Adventist Church in Namibia to Reach 2,000 Households with Godpods

As part of its Go 1000 evangelism project, the Namibia Northern Conference (NNC), under the Southern Africa Union Conference (SAU), in collaboration with Adventist World Radio, commissioned 2,000 Godpods, electronic gadgets that were distributed to the second largest population group of Namibia, the Rukwangali community, on October 10, 2021. The Godpods are very small devices, the size of a cell phone, that are loaded with audio Bibles in the local language and English, Voice of Prophecy Bible lessons, and music in local languages to support the spreading of the gospel. These solar-powered devices also double as FM radio receivers.

This noble initiative by the church in Namibia is part of its strategic intent to reach the unentered linguistic groups in the country with the gospel. The Godpods were commissioned by the Honorable Victoria Kauma, regional urban counsellor and deputy chairperson of the National Council of Namibia, on behalf of the office of the regional governor. In her commissioning speech, she said, “As government, we praise the work being done by the Seventh-day Adventist Church for its significant contribution to national development through its network of radio stations, ADRA relief programs, and construction of low-cost shelter for the vulnerable pockets of the Namibian population.”

Pastor Moses Munyunda, Namibia Northern Conference president, who is also the board vice-chair for the Namibia Adventist World Radio, hailed the project as a game-changer in spreading the gospel. He said this technology is going to bridge the information gap between the rural and urban areas. “We are here as a church to compliment the work of the government in issues like substance abuse, health challenges such as HIV and AIDS, [and] family morality, to mention but just a few, as we all fight [for] behavior change in our communities.”

Reagan Malumo, AWR country director for Namibia, said this is only the beginning, as they plan to intensify this project across the unentered and hard-to-reach areas in Namibia. “We are bringing the church into your homes, and we want to make sure that you are all part and parcel of the development in the country.”

Silas Muabsa, associate executive secretary for the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, who is responsible for Adventist Mission, hailed the project that was first implemented as part of the 13th Sabbath offerings in 2012 among the Himbas as the most feasible mission tool to reach out to cultural contexts where orality is a pivotal form of worldview formation. “We are excited to see the expansion of media being used as a tool in missions, especially in these hard-to-reach areas. Our aim is to intensify intentional disciple-making, as tabulated in Matthew 28:19–20, through various forms of communication, culturally relevant to each people group in our territory.”

The Godpods, valued at N$320,000.00, which is about US$23,000.00 constitute a collaborative partnership between Adventist World Radio at the General Conference and Namibia Northern Conference through AWR Namibia. Another batch of 2,000 Godpods is expected for the Rumanyo ethnic group through the Kashira outreach, which is spearheaded by Elder Neville Neviling, AWR cell phone evangelism global trainer based in Namibia. The mega-voice evangelism devices are loaded with local VOP lessons, a Rukwangali Bible, music, health lessons, and sermons, with 80–90 hours of listening time.

https://echo.sid.adventist.org/adventist-church-in-namibia-to-reach-2000-households-with-godpods/