jim Laird then asked me to make contact with Mushadi from Namibia, so we began an e-mail relationship. My first opportunity to meet Mushadi came in April, when we were both in Orlando. We met at Northland and planned these two trips. Each year in January, 500 pastors from around the country gather from a week-long retreat to gather vision and encouragement for the year from each other. Pastor Mushadi invited me to come and be their speaker for 2005. To plan and prepare for that retreat, a group of 50 pastors will meet in October. I am going there this month to lead a weekend mini-retreat for the planning pastors and to help them decide on a theme and teaching topics for the January retreat.