Emmanuel A M E Church
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Brief History
The Emmanuel AME Church is one of the founding Churches who were established after the July 3rd, 1946 event. The Namibians were colonised by the British and than the Germans. The latter brought the racist Rhynish Missionary Society, who did not want to "commit sacraments in black hands", thus not willing to ordain Africans. Our people could only reach the position of Evangelist and missionary schools limited education to only four years elementary level to Class 2. The decision to delink from the Rhynish Missionary Society was not because of doctrinal difference, but because of the treatment handed to African people in the their own country. Rev. Markus Kooper is one of our founding members and was one of the courageous young men who volunteered to hand over to the German missionaries the letter of withdrawal written by the fathers. He was our first pastor, who built our first AME Church building. When the political situation worsened in 1959 with the introduction of the Group Areas by racist South Africa, which heralded force removal of African people to agriculturally unfavourable land, Hoachanas was also affected. The Church was under threat and Rev. M Kooper was banned to Wasser with his family. He found it difficult to continue political activities under the South African tyranny and was left with no option but to flee in 1960 and live as refugee in many African countries and the USA for 16 years. During this period the Community was led by the late Rev. !Nakhom, a very vocal opponent of apartheid who was very violent verbally but civilian in behaviour. He kept the flame burning at home, ever lifting the people's spirits on the day of atonement when justice will be done. He passed away in 1975 and was succeeded by Rev. M Kooper, who had returned from the USA. He pastored for eight, but when the position of Presiding Elder became more demanding, he was succeeded in 1985 by Rev. P S M Kooper, who is also the Traditional Chief of the Rooinasie Clan. Our present pastor has attended R R Wright Theological Seminary and also obtained Education Diploma in the United Kingdom. He is the Headmaster of the AME Private Community School and also a member of the National Traditional Council, the third chamber of parliament. The community and the church have gained tremendously from his networking amongst Ecumenical donors in Europe. He has built a modern school complex with domitories for children of farmer workers. He is married with Mavis and has two children.
Our Mission
In line with the AME Mission, we are serving one of the most vulnerable communities in Namibia. Hoachanas is a village with very limited employment opportunities at the school, clinic and few shops. In previous times our people owned big numbers of cattle, but drought remains our enemy number one. Although Namibia is now politically independent our people do not own land to work on and we are still economically enslaved. We are rural and our members trek to urban areas, and membership does not grow and our income drops. Yet we love the Lord, and we wish to bless others and inspire others that with Christ in your heart, hope is not completely gone. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We are situated 75 kilometres east from Kalkrand, and we look forward sharing our experiences with you. Whenever you are in Namibia, visit us and if you can, write to us. Our mission is to make the world a better place where we are.
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