Leading the Light in Limpopo: Pastor Jonathan McLama on Courage, Community, and the Call to Serve

In the latest episode of “Courageous by Crossroads Apologetics,” host Jeff Johnson interviews Pastor Jonathan McLama, who has been leading Lighthouse Church in Secakoping, Limpopo, South Africa, since 2013. The episode begins with an introduction to Pastor Jonathan’s background, including his family life and the community’s challenges with crime and violence. Pastor Jonathan elaborates on the church’s various programs, such as a feeding center and youth group, which support the local community. He discusses his personal definition of courage and highlights biblical figures like David and modern icons like Nelson Mandela as sources of inspiration. Sharing his journey, Pastor Jonathan reflects on the courage it took to accept his first pastoral role in a remote village despite opposition from his parents. He recounts the difficulties he faced during his ministry, such as cultural challenges and living conditions, while emphasizing the transformative power of the Gospel. Finally, he encourages listeners to consider the broader impact of their courageous decisions, affirming that faith in God is essential. The episode concludes with a reminder of the significance of their conversation for both Pastor Jonathan and the audience.

Born in the vibrant landscapes of Zambia, Pastor Jonathan Mklama’s spiritual journey began on a transformative day, the 25th of October 1996, when he was saved. This pivotal moment set him on a path that would shape not only his life but also the lives of countless others.

Prior to his spiritual awakening, Pastor Mklama pursued a career as a Heavy/Earthmoving Technician, showcasing his diverse range of skills and interests. However, even during these early stages of 
his life, he sensed a profound calling – a calling to preach and share the gospel.

Heeding this call, Pastor Mklama embarked on a journey of theological education, first by studying for a Diploma in Ministry at the Light of the Nation’s Bible College in Polokwane, South Africa. His thirst for knowledge and spiritual growth didn’t stop there. He further enriched his 
understanding by studying for a Bachelor of Theology at Christ Seminary, also in Polokwane.

Pastor Mklama’s pastoral journey began earnestly in 2008 when he took up the role of pastoring Matobole Assembly of God Church, a position he held with dedication for four and a half years. His leadership and spiritual guidance during this period left an indelible mark on the community.

In June 2013, a new chapter began for Pastor Mklama as he started pastoring Lighthouse Christian Church in Mokopane. Under his stewardship, the church has become a beacon of hope and faith, mirroring his own light and guidance.

On the personal front, Pastor Mklama’s life is equally fulfilling. Married to Rhulani Risaba- Mklama for over nine years, their union has been blessed with two children. His family life stands as a testament to his values and commitment to his faith and community.

At the heart of Pastor Mklama’s life is a burning passion to see lives transformed by the gospel’s power and God’s love. His journey from a technical field to the pulpit, his academic pursuits in theology, and his unwavering commitment to his family and church, all paint a picture of a man deeply driven by faith and the desire to make a positive impact in the world.

Thank you for listening! We hope you feel inspired and encouraged by our conversation today. If you did, be sure to share this episode with others.

Let’s stay in touch:

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• Email us at info@crossroadsapologetics.org
• Visit our website www.crossroadsapologetics.org

See you in the next episode! Be blessed!

Full Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to Courageous by Crossroads Apologetics, a look into what motivates us to step out in courage and the everyday bravery of men and women like you. In each episode, we hear a personal story of bravery centered around this. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And now your host, founder of Crossroads Apologetics, Jeff Johnson. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay, thanks, everybody, for joining us for another episode of Courageous. I’m super excited about this one. I’m joined today by Pastor Jonathan McLama in South Africa. We’re up in the Limpopo province of South Africa, and my wife Danielle and I have been down here a visit for the last couple of weeks, and I was able to attend his church, the Lighthouse Church, in secacoping a few days ago and heard just an amazing sermon and just really wanted to get Pastor Jonathan’s take on the topic of courage today. So, Pastor Jonathan, welcome. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeff, for the opportunity. It’s good to get out of here. It’s a very beautiful place. 

Jeff Johnson:
Oh, thank you. Yeah. And it’s wonderful to see you. So maybe we could start off the podcast before we get to the topic of courage, maybe you could tell our listeners a little bit about who you are and about your family and maybe how you came to become a pastor at the Lighthouse Church. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Okay, thank you. I am Jonathan, like you said, and I’m married with two kids, a boy and a girl, 16 years old, my firstborn, and then the other one is six months old. And then I became the pastor at Lighthouse Church. It was when I was at seminary, and then I knew about Lighthouse Church, which at that time did not have a pastor. I knew them through my seminary professor who thought that I would be the right person. He kept on bothering me that there is a church which is looking for a pastor, and out of a number of students, he thought I was one suited for that. So I kept resisting those attempts from him because I felt I was not ready to do that. 

Pastor Jonathan:
And then eventually I came to preach there by Lighthouse Church, and then eventually I felt in my heart that was the place for me to be. And that was 2013. So I’ve been a pastor just over. Just under 10 years there at Lighthouse Church. Wow. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wonderful. And you have the most beautiful family. Danielle couldn’t take her arms off of your little one the other day. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Thank you. Thank you. 

Jeff Johnson:
And what does your wife do? 

Pastor Jonathan:
She’s a medical doctor at Footrekaro Hospital here, One of the two hospitals in Mukopane. One of the three, actually. In Mukopane. So, yeah, she mainly works with pregnant women and babies. Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wonderful. She’s been doing that for a long time. 

Pastor Jonathan:
For a while. She came here in 2015. Yes. So when I accepted to pastor the church, so she had. We agreed that this is where God wanted me to be and she wanted to join me. Wow. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
And tell us a little bit about the community of Sacakoping. I know I’m pronouncing that incorrectly, so you have to pronounce it correctly for me. And tell us a little bit about that community that you’re pastoring there, because I would imagine that takes a bit of courage. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Sure, it does. It does. You, in fact, you pronouncing it very well. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Yeah. So that it is. And, you know, is one of the villages in Mukopane. It is the village closest to Mukopane town and it is known for being, you know, violence and crime and all bad things happening in the. In the villages. In fact, the chief used to tell us that it is the west of all of his villages. Yeah. So it is one of those tough places to do ministry. There’s a lot of ill things happening. Yeah. From drugs, from crime. Yeah. Gangs, you know, and it’s one of those. Yeah, but. 

Jeff Johnson:
And the Lighthouse Church has a. I mean, you’ve got an amazing ministry there. You’ve got a feeding center and you worship there. You’ve got a sports complex. You’ve got all sorts of things at that church. So are you. Is your church active all week long? Is that. 

Pastor Jonathan:
It looks like pretty much active every week. There’s something happening from Monday to Sunday. Yeah. So on Monday to Friday, every day, there’s a physic feeding center, the Do Crema feeding center, where people come to have a meal every day and then also be taught, helped with homework and Bible lessons, and they do sports and dancing and, you know, things to do with art. And then on Fridays, there is a youth group that meets there every Friday night. And then on Saturday, there’s usually sports. There’s a football teams and netball teams that are meeting. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow, that’s a wonderful ministry. Getting down to the topic of courage, you know, the topic of this. The title of this podcast is called Courageous and it’s centered around the question, what’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? But before we ask that question, I’m curious about calibrating your feelings on the idea of courage. It’s my contention that all men of faith have courage, and you’re obviously a man of faith. Pastor JONATHAN What. What Would you say about that? How do you define courage? Do you believe that all men of faith have courage? 

Pastor Jonathan:
I do believe indeed that you cannot separate faith from courage because walking by faith, as we are called to walk by faith, will demand courage. So you cannot separate them and you cannot separate them at all. And then I would define courage as, you know, it’s that quality that says I’m going to do what is right no matter who is not with me. I would do especially what God wants me to do. And that’s my simple definition of courage. 

Jeff Johnson:
Is there a. Is there a character of the Bible? There’s so many courageous characters in the Bible, but is there one that particularly comes to mind that inspires you with courage? 

Pastor Jonathan:
Absolutely. And immediately I think of David. I think of, David is my hero in the Bible, outside of Jesus Christ, of course. But David is an amazing man. Courage. And just from his story, you see that it was because he was a man of faith. That’s why he demonstrated the courage that we admired that came out of his faith in God. I believe, because even As a young 17 year old boy, when he faced Goliath, it was his faith that inspired his courage. Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah. Now, outside of the Bible, I’m thinking about either historical figures or contemporary figures. Is there anybody that inspires you with courage? 

Pastor Jonathan:
Oh, okay. Let me take a second here. 

Jeff Johnson:
I know these are tough questions because it could be so many. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Yeah, yeah. You know, I would think of Nelson Mandela leaving this part of the world. Yeah, he was. There’s definitely many. But Nelson Mandela does stand out. For me to be a courageous man, you know, living in the times that he lived and the decisions that he made at the time and the sacrifices he made, you know, if he was not a man of courage, he would have easily compromised his belief. You know, so I think it does stand out. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that one for sure. Yeah. Okay. Pastor Jonathan, so let’s get down to the question. Let me ask you, what is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? 

Pastor Jonathan:
Oh, it’s a, it’s a tough one, but I’m trying to. I do think it’s the time I took up my first pastorate. You know, obviously for me to begin to. When I had the call of God to live, whatever I was doing as a young man, not to pursue certain paths and to pursue a ministry, it had to take some courage because my parents didn’t agree with me. Because here and in many places, once you say you choose you want to do ministry they will think that, like, you’ve got no future. What are you gonna eat? You know, you will not be able to do anything in life because the idea is that pastors suffer and pastors this and pastors that. 

Pastor Jonathan:
You know, because many people dream of, okay, pastor, you know, if they have a son or daughter, they want, you know, for him to become a teacher, a policeman or whatever. So it did take some courage for me to speak to my parents that I want to pursue this course. But what stands out really was after I made the decision to go into ministry, I was serving as an evangelist in one of the villages just northeast of where we are today. Then one of. There was a certain couple who had started a church together with. It was an assembly of God church in one of the remote villages. So they would invite me to preach from time to time. And then this man kept telling me. He said, you know what? I feel that is your church. You must. 

Pastor Jonathan:
You know, he meant that is the church I feel you must be able to pastor. And it was in a very remote place just outside Pulukwane. And, you know, for some reason, when he said that, it would resonate with me. It’s like it would just agree with my heart, you know, but it’s not a place that from the natural standpoint, you would want to go, because it was. It seemed disconnected from everything that was happening. And so. But I knew somehow this is what God wanted me to do. And so to make the decision to go there was one. It really did take some courage for me to do that because I went to a place that I did not know anyone. It was a place that was very poor. It was a place that was far away from life, as you call it. 

Pastor Jonathan:
But there were people there, you know, And I think God did tug on my heart that go for the people and minister to the people, you know, so even the people that I spoke to that I’m going there, most of them didn’t feel. Didn’t feel like, you know, what are you doing? And by then, I was. I was much younger than I am now. And so it’s like a young man. You’re becoming a pastor not into the city, but into one of the remotest places in South Africa, you know, and so people didn’t. Many people didn’t agree with me, and nobody really spoke positively about that move. Yeah. So. But somehow I felt God wanted me to go there. And we made the decision that I’ll go there then. I was single. I was not married. 

Pastor Jonathan:
And then I went there to that village, and there was no. Actually, I lived in the office of the church. They had a small. You know, they call it a vestry, I think. Vestry. 

Jeff Johnson:
Where. 

Pastor Jonathan:
So they made that into. It was my bedroom and. But I stayed there. Even the couple. I remember the wife of that man, the elder, she told me that this is one of the hardest places for any pastor to come on the day that I was being welcomed as the new pastor, the new and the first pastor there. So it took me. It’s like I was getting into a place where nothing looked positive, nothing looked good. You know, even the people who had been there, you know, they used to travel from town, drive every Sunday to that place. They told me that it was a hard place. Yeah. So. 

Jeff Johnson:
But you just knew that God was. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Absolutely. Yes, sir. Absolutely. I knew God was in it. And then it was one of the most fulfilling times. At the end of the five years that I was there, it was one of the most fulfilling times of my life. Wow. 

Jeff Johnson:
So I’m curious, how long were you there in that particular ministry? 

Pastor Jonathan:
I was there for five years. Just over five years. Close to six years. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay. And so after you left that ministry, what did that experience equip you with? 

Pastor Jonathan:
You know, I was equipped with that number one, that the power of God is real, that his grace is indeed abundant. There is a saying. I can’t remember who said that, but that God will never take you to a place where his grace will not be there for you. And that is one of the great lessons that I learned. You know, it was a place. It was full of. I don’t know whether you would understand. People were worshipping idols. There was a lot of witchcraft. Yeah. A lot of. Just, in fact, many people, you know, they felt sorry for me that. That I went to that place because it was so full of witchcraft and so full of people. They would worship ancestors, you know, it was a strong ancestral place. Yeah. And then. 

Pastor Jonathan:
But I was kind of armed by the fact that the word of God is real and the word of God has got power and the gospel has got power, you know, and that was one of the takeaways that up to where I am now, I know the potency of the gospel because it’s more like I was dropped in this dark, dark place. But I saw the power of the gospel, that the power of the gospel is able to change people. It is able to literally change even. Even a place, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, that’s. That’s one of the. One of the lessons there. 

Jeff Johnson:
I would have loved to hear one of your sermons. I imagine you were probably preaching pretty powerfully. Yeah, you were there. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Yeah, it’s. It was. It was wonderful. Yeah, it was. It was, you know, a lot of challenges, but it was wonderful. We somehow, I do believe God infused, you know, the courage to just trust the gospel. I had nobody to trust. I never knew anyone. I didn’t even know the language there. I remember one of the first times I arrived there, the gentleman who was supposed to be my interpreter, less than a month after I arrived there, for some reason, he just didn’t like what I was doing or how I was doing things, so he dropped me. So that forced me to begin to learn the language very quickly. So many people, even now, they were surprised about how quick I learned the language, but it all happened because this man just left, dropped me like that. Wow. 

Jeff Johnson:
As a result of the courage that you demonstrated in following God’s lead and going into a very difficult place. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Wow. 

Jeff Johnson:
You know, I hear from a lot of people when they talk about courage and the brave things that they’ve done, that even though the things were very, very hard and their lives are maybe more prosperous now, or it’s not quite as difficult now, they still would long for those difficult times because they felt that closeness with God. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I guess I am. You feel the same way. 

Pastor Jonathan:
You know, you could not have put it any better. Yeah, you could not have put it any better. That’s just. You put it perfectly. You know, I loved those moments just to think about those times. You know, I remember preaching at a funeral in that same place in July. One of the men who used to go to that church had passed away, so they asked me to go and share at his memorial service. You know, I would remember just sharing the story about how that young man got saved. He was young then. He got saved during my time there. And how he changed his life changed and how he was. Such a letter became a blessing to his family because of his changed life. But I was telling a funny story of the kind of food were eating. 

Pastor Jonathan:
They would eat food with no oil. Just boil some meat. No oil, no tomato, no onions, no soup. Just a natural. You can imagine. Just boiled meat. No. Yeah. And then. But it was worth it. Would walk long distances to go and visit a family. Long distances. In kilometers will be. Would walk 15km to go and visit, to visit a family, to start a home sale, you know, so. But those were precious. When I Look at them now. I’ve got very good memories, and I sense that indeed God was close, Very close with me. 

Jeff Johnson:
That’s wonderful. Maybe last question that I’ll ask you, Pastor Jonathan. We hope to equip people with courage with this podcast. People that are maybe on the precipice of a big decision, they’re not exactly sure what to do, or they’re, I don’t know, being wrapped up in fear, you know, that really strong emotion that we all feel from time to time. How would you encourage people that might be listening to be brave, to embrace courage and just step forward and do it anyway? 

Pastor Jonathan:
Sure. You know, I think they have to look at the big picture of things, you know, that what will be, how many lives will be affected if you don’t step out in a soul. Look at the result of your stepping out, because as long as you don’t step out, you don’t know what it is you see potentially, what you can see potentially, even your own life, how it can change, how another person’s life will be changed. So just step out. Especially when you feel like this is the leading of God, you know, step out and God will meet you there. You know, God will meet you on the way as you take the step. You will. God will meet you there. You know, just look at what. What it is that, you know, there’s. 

Pastor Jonathan:
There’s something wonderful that always will happen if you take a step of faith. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah, that’s wonderful. Pastor Jonathan, thank you so much for joining. Joining us here today. We got a beautiful evening here, and we still got a little bit of water in our glass, so we’ll continue our visit. But thank you so much for being on the podcast. 

Pastor Jonathan:
Thank you. Thank you so very much, Jeff, for having me. It’s my first time doing this, so I guess it’s one of those courageous things I’ve had to do. 

Jeff Johnson:
Amen. Amen. 

Outro:
Thank you for joining us today on Courageous. If you’d like to hear more about the work and ministry being done at Crossroads Apologetics, please visit our home on the web at crossroadsapologetics.org Would you or someone you know like to be featured on Courageous? Send us an email at info@crossroadsapologetics.com or info@crossroadsapologetics.org telling us about the most courageous things you’ve ever done.