Worship Warriors!
/The final weekend of our three weeks in Namibia, we were joined by Daniel Mayeya, Nathan Kondowe, Cliff Belemu, and Lusungu Katete, two Biblical Worship Training Centre (BWTC) staff and two BWTC volunteers, respectively. Dan, Nathan, and Cliff are all students of ours, as well. Their purpose was to lead what Percy calls a Worship Warrior Retreat, open to all the churches in Katima Mulilo, designed to edify, but also to whet the appetite for BWTC’s in-depth training which includes many of our classes.
The turnout was strong for a first event and included pastors, worship teams, and members from several area churches. Charity & Faith Church graciously hosted us for this marvelous weekend of training and worship. The husband and wife co-pastors, the Amisi’s, were so hospitable to us, even serving us an amazing lunch on Sunday noon! Dan taught with skill and conviction, and Nathan, Cliff and Lusungu led beautiful, heartfelt worship in preparation of and response to the training. After the final amens were said on Sunday evening and the retreat formally ended, Dan, whose mother is from the Congo, and the team led us in about fifteen minutes of joyful and exhausting Congolese celebrative dancing. It was just plain fun.
There were several takeaways from the weekend. First, it was wonderful to see our training and influence multiply through our spiritual grandchildren. Percy’s BWTC team is awesome. Second, the weekend was a strong reminder that worship is not a song designed to medicate our pain, but a lifestyle of obedience that demonstrates whom we love most, Jesus, and leads to our healing from the effects of guilt, shame, and fear in this fallen world.
Third, we were reminded that everyone worships in some way, Christian or not, because everyone builds his or her life around what or whom they love. For the Christian, of course, that means Jesus, and it moves from fearing him to intimacy with him and then to intimacy with his body, the Christian worshipping community. In other words, we are called to a worship which is a whole life-giving response to God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit with other believers leading to love, righteousness, justice, mercy, and humility. And, for each of us, this worship involves my heart (what I love), my head (what I believe), and my hands (what I do).
It was Doug’s privilege to speak during the final worship session and he chose Romans 12:1-2 as his text. Here, Paul emphasizes that God’s mercy calls us to and enables our sacrificial worship, reasonable worship, and transformative worship. Doug’s special emphasis was on the renewal of the mind as a necessary foundation for biblical worship that glorifies God. As John Cotton has said, “Knowledge without zeal is not true knowledge, and zeal without knowledge is only wild-fire.” Painting with broad strokes, in the U.S., we fall prey all too often to knowledge without zeal, and in Southern Africa it’s often zeal without knowledge. Neither is an adequate expression of true Christian worship. Together, they are life-changing!
What an awesome conclusion to our three weeks in Katima Mulilo, and how exciting it is that many more doors are now open for BWTC and us to train there. We will return to Katima in August for two weeks. We can’t wait!
We’ve been home now for three weeks and have had time to reflect on our trip. We’ve also had time to thank God for you. We are so very grateful for your support, prayers, and encouragement. It is a tremendous privilege and joy for us to do what we do, both at home and in Southern Africa. Thank you!
Percy Muleba cast visiion to the attendees to kick things off!
Abby and percy with the BWTC team from L to R: Lusungu Katete, dan mayeya, nathan kondowe, and cliff belemu
Dan, the amisi’s, and percy
Lovely Grace was one of the ministers at charity & faith church.
The amisi’s treated us to an amazing lunch with chicken, beef, fish, rice, carrots, greens, and more!
Dan led us in some congolese dancing that was over the top!
Learning some cool moves from dan!