God Isn’t Crazy

Pastor Sebastian Tirtirau’s work as a missionary began in 1995 when he read the story of David Livingston in Africa. He was so touched by what he read that he sold everything he possessed and travelled from his homeland of Romania to South Africa, alone and unaided, to pursue his conviction of becoming completely answerable to God’s calling.

He was intrigued by the Ju Hoansi people—the Bushmen featured in the 1980s movie The Gods Must Be Crazy—of the north-western Kalahari, in Namibia.

“The name ‘Kalahari’ in Bushmen language means ‘The Great Thirst,’” Pastor Sebastian explains. “This is their spiritual thirst for meaning, as they believe they have lost their way with God and are looking to get it back.”

Pastor Sebastian lived in the Kalahari with the Bushmen for several months, and although initially he had no way of communicating, he was accepted. He found the time was right to engage them, and they were eager to hear his message of the gospel and of God who loved them.

After several years, in 1995, he baptised more than 30 Bushmen, the first to accept Christianity. He continued to work sensitively with them, returning each year. Then, in July 2000, he baptised the star of The Gods Must Be Crazy, Gaukana, the result of a close and trusting friendship over the years. Sadly, Gaukana died of tuberculosis, aged 79, a short time later. But Pastor Sebastian says he believes that at the second coming of Christ, he will see Gaukana again. “The sadness is diminished knowing Gaukana is the first Bushman to die in the Lord,” he says.

Pastor Sebastian helped establish three churches with some 350 attending members, two schools, an orphanage and two clinics during his time visiting the Kalahari. But in keeping with his mission to reach any and all remote and untouched parts of the globe with Christianity, he has now established a clinic and a school in Guyana, in northern South America, and is looking at going into Greenland—“the final frontier,” as he puts it.

After pastoring in Montana, USA, and Alberta, Canada, in 2001 Pastor Sebastian founded the Pilgrim Society for Education and the Relief of Poverty. He’s now based on Vancouver Island, Canada, with his wife, Carmen, and daughter, Irina, and continues his work as a missionary to the Bushmen of Africa and Amazonian tribes of South America.