Namibia: The Bush

Three days of straight road that continuously vanished into the horizon, crossing through the Tropic of Capricorn, and watching the scenery gradually change from the lush vegetation brought on by the late spring rains, towering trees, and rolling terrain into the sun-scorched grass, stunted plants, and dried river beds, we finally reached the depths of the Namibian bush. Four deserts frame Namibia with the central part of the country being mostly savanna. The harsh conditions of the sun that cause temperatures to teeter around 105 degrees, lack of shade, and scarce water supply makes daily life for many Namibians a challenge. The main people groups we were in contact with were the Himba and Themba tribes. Only slightly touched by the Western world, the people’s lives and appearances look like something torn out of the pages of The National Geographic. Both tribes live in huts constructed out of mud and cow dung strategically placed around the holy fire. An animistic worldview binds both groups together by appeasing the spirits and animal glorification. The main source of income is livestock. Children, as young as ten years of age, are shepherds of over one hundred sheep. The initial reaction to the people makes you feel awkward and sheepish. The men wear only loin clothes and have intricately braded mohawks. The Himba women wear only a flap of cowhide around their waist. Everything on their bodies is covered with a mixture of cow fat and red dirt. They also mold their hair into dreads with the distinct smelling concoction. A sign of creativity and beauty for the women in the Himba culture is plucking out the two front teeth. The Themba people wear only brightly colored skirts, style their hair into hundreds of tightly woven braids, and are covered in impressive beadwork. At first sight the people were quite startling and seemed to be from a different world but we soon discovered we had much more in common than different.

Once we arrived to our campsite in Okangwati ministry began. A group of Himba and Themba believers traveled from the neighboring towns to camp with us to receive training from one of the pastors. When we were not doing ministry in the town we were trying our best to interact with the people. Like I have said in my past blogs my time in Africa has been the most spontaneous of my life and this trip didn’t let me down. Our first day of planned ministry we found out there wasn’t a plan and that it was up to us to integrate ourselves with the people. This was not welcoming news but we did our best to establish a program. Because we didn’t know the area, the culture, the people, or the language it seemed like we were facing an unfeasible task. Our first day we walked through the town, did our best to communicate, and make our presence known. Three key points from the town struck us; there were many idle children, drunken men, and a long heap of trailing trash. We struggled to find a way to combat the cultural barriers and to differentiate ourselves from the insensitive awestruck tourists shoving cameras in the people’s faces like caged animals in the zoo. We were striving to find a tangible way to show the people God’s love, that we weren’t tourist, and with the main goal of building relationships with the people. Our thoughts were that the best way accomplish this was to do practical work and begin picking up the trash throughout the town. This opened up multiple opportunities for ministry. The practical work we were doing was outside of the schoolyard. The next thing we knew we were asked to do a kid’s program with the children. A group of people who have been gifted with the ability to evangelize began walking around the town attempting to communicate the gospel to the people with the help of a borderline, cheesy magic trick. That same day we stumbled upon an orphanage where kid’s go to get fed. We asked if we were allowed to do a kid’s program with them and thankfully they responded yes. However, we had one condition. We were not allowed to mention anything about Jesus. We made a good relationship with the workers of the orphanage and an impact on the kids. Our hope is that in the future another A-Team will have the honor of sharing the good news with those kids. We repeated this same process day after day. As the days progressed we began to make connections with the people. The kid’s were anxiously waiting for us in the morning. At lunchtime they would follow us to a shaded area in the dried riverbed, even though we were really in need of some alone time. The people in the town now started coming up to us and saying thank you for our service to their community. Our last day for the school program a mob of kids followed us out of the gates. We pleaded with them to go back to class as they asked for us to stay. We shared hugs and what seemed like for them to be dreaded last goodbyes. That is a moment I will never forget. It was reassuring to see God’s faithful hand moving in Okangwati and how He ultimately determined our steps. After doing our best to make an impact on the people we felt a desire to give something of more significance than a clean road. So we took the initiative to have a church service in the center of the town. On the last morning we invited everyone we saw and had a surprisingly big turn out. It was our aim to always be culturally sensitive so we asked the local believers if they would be willing to share a testimony and the gospel to the people. In the end a woman gave her life to Jesus.

During our stay in Namibia we had the opportunity to experience some of God’s grand creations. While in Okangwati we bathed every night in a natural hot spring and grazing next to us was a herd of wild horses. We were so far away from any light pollution that it seemed like you could see every star in the universe. On our way back we had a surprise stop at an oasis in the desert. It was the Epupa Falls making the border of Angola and Namibia. We were able to swim on top of the falls, which was nice after a long week in the sun. The last stop on the way back to South Africa was the world’s second largest game park. The Etosha Park has one of the world’s most famous watering holes. During our night stay there we saw wild elephants, flock of zebras, springbok, kudu, rhinos, and lions. It was unreal being so close to animals that weren’t in the confinement of walls or cages.

I have been struggling to put to words the lessons God has been teaching me. I would not be being honest if I said that my time here in Africa hasn’t been my faith’s most tested time and almost a daily struggle but God has been more than gracious and patient with me. I was reading a book by Charles Swindoll that has been ministering deeply to my soul. I read this while in the desert of Namibia and it talks about when life lessons take place in the classroom of the desert. This is a long excerpt but words cannot express more precisely how I am experiencing life. These words have given me a renewed sense of hope and perseverance and I think they can be of an encouragement to many of you.

“The desert is a place of obscurity. Moses had to cope with being a nobody. All his adolescent and adult life, he had been a big-time somebody. Every time Moses stood, people looked up expectantly. Every time he addressed them people stopped and listened. Sheep don’t do that. You can say whatever you want, you can recite poetry while turning back flips, and the flock won’t be impressed. As much as you and I may appreciate wool sweaters and wool socks, sheep are basically unintelligible and unresponsive animals. And Moses had the pleasure of their company for four long decades of his life.

Perhaps you identify with this situation. As you read, you’re nodding your head. You are taking some course work in obscurity yourself; you find yourself struggling every day with the limitations you’ve had to endure. You have been forced by the very nature of the desert to give up many of the privileges, perks, and activities you once enjoyed and held most dear. Now you’re “just getting by,” subsisting on the absolute basics of life. That is God’s plan, my friend. And if you would graduate from His school of the desert, you must take classes in obscurity; it is the first required course of the school. Here is the unvarnished truth: if you don’t learn to live peacefully with obscurity, you will repeat that course until you do. You cannot skip this one and still graduate.

Notice carefully how the process took place in the desert. God must break through several hard, exterior barriers in our lives before He can renovate our souls. His persistent goal is to break through to the inner person. What are the resistant layers in our hearts, and how does He break through to that hidden part? First, He finds pride. And He uses the sandpaper of obscurity to remove it ever so gradually.

Then He finds us gripped by fear-dread of our past, anxiety over our present, and terror over what may lie ahead-and He uses the passing of time to remove that fear. We learn that things aren’t out of hand at all; they’re in His hands.

He next encounters the barrier of resentment-the tyranny of bitterness. He breaks down that layer with solitude. In the silence of His presence, we gain a fresh perspective, gradually release our cherished rights, and let go of the expectations that held us hostage.
Finally, He gets down to the basic habits of living, He penetrates our inner person, and there He brings discomfort and hardship to buff away that last layer of resistance. Why? So that He might renovate us at the very core of our being.

Reach for the hand of your Guide! He is the Lord of the desert. Make that your desert. The most precious object of God’s love is His child in the desert. If it were possible, you mean more to Him during this time than at any other. You are His beloved student taking His toughest course. While testing you, He loves you with an infinite amount of love.
Jesus walked through the desert first. He felt its heat. He endured its loneliness. He accepted its obscurity. He faced down Satan Himself while the desert winds howled. And you can be sure He will never, ever forget or forsake the one who follows Him across the sand.”

Our team will be leaving on November 11th to spend two weeks in Durban. We were originally scheduled for three weeks but thankfully for our tired bodies the plans have changed. I can’t believe it is already November. As everyone back home is turning on the heat and preparing themselves for winter we are beginning the heat of summer. I hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Day. Hopefully, we can have some sort of celebration here but we might have to discuss it with the five other nationalities ☺

Prayer Points:

1. That the local believers in Okangwati would be bold about their faith
2. Someday the orphans will get to hear the truth of Christ
3. Love, patience, and endurance for our team as we set out on another outreach and not quite rested from the previous
4. Wisdom and guidance from God about my future

Love,
Adam