Kornelius serves alongside Immanuel Nghidengwa as a church-planting team. They are currently planting a church called Katutura Reformed Baptist Church in Namibia.

Testimony of Conversion

I got saved in May 2012. My parents were members of the Anglican Church, and one of my guardians was a Lutheran. These were all nominal unconverted “Christians” who usually go to church only on Christmas and New Year. I was ‘baptized’ (sprinkled) as an Anglican when I was a baby, and got confirmed at the age of 19, in 2010. I grew up as an Anglican and my hope for salvation was based on baptism and confirmation.

I heard the gospel in 2010 from members of Eenhana Mission Baptist Church. These believers preached to me with words and with their transformed conduct as Christians. They shared with me the need to repent and believe the gospel; however, at that time, repentance and the gospel were not clear to me. But the seed of the Word was planted in me. So, instead of repenting and believing the gospel, I just became legalistic. Instead of trust Christ for salvation, I relied on my imperfect morality, and false self-righteousness. I started reading the Bible more, especially the New Testament, and even started preaching to others.

From the end of 2010 into 2011, many Anglican churches started giving me opportunity to preach and to teach Bible studies for youths. Such opportunities to teach and preach caused me to read my Bible more as I was preparing the teachings. While I was preparing lessons for others, I was convicted of my own sinfulness. The knowledge of God’s will left me with overwhelming guilt, shame, and fear of the wrath of God toward me as a sinner. Since the gospel still was not clear to me, I just become more legalistic and began to seek the truth.

In 2012, I came to Windhoek for further studies at the University. As a seeker, I visited many charismatic Pentecostal churches. What was being done in those churches did not help my overwhelmed soul, so I went back to the Anglican church, and continued teaching, living a legalistic life, and listening to different preachers on the radio. 

In May 2012, I visited Monte Christo Baptist Church (MCBC), a church which was in the area where I was staying that time. There I found Pastor Laban preaching a series in the Gospel of Luke. In this congregation I finally got clarity about repentance and the gospel through the preaching of Pastor Laban, and through the Bible studies of other Bible teachers at MCBC. Having heard and received the gospel, I repented from my sins, including my self-righteousness, and then trusted Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life for me, died for my sins, and rose for our justification. I believed in Christ as my only Savior, God the Son, and my Lord. 

The word of God become alive to me, and verses such as Galatians 2:20–2 and Romans 12:1–2 become so precious to me. Inward-out change in my life was clear testimony that I had received God the Holy Spirit. I was discipled in this congregation and joined the church membership when I got baptized in October 2012. Since then, I have been a member of MCBC, until I was sent to Havana as a missionary to work with Immanuel Nghidengwa to establish Havana Baptist Church. 

Call to Ministry

My desire to serve as a preacher of the gospel of Christ Jesus developed after I got saved and joined the church membership of Monte Christo Baptist Church (MCBC) in 2012. Before I heard the gospel, I had no desire to be a pastor or even to preach. After hearing the gospel in 2010, I started sharing the Word of God with others, but that was for a different reason – to see others living moral upright lives. Having grown up in an abusive home and community, I was looking forward to see people changing their harmful behaviors.

When I got saved in 2012, I began to understand that salvation and Christianity were greater things than just moral uprightness. I began to have a growing zeal to share the gospel with others. One of the opportunities I used was to visit patients at Windhoek Central Hospital and preach the gospel to them. I also preached to my friends and family. I was reluctant to preach at Monte Christo Baptist Church because I thought those brethren already new everything, and oftentimes when I was asked to preach there I refused. However, I began preaching at Monte Christo Baptist Church in 2013. Preaching at MCBC helped me to understand that I was ignorant of Bible truth and I needed to learn more.

By the end of 2014, I had no desire to preach at MCBC again. All I wanted was to study theology so that I can be equipped. I began to read more theological books and attend extra Bible classes at MCBC. Up to this point, I had no desire to be a pastor; all I wanted was to study theology so that, when I get the opportunity to preach, I will not preach lies like many preachers were doing in our community and in Namibia at large.

In 2016, I got the opportunity to study for a Bachelor’s degree in Bible at Central Africa Baptist University (CABU), in Kitwe, Zambia. The four years I spent at CABU gave me opportunity to study theology at the university, and to study more practical lessons about church life and ministry work at the churches where I was doing my internship. While studying, I began to understand the seriousness of pastoral ministry and the need for more trained pastors and preachers.

As I reflected on the lack of trained church leaders in Namibia, I begin to be burdened about the needs of the church. I developed the zeal to plant churches in unreached towns and to help church plants and preaching points grow into biblically healthy local churches that can produce mature, healthy, faithful Christians, who can worship and glorify God in fulfilling the Great Commission and in all aspects of our lives. As I look at our broken society, and then consider the hope of the gospel of Christ, Matthew 9:35–37 becomes so pressing in my heart.

I have been resisting the call to serve in full-time ministry due to the unmet genuine basic needs of my needy siblings and my mother. It is a burden I carry in my heart each and every day; however, God has been sustaining me and my family, and enabling me to serve in full-time ministry for the last two years. If these genuine needs are being met, my heart’s desire is to plant new churches in unreached areas in Namibia, to help planted churches to grow, and to equip churches to do the work of missions.