NAMIBIA PASTORS CONFERENCE: Olukonda - Ovamboland : 8th – 10th August 2012

The old Olukonda Mission church

This year (2012), Pastors  Laban Mwashekele,  Tuundjakuje (Spencer) Tjijenda  and I decided to do things a little different  with respect to the annual Pastor’s  conference,  which  is sponsored by Eastside Baptist Church,  and which normally takes place in Windhoek.

We decided to hold a conference for pastors in Ovamboland. For this purpose we chose a historically significant place- Olukonda, the mission station of the Finnish  Lutheran missionary, Dr. Martin Rautanen (1845-1926). He  truly was the apostle to the Ovambos.  

About  20 pastors  from various  denominations  gathered for this purpose.  The subject matter of this conference  was Namibian Church History: "How the gospel came to Namibia, and  the effects it had on  the country”.  

In previous years,   we have had always included a biographical paper  on  the work of  a   missionary to  our territory, which was  then, in  pre- colonial days, [1] known simply  as ‘South West Africa‘.  

The home of Martin Rautanen

Over the years then  I have produced biographical papers on the lives of three major missionaries.[2] 

The first  pioneer missionary  was Johan Heinrich Schmelen (1777-1848). He first brought the gospel to the Nama  people of   Southern Namibia.  He  too had always prayed for  the people  who  lived  north  of  this territory  i.e. the Herero people of central Namibia, and also  for  the  Ovambo people  of northern Namibia. His prayers were heard  by God, in  the sending of  Carl Hugo Hahn to the Herero people  and Martin Rautanen to the Ovambo people. 

Pastor Laban Mwashekele in Rautanen's study  and in his chair!

The second paper  therefore focussed  on  the life and work of  Carl Hugo Hahn  (1818-1895). He  may be considered to be  the  pioneer missionary  to the  Herero people.  He  saw to it that the Ovambo people were reached with the gospel, through the agency of the Finnish Missionary  society.  

The most prominent and  outstanding missionary to  the Ovambo people  was   Martin  Rautanen  (1845-1926). He laboured 50 years in Ovamboland, and lies buried along with his wife and most of his children in Olukonda. 
Martin Rautanen  was the subject  of my third paper, and it was very fitting  that  we should  have met on the  grounds of  his   mission station, which is now a museum. Our hearts were indeed moved by this man’s  testimony.   

Martin  & Frieda Rautanen with their daughter , Johanna

Johan Heinrich Schmelen’s prayer was answered in a most remarkable way.  Not only did God send Martin Rautanen to Ovamboland  to preach the gospel  and to see much fruit after many years of labour, but Martin Rautanen married one of his offspring  - a  granddaughter of Schmelen, Frieda  Kleinschmidt. Martin Rautanen met her  at  Hugo Hahn’s mission station in Otjimbingwe.   Here is a remarkable testimony in terms of how God moves in answer to prayer, and over a number of generations! And so the whole territory was just about covered with the gospel in the 1800’s! A remarkable feat, when one considers the size, the aridity, and the inhospitable nature of this desert country.

Pastor Tjijenda (Grace Reformed Baptist Church)  presented 2  excellent papers which illustrated how the gospel  preached by  men like Hugo Hahn  had influenced two  former Herero chief’s , Samuel Maherero  (1856-1923) and Hosea Kutako (1870-1970). We have challenged our Namibian pastors to  do  further research  on  how  the gospel  has  influenced  the various tribes of Namibia,  whilst also asking  why our nation is  currently  so lukewarm,  having evidently been previously favoured with such  rich deposits of gospel truth. 

Pastor's Conference

Pastor  Tjijenda   speaking on the lives of some  Herero chiefs

Books  are important  witnesses  to our church history!( Ignore the Coke advert!!!)

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[1] The scramble for Africa only began in the mid 1880’s

[2] These three biographies may be found on my blog “ A Reformed Baptist in Namibia”