AFRICA

AFRICA AFRICA
Leonard M. Gray

Brother Southern, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, and visiting friends! In the beginning may I pause to express the sincere appreciation of all the men and their families now in Africa and of the individuals and congregations in this country who are interested m that field, for this opportunity to report on the work of the church in Africa. We consider it a most thoughtful favor.

Africa, in various ways, has challenged men throughout the centuries that have passed. Over three thousand years ago, or about the time Moses grew 'into manhood and led the children of Israel out of their slavery in the northern half of Africa, the historian Herodotus tells us that sailors plied the blue waters of the Indian ocean and brought back tales of having found a land far to the south where dark skinned people collected gold dust by means of ants. Little realizing, perhaps, that this was still a part of the vast continent of Africa. A land of giants and pigmies. A land where tow’ering glacial peaks rise out of steaming tropical jungles. For Kilimanjaro, just two degrees south of the equator finds its feet clothed in banana and coffee plantations, its waist belted with a strip of forest land a mile wide and its peak, which rises 19,720 feet above the bejeweled Indian Ocean, is capped with snow and glaciers. A land of almost incalculable mineral wealth. A land whose western slope swelters in equatorial jungles and along whose eastern side runs a fertile table land of rich soil, till now almost untouched, stretching out from Capetown to Cairo, five thousand miles.

Although all these things are important and interesting, it is not in these respects that Africa challenges us today. For the cry of Africa to you and me today is the same as that of Macedonia to Paul in the first century. For Africa, although it was the home of the eunuch whom Philip converted and of Apollos, a mighty man in the Scriptures, is a continent that obeys not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Africa, a vast continent of thirty-seven nations is calling out to you and me, people who proclaim with Peter that “God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him.”

Last year at this time you were privileged to hear Brother Eldred L. Echols shortly after he returned from Nigeria, West Central Africa. As most of you know, he went there to teach some preachers who had studied themselves out of error and asked for his help. They asked that Brother Echols teach them and they in turn would set themselves to the task of evangelizing Nigeria, a land of twenty-one million people. For four months there, Brother Echols taught a training class for preachers, during which time over 1,300 people were baptized. Since that time Brother Howard Horton and his family have gone there to work with these people. You may have noticed in last week’s Christian Chronicle the report from Brother Horton concerning the call from a sectarian church for him to come talk to them, after which fifty-three men and women were baptized into Christ, making more than three hundred and fifty who have been baptized at this place. There are now several thousand Christians in Nigeria but they are babes and need help badly. One of their most pressing needs is a Christian medical doctor. In Nyassaland, a small country on the eastern border of Northern Rhodesia, there are several congregations. One man there, Ahaziah Apollo, was converted in Johannesburg by our brethren. He speaks twelve languages and dialects. A very valuable man to the cause of the Lord there. He is a black man of great ability. In Northern Rhodesia we have work at three major points. One is Namwianga, in the Kalomo district. We have a large school and several out schools. There are many hundreds of Christians in this area. Also in the Kalomo district is the work in Kabanga. The third is Sinde Mission, near Victoria Falls where we also have a school. In Southern Rhodesia we have work at two main' points. Brother Foy Short is working with'a small white congregation and several native congregations. At Nhowe Mission Brother Boyd Reese has charge of a large school. There are many Christians there. Brother Henry Ewing and family are there and Sister Ann Burns and Dr. Marjorie Sewell have just returned from there for a visit in the U. S. This brings us down to the work in the Union of South Africa. This is a country one-sixth as large as the United States or about twice, the size of the State of Texas. In many ways it is more like the United States than any other country. White civilization had its beginning there in 1652 when Jan Van Riebeeck landed at the Cape of Good Hope as a representative of the Dutch East India Company to establish a food supply station for their ships. The Union is now a country of more than twelve million people of many races and combinations. It is one of the few exclusively self-governed countries on the African continent. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly British Commonwealth) along with Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Ceylon. It is a country of delightful living conditions and modern conveniences. This English and African-speaking country presents one of the most challenging and most promising fields of labor for the Lord to be found on the entire earth. The work among the white people (All of whom are called Europeans) began in 1950 with the arrival of three families and one single man from this country. These were the families of Waymon D. Miller and Guy V. Caskey of Fort Worth, Texas and John T. Hardin, song leader at Altus, Oklahoma. Eldred L. Echols, also of Fort Worth, had spent five years in the Rhodesias and joined the three families. These seven Christian people began the first congregation in Johannesburg, the largest city in the Union, a commercial and industrial center of about one million people. After much hard work there is now a congregation of some sixty Christians there at this time and a correspondence course and a very fine paper, The Christian Advocate, are special features of that work. The Central congregation at Cleburne, Texas took the initiative in this work and have done a great deal in interesting various congregations in supporting these families. They are busy at this time raising the necessary funds to complete a very fine building for these Johannesburg Christians. I received a cable from Johannesburg Saturday stating that they hope to have the building finished 'in June. Most of you know, if you have been following this work, that the Cleburne church has announced their plans to turn their efforts to other fields upon the completion of this building. They have done a great deal for the work in the Union of South Africa and those of you who are supporting that work through Cleburne will want to make plans to send that support directly to the Johannesburg church, at the'ir permanent location. There is no difficulty in this matter at all. Your check goes there and is cashed just as easily as you pay the expenses of your local work. The only difference is the size of the stamp. With the growth of the work came calls from distant cities for someone to come and study with them. Letters requesting assistance in obedience of the gospel, sometimes as far as eight hundred to one thousand miles away. These calls could not go unheeded. The men, after much thought, discussion and prayer, decided to spread out. They must meet the needs to the best of their ability. By this time, Brother Don Gardner and family had arrived from Abilene and had begun the work in Pretoria, some forty miles away. Brother Martelle Petty and his family, of Dallas, had joined them in the beginning of a very fine work. It was agreed that the. Gardners and the Blakes (a family converted there) would go to East London, some six hundred miles to the south, on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The work at Pretoria, the Administrative capital of the Union, has done well. There are about fifty members there now and some sixty in the congregation in Johannesburg. In the few months at East London, the work has grown to the extent that they have about twenty-five members. This city of ninety thousand people has wonderful prospects and Brother Gardner and Brother Blake are as fine as can be found.

Brother John T. Hardin, the song leader for the original group, moved with his family to Port Elizabeth, a city of two hundred twelve thousand people, eight hundred miles south of Johannesburg and down the coast from East London. Brother Hardin and his family are holding out wonderfully there. Brother Hardin was the song leader at Altus, Oklahoma and does not even consider himself to be a preacher. He and his family are looking for us to join them some time this year. We hope to leave for that work in August if we can raise the needed support. There are six Christians there at this time.

Brethren, this is just a brief review of the situation. On the shores of Table Bay stands the City of Capetown with over a half-million people and no New Testament church among the white people. Durban, on the east coast above East London, is a city of almost five hundred thousand. No New Testament church there at all. The story is the same all over the Union.

Brethren, we have the truth. We live in a time and a country most favorable to the preaching of the gospel of Christ around the globe. Does it bother you to be reminded that in all probability we have not preached the message of life to more than one percent of the people of the earth? Ninety-nine out of every one hun-dred people on the face of the earth have never heard a simple gospel sermon. It is indeed a sad commentary on the part of our generations that, unlike the shepherd who left the ninety and nine and went out in search of the one that was lost, we, after having saved the one, bask in the sunshine of the love of God and fellowship of the saints where the church is strong and allow the ninety and nine to go begging. It is deplorable that the past hundred years has seen a steady stream of religious groups pouring into the Union of South Africa like a giant passenger train . . and we’re turning out to be the caboose! I remember reading a severe criticism of a people who had a zeal for God without knowledge. I am persuaded that there is an even greater travesty upon the love of God and it is to be found in a people who have the knowledge of God without zeal!

We place a great deal of emphasis on the necessity of our faith in God. This is true, of course, but never let us forget for a moment that God also has faith in us. God had to have a great faith in the human race to create Adam and Eve; to start over after the flood with Noah and his family; to send his only Son to the earth among people who didn’t want him; to leave the gospel message in the hands of men. We have this treasure in earthen vessels and to the degree that you and I do not carry out the great commission we have betrayed the faith our almighty God has in us.

God help us, in this generation, to carry the gospel into every nation under heaven. I thank you.