Namibia and Government Affairs

Just a look into a week in the life of Elder and Sister Roberts as we spent one week in Namibia

 meeting Government Officials and trying to bring The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day 

Saints out of obscurity to this nation of Namibia.

The poster at the back is promoting the big soccer meeting being held at our hotel.  The dancers
were on hand to welcome the Prime Minister when he arrived for the meeting.

One of the first things we did was to meet with Benedict Likando
who is a top lawyer for Parliament.  He, along with Himuvi
Mgenbeneego from Chairman Kapere's Office, helped to
secure two appointments for us.  One with the Prime Minister's
Office and one to the Foreign Affairs Department.

Meanwhile, we met with Namibian TV and met a delightful
Manager name Queen.  She helped us get a spot on
Good Morning Namibia for the following Tuesday which
Womba Nashiwaya, National Public Affairs Director
for Namibia talked about the Church's view on Family Values.
Then we also got her set up to appear, with a panel of leaders
from the Branch, on a weekly one-hour Religious Talk Show
called "Good Seasons."  We were very excited about this
exposure for the church in Namibia.

We met with Chairman Kapere to continue our friendship with
him.  We went to Salt Lake City with him and Himuvi last
October.  The Anderson's and the Eggett's accompanied us
to the meeting along with Womba.  He told us he was very
impressed with the church and what it has to offer.  And he
also mentioned that he felt a "special spirit" while he was there.
He is a good friend and gave us excellent direction as to how
to work with the Namibian Government.

We made them a picture book of their trip to Salt Lake City.
I think they liked it--my first attempt at making a book on the
computer!  My goodness the things we are learning on this
mission.

We met with Mr. Gerson Kamatuka who is in the Prime
Minister's Office.  A very nice man and he seemed quite
interested in our Memorandum of Understanding which
has to do with our church doing Humanitarian Work in
the country.  The fellow on the right is a world-class
boxer from Namibia.  He invited us to his next fight
which Grandpa thought would be exciting but Grandma
was less than enthusiastic.

Elder Eggett (Humanitarian), James (From the Prime Minister's
Office) Elder Anderson (Lawyer). and Elder Roberts met
together to finalize the M o U.  It will now go to the Prime
Minister and hopefully we will meet with him in a couple
of weeks.  

These are a few of the people we met and things we did while in Namibia.  We also met with 
the Council of Churches, a CEO of the largest mining company in the country, and  an 
Ethiopian computer expert who is now working for the Minister of Education.

Our reason for going to Namibia was to try and find the right people to help us renew the visas
for our young missionaries.  We have not had young missionaries in the country for 6 months.
All I really want to say on this blog that seems to be quite open to the world, is that miracles did
happen and we think the missionaries will be back very soon.  We don't think it was directly
because of anything that we did--but when you do all that you can, the Lord will definitely make
up the difference.
Please take note of the BEAUTIFUL clouds of Namibia.  You feel like you could just reach up
and take a bite of the "cotton candy."  It is the most beautiful, panoramic sky I have ever seen.