Angels in Namibia

Our Namibia Trip was a last minute decision. I most likely would have not been able to go on it, if I was employed. However, I had lost my job of thirty-four years and been rehired as a temp, so time was no problem. God blessed me with donations from my local church and friends. I had written Share Him, asking if there were any spots that they were having a difficult time filling. Of the three given, on this being our first trip, Namibia was the only one we had enough time to prepare for.
The luggage limit for our flight was 44 pounds. It was fun trying to pack everything required in one piece of checked baggage and one carry on limited to 15 pounds. We were asked to make hard copies of all the sermons and lectures in case our laptops failed. That was 7.5 pounds of paper added to a piece of luggage that weighed 10.5 pounds by itself. That left 26 pounds for clothes and basic necessities.
After putting the laptop, projector, cords, inverter and Bible in my carry on, it weighed 21 pounds. We were told the carry-ons would not be checked. However at almost every airport my wife’s was and at two of them, it was taken from her and placed under the plane. Don’t get those flight bags with the handle and wheels. I never had a problem with mine, it was just a little duffle bag with the same dimensions and I was never stopped.
From what we were told, a new leadership team had taken over at Share Him. So we were never able to find out which hotel we were going to stay or who was going to pick us up or what the cost of food would be. Someone suggested we look on the web for hotels in that area, all we could find is what looked like a tree house. My wife was happy when we arrived and it was not. On arriving at Windhoek late at night, we were the last to get through customs and were unable to fill out the necessary documents. Those people were not too happy. They wanted to go home for the night and these foreigners were preventing that from happening. They needed to know where we were going to be staying. All I had to show him was a print out from the Share Him sight where they were suppose to give that information but did not. The man took that paper and said come with me. My wife wanted to come also but was told to stay there. She thought that would be the last she would see me. He led me through the airport out a set of doors where an angel (not really, but to me it was) was standing there holding a white piece of paper with the words Share Him on it. Praise God!
We were taken to a guest house where we spent the night to awaken to no food and no way to pay for the room. Enter another human angel—Pastor Heinz and his wife Elfriede provided food and money to pay for the room until we could convert our money.
From there we went to our sites where very little preparation had been done. They had not even received the monies from our deposits to start the preparation. But all hands were on deck and eager to get started. When they found out my wife had come along to do the youth program, they switched my site to Kehemu from Tutungeni because they said this location had more youth. I felt blessed that the Lord was pampering me on this my first trip. You see this site was on concrete with restrooms and a roof. My other site was a sandy Soccer field, which George from California got instead of me. Periodically through the night he would be hit with soccer balls and have his screen torn down during the day.
The Lord blessed and opening night came without any problems. After Sabbath service, the women of church provided a very tasty dish and our first complete hot meal in last 6 days.
The president of Namibia was staying where we were. His security had the place under lock down making it difficult for us to make it to the following nights meeting. Finally we were able to leave the place on foot and meet our ride several blocks away. God came through again.
I was bit by a mosquito one night but survived. Thanks to Dr. Nchindo Mbukusa, we moved to a less expensive hotel by foot, one complete with roaches, but had a yummy breakfast every day. This one was only 440 Namibian dollars instead of 650.
We saw security personnel everywhere, men with machine guns at the local store. Money looked as if it was running low. I never did get use to the exchange rate. Plus I was not sure how much food and hotel was going to be, since it was never posted or my emails ever answered. So we tried using the ATM with no success. I could not remember my new pin number. We found an internet café and I emailed home and my industrious daughter was able to get the information needed and we were in the money again. Turned out my guess for cost was accurate and the extra money from the ATM was used for crafts and bibles.
Tragedy struck the local church twice while we were there—once with a boy drowning in the river, and then with an elder getting injured in a car wreck. We also went and prayed and laid hands on a 16-year-old girl with HIV. Another member came to our room to get help to stop smoking.
One day my wife left with some others to see wild animals. She was so excited to see elephants and giraffes running loose in the wild.
The temperature for us was comfortable. Low 90’s during the day and low humidity. Some of the people there, however, were walking around in winter parkas with their hoods up. It was quiet at night and sand everywhere. I would have liked to of stayed a few more weeks because everything was beginning to flower for the spring and looked so beautiful.
I had to keep telling the Lord that this was His work and if He wanted it finished it was up to Him. I say this because there were little challenges all along the way--rides coming very late, no rides back to the hotel, equipment failures, and so on.
On the night we preached the sermon on the Sabbath, the church behind us turned up their music, and people were driving up and down the roads with their car radios and horns blasting. That night my microphone decided to quit working. Well my big mouth turned out to be a blessing at least once in my life.
Some nights I had over a hundred people and my wife had over a hundred children. She loved those kids and they loved her.
We came to the end of effort and had many make their decisions either for baptism or profession of faith and others who wanted to continue in study. We all spent an afternoon down at the river while the four different sites came together for baptizing the new members. What a glorious day for God! On my latest email with them, some are still attending baptismal classes.
We left a thank you card and tip for those whom provided us breakfast every day, which I still feel bad about. Remember earlier when I said I could never get use to the exchange rate. Well I left 80 Namibian dollars for maybe 4 people. After I did it, I remembered that it equaled only about 3 American dollars for each of them. Pastor Heinz went to the kitchen to give him his tip and told me not to worry. When he got there he said they were all yelling and screaming and jumping for joy. I still feel I little cheap.
On the day we were leaving the driver was two hours late, and George needed to get to the airport. We were all praying for him. There was no one to pick us up at the destination point, but God worked another miracle. George had a friend named Fluorine at Pilgrim Relief Society who sent help. His lovely wife fed us the first whole meal in a long time and arranged for George to get to the airport and was able to find us lodging for the night and rides to the airport for us in the morning. Alleluia!