As you may know, I was in South Africa recently. I was there February 28 to
March 12. The main reason for being there was to speak in African
Pastors Conferences. I did something similar back in 2016.
The APCs
were the idea of the late Erroll Hulse and Irving Steggles, pastor of
Birchleigh Baptist Church, Kempton Park, Johannesburg. The idea is to
gather African pastors together two day conferences where the main
subjects are Reformed theology and pastoral practice. The conferences
are aimed chiefly at black pastors with no Reformed background.
Beginning in South Africa they have spread to several other African
countries, including Swaziland, Lesotho, Kenya and Nigeria.
This time
round I shared the ministry with Pastor Barnabas Olare from Mombasa,
Kenya. There were four conferences altogether, two in Eastern Cape
and two in Western Cape, over a three week period. As I couldn't be
away three Sundays I missed the first in Mthatha, where Pastor
Barnabas was joined by a Xhosa speaking Afrikaaner. The first
conference turned out to be the best attended.
I flew
first to Johannesburg, where I stayed with Irving. At lunch time I
went with Irving and Peter and Gayle, members of his church who deal
with the books and much else in connection with APCs. I led the usual
midweek evening Bible study at his house the day I arrived, looking
at James 1. I was sorry not to get to see fromer seminary students Thapelo Mpai and Sihle Xulu. The next
day I flew down to coastal Port Elizabeth, about an hour away by
plane.
There I
joined the team, which consisted of Cabelo Makgabo, Sonwabile
Gobololo and Pastor Barnabas. We drove back east to Grahamstown,
Eastern Cape. Grahamstown changes its name to Makhanda soon. It is an
early site of British immigration, sometimes known as Settlers Town.
There are many donkeys there for some reason. It has the country's
earliest Baptist Church (it was there long before us). This is where
we held what was my first two day conference (Friday, Saturday, March
1, 2). I gave five papers and Barnabas four, They were all translated
by a very capable pastor's wife. We also had a question and answer
session with good questions on the Trinity, the Bible and Ephesians
4:11. It is the first time such a conference has been held there and
the turn out was not overwhelming. The men were mostly from what are
called Zionist Churches and they were keen to learn. We stayed in a
nearby township home, which was okay except that there was a drought
in the area so water was at a premium. The other problem with
accommodation was that they did not know we planned to stay so long
so we had to move out. We moved to another township home but there
was something of a mix up so we had to hastily exit late at night and
were thankful to find refuge in a local hotel. There was water there
but no electricity at first.
On the
Lord's Day we attended a township gathering in a marquee, where an
archbishop was being ordained. I've attended a Zionist church before.
They put a big African drum in the middle of the room with a group of
youngsters with chairs around the outside for older folk and clergy
types. There's a lot of singing and plenty of liturgical material.
Most of the congregation wear a uniform (common in South Africa). The
clergy like to dress in exotic clothing. I was given opportunity to
preach a short message in translation (on Romans 6:23). It was a long
service but we were taken to eat as it drew to a close. The beef was
very tasty. I heard the animal was killed the day before.
In the
evening we went to the Baptist Church. The congregation was a little
mixed racially and contained mostly students from nearby Rhodes
University. Three women led the worship which was rather drippy I
thought. The church has two pastors but as they had been away with
the students neither of felt up to preaching so they played a video
instead - Steve Lawson on God's wisdom. The pastors (Dirk Coetzee and
Brian Marx) seemed quite good sorts.
*
The next
day we headed west for George. We were again accommodated in a
township home, with a nice multi-generational family, which was fine.
The conference (Tuesday, Wednesday, March 4, 5) was held in a wooden
hut nearby where a Zionist church meets. Again this was a new venture
and, sadly, numbers were very low. We dropped one talk and the
question time. While in George we visited lovely Victoria Bay, which
has a lovely sandy beach and is a haunt for surfers and fishermen.
*
Next day,
Thursday March 6, we carried on west along the coast towards Cape
Town. From just before George we were in tourist country and it was
nice to see baboons on the road at one point and to realise there
were several tourist attractions all along the way. We arrived at the
township of Khayelitsha in the evening and were again looked after
very well by a pastor and his multi-generational family. The trouble
here was an excess of insect life but it was not too bad. As in other
places, there was a large TV (everyone has a satellite dish) and it
was always on. The two day conference was held at a very nice church
called Goodwood Baptist Church in Cape Town itself. The pastor there
is a South African called Martin Drysdale. He was very nice and
definitely Reformed. Again only a small number came to the conference
but these were all pastors with a good theological education and we
were able to speak in English, which made things a whole lot easier.
It was nice to meet an American professor from nearby Kalk Bay Bible
Institute. We had a very good and lengthy question and answer time at
the end.
On the
Sunday we were again at a Zionist church in the morning. They met in
a real tin shack but are trying to build a new building. Pastor
Barnabas preached an excellent sermon in translation and we took
communion. We were invited to the pastor's house following the
meeting for lunch. Before that I was able to watch two programmes on
the God Channel, one from the USA (Jerry Saville - probably more
dangerous than Jimmy Saville) one from East London, RSA (youth pastor
Brad Teberer spoke). The prosperity gospel is alive and well and
being preached in South Africa. In the afternoon we did a little
sightseeing in Cape Town, which was fun.
In the
evening we were at Goodwood, where a good number gathered to hear
deacon Jaco de Beer. A little band led the worship using Keith Getty
type songs. Mr de Beer introduced Amos and it was a little Bible
study like but he realised that and that counts for a lot. It was
good to have fellowship after with the members and young people,
including a Welshman and a man who lived in Cardiff for a year.
Numbers in Cape Town were greater than in Grahamstown.
It then
took us two days to drive back to Johannesburg, stopping en route in
Colesberg. I was in good time to head back home late that evening.
*
Conclusions
1. RSA is
very big, enormous
2. There
is a lot of poverty
3. There
is a measure of harmony and freedom there and great opportunity
4. There
is a lot of evangelical religion but much of it misguided
5. The
opportunities for good influence are vast
6. The
APCs is one way this can be brought about
7. A
feature of the conferences is the sale of good books at very low
prices. This also has an impact.
