Fear, and an introduction to AABC

We had a conversation with Marko the watchman this evening via Elias Pharoah our interpreter, and learnt that he feels frightened when he's guarding the place at night.

Apparently last December 25th, while there was a party going on down the road, a group of thieves tried to break into this house, although it was empty at the time. He was on guard and fought them off, but not before they'd hurt him with a knife.

He was requesting we put a better fence around the boundary with iron gates across the drive, buy guard dogs and lock the car in the garage.

For himself, he had seen snakes coming out at night, and requested wellington boots and an overall for protection against them and the mosquitoes. We will try to implement all his suggestions because it’s not the first time he's raised these matters.

This morning we spent several hours together with Alan and Marion Turnbull talking to a couple of men from an inter-denominational Bible College near Durban in South Africa. They call it the 'All Africa Bible College' (AABC), and their desire is to make simple teaching material available to pastors of churches within the different countries in Africa, so that they, in turn, can teach their own congregations.

They are not trying to set up churches, but to supplement or provide teaching to churches. Within a particular district they will visit all the church leaders, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, present their material, that is their teaching books, and ask if they may invite their church leaders to seminars in that district. They tell me that no one has ever refused them.

One Roman Catholic bishop said "If only you could do that! It’s a crying need in our churches! But I am so busy with other things, I can find no one to do it!"

By way of explanation, we are told that the people here will follow anyone who has something going for them. Church groups include Seventh Day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists, Pentecostals, Pentecostal Holiness, Catholics - but they could easily be anything else because they don't know what the church is all about anyway. They could just as easily attach to one church as to another.

But the thing that is common among them is that they are hungry people, hungry for God.

It appears that Africans experience great difficulty with teaching; they find it very hard to get things together, and to maintain a steady teaching program.

Many pastors have had no teaching themselves so they are turning out the same 'sermon' week after week till the people are bored with it.

To maintain impetus, the AABC teaching scheme visits a local district on a Saturday once every 13 weeks for a seminar lasting the whole Saturday, to which all the local pastors on the mailing list are invited.

During teaching sessions on that Saturday, they will be taught enough material for the next 13 weeks at their church, and also will be sold, at low cost, a booklet containing the same material.

Although teachings will concentrate on the central truth of Christ, they will certainly not be ecumenical. There will also be plenty of opportunity to expand the programme, and it should be possible to make many fruitful contacts.

Alan and Marion suggested that we might like to talk to these people because they are considering becoming involved themselves. I think they have given a great deal of thought to it.

You see, one of the great difficulties here is getting teaching across to the churches. I have now gone to three Sunday morning meetings at different churches and, along with Alan and Marion, spoken at each meeting. But you wonder how much goes in.

In general, the people are not westernised, and have as much in common with you as they would have in common with Martians. They live lives completely different from yours, and it is impossible to assess one's success in communicating with them. I feel as though I am striking at an unknown target.

Perhaps as I spend more time with the Lord things will become clearer - that is clearly the greatest need among all the demands on time - but I feel that more people can be reached if the pastors are the ones who are taught, rather than the congregations directly.