We left from Windhoek early, before the sun was too high, because we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. Before we even reached the settlements, we drove past long fields of green crops with ladies in brightly colored dresses working in between the rows. It was a picture out of East Africa, or some other distant land, that seemed out of place in this ordinarily desert country. But Osire is exactly that, a small pocket of foreigners, fled from war-torn African countries, seeking refuge in our quiet corner of the continent.
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| Youth choir sharing a song |
As we signed in at the police station, we were met by two church leaders who directed us through the small dirt streets to the church building where everyone was already waiting for us to arrive. We were ushered to four plastic chairs across the front of the sanctuary. After brief introductions from the pastor, translated from French (this was a predominantly Congolese congregation), the youth choir sang a song to welcome us. Then we were given the floor to introduce ourselves and explain why we were there.
We explained that we just came to meet them, to begin relationships and see what God was doing through their church in this place. In Africa, everything is built around relationship. We didn't come with an agenda. We came to listen. We came to make friends. Because when you are friends, then things can happen. When you're willing to listen to their hearts and hurts, only then can you really come alongside, empathize, encourage, and support.
After over 2 hours listening to this small, young congregation, we went down the street to visit another church. In stark contrast, they had a massive church building, electric instruments, and elder men as church leaders. Hailing largely from East Africa, this was a Kiswahili speaking congregation. But despite the differences in the churches, they also expressed similar social issues in the community--immense physical poverty, due largely to unemployment because they're not allowed to work, school dropouts for lack of motivation, lack of skills training, and all this on top of the emotional trauma of the situations they had fled from. But such hopelessness and meaninglessness stem from a deeper poverty, that is, their spiritual poverty. This is why missions needs to be wholistic, addressing both physical and spiritual needs.
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| Saying goodbye to new friends |
After spending Sunday morning celebrating God's goodness together, we departed from our new friends with full hearts. Despite their own needs, they were incredibly generous and welcoming. They were excited that we considered them enough to come visit. And now from our side, we can't wait to go back and start to help meet those needs we've now discovered.
