Eternal Assurance

One Saturday in January 2014, 84-year-old Christine Namwinga set out alone to walk the nine hours from her small bush farm to Luanshya, Zambia, hoping to find help from a church she knew there. Christine had been a widow for 22 years and had also lost each of her 10 children. With no help on her farm and no family, Christine was destitute.

When she arrived at her destination, her petition for help was denied. Distraught and desperate, she wandered Luanshya wondering what to do. As she passed the sign for the local Latter-day Saint branch, Christine felt drawn inside. Finding no one inside, Christine decided to spend the night sleeping nearby and made her way inside early the next morning as branch members began to arrive for services.

photograph of Christine Namwinga

Christine Namwinga

Christine began attending meetings weekly. Often she began walking at 3:00 a.m. to arrive on time. She eventually arranged rides on the local milk truck or on a small bus on Saturdays and would stay with branch members. Branch members and missionaries also began making trips to Christine’s home to visit, teach her the gospel, and help make improvements on her home and farm. When a storm damaged her roof, branch members helped replace it. When they learned that she was walking more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the nearest clean water well, members arranged for a well to be dug near her home.

Shortly after Christine was baptized in April 2014, she was promised in a priesthood blessing that she would be sealed to her husband and children in the temple. Over the following months the members and missionaries helped Christine prepare for the temple. She attended a temple preparation class and obtained a birth certificate, a national registration card, a passport, and a temple recommend.

In April 2015 Christine and 29 others traveled about 38 hours each way by bus to the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. “I am happy that I was sealed to my husband, children, and my parents,” Christine wrote. “This assures me that one day we will see each other and be together forever in the life to come.”