Jesus Comes to You

By Julie Stiegemeyer

Into the jungles of Africa, Pastor Andrew Mbugo Elisa comes. He sits on a chair between the mango trees with the chatter of monkeys in the branches. He sits on a chair, and the people from the village gather around him on blankets. Then Pastor Andrew begins to speak. He speaks God’s Word to the people. He tells them about God’s love for them in Christ. He tells them to repent of their sins. All day long he teaches them. Pastor Andrew is only a man, but the words he brings are the words of Christ extending eternal life to all who believe.

And then the next day, Pastor Andrew continues teaching. In time, he will baptize groups of people—as many as confess the Lord Jesus. And so a new congregation is born in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan (ELCS).

Andrew Mbugo Elisa is the bishop of the ELCS, a church body still in its infancy. Lutheran congregations have sprung up all over the large country of Sudan during the church’s thirteenyear history. Lutheran pastors from all over the world have assisted in catechizing and evangelizing in the ELCS. Never apologizing for their doctrine or confession, the ELCS dares in every way to be Lutheran. Laymen and laywomen walk for miles to attend catechism classes taught by visiting pastors and teachers. The young people in the church teach their children stories from the Bible. They are poor, they have few church buildings, and they face challenges of sickness or poverty, but they never compromise in their confession of God’s Word.

“We stand alone on Word and Sacrament,” Pastor Andrew says. “As Lutherans we believe we have the very clearest teaching of God’s Word. Why would we not go out vigorously to share that and start more Lutheran congregations?”

“Our approach is very bold,” he continues. “We do not want to simply make a contact with someone who is an unbeliever. We want to convert him.”

While Pastor Andrew was preparing for his installation as the first Lutheran bishop in the Sudan on July 16, 2006, he reflected on John 15, particularly on verse 4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Pastor Andrew asked himself how he could abide in God. What would enable him to remain in Christ?

“To abide in Christ means to continually receive God’s gifts of forgiveness and mercy which He bestows on us in Baptism, in preaching, and in the Lord’s Supper.” And these are the gifts he shares as he travels around Sudan, much like the circuit riders who helped the LCMS in its infancy.

During one such journey, Pastor Andrew went to the village of Agadi in the northern Sudan state of the Blue Nile region, which he estimates has a population of thirty-five hundred. The people gathered around him to hear God’s Word. They listened, they believed, and soon, Pastor Andrew baptized eighty-two new believers into Christ. This is the fruit of God’s saving Word—people lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief receive new life in Christ and then are sustained in their faith by preaching and by receiving Jesus’ body and blood in His Supper.

In Advent of 2006, Pastor Andrew had a goal of distributing five thousand catechisms in four languages, five thousand Bibles in seven languages, and five thousand doses of malaria medication to prevent the illness from spreading in his homeland of Sudan. Andrew’s tireless efforts are aided by the translation work and funding of generous Lutheran individuals and congregations in addition to the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

Jesus continues to build His Church in congregations in the jungles of Africa and in the suburbs of Chicago and in the cornfields of Nebraska. And so to you, Jesus comes under the forms of bread and wine, in His proclaimed Word and in the waters of Baptism.

Julie Stiegemeyer is a children’s author and the managing editor of Higher Things. She lives with her family in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You can contact her at jstiegemeyer@higherthings.org.

To assist the Lutherans in Sudan, contact Pastor Andrew Elisa at elisahz@hotmail.com or Lutheran Heritage Foundation at 1-800-554-0723.