As Joao grew into adulthood, Wessel and Joan—as representatives of OM—were hard at work, though not by traditional missionary definitions. As ESL teachers for the first several years of their ministry in Angola, the couple built relationships and made connections, navigating around various cultural blocks that many find in Angolan life.

“We worked a long time on the culture,” Wessel says. “It was difficult to try to figure out who the Angolan people are. But that was the right thing to do. We’re picking the fruit of that today.”

The fruit Wessel refers to is not only connections with high-end government officials and other legal and corporate relationships, but it is also found on a day-to-day level in the innumerable friendships both of them enjoy, from shop owners and bakers to local teachers and pastors.

“It took us almost 10 years to get through this. We needed to get it perfect,” Wessel explains, and Joan adds that the challenge of taking time with the Angolan people has meant a lot to her.

“I like the challenge of working cross-culturally; it’s an enriching life experience for me personally,” she says. “You have to find your relationship with God in a completely new setting.”

When Wessel and Joan did begin their missions training programme in 2013, they had only one student, but beneath the ministry itself, a foundation supported their work.

In 2016, the programme welcomed Joao, who had a miraculous testimony of healing and deliverance. After coming to Christ in 2014, he became a faithful attendee in Joan’s discipleship group, and eventually he committed to missions training with his parents’ blessing. Now Joao has planted a church in Menongue, where Wessel and Joan continue to help guide and support him.

In 2017, the OM Angola missions training programme, in its fifth year, welcomed 17 full-time students (an 18th participant completed a portion of the programme). The programme is one year long, followed by six months of practical work, after which the students receive a diploma of graduation.

While other missions programmes in OM Africa are three to six months, Wessel says a year-and-a-half programme is necessary in the cultural context of Angola.

“Angolans are zealous: they want to start new churches,” he says. “But we’ve realised it’s quite disastrous. That’s why we don’t have a three- to six-month programme. It is important to have a programme that takes time to invest in students.”

Most of the students come from Angola’s capital, Luanda—a metropolis known for its expensive lifestyle. Because large oil companies have brought a western influence to Luanda, even local Angolans from the big city have trouble adjusting to life at the OM base in Menongue.

They arrive at OM Angola’s 30-hectre (74.1-acre) plot by dirt road, where they settle into life with Wessel, Joan and the rest of the OM team. The buildings on the property are made of clay, which Wessel says is important, because their desire is to blend in with the surrounding community, even after more than a decade of building relationships.

It’s also important, Wessel says, that they “live together,” as building relationships with the students is essential. So Wessel and Joan have a room next to the kitchen and dining hall, where the students gather to eat.

Just as the foundation of their ministry in Angola is made of relationships, so the missions training is not so much a programme as a community. And in turn, that community lays a foundation for effective kingdom work.

“Here discipleship turns into church planting,” Wessel says. “We want to see young people planting churches and not only among the unreached. Our focus is on the unreached, but here in Angola we don’t have a lot of spiritual influences; it’s very weak. So we also focus on that.”

The missions training programme also spends a week with the bushmen of Angola near the end of the year, adding practical missions experience to the theological training. As a result, the students are better equipped to take practical steps when they head back home for the final six months of the programme.

But even as they begin to reap the benefits of their labour, Wessel and Joan are thinking about what kind of legacy they will leave.

“It will give me great joy,” Joan says of the young OM Angola missionaries, “to sit one day on the balcony and watch the next generation coordinating everything.”

Wessel agrees.

“If we need to leave now, I will leave with great joy,” he says. “The Father has allowed us to accomplish something through this training that brings great joy to my heart: to see these guys move on and do a great service in Angola.”

When Joan and her husband, Wessel, moved to Angola more than 15 years ago, she decided not to pursue ministry related to her skills in nursing. Though she often serves friends of OM Angola whenever a medical issue requires her assistance, she does not advertise herself as a doctor.

Instead, she chose to focus on children for her ministry in Angola, and as such, she is always looking for new ways to connect with the youth of the community, bridging the gap and bringing them the gospel.

Years ago, desperate for an avenue into the lives of the Angolan children, Joan asked God what she could do to reach them.

“I felt God say, ‘Just walk through the streets and call for the children to follow you,’” she says—to which she responded as a South African would.

“I thought it was crazy,” she says. “That’s not something you can do in South Africa. I asked God why He would want me to walk around calling after children. It didn’t seem like something that could even work. But I felt God say, ‘I’m not asking you if it will work; I’m asking you to trust me and be obedient.’”

Joan decided that whatever may happen, she would obey God, so she set out into the community and called out to the children.

“It was a bit like the man who plays the flute,” she says, referencing the Pied Piper, “but fortunately I had a much better reason for getting the children to follow me.”

And follow her the children did—just a handful at first, but in growing numbers as time went on.

Now, the calling of the children happens every Saturday morning, with Children’s Clubs in three different Menongue communities near the OM Angola property. Joan has also recruited other OMers, some local believers she has discipled and the students of Wessel’s yearlong missions training course. A fourth community will add a Children’s Club as soon as a former missions training student establishes a church there.

Joan has seen firsthand the great need for children’s ministry in Angola; because of transportation costs, many parents leave their children at home on Sunday mornings and go to church by themselves. And those children who do go to church are largely ignored by pastors who focus on the adults in their congregations.

“The children in Angola are very much unevangelised,” Joan says. “We want churches to see, by our example, how to reach out to children in the community.”

On a typical Saturday morning, Joan and the students will gather the children at three separate churches, taking them through a programme designed not only to build relationships, but introduce the children to concepts like true worship, fellowship with God and hope.

“The main thing is that the children will feel valued, that God is valuing them,” Joan says. “That they can play a big role in the kingdom of God.”

The programme consists of four W’s—welcome, worship, word of God and witness—and lasts about an hour. During their time with the children, the OM team sings, plays games, and integrates biblical teaching. Unlike typical children’s programmes, however, Joan says the emphasis of the Children’s Clubs is on teaching by example.

“Children in Angola learn songs,” she says, “but they don’t learn how or why we worship God—to experience His presence. So we sing along with them, and show them what real worship looks like.”

The Children’s Clubs have allowed Joan to build relationships with families in the community as well; most Fridays, she visits the parents of the children and spends time with them, going over the Saturday morning programme. That, combined with her method of walking down streets calling for the children, has given her a chance to connect with others.

“Now, even the parents will call out if they see me walking and they need prayer,” she says.

Saturday morning clubs are just one aspect of Joan’s ministry, which also includes teaching and tutoring at local schools, visiting patients at the paediatric hospital and hosting advocacy training sessions at churches. Even so, walking through the communities and calling “vanike, vanike!” (“children, children!”) has proven to be the most effective way for Joan and the OM team to gather children for large-scale ministry.

Stepping out in faith, she says—listening to God and obeying Him, even when it seemed crazy—has opened the door for the work He is doing among the children of Angola.

The Bushmen of Angola, historically hunters and nomads, have been forced in recent generations by the Angolan government to remain centralised and solitary, left with little opportunities to preserve their cultural heritage and quality of life; as a result, a community once culturally rich now suffers in relative silence, far removed from the average Angolan.

Wessel’s weeklong outreach with his missions training students offers an opportunity to disciple others on multiple fronts. For the Bushmen, it’s a time to receive basic biblical teaching about God, salvation and Christian living, while enjoying fellowship with the outside world that they often can’t experience in isolation. For the students, a week with the Bushmen serves as a practical illustration of the more theological missions teaching they receive throughout the one-year programme.

Indeed, the outreach is the pinnacle of OM Angola’s missions training and, for that reason, Wessel places a strong emphasis on pushing his students to their physical limits. Living like the Bushmen do, in their environment and with the same lifestyle, Wessel says, gives the students the chance to see what life is like for a missionary who is committed to reaching the least reached.

“The outreach is for us to let the students see and experience the reality of reaching an unreached tribe, and the difficulty, the language and food,” he says. Even travelling to the Bushmen is a physical challenge; though the distance is less than 200 kilometers and can be travelled by vehicle in just a few hours, for the past two years Wessel has made the students cycle the journey over three or four days. The exercise gives the students an idea of just how far-removed the Bushmen are from civilisation.

“We can give them a cross-cultural experience right here in the country,” says Joan. “We don’t have to go outside. Most of the students are from the city—the most difficult thing is for them to leave their culture.”

Wessel adds with a laugh, “I don’t think I can call it ‘survival training,’ but it’s probably more survival training than discipleship.”

The “survival training” serves its purpose, though: since the students arrive at OM Angola to learn about missions, with an emphasis on discipleship and church-planting, the outreach prepares them for both aspects on a long-range scale.

“We put quite a bit of pressure on them, so we can discover our weaknesses,” Wessel says, including himself in the challenges of Bushman life. “We hope someone can catch the vision and say, ‘I know it’s difficult, but it’s worth it.’”

While visiting the Bushmen, the students work through programmes that they prepared beforehand, teaching the locals in twice-daily lessons.

Last year, the students taught the locals about the nature of God—“Who God Is.” In September 2017, Wessel took this year’s team of 17 students to the Bushmen, where they taught on sin and its impact on our relationship with God.

“It took quite a while to get into the Bushmen tribe,” he says. “There’s a lot of animosity toward outsiders, because of what the government has done. It gives the Bushmen a sense of fear. It wasn’t easy for them to accept us, from adult to child.”

Now Wessel makes regular trips throughout the year to visit the Bushmen, in addition to the annual outreach. He’s hoping to bring one or more of the Bushmen to the OM Angola training centre in Menongue, where he can equip them to disciple themselves. Coupled with the outreach, Wessel’s focus remains on taking biblical discipleship to the least-reached of Angola—and mobilising young people to share in his passion.

“You know why Africans have this Gospel?” Wessel asks his students. “Someone in Europe risked his life and he came over. Many of the missionaries passed away, risking their lives so we could have it. So what are we going to do?”

Take Marta Seco, a 23-year-old Angolan, whose heart rests deeply rooted in the love of her Saviour: “Jesus paid our debts on the cross, for our salvation and unity. He wanted to save me. And [He] makes me strong.”

In 2012, Marta met Wessel and Joan van der Merwe, leaders of the OM work in Angola. Not long after, she began a year-long programme of intense studies with the two leaders.

Delving into Scriptures, discovering ways to serve the community, and learning how to operate new technologies, such as a computer, Marta developed a desire to be further discipled.

At the beginning of 2014, Marta committed to another year under the tutelage of Wessel and Joan van der Merwe, and nine new students joined her.

Seeing how beneficial the programme had been for Marta, Wessel and Joan felt an urgency to implement the programme with more young adults in the surrounding community, who had a genuine desire to not only reach their neighbours, but also spread the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

And with that, the 2014 OM Angola discipleship programme grew to 10 students. During the year-long programme, the students live, eat, learn and grow together.

In December 2014, the students (along with family members, friends and local pastors) concluded the programme with a retreat to Rundu, Namibia. There, OM Africa leaders Francois Vosloo and Todd encouraged the students’ future footsteps and applauded their accomplishments. Those there felt the graduation was evidence of God pouring His hope into the future of Angola.

According to the van der Merwes, many young Angolans lead their lives without wisdom, guidance and counsel from older generations or parental figures.

“Even daily, the children wake up and decide ‘Will I go to school today?’” Joan says. “It’s all on them.”

Many young Angolans fall prey to alcohol, premarital sex and marijuana.

“A sad thing is that many of these youngsters were introduced to marijuana during the time of war to let them feel strong, not tired, or hungry,” says Joan. “Many young Angolan soldiers say that marijuana was used in their camps. They also ate bullet powder to be strong.”

The war ravaged the country’s youth by placing them at the forefront of the fighting, consequently increasing their dependency on things the world attested would empower them.

When Francois Vosloo spoke to the students at the retreat in December, he identified that on a larger scale, globally and within Africa, the “biggest problem today is lack of leadership.”

But at the graduation, leadership, passion and faith radiated from the Angolan students, who were commissioned to stand firmly as leaders in their communities.

Some have since relocated to minister in areas where the Gospel is desperately needed, like one student who accepted the call to live amongst the “outcaste” Bushmen—a people group the students spent a week ministering to in 2014.

At the beginning of 2015, the van der Merwes accepted an intake of 15 new students. Like the first 10, they will grow together for a year—a year that could change not only their lives, but one day, the country of Angola.

Please pray for Wessel and Joan van der Merwe and the students. Pray also that God would build strong leaders who would impact Angola for God’s kingdom.  

It’s not uncommon to see kids as young as five in front of piles of dirty dishes, doing the washing, making the food or cleaning the house. Many are not asked to do this but instead told to do it, and told to keep quiet and behave in a way that benefits their parents and doesn’t bother them.

During the Easter weekend, Joan Van Der Merwe, the wife of the OM Angola leader, was sharing with the kids about forgiveness by telling them a story:

A grandmother gave a book to her granddaughter because she knew she loved reading. The girl’s best friend asked if she could borrow the book, saying she would return it the next day. She did, but the book was torn, missing some pages, scribbled on and stamped with a muddy footprint. How could she do that? Wasn’t this her best friend?

Joan asked the children what they thought the granddaughter should do in the situation. Should she stop being friends with the girl? Should she forgive her? Most of the children said that she should stop being friends with her; others said that the girl did not deserve to be a best friend in the first place; and some even said that she should tell the girl what she thought of her and then tell everyone at school what she had done.

Joan was shocked at first by how they responded to the story but then realised the honesty of the children’s answers, which were so different from the often-phony response given by adults: “She should forgive her. I’d forgive her.”

Joan was heartbroken by the children’s reactions, knowing that many of them grow up hating their own families. She prayed, “Lord, help me to be as honest as a child.”

She then explained to the children how Jesus died for us to forgive us and to enable us to forgive others by His own sacrifice, and that if we don’t forgive others He won’t forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15).

OM Angola disciples people in their faith to become effective in ministry. When asked what stood out the most to her in training, one student responded, “For the first time in my life, I am being asked every day not just questions but also how am I doing! Sometimes I’m asked even more than once! Nobody ever had asked me that before!”

Joan uses a prayer from the book Kisses from Katie, written by American missionary Katie J. Davis, to keep her heart right as she works with the local children. She invites us to do the same as we reach out to hurting people, especially children:

“Help me to hurt, not just a little, but the way You hurt, Lord, When Your children are overlooked and perishing. Help me to never be too busy or too comfortable to remember the people who suffer. Help me to never stop desiring to do something about it. Lord, help us to remember, that as the body of Christ, this is our responsibility.”

Yet after many years of investing themselves in this southwest corner of Africa, Wessel and Joan van der Merwe report that their hearts overflow with joy to see a dream come true: Angolans are becoming missionaries in their own country. Marta, one of the most promising students in OM Angola's 10-month mission course, now feels a strong call to join the team long term. Nando, another student who took Petra College's correspondence course on children’s work this year and attended the "Walking with the Wounded” training in South Africa, has already joined OM. Unfortunately, while both of these young people have promises of some financial support, it is not enough for them to stay long term.

Training in God's Word

Meanwhile, the demand for Bible correspondence courses continues non-stop. With the help of local believers, the materials are being translated into another language, Luchachi. Wessel and Joan are looking to God to provide the necessary printing costs.

"One very big need, however," they add, “is the constant demand for Bibles! We cannot keep up with the need for Scriptures in Umbundu, Cokwe and Luchachi languages. People come daily to our base to ask if we have received any more copies."

Bible school training

Raising up qualified leadership for Angola's churches has been a priority for OM since its beginning. When the team saw that existing seminaries were often too expensive for the average person, they created a programme that would allow students to work and study at the same time. Seven Bible schools have now been established in Uige, Luanda, Menongue, Kuito Karnivale and Calai. Other institutions assist; Veritas College, for instance, offers a course called "How to interpret the Bible with the Bible". The Africa Leaders Institute in Namibia has also been involved, and the Christian Reformed Church in South Africa is committed to helping with both training and financial support of Angolan leaders in the same denominations.

Equipping children and youth

With 44 per cent of Angola's population under 15, OM has a wide-open door to share God's Word with the next generation and teach them basic English. Children's clubs have been effective in reaching the un-churched. Programmes held every Saturday are impacting about 400 children in just two communities.

Thanks to contributions from a supporter in England, construction has begun on the foundation of OM's children’s centre in Menongue, another long-awaited dream.

"A lot of work remains," note the van der Merwes, "so we ask you to trust God with us for the time, hands and outstanding finances still required. We also ask prayer for a speedy registration process with the government and for wisdom, discernment and protection against all forms of corruption. Plus an individual or couple must be found to live on the premises and co-ordinate the work in our absence, whenever we go to Luanda or South Africa. With God's help, our centre will assist very needy children and orphans to reach the full potential He has for them."

Meanwhile, the team continues to train pre-school teachers and Sunday school teachers for Angola's churches. "So many do not feel well-equipped. We praise the Lord for opportunities to help teachers learn how to build relationships with their children, as well learn how to prepare and present well-balanced lessons."

Discipleship training for teens

Youth who once attended children's clubs and are now trying to stay faithful to Jesus in their teens also need training. Some committed Christian youth are volunteering their time to minister in the local prison in Menongue.

"Early every morning at 6:00, young people who were using--and sometimes still use—marijuana show up for discipleship training, ready to be equipped with God’s Word,” affirms the team. “We are very encouraged by their zeal, but sexual temptation is very big here. One of the devastating statistics of Angola is that 43 per cent of youth have had sexual relations by the age of 15."

OM Angola hopes to build relationships with the ever-increasing numbers of youth who are using drugs by making their property available as a soccer field. "We are excited about the opportunities for introducing Christ's way through the rules of the game. Please trust God with us for His time to start this ministry, as well as the right people to co-ordinate it."

Advocacy courses for church leaders

Meanwhile, training is helping to close the gap between church leaders and the children in their churches and communities. This year OM Angola held its first advocacy course with the support of Petra College, which partners with the team in children's ministries.

The team's goal is that each leader and Sunday school teacher will make sure their children have assurance of faith in Christ Jesus, so they will experience His sincere love for them.

Angola's greatest hope does not lie in its oil fields or diamonds, but in its next generation. Will you join in asking God to raise up more Angolan young people to reach the world in which He placed them?

He went down to the group to chat with them. He asked where they were staying and if he could help them. They were open with him, and this encounter initiated a friendship. He began to disciple the group in a field every day at 6:00 in the morning for about 45 minutes. A few of them even started working for him.

Then the local believers began to come to see what was going on with the group, and most of them are now volunteering one day a week to teach, train and get to know the men.

Through Wessel's willingness to talk and listen to this group of previously ignored men, Jesus came into their lives to give them a new “deal” of eternal life.

Fetching water from the river, cooking and cleaning are part of her household responsibilities in her grandparents’ home in Menongue, Angola. Playing and going to school, however, are not—that is, until recently.

OMers Joan and Wessel van der Merwe know Tchipangu and her family well. In the beginning of 2010, a business called GAC expressed a desire to support a child financially, specifically to enable him or her to go to school.  

Because only Tchipangu’s aunt earns a salary, the family is poor did not have the means to send her to school.

When she heard that GAC had chosen her, Tchipangu’s face lit up. She was so proud when she bought her first school supplies.

From the start, Tchipangu was faithful in attending school. However, the same could not be said for her teachers. She was moved to a Christian school after a few months. GAC also decided to sponsor Tchipangu again in 2011.

Tchipangu is a Sunday school teacher at church, and Joan is training her to be effective in children’s ministry. Joan says, “As her self-esteem increases, her courage and ability to serve her family, church and community is also increasing.”

Tchipangu’s name means “someone to whom special grace was shown.”

In a country where her childhood resembled that of thousands of other children, she became an exception—someone to whom special grace was shown. 

Wessel van der Merwe is talking about the country he and his family first adopted back in 1996. They were deported a few months later but returned when the war finally ended, in 2002. By then a total of 40 years of conflict had wasted 900,000 lives, and left millions more individuals homeless and displaced. Even now the Angolan countryside is riddled with land mines that continue to cripple and kill.

Having a base in the capital city of Luanda was essential if the team wanted to establish credibility with the government—and with churches. “Luanda was the last place I wanted to be,” relates Wessel. “I thought there would be a lot of missions, but there were only a few others.

“Relationships matter in Angola—and building them takes time,” he goes on. “We’ve worked on relationships for eight years. Even in churches, pastors can be corrupted. One pastor took a huge amount of money from me. A year later he came back and asked forgiveness. It was a tough year, but the Lord didn’t allow me to push this man out of my life.”

Although a large percentage of Angolans claim to be Christians, many are mixed up in cults and animism. Church splits are common, and there is little unity in the gospel. It became obvious that OM could best serve Angola by strengthening local churches, training up leaders and challenging average believers to live for Christ.

One of the team’s key strategies is to take leadership training to the common people. Although the country has traditional Bible schools and seminaries, these often don’t fit the lifestyle or economic means of the average person. So the team created a programme that allows students to work and study at the same time. Classes start at 6:00 in the morning and are held three times a week, and students only pay 12 USD towards their studies. Seven Bible schools are now running and Wessel takes satisfaction in the fact that they are training pastors from five different denominations. A Bible correspondence course is also meeting a need on another level.

But from the start, he and his wife Joan knew they had to make a priority of helping the country’s huge population of children at risk. Over a third of Angolans—six million—are under 15 years old, and only one in three has a birth certificate. One child out of every five dies before they reach five years, and a large per cent suffer chronic malnourishment.

“So,” says Wessel, “we train church people to work with children. Joan took a course in South Africa, and since 2007 we’ve had a partnership with Petra College for Childrens’ Ministry there, which supports our children’s work. Our focus with this ministry is to equip Sunday school teachers in the different denominations so that they are able to reach children effectively with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of this means meeting the need for good lesson materials by presenting workshops in this area. We also hold kids’ clubs in different areas to reach non-churchgoing children, and God has opened a door for us to teach English and His Word at some of the government schools.”

Caring for orphans is becoming a major aspect of the ministry. “We prayed about where to put a home for children, and the government gave us a piece of land with water on it in Menongue. A steel building was put up by an outreach team from South Africa, but there was no money to complete it. The Lord stopped the building process. We could not understand this at first, but as time passed we realised that God has a specific time in mind for this step.

“Kids on the streets are looking for ways to earn money, so it’s essential that we do vocational training. Menongue is an agricultural area. We want to give the children agricultural projects and divide some of the land into small plots for widows to use too. We have a chicken run and fish pond already in place that we hope to use in training kids. We want to equip them for other trades as well, like carpentry, building and mechanical work.”

Wessel made his first acquaintance with Angola as a soldier in the South African army. He is grateful that God brought him back to this land with a very different brief: to bring healing and hope. But his years there have not been without personal pain. The greatest blow came in 2004 when the van der Merwe’s small son Stephan fell critically ill. People had warned Wessel and Joan that they shouldn’t take their sons to Angola—particularly young Stefan who had contracted meningitis as a baby and suffered two strokes. Efforts were made to fly the six-year-old to South Africa, but the Lord intervened and took him to be healed in heaven instead. Thankfully, second son Tiago has thrived in Angola.

But the team has also had to endure other kinds of opposition. In 2007, Wessel’s “right-hand man” was imprisoned for 55 days. In May 2010, all of the family’s personal belongings as well as book boxes and supplies that were stored in a container in Luanda were lost in an accidental fire.

By God’s grace OM Angola is now officially registered as a non-government organisation with a current team of 18 “volunteers.” Wessel is looking forward to having the first Angolan country leader take responsibility, hopefully by the end of 2011.

With so much to pray about these days, Angola seems to have dropped off the map for a lot of world Christians. Wessel and his team ask us not to forget the agony of this nation—because God hasn’t. They know He is eager to work though the prayers of His people to rebuild what was destroyed and replant what was desolate.*
 
*Ezekiel 36:36 (NIV)