South Africa 2019

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.