Each year we split up our seminary students into small teams, and send them out on mission trips to put into practice what they've been learning in the classroom. This year, I led a group of 9 students to serve in Osire refugee camp. This is a community of displaced people, mostly from Central and East African countries. They primarily speak French or Swahili, and bring their other African cultures with them. So our local Namibian students were in for a great cross-cultural experience.
On our first day, we went to the local school to connect and share with the students. Now, Namibia is a generally "Christian" nation and ministry in schools has historically been fairly open. But when we arrived at this school, they allowed us to share in a few classes, but said we couldn't preach or speak openly about Jesus. This is more like what I am used to from the States, but it was really surprising to my students. Many of them commented afterward how they really struggled with that, and had to figure out how to navigate these restrictions. As our government is more and more removing religion from schools, I warned them that this is the direction it's going in the future. They need to find other alternative access points (e.g., pressing social issues) to creatively communicate the message of Jesus. Fortunately, in the afternoon, many of those kids joined us on the sports field where we could play games and then share the gospel in a much more open way.
We were also able to meet with a large group of local pastors. One NETS student shared an encouragement with them about servant leadership from John 13. Then I shared from Gal 6:7-9 about persevering in ministry because our true reward is still coming. We were then invited to three different church youth groups, and a children's ministry. And two of our students were invited as guest preachers at different churches.
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| Sharing the gospel with the colors on the soccer ball |
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| Sharing at a youth group |
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| Children's ministry |
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| Praying together at a youth group |
Our NETS students were very encouraged by how hospitably we were received in the community. On our last evening together we reflected on some of our learning opportunities. They mentioned things like the resistance to the gospel in the school, and learning how to speak into people's situations (like being a refugee) in a sensitive and encouraging way. They were also blessed by the unity they felt with the community even though they were coming from so many different places across Africa. Personally, I was encourage by how well our students jumped into ministry, were flexible when opportunities shifted, and really engaged the learning process.
