Readers,
The Rev. Valinda Morse, assistant to the bishop, and husband Lyle have returned from northern Namibia, conducting a visitation to the synod's longstanding companion synod there, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia. I will be seeing her soon and will learn more. Below are some early remarks she delivered to the congregation at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia on her return. I'm also posting a couple of early photos. These appear to be Valinda and Lyle at ELCIN headquarters, with some of the ELCIN leaders, past and present. The outside shot appears to be the emerging garden project to feed hungry orphans and elderly people, which this synod has supported. More will be coming. — Rachel Pritchett
By the Rev. Valinda Morse
It was May 2012, late fall and the sorghum and millet fields were tired and dry. Sorghum provides the grain for a nonalcoholic, fermented drink that is the mainstay of the people. No pathogens can live in this beverage. The millet was the mainstay of their diet – mahangu – a thick-like porridge that is eaten with your right hand.
The signs along the road cautioned us of warthogs and springbok. The road was straight and long running through miles and miles of bush – nothing but vast, dusty bush as far as the eye could see. The cloudless blue sky also, had no end. We were headed for Owambaland, the northern part of Namibia.
Once we crossed “the red line” into Owambaland, where every town started with an “O,” cattle, donkeys and goats wandered and grazed beside the road, usually herded by a barefoot and dusty boy carrying a stick. The villages were a smattering of one-room huts, dirt floors and thatched or plastic roofs, also lining the road. Some were made of corrugated metal, some of homemade bricks and others of sticks. Each village had a shebeen or cuca; some used the English translation “bar” but it was clearly the local watering hole. Our favorite name was the Booze Booze Bar. The garbage, mostly plastic bags, broken glass, empty cans, and rusty car parts, was stacked beside the road. The villagers lined the road, sitting in their huts or under umbrellas at makeshift kiosks, selling fruit, baskets, dried fish, raw meat, used clothing. And everywhere was dirt and dust, part of the landscape.
Our destination was Oniipa, the headquarters of the ELCIN (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia), most especially, our sister synod, the Western Diocese. We were on our way to meet our Namibian brothers and sisters in Christ. The little Polo Volkswagen was laden with suitcases of gifts, mostly made by the members of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. We carried gifts for scholarships at Oshigambo High School, gifts for computers at Paulinum Seminary, gifts for congregational projects such as the Oluteyi y Epongo irrigation project, gifts of hats for babies and HIV/AIDS orphans, gifts of forged crosses for church officials, gifts of soccer uniforms and soccer balls for the high school. We were the ones gifted by the gracious and open arms of these warm and hospitable people.
Sunday morning The Rev. Wilhelm Hainane came to meet us at the ELCIN guest house. He was to be our guide for the day. We climbed into the trusty VW and headed out into the bush. We passed through Ondangwa, Oshakati, and after an hour we made a sharp right turn into the dust, driving through the midst of cattle, goats, donkeys, sorghum and millet fields. After getting “off the trail” and driving through a lake, we turned back to follow the one electrical wire. We dared not stop for fear of sinking into the dry sand. We must have driven 5 to 6 miles, through a miniscule village, past another waterhole, and then arrived at Oluteyi Lutheran Church & school. Worship had started at 9 a.m. We arrived at 11:30 a.m., and the sanctuary was still packed with a sea of beautiful black faces dressed in their finest. Pastor Hilaria Shikongo and Pastor Eliakim Shaanika warmly greeted us at the door, and as we entered the congregation stood and applauded us in. The children sat in the front rows, worn sequined and organdy dresses, white shirts with vests and slacks on little boys, enormous brown eyes. They eyed us carefully. The congregation sang songs of praise as only Africans can – it is a sound of heavenly joy. There was a very old man sitting across the nave from us, dressed in his clerics and suit, grey beard, hat in hand. I believed him to be the community sage; he was the founding pastor of Oluteyi. We were greeted and welcomed.
This was the place of the Epongo “water project’; this was one of our destinations. After another hour or so of worship Lyle and I were invited to see the project. We walked out back to a field, Pastor Shikongo in her high heeled patent leather shoes. The plot of land looked much like the rest of the bush, but it was fenced and wire had been nailed to the fence to keep the cattle, donkeys, and goats out. There was little difference between what was inside the fence and what was outside, but this was it, what we had come to see. A guava tree, an avocado tree, a black hose. This was the dream of the congregation, an irrigation project, a garden to grow produce for the congregants and the village. The last Gift of Hope was used to bring water to the field, and to put the wire on the fence. There is much work still to be done if this project is to come to fruition. Congregants waved to us as they walked miles back to their homes.
Pastor Shikongo invited us to her office for a little something: barbequed chicken, mahangu, and the sorghum beverage. We washed in the communal basin by the door of the bare office, gathered around her makeshift desk and used our right hands to eat the porridge and chicken.
Monday morning we arrived at the ELCIN office in time for devotions. Pastor Eliakim Shaanika welcomed us and introduced us to the staff and to the General Secretary, The Rev. Alpo Ekonolo. We then had an opportunity to gather with the department leaders of ELCIN and deliver the Gifts of Hope for the community project and the Oshigambo High School scholarships as well as gifts to our esteemed partners at the office.
Once again Lyle and I climbed into the VW Polo, this time with Pastor Shaanika and headed out to Oshigambo in order to visit the Lutheran high school and deliver the soccer uniforms and balls. The school itself is a large compound, for students who attend must stay there. There are quarters for the students lodging, a large kitchen and eating hall, classrooms, a chapel, and a library. Most of the buildings are in need of refurbishing, but that is the least of the challenges facing the administrators. The fee for one student to attend Oshigambo is approximately $600 per year; that is financial hardship on many of the families in Owambaland, yet this includes teacher fees, room and board. The return on this investment for the future of Namibia is countless.
From there we traveled to Onandjokwe Hospital, another institution supported and financed by the ELCIN. It was here that we met the head nurse of the hospital, and delivered the 300+ hats for the babies and HIV/AIDS orphans. It seemed odd to me, that in the midst of this 90 degree winter day, as many as could afford it had on coats and hats. Our knit caps would be put to good use.
Having accomplished our tasks in Oniipa, having made new friends in Christ, we left Owambaland and headed south, through Etosha National Park. The rainy season was past, and the Etosha Pan relatively dry, so we met elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, springbok, impala, oryx, ostrich, buzzards and other of God’s creatures at the waterholes. Magnificent! It was time to return to Windhoek for the Consultation with the ELCRN, ELCIN, and GELC and to deliver our last Gifts of Hope to Paulinum Seminary.
The consultation was an opportunity for Namibian Lutherans and ELCA representatives from four synods, Northeastern Iowa, New Jersey, Metropolitan D.C., and Southwestern Washington to gather and renew our covenant of accompaniment, and to discuss how we could solidify our partnership. Two people were sent from each of the four ELCA synods, and we had an opportunity to gather with bishops and department heads of the Namibian Lutheran churches to talk about how, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we might build up the body of Christ. There are challenges for the Church on both sides of the continent but the ones facing our African friends seem much graver: lack of education, malaria, HIV/AIDS, poverty and oppression.
The last Sunday of our stay in Namibia, Lyle and I attended an inner city Lutheran church. It is a federated congregation of the ELCRN, the ELCIN, and the GELC, and the worship service is spoken in English. The facility was quite large, and we arrived early, sitting on a side of the chancel. The people kept coming and coming and coming. Worship started at 9 a.m., but they kept coming. The usher’s job was to find available seats for worshipers (not an easy task) as they continued to come into the sanctuary. Clearly there were not enough seats, so chairs were brought into the front of the nave, again and again. There was little room for the pastor to move about, and still they kept coming. There was not a person there that was not dressed in their absolute finest, and I do mean finest! Babies, grandmas, young moms, men in suits and ties, hats to boast about. There was no organ or piano, no musical instrument of any sort, yet their singing was filled with the Spirit of God. There were four baptisms that day. And still, they kept coming! The worship service went by so quickly, yet the clock told us we had been there over two hours. A traffic jam ensued after worship, cars parked in every direction on every square foot of space.
It was time to go home; our adventure had come to an end. We had been privileged to represent our church in another place, and our lives had been changed and enriched by the experience, most especially by our new friends in Christ. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. Thank you for the gifts you so generously gave. Now the challenge is before us: how can we accompany and help our brothers and sisters accomplish their own goals: education for their children, riddance of life threatening illness, an end to needless poverty and empowerment to do what God has called them to do.
