Frederico Catihe

My name is Frederico Catihe. Since January 2018 I have been working with Campus Crusade for Christ, or Cru, which is a member of IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students).I was born in the province of Huambo, Angola, in Southern Africa. My grandfather was the Pastor of a Congregational Church. Since very young, I attended the Evangelical Congregational Church. I was born during the time of the civil war in Angola, on 15 January 1978.  I saw many ugly things during the civil war, and because of the civil war I didn’t know my father. I am the last of five siblings.

In 1993 I was forced, together with my brother, to live in the city of Lubango, because Huambo was occupied by the opposition political party, UNITA. I lived in an orphanage with more than 100 children youth and adults, each one doing just what they wanted.

In 1996 I felt very lost and I went to spend some days in the house of my sister in the city of Namibe on the coast; on a particular Sunday I went into a church and heard the message of the gospel, preached by Pastor Eduardo Calenga. I went up and they prayed for me.

Later in the same year, I went out of curiosity into a cinema in the city of Lubango where there was an evangelistic week organised by the União De Igrejas Evangelicas de Angola – UIEA, or Union of Evanglical Churches of Angola. There I heard the strong voice of Pastor Otávio Fernandes. I felt repentant and I went to the meeting every day of that week. That was my conversion. I was first discipled by Brother Alberto Lucamba Alberto (actually the director of the Theological School – ISTEL- Instituto Superior de Teologia Evangelica no Lubango) and started to frequent the UIEA church in Lubango.

Very early in that church, all the time I heard preaching about missions and it felt very strange and attractive to me. I didn’t understand that it was God speaking. I was studying chemistry in the Education University. I was doing very well, but I felt sad and disobedient each time that I went to that university. 

At that same time a missionary, Dr. Steve Duncan, and Pastor Bernardo Chinoia started a little group in the church about missions, called “The Sent”.  We talked about missions, what each member did for God during the week, and sometimes we made short missionary journeys to various rural zones around the Province of Huila. 

In 1998 I participated in a Youth Camp of Youth for Christ.  The preacher talked every day about who could serve God through missions.  I felt a shiver and had the same feeling in my heart as the church services where someone talked about missions.  I answered his call all that week.

I left that camp having decided to quit my programme at the University, leave my work (I was a professor) and enroll at ISTEL, the Theological School. 

The idea had been to stay one hour on that mountain, hear the testimony of the Missionary, Inacio Fio, who lived there, and learn from his experience.  After this, we were to go back to Lubango.  There were 8 young people from the group “The Sent”, and we went with an airplane from MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) and missionary Doctor Duncan. 

There was also a team of workers from a Brazilian health organisation. They were staying there one week to give free health service.  When I heard that they would stay there for a week, I started to feel that same shiver as before. 

Therefore, I resolved to stay there for a week, just with the clothes that I had on, but I was very happy.  Every evening, each of the workers from the Brazilian health organization told about how God called him to ministry.  The stories were like knives in my heart.  I had the same shiver every evening . . . I prayed “What is this, God?”.

In the same year, 1998, I was invited to go on a mission trip to the mountain named “O Munda Yo Vaimbo”  which means Mountain of Snow. 

There, God confirmed all that I had been feeling before.

On the last day, we were at the landing strip waiting for the MAF plane . . . and it didn’t appear.  Therefore, on that same night, we decided that we would go down the mountain early the next morning on foot to get to the road and catch a taxi.  But, at night, those who had already told their stories said, “And you, young man, what is your story?” I told how I felt shivers each time that they talked about missions.  And each of them told me enthusiastically that I should obey the voice of the Lord, but I didn’t understand well.

The following morning we got up to pray and depart.  During the prayer, I started to feel those shivers, but the pain of all the civil war in Angola, the deaths, the suffering, just like I had committed so many crimes. . . I started to cry, for the first time, crying in the presence of God.  A brother, Marcos Azolin, director of YWAM Angola at that time, took my hand in his while I was praying.  I started to sob and said in a loud voice, “God if you want something from me I am here for you, here for your service.  Forgive Angola for all her crimes!”  After this the airplane appeared.  I never saw any of those health workers again. 

I returned to Lubango, quit my programme at the University, stopped my work as a professor, and applied to ISTEL.  After one week, they told me that I couldn’t study there, because people could only enter 3 years after they had been baptized.  I had only been baptized three months before . . . I cried without understanding . . . “Why, God?  It is possible that you had bad intentions for me?”

But, a few days later I remembered that at the Youth Camp, the preacher talked about YWAM. I thought, “Could it be?”

So, I prayed, “If this is you, give me the money to go to YWAM . . .”  A few weeks later, Dr. Duncan, the missionary, without knowing of my prayer, offered me $200.  It was clear. 

I went to do a course in the city of Benguela in February 1999 until August, learning the basics of mssions, hearing the voice of God, meditation, intercession, etcetera.  I went back to Lubango in September and entered ISTEL, just one year after baptism.  Glory to God!

In 2000, penniless and without knowing many people, I was invited by Dr. Billy Graham to participate in the Evangelistic Conference “Amsterdam 2000.”  In 2002, I was invited to be the National Director of Evangelism and Missions for UIEA in all of Angola. 

In 2012 I became the National Coordinator for Discipleship in the UIEA and from there I participated in many conferences, national and international. 

In 2017, I was discipling a young Angolan, who afterwards went to study in China.  I continued to disciple him by WhatsApp . . . afterwards I shared with two others.  I started discipling three.  Later they said, “You have to come here.”  “How?” I said.  One year later God opened the doors and I went to China, where I met with more than 80 Angolans. 

But, every year since 2002, God has brought me to speak to Angolan students in different countries about missions. Many of them converted, others became reconciled to the Lord and others committed to serving as missionaries in other places.  Now I understand that this was what I saw from the mountain.

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