THE WORK OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA

THE WORK OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA THE WORK OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA
Eldred Echols, evangelist in Africa
Pearl & BryanChurch of Christ, Dallas, Texas The African continent is so vast and the work un-dertaken there by our brethren is so varied that it is impossible in the brief space of a few minutes to give more than a cursory glance at any section of the work. From the Berbers of the north to the Hottentots of the south, Africa embraces almost every major race on earth, as well as every type of topography and climate. For purposes of study, however, the work of the churhces of Christ in Africa can be divided into three separate and distinct categories, viz., the work among the Bantu natives of Southern Africa, the work among the white people of the Union of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, and the work among the Negro peoples of West Africa.

I. The Work Among the Bantu Natives of Southern Africa
The church among the Bantu tribes of the Rhode sias and the Union of South Africa can for the most part be traced back to the early labors of Brother John Sherriff at Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia. Among the many native boys who were influenced by Brother Sherriff, first in his trade as a stone mason and later in a Bible training school, were three men who were later to become giants in the spread of the church among the Bantu. Their names were Peter Mesiya, Jack Mzirwa and George Khosa.

A. Peter Mesiya and the Church in Northern Rhodesia
In an unmarked grave at Sinde Mission near Liv-ingstone, Northern Rhodesia, sleep the earthly remains of the first missionary to that country. From the original labors of Peter Mesiya to plant the cause of Christ among the Tonga people has grown the extensive work of the churches of Christ in Northern Rhodesia today. Some of Brother Mesiya’s converts are still the backbone of the Tonga churches, and the Mukunni congregation which was established by him many years ago remains the strongest church in that area. At the present the gospel is preached in a large number of village congregations. Nine or ten white missionaries from the United States are engaged in teaching and preaching, and about thirty village schools are operated.
B. Jack Mzirwa and the Church in Mashonaland
Among preachers of the gospel in the eastern part of Southern Rhodesia none has labored more nobly or with greater results than Jack Mzirwa. He first planted the seed of the kingdom in the hearts of the Masezuru people, and the establishment of Nhowe Mission in Mashonaland was the fulfillment of the dream of his life to have a Bible school where the children of his tribe could be trained for greater service in the church. Today hundreds of young natives receive a Christian education at Nhowe Mission, where the work is carried on by the Boyd Reese and Henry Ewing families, Dr. Marjorie Sewell and Sister Ann Burns.
C. George Khosa and the Native Churches in South Africa
The third of the great native evangelists who learned the truth and began preaching it as a result of John Sherriff’s efforts was a native of Portuguese East Africa. George Khosa was taken to the Union of South Africa from his homeland at the time of the great rebellion of the Mozambique tribes against the Portuguese occupation. He was a child of six at the time and the ensuing years until he reached manhood were spent in the Union acquiring an education and, during the later years, teaching school. As a young man he traveled as far north as Bulawayo and there met Brother Sheriff, a meeting which was to shape the whole course of his life. After his conversion to Christ, young Khosa decided to return to the Union to establish the church there. He chose Johannesburg to begin work in because so many of his own tribesmen came from Portuguese East Africa to work in the gold mines of the Rand. Supporting himself as a storekeeper and preaching as opportunity afforded, Brother Khosa converted many of these miners to the truth. Some of them returned to Moz-ambique and established the church there, and today there are between 2,000 and 3,000 native Christians in that territory. At present they are under severe persecution from the Roman Catholics and, as a result, some have departed from the faith. For them we weep. The ones who have remained faithful are plead-ing for a white missionary to come and help and strengthen them in their distress.

Another of George Khosa’s converts was a young mineworker from Bechuanaland. He returned to his home to establish the first congregations of the Lord’s body there. On the Rand itself there are three congregations of native Christians, for a time the property of these native brethren came under the shadow of the Christian Church as the result of Dr. Jesse Kellum’s work in Johannesburg, but lately this property has been placed under the trusteeship of faithful gospel preachers in Johannesburg.
D. Other Work Among the Bantu
In addition to the native churches already discussed, some work is carried on among the Matabele people of Southern Rhodesia by the white brethren in Bulawayo. Brother Foy Short is taking the lead in that work. In Pretoria, South Africa, a promising work has been started by Brother John Manape who is supported by the Lamar St. Church in Sweetwater, Texas. Also, there are three small congregations in Cape Town where people of all races meet together (whites, orientals, coloreds or mulattoes, and natives).
E. Work Planned for the Future
Brother George Hook, who labored for several years at Nhowe Mission, hopes to begin work in Nyasaland, East Africa, in the near future. With him will be two native evangelists, Ahaziah Apollo and Timothy Mzimba. Both of these native brethren were converted while students in Rhodes University at Grahamstown by our white evangelists in Johannesburg. Brother Apollo knows twelve languages and is a native of Nyasaland.

II. The Work Among the White People of South Africa
A. There is a small congregation of white brethren in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, where Brother Foy Short preaches. Although the number of adult Christians is not large, Bible study classes have an enrollment of more than a hundred young people and future prospects for church growth are bright. These brethren have bought a building site and hope to have their own building soon.
B. The white work 'in the Union of South Africa began in 1950 in Johannesburg. Between October 1950 and the close of 1951 about sixty-five were born into Christ. Many difficulties and obstacles have had to be overcome in preaching the gospel to these people, the greatest of which has been the lack of an adequate place in which to meet. The rate of growth of the white work in Johannesburg depends to a very large degree upon getting an adequate, comfortable building in which to conduct services. Our present place of meeting is used for a dance hall and has the added disadvantage of being without heating facilities, a very serious inconvenience in a climate where sub-freezing temperatures are not uncommon. A fine location for a building has already been acquired and funds are being raised for the erection of an auditorium to seat 300. At the present Guy Caskey, Waymon Miller, and John Hardin are carrying on the work there in a very fine way. The first South African- born evangelist in the white work, Brother L. C. Blake, is now helping the American workers there and is supported by the church at Birdville, West, and Andrews (all in Texas). Two young men of Johannesburg are now being trained in this country to preach the gospel in South Africa. A. J. Malherbe is in ACC and Victor Lloyd is in Harding. Two more young men are expected to come to the U.S. for training before the end of 1952.

Forty miles northeast of Johannesburg is Pretoria, the executive capital of the Union. The church was established in Pretoria in 1951 by Don Gardner and Martelle Petty. These two brethren have labored indefatigably to plant the cause of Christ firmly in that great city and, as a result of their efforts, a growing and thriving congregation of disciples has grown up there in the space of a year. Already one fine young man in the congregation has begun preaching the gospel to his own people. As elsewhere in the white work in South Africa, the biggest need at present in Pretoria is for a suitable meeting place. Once this has been supplied, the church in that fine city should make excellent progress.

There are scores of other South African cities where the church is completely unknown and where gospel preachers must go. There has been a white civilization in the Union for three hundred years. Perhaps no other country on earth can offer living conditions more similar to our American way of life, yet great modern cities like Rurban and Port Elizabeth with populations approaching a half-million mark have never heard the pure gospel preached. Only a bare start has been made in taking the gospel to South Africa’s millions—less than a drop in the proverbial bucket. Even a hundred, or a thousand, preachers would not be able to accomplish all the work there is to be done.

III. The Work Among the Negroes of West Africa
The story of how several thousand Nigerian natives broke free from the grip of paganism and denomi- nationalism and found the church of God is one of the most thrilling chapters in the annals of Christianity. It is largely the story of how one man, living in the remote palm jungles of the Calabar district of southeastern Nigeria, sought the truth and was led to find it. This man’s name is C.A.O. Eissien and he is a native of the Efik tribe. For several years Essien belonged to a denominational sect in whose schools he was trained and in whose service he served as an evangelist. Previous to 1945, he began to be disturbed by the wide differences between the doctrine he was preaching and the truths he read in his New Testament. Finally he could no longer continue to associate himself with a religious group which he knew to be in error, so he withdrew himself from its fellowship and continued studying the Bible for himself. As so many natives of Africa do, Brother Essien was trying to further his education by taking a cor-respondence course published by a school in Munich, Germany. During the course of his study he wrote to his teacher and asked whether she knew any church in the world teaching the truth. Now it happened that this teacher had learned from an American soldier of a Bible correspondence course offered by Lawrence Ave. Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn., and she recommended that Brother Essien write to that church. He did so and received the correspondence course, and in this way the chain of events was set in motion which led to Brother Essien’s conversion. After a voluminous correspondence with brethren in the United States and the careful study of numerous tracts and books on the church, Brother Essien accepted the truth and immediately set about declaring it to his own people. Denominational preachers were led by Brother Essien to obey the truth and they joined him in the great task of taking Christ to Nigeria. People by hundreds were persuaded to escape from the age-old pollution of heathenism and to renounce the empty will-worship of denominational- ism. Congregations sprang up throughout the Calabar area; meeting houses were erected; hundreds of Christians began to break bread upon every first day of the week.

I certainly do not wish to leave the impression that these Nigerian Christians had reached the truth on every point of faith and practice. It would have been the miracle of the age if these only partially- enlightened people could have duplicated in such a brief time what it took the restoration movement among the whites centuries to accomplish. They retained many of the trappings of the denominations out of which they came, but they strove to practice truth as it was unfolded to them.

One of the biggest problems which confronted Brother Essien and his co-workers in preaching to their friends and neighbors was the fact that there were no white members of the church in Nigeria. Natives are strongly disinclined to accept any religious position, regardless of how reasonable it may appear, unless some white people believe the same thing. Although Brother Essien and the other native evangelists assured the people that they had thousands of white brethren across the sea, the Nigerians refused to believe it until they had seen at least one in person. Consequently, the native brethren there made numerous requests to the brethren in the United States for white gospel preachers to visit them. At the request of the Lawrence Ave. congregation Brother Boyd Reese and I visited the Nigerian churches during 1950. During the very limited time we spent among the brethren there, we were impressed on the one hand with their zeal and fervor and on the other with their great need for white missionaries to live among them to teach and strengthen them. At the request and expense of the Lawrence Avenue church I returned to Nigeria in 1951 for the purpose of teaching a preachers’ training course and remained there for four months. Thirty-five students enrolled in the course. At its conclusion they went forth to spread the gospel throughout southeastern Nigeria. During the last six months of 1951 about eighteen hundred people were baptized.

One young preacher went to the land of the Ibo peopie to establish the church. Without any support and with a wife and baby to care for, this young evangelist went out to preach Christ in a land he had never seen, to a people whose tongue he could not understand. Using an interpreter who understood English, the young preacher began the laborious work of establishing the Lord’s body among a people who welcomed neither him nor his message. I shall not dwell upon the hardships and difficulties he underwent for the gospel’s sake, but they were many. A few weeks ago I had a letter from the young man in which he stated that he could look back with rejoicing upon the months of trial and discouragement, because in this unfriendly land thirty-five souls had responded to the gospel invitation, and that he could look forward with confidence to the spread of the truth among the Ibo people. The Nigerian brethren are pleading for white preachers to train them in the preaching and teaching of God’s word. They have made great strides alone, in that they have struggled out of the morass of heathenism and sectarianism and have embraced the fundamentals of Christianity; but they can never make the progress in the faith that is essential to a strong, working church in Nigeria unless some of us are willing to go there and train them. They have asked for a bare minimum of five families to undertake the herculean task of strengthening and developing thousands of new and weak brethren. The elders of the Lawrence Ave. congregation are willing to send and equip one family for this urgent work. We hope and pray that four other congregations will undertake to do the same so that the church can grow and prosper throughout Nigeria and West Africa.

There may be under the sound of my voice a hundred preachers who could preach the gospel in Africa. Perhaps some of you might not be able to live under the unfavorable conditions in Nigeria or Portuguese East Africa, but there is some place in Africa where you could live and work. So far, we have barely touched the hem of the garment in evangelizing Africa, but a start has been made and the gospel in Africa is on the march. May God help us to increase our efforts to let the light of truth shine throughout the Dark Continent!