Himba Scripture Engagement Workshop Phase 2, Kaokoland, Namibia
April 7-9, 2014 in Opuwo and April 10-13, 2014 in Ondie Area
Opuwo, Dutch Reformed Chruch
Attendance: Assistant Pastor Edwin of Dutch Reformed Church/Nederduits Gerefromeerde Kerk, Pastor Elton John of Uniting Reformed Church, Pastor Kalusha of Opuwo Community Christian Church, Pastor Kapitango of Seventh Day Adventist Church, Obed (Himba) serving with the outreach work of Mission Work for Jesus Christ, Zinho (Monday) and Kamati (Monday and Tuesday) serving with the outreach work of Global Outreach, Vezandu (Himba) and Noa (Dhimba) serving with the outreach work of Opuwo Community Christian Church, as well as Carlo’o (Himba/Herero, who served in the past with Opuwo Community Christian Church and came on Wednesday).
After prayer we first start to introduce the new workshop attendees and the others share what has happened since the last workshop. Kapitango has been doing some storying, including helping people process the passages using discussion questions. He was very enthusiastic about the response of the people and really is encouraging about this approach of scripture engagement. He also visited Megavoice and tried to get the stories he had shared with me before on the Megavoice, but their memory system only allowed for 10 stories and he was quite disappointed. The initial participants met twice, once in September and once in November. This workshop was not scheduled earlier due to the availability of all the pastors (one got married and had to deal with lots of negotiations between family before this could happen, while Kapitango was for his last theological training session in Zambia).
The first two days we:
- Discuss what it does mean to help people have a basic understanding of God and His Word.
- Discuss how Bible stories and passages connect like a puzzle.
- Develop a Biblical time line and add key passages that are part of helping people have a basic understanding of God and His Word.
- Look at the importance of the personal walk of our lives needing to be a witness reflecting the beauty of Jesus as husbands or as a single person, as fathers, as pastors, as evangelists, and towards our families, friends, congregation, and everybody everywhere.
- Talk about what kind of spiritual awakening is like a movement and the possibility for this to happen in Opuwo. Key ingredients are prayer, dedication, God’s Word, a Godly walk of life, and that the focus is not on any person but Jesus Christ. I share about some samples and some in the group discuss how sometimes teachers come to town for community tent meetings only to leave many people confused.
- Start looking at the first passages to lay a foundation for an initial chronological story set.
- Process Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 4:16 in detail, looking at how to ‘story’ it (dividing up into relevant passages, what kind of discussion questions could be used, etc.).
- Recognize the importance of people needing oral scriptures as a standard in serving orally preferenced communicators (people know very little and sometimes no scriptures).
The third day we:
- Practice telling Genesis 4:1-16 in groups of two.
- Discover how much has often been read into this passage (Cain being jealous, Abel’s flocks/herds being sheep, the offerings being sacrifices for their sins, the offerings being burned offerings, Cain’s fruits of the soil not being of good quality, God wanted a blood sacrifice, God by His choice not favoring Cain, God put a mark on Cain’s forehead, God created more human beings).
- One by one narrate Genesis 4:1-16 in the group while the rest critique how the others tell the story.
- Look further at the time line and I add the concept of panoramic cycles, where we continue to keep adding passages to the overarching story of the Bible in sets of narratives until the picture is complete. We keep adding things as they are relevant to be discussed for the audience and as it fits the growth needs of the people in their life in Messiah (i.e. discipleship process). For most of them this helps them to connect with the timeline idea, which on its own seemed a difficult concept.
- Discover that the process of storying the passages is part of developing a good oral translation as it allows for checking key words, clarity, naturalness (discourse, word choice, etc.), and accuracy. Since people also learn how to engage with the passages from the beginning through the discussion questions, it also brings early ownership of the passages to the language community and they will be part of the process of helping the team that prepares the narratives to learn what story set and cycle needs to be developed. After the passages are prepared well, they can then be consultant checked and adjusted as needed until they are approved and recorded in audio format.
- Are looking at how to move forward to the next workshop. Opuwo has about 32 church congregations and many of the Pastors meet periodically together as a forum. This morning some of the Pastors are absent part of the time due to this meeting, but it brings the idea to the table that the approach to develop oral Scriptures in Himba (and possibly Dhimba and Herero) should as much as possible involve the whole community. The task is already overwhelming to the four Pastors represented, but also they want a broader ownership of the project and also see the storying method possibly used in the broader community at other levels. They will bring this project to the Pastors forum to solicit a broader involvement and help to look for more suitable people to be involved in the project. At the workshop are also four people that potentially could be involved in the work of preparing the passages and testing them in the community (Vezandu, Noa, Obed, and Carlo’o). They set the next workshop for the pastors on July 28 and 29, 2014, with potential the Pastors forum involved for one day on July 30th. I would then train the people that will be involved further for the rest of the week and we would return to Ondie the next week for several days of continuing involving the language community.
- Evaluate the workshop.
- For most of them the workshop was right on target and it helped them:
- To get a much better understanding of the whole process involved in the project.
- To open their eyes in a new way to seeing the importance of scripture.
- To experience how we can learn ourselves from it through storying and engagement strategies that deepen our understanding of the things taught (through sampling the process of discussion questions).
- To want to incorporate this kind of Scripture engagement in their own ministry.
- For Kapitango (who has been exposed to some things earlier, was able to process the first workshop details at a deeper level, and who started to use the storying method already) it was mostly a review, but never the less, a good process to go through again.
- For three the processing of and engaging with the early part of Genesis was not that relevant as they thought they already know that part well, for the others it was a process of deepening their understanding of the foundation on which our need for redemption is build.
- For most it helped to build vision for the project to the point of moving actively forward to see an initial team established to be preparing the passages and testing them in the community.
- For most of them the workshop was right on target and it helped them:
Ondie Area, Himba cattle post
Attendees: Vezandu (Himba) and Carlo’o (Himba/Herero) who serve as translators, cooks, and logistical coordinators. Pastor Uaherura of the local church in Ondie related to the Christian Network Namibia through the Opuwo Community Christian Church is the catalyst for the workshop, but two other pastors are attending as well. More men are attending this time, as well as two people from another Himba community. Not all of them are Christians, but all of them are engaging very well.
Despite the drive being only 170 kilometers from Opuwo, it takes us all day to get to Ondie, due to the condition of the roads/tracks through the mountainous sandy and rocky region, as well that we pick up several people along the way and gather a few in the area after we get to our camping/meeting spot.
On Thursday evening around the fire we have our first session where Uaherura retells the story about the father and his two sons from Luke 15, verses 11 to 32. After seven months she still remembers it almost completely only leaving out some details. We process the story again since there are many new people in the group and by the end of the time another person tells the story in great detail. I also explain the project to them once more and they are very excited about getting God’s Word in their own language to listen to story by story. In general, the people haven’t yet told the stories from the last workshop in the community. Later I learn that some of this has to do with a fear of sharing the stories and partly because of not wanting to make errors when they tell it. The session lasts about 2.5 hours.
On Friday morning we learn that the Ondie community has a community meeting, which is important for most people to attend. Another couple not from the Ondie area has arrived and the few people that are still able to attend story Luke 15:11-32 while I lead them through the engagement part with discussion questions. One of the Himba pastors attending for the first time is also not from Ondie and I work with him for the rest of the morning. He knows English well enough that we don’t need a translator. In the afternoon I observe some of the community meeting and get to be the driver for the hunt for our meat that evening as the Ondie church has received permission to provide the workshop with a Springbok.
That evening around the fire we repeat the story of Jesus and the man who studied the Law of God from Luke 10, verses 25 to. They don’t remember this story well at all. The first time around they learned this story with ease, but now it seems more difficult for them (maybe since they had their all day community meeting discussing many important community issues). Still they engage enthusiastically, repeating the story and interacting with the questions. As we discuss the story, they don’t see the Samaritan taking as risk of being attacked too, since in their mind the robbers would be scared and have fled the area. They all want to be like the man from Samaria who shows compassion. I ask them what he really does in the story and then ask if they still want to be this man and they do. I close by asking what that means for their life. The session lasts again about 2.5 hours.
The next morning I talk about having a basic concept of God and His Word using the example of a stick man which I draw in the sand. Then I lay a foundation by taking all morning and storying piece by piece with lots of repetition Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. The community meeting continues in the afternoon (they purposely decided to not meet earlier, so we could continue the workshop in the morning).
In the evening around the fire we review the creations story and I take us on through Genesis 2 and 3. They really respond to the aspect of everything first being ‘good’ without the influence of ‘evil’ and that there was ‘life’ without the presence of ‘death’. The impact of man choosing to know ‘evil’ as well as ‘good’ and the resulting ‘death’ suddenly becomes like a new awakening to the passage. They wanted more, even though some of them (and I too) were almost falling over from sleep.
On Sunday morning everybody wakes up early again and some are ready by 6 o’clock for a prayer session, while later I narrate Genesis 4:1-16. They realize that the impact of sin on man is graphic since death of man enters by the first born son (the third person alive) as he kills his brother. This sets us up for a story of redemption, which we will do in the church service around the passage of John 3:16-18. At the church service Vezandu stories the Genesis 4:1-16 passage with the children, while I lead the church through an overview of redemption anchored to John 3:16-18. Again the people engage well and I also share with the whole group our purpose for being there. When the pastor gives an opportunity for people to share, there are some very strong testimonies of thanks for me coming to Ondie in the first place and even more for coming back and wanting to help them get the scriptures orally in their language. The service ends with prayer for the different groups of people in the church, including those that really want to share the stories but need courage to do so. There were about 35 women, 10 men and 35 children present, which pretty much filled up the little stone building.
Looking back, I see that it is important to allow the opportunity for vision to develop among the people in the region. The pastors have agreed to more actively engage to see the project move forward and I plan to suggest that for the time being Vezandu, Noa, Obed, and Carlo’o will start helping passages for the next workshop to see how well they do and to use the Ondie community initially as a key place to test and bring ownership of the oral scripture passages through a storying engagement strategy as started already. Kapitango will be the lead contact with the pastors and we’ll use email, sms and phone calls as a means ensuring that things move forward as planned.
Respectfully submitted as I rejoice in serving together,
Durk Meijer, April 15, 2014
