I love change. It’s so exciting. I really enjoy all that change brings—new friends, new experiences and new challenges. I can still remember the excitement Gideon and I felt as we left Cape Town in 1995 and drove up to Namibia. The one constant during the years that followed has been change. Our lives have been touched by a diverse procession of nomadic friends. We have travelled throughout the Kaokoveld, visiting their homes and cattle posts. A few things haven’t changed—our home base, our town friends and Kapitango.

In 1995, not long after we arrived, Kapitango was introduced to us as “someone who can help you as a translator.” Since then, he has worked side by side with us. He was baptized at the end of 1995 and gave up a bright future in league soccer to devote his life to Christ. Together, we worked at the church and in the community. At the end of 1996, he became our fulltime translator. When we went to the States for AFM orientation and training, he came with us and took a Bible-worker course.

Upon our return to Opuwo, Gideon and Kapitango worked as colleagues, wrestling with the challenges of trying to reach the nomadic, oral Himba. Together, they struggled to understand how to communicate the Gospel message to a people who were hesitant to hear it. As they experimented and tried various means to reach the people, Kapitango’s wisdom and insight were invaluable. When they finally made a breakthrough, Gideon and Kapitango once again experimented with how to use the new knowledge.

Together, we went through AFM’s Phase-2 Training and learned valuable lessons about worldview and evangelism. As we wrestled with what to create, Kapitango was inspired with the idea for our spiritual-hunger-development tool, Katjitwaenda, and how to add a new twist to a well known Himba proverb. The story was a hit. Kapitango then took the lead in creating evangelistic material. Slowly, steadily, we developed audio material, learning as we went. About four years ago, Kapitango took over the leadership of the Opuwo Church and had the opportunity to start studying for the ministry part-time at Zambia Adventist University. He is currently the pastor of the Opuwo Seventh-day Adventist Church and lead evangelist to the Himba.

Over the years, we have faced many challenges together as a team united with one purpose—to spread the Gospel to the Himba people. We have watched Kapitango develop, grow and finally step into our shoes. Now, once again, it is time for change.

AFM’s evangelistic process has five distinct phases. Pre-evangelism is the first phase in which missionaries focus on language and culture learning. The second and third phases are evangelism with a focus on carefully crafting a culturally appropriate approach to Biblical teaching that will help people make intelligent faith decisions for Christ. In the fourth phase, post-evangelism, the missionaries become less involved with the actual evangelism of the people group and heavily involved in mentoring and training new believers. The final phase of an AFM project is to wean the church of any dependency on the missionaries and begin transitioning leadership duties to the local Adventist mission or conference. Usually this means the missionaries move a small distance away and travel back and forth to the project providing advice, counsel and additional training as needed.

The Himba Project is now transitioning to the local Adventist mission. For the next five years, the Himba Project will be managed by a joint steering committee with AFM and Namibian Field Office representation. Over this period, the Mission will assume increasingly more financial and supervisory responsibility of the project. Kapitango will continue as the lead evangelist and pastor. Gideon will continue to mentor and assist him, but from a distance via Skype and email. We will visit the project each year to connect with our friends, encourage Kapitango and assist where needed. Both Kapitango and Gideon are members of the Himba Project Steering Committee and will continue to be very involved in the management of the project.

So what will our new role be? Well, we are still very much part of the Himba Project even though we will not be living in Namibia, and we will continue to fundraise and promote it. We will also begin new duties as AFM consultants, visiting projects that request our help to coach and assist them as they develop strategic evangelism plans and design evangelistic material. We are looking forward to this new phase of our ministry—I do love change.

We are very sad to be leaving Namibia, but we went there to work ourselves out of a job. We are very excited about our new roles as consultants for AFM missionaries. God is doing amazing things all over the world. We feel truly privileged to be part of His work. Soon and very soon, Jesus will come. It is exciting to play a part in hastening His return.

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