OM World News
- Drawing deeper friendships - North Africa
- Loved and not forgotten - Panama
- OM founder visits Romania - Romania
| OM releases new book |
South AfricaOM International “The meeting was well underway and the suffocating afternoon heat made it a challenge to concentrate. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise beyond the reed fence. I stopped, thinking that an elephant was disturbing the peace. Then I saw him and, unable to keep the fear from my voice, I said: ‘It is the headman.’ The people looked at each other and started whispering, then talking loudly. Now what? We found out soon enough. Moshite burst into the small room, a wild look in his eyes. He was shouting in Simbukushu, holding a big cooking stick. Grabbing his wife by the hair, he dragged her outside. Chaos erupted: people ran outside, women screamed. I looked on helplessly as Moshite beat his wife, again and again. She was bleeding and whimpering, her hands in front of her face. I wanted to stop him, but I was frozen. Then he turned on me. I couldn’t move, not even to run away. ‘You!’ he shouted. ‘Today, I am going to kill you!’ I knew then that I was really going to die—yet suddenly, I didn’t care. If I had to die for these people to know Christ, fine. I waited for him to do his worst.”
Hellen Chibwe was 21 when she became an OM missionary in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. She was young, but she learnt to trust God as her Provider, Comforter and Friend. She didn’t die that day. She and her husband, Alfred, serve with OM in Africa. Charles Chansa and his wife serve as missionaries on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where villages practice polygamy, witchcraft and many are illiterate. Most have never heard the name of Jesus. Charles says, “In whatever situation we are passing through, we will never lose our focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ. For He is our guide in everything He is doing here through us. There is nothing that we are passing through that the Jesus Christ did not pass through Himself. So, we will endure to the end.”
Another worker, Hanitra Andrianomanana, serving in Madagascar says, “After two hundred years, God is waking his Bride in Madagascar. I am excited to see how the different parts of the Body here learn to stand together, and the indigenous church starts to participate, to reach out and to give in different ways.” The stories of Hellen, Charles, Hanitra, and other African missionaries like them are told in the new book Followers and Fishers: Stories of the Emerging Mission Movement in Africa, compiled and edited by Anneretha Combrink. The book is available from OM Books in South Africa. For more information, or to order your copy, contact OM Books at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Credit: OM International |
