Africa!
A very colorful contenient that holds any first time visitor spell bound with her diversity of landscape, jungles, deserts, high lands, farmlands, and vast range lands for cattle. Her spectacular Varity of animals is the best in the world.
The diversity of the people is likewise fascinating. You will meet fine doctors, nurses, lawyers, and people with most of the trades of craft. Business men from your hawkers on the streets selling peanuts, fruits, socks, handkerchiefs, etc. to your adventurous import, exporters, of coffee, tea, and automobiles.
In many of the cities you will find a growing middle class of people that are struggling to form some stability and grasping at every opportunity to better themselves. There are a great number of poor people all over Africa, they are seen in the cities and villages and almost anywhere. Then there are those who are beyond being poor, they are in poverty, destitute, calling out for help.
The people are very diverse, thousands of tribes that prefer to speak each one his own mother tongue. However most Africans speak about three languages. Each tribe has distinct customs and way of life, each tribe has it’s own unique form of dress or lack of dress.
Africa is rich in natural resources, first of all land, it is the second largest continent in the world. There has been development of the land but there is much more that could be developed. She has gold, silver, diamonds, and timber, fish, and produce. It could produce much more because it has the work force, millions of people who are capable of doing great things if they are given the opportunity and training. Africa has suffered from exploitation for many generations.
I have set my pen to this paper for one purpose only and that is the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church was given a great mandate and that is to preach the gospel to every creature and to make disciples in all nations (tribes). Rev.5:9
Thanks to Jesus there has been considerable advancement of the gospel into the tribes of Africa. Many of these tribes have had the gospel for more than a hundred years. The discouraging news is that after such a long time, they haven’t managed to take the good news to the remaining un-reached tribes.
The great commission was not given to just a few select people but it is a God given responsibility of every believer in Christ Jesus. These tribes must be reached and we need to do everything in our power to reach them for Jesus, who is worthy to receive the reward of his suffering.
If we are serious about reaching them let us consider the things that are hindering this massive church from doing her God given mandate. She is a sleeping giant. The hindrances, goes back to the traditions that the gospel was wrapped up in. The gospel came into Africa with a lot of excess baggage. The gospel in itself is pure and powerful and it has made a significant change for all who have believed upon Jesus our Lord. However the teaching of men cloud the truth of Gods’ word, and the traditions of men are like huge weights that are difficult to lay aside once they become ingrained in the heart.
The missionaries came from countries where they lived in comfort and abundance. When they saw the condition of the poor Africans they had compassion and brought aid in abundance. Their compassion is appreciated but they didn’t have the advantage that we have, we can see the results. Hind sight is always much easier to see than for sight. It is always good for us to be generous and compassionate of heart nevertheless we shouldn’t always give to every need we see. There are times when love dictates us to say no. Anyone who has had the privilege to bring up children can understand this. The new in the faith were conditioned to look to the foreigners for all their needs. This robed them of a very important lesson; that is God would supply all their needs. He is not a respecter of persons. It is human nature to take the easy way, they simply asked from abroad.
Their dignity was also lost in the processes, begging became the norm. There was a dependency of not only the physical things they needed but spiritual guidance as well. The churches from abroad had most of the say in the management of the affairs in the African churches.
Because of this unbiblical hierarch ruling over them, they failed to learn to be self governing, that is the biblical way, every congregation of believers is under the headship of Jesus Christ, their great Shepard. Neither did they learn to be self supporting and least of all self propagating.
Our Lord Jesus is a wise and wonderful master builder of his church, We know he will finish the final touches of perfecting his Bride. The work of the ministry of taking the gospel to every tribe is the exercise that will form the spiritual muscle of the African church. In order for the church to send out missionaries and support them it will need to be self supporting and self governing. When the church shoulders these responsibilities all the members in the congregation will be involved. They will have learned the blessing of giving and what it means “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Their integrity will be restored and their testimony of love will bring glory to God.
Our Lord Jesus has managed to reserve a remnant of wonderful faithful people in Africa and at the time of this writing things are changing rapidly, our Father is just about to reveal many more precious men and women of God, these will take the challenge to live lives that truly bring honor to him.
I just read a testimony that you will appreciate.
This testimony is found in the book, “When Charity Destroys Dignity”
It is written by, Glenn J. Schwartz
Don’t Chase Buffaloes!
Several years ago I (Glen Schwartz) did a seminar in Capetown, and a pastor shared his story. Several years before, he had been in North America preaching in various churches. On one occasion he phoned home to find out how his family was doing. His wife was not there, but his sister-in-law answered the phone. Her first words were, “Oh pastor, I’m glad you called. I have a message for you. By the way your family is fine, everything is fine here; but I have a message for you. I had a dream the other night, and God told me to give you this message: “while you are in America don’t chase buffaloes.”
This was a rather strange message, so the pastor hung up the phone and said, “Thank you Lord for the message; but I have no idea what it means.” He went on preaching. One Sunday evening he preached in a church where he was given the collection as his honorarium. They simply gave him the money that came in rather than writing out a check. He took the money back to the place where he was staying and began to count it. In the process, he came to a five-cent piece which in America is called a “buffalo nickel.” He looked at the buffalo and said, “That is the meaning of the message. I am not here to get money.”
So he said, “Thank you Lord. I got the message.” Little did he know the importance of that message, because the very next morning he was taken for breakfast by a wealthy businessman. The pastor said, “I don’t know how wealthy the man was , but he owned four airplanes.”
As they were having breakfast, the business man said, “Pastor I liked the things I heard you saying in the church last night. I have a lot of money, and I would like to give you some. How much do you want? Just name the amount and I will write the check for any amount you say.”
At this point the pastor was being tested; he knew he was not supposed to “chase buffalos.” So he turned to his businessman and said, “Thank you very much, but God in his providence cares for me and my people in his own way.” The pastor then said, “I didn’t get any money from that man.”
He finished preaching in North America and went to England where he boarded a flight for Johannesburg. On the plane he found himself sitting beside a white South African businessman. The businessman asked the pastor what he did and he said, “I am a pastor of a small congregation in Capetown.” At this the businessman replied, “I am a member of a church that supports apartheid. I don’t agree with the policy of my church or my government, so I won’t give money to my church. I would rather give it to you. How much do you want? Just name the amount, and I will write the check.”
Again the pastor said, ”Thank you very much; but God takes care of me and my people in his own way.” The pastor said he didn’t get any money from that man either. Instead, he went back to Capetown, and the small congregation he was decided to build a new sanctuary. They gave all the money necessary to build their new building. Then he said as he smiled. “And we found that we didn’t need any ‘buffaloes’ from America to do it.” One can only imagine what would have happened to that congregation if he had presented them with two checks representing hundreds of thousands of dollars from those well meaning businessmen. All to often such goodness of the heart has destroyed local giving initiative in many parts of the world.
My wife Francille and I are returning to Africa, before we were in East Africa, this time the target is West Africa, Ghana .in particular. While I was in Ghana in March of 2007, we registered a missionary training school. It is called, “ His Vision Mission.” Two fine Ghanaian Brothers, are on the board of the school, David Kangni and Isaac Toffa, they both have a genuine love for Christ Jesus and high hopes of seeing the Lord using their people in the work of the Lord.
Our mission is very simple we want to preach the gospel and make disciples. We believe there will be faithful brothers and sisters that will make themselves available for mission work. They will need training, we are hoping to have a place with enough acreage for a farm, where we can provide this training. The training will be in depth bible study, Old and New Testament. Lord willing, when they leave they will have good knowledge of the word of God. Included will be cross cultural training, for entering the un-reached tribes. A good work ethic will be taught and practiced. There will be teaching on how to use the African resources. The goal for the school is for it to support it self and be totally operated by Africans.
Along with my wife we will have on the team Skip Votberg and family, Tim Spurling, and Janelle Nye.
By Gods grace Tim Spurling , Francille and I will be departing about the ninth of January, 08.
The rest will be joining us soon after. We request you to consider praying for the team.
GHANA
Things to pray for.
1. Favor with the government.
2. For the Lord Jesus to give us favor with the church leadership in the evangelical churches.
3. Pray for seventy disciple makers African, American, Mexican, or people from any other country in the world but we need seventy dedicated men to make disciples through out the country.
4. Pray for a facility for a missionary training school, a boot camp where men can be prepared to reach the un-reached tribes. We need enough property for a farm, so that the school can be self supporting.
5. Pray for the African believers to get the vision and understanding that God will use them to reach these tribes and pray they will begin to develop their resources to support this ministry.
6. For the glory of God pray that within a few years we can see all the un-reached tribes in Ghana with a witness of Christ.
7. For the glory of God let us pray that it won’t stop there, but the Ghanaian believers would take the gospel to many un-reached tribes in many parts of the world and that other African countries would do the same.
Does this sound like something that you believe would bring glory to God? If the answer is yes, then please join with us in prayer and be a fellow labor in getting the gospel to the many tribes that still haven’t heard the good news of the Lord Jesus.
James Lucas
If you want to contact us. phone 541-382-7081 e-mail lucas@sfmiusa.org
while in Ghana hisvisionmission@yahoo.com
If you want to support this ministry please send to, Shield of Faith Mission Int. P.O.Box 144, Bend, Oregon 97709 writethe check to the Shield of Faith Mission Int, say who it is for and 100% will be given
