A Church Is Born In Namibia
An update from Josh Kruger Jr., Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Windhoek…
I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since we started meeting in our home with only two other couples, and now, since launching our public meetings on March 2nd, 2025, we have grown to 7 regular and committed families (and eight children under 10).
As I think back, I think of God’s providence in moving my parents and their 3 teenagers to a Sovereign Grace Church in Richmond, Virginia back in 2005. As a pretty immature 18-year-old, being seen and publicly acknowledged for my humble, serving heart was a never-ending pursuit. But God was at work. Gradually, God instilled a deep love for and confidence in the biblical values and convictions we as Sovereign Grace hold so dearly. That love for God’s Sovereignty and a deep rooted belief in the authority and sufficiency of scripture carried me and my own family through more than a decade of missions work on the African continent from 2011 to 2022. That was despite the fact that we never found a local church with the same values and convictions I had come to cherish. Over time however, our desire (our need rather) to see such a strong, evangelical and biblical church established started pushing us towards study and considering what a non-denominational church plant might look like.
Providentially, in mid 2022 a dear friend and mentor, Matthew Williams invited me and my family for a Pastoral internship. Though hesitant at first, only a few months later we moved back to the US, from Namibia, to that same church my parents joined so many years ago. It would be a year of study, classes, and learning from Godly men all while pursuing ordination. And yes, another 18 years of my life had passed since the first 18. Then, by God’s grace alone, I was ordained and commissioned in Sovereign Grace and a “church plant” (really a family of 4) was sent out from Richmond on 17 December, 2023 to the far side of the globe, to deep…dark…Africa!
We started meeting in our home on 7 April, 2024, not really knowing what to expect. The learning curve was steep and riddled with mistakes to learn from, but everyone was kind and gracious with this rookie pastor. Music by the Getty’s, CityAlight, and Sovereign Grace, to name a few, was new to most but warmly welcomed. Sovereign Grace Music is SUCH a blessing to our denomination…people can’t stop telling me how much they now love listening to SG Music on a daily basis…praise the Lord!
There were those Sundays when we had multiple visitors and joy filled worship, and there were Sundays where my wife and I sat in our Sunday best, coffee pot steaming away, only to transition to a caffeine injected prayer meeting as no one showed up. The highs were high, and the lows were low, people have come and people have left, but the Gospel remained glorious and immovable! An unparalleled “true North”.
Thank God for the firm foundation of our faith…the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has sustained us and enabled us to joyfully keep the course, fight the fight, and run the race, because we knew the power of a future God glorifying church rested on it, and nothing that is in us.
So as we look back on God’s providence, God’s sanctifying work in our lives, God’s preparation of our family and eventual calling on me to be His undershepherd, we are grateful. Grateful for humble beginnings, because such beginnings point ultimately and solely to the goodness and glory of God. We are grateful for those the Lord has added, and we pray earnestly for those the Lord would still add in the future. We pray for believers to grow, and unbelievers to meet their Savior.
We are also thankful for the good work the Lord has started and we are eagerly expectant of what He will do in the future. By God’s grace we hope that our small church plant, Sovereign Grace Church Windhoek, will become a hub for future SG church plants in Southern Africa. We too hope to invite men to come and do internships, study, grow, be ordained and sent out, so that the bride of Christ might be established, as unwavering as the Gospel itself, in Southern Africa for the glory of God. May God use us, this church plant, to grow the global body for the glory of Christ! It is our joy to write this update to you all. Amen.
