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 There is good news!
Poor old Africa! What an Unhappy continent! These are sentiments we have heard a lot over recent weeks. Of course, there is a measure to which this is accurate, but it is not the whole story, even in the political spheres. The trouble is that the media often move on when the horror stories stop. True - neither DR Congo or Burundi are at peace yet, but did you realise that most of the rebel groups in both countries are in the process of being absorbed into both the government and the army? It does not always reach the news. Continue to pray for both these countries as they stutter towards peace and stability.
May 18th will be significant for Malawi this year. Election day. The Church has developed a tradition of activity in elections in this country. Pray for integrity and openness and for a government which will put the needs of the people above those of personal benefit.
The Church in Kenya has also been vocal in many political issues. Their involvement in the 2002/3 elections probably had an effect in the change of regime. The country has made strides forward in some areas in dealing with corruption and graft. Many judges have had to resign because of it.There is still a long way to go and many mistakes are still made. Thank God for what has been done and pray for church leaders who feel led by God to be active in this sphere.
Message from Jill
Thank you so much for all your condolences and prayerful support of recent months, during Dereks short illness and since his Homecall. Throughout this difficult time the family and I have been very conscious of being upheld in prayer and of the Lords Peace and Presence with us.
Thank you too for all the donations which have been sent to APF in Dereks memory. As most of you will know a large part of our ministry was devoted to the work of the Fellowship in equipping Gods servants in Africa to be more effective in theirs, and I see these gifts as a tribute to those who work faithfully there and also to others who are now with the Lord.
Time and again in the last weeks of Dereks life we came back to those words in Philippians 1:21 Appropriately it was the theme of the Thanksgiving Service at which our son Paul, Philip Johanson and David Howard all spoke of how commitment to Christ and Gods Word should be central in all our lives as they had been for Derek.
In all our work with APF Derek and I were so grateful to God for your support and I am sorry that I have been unable to write to you all personally. However, please accept this as a message of appreciation for your ongoing support for APF and for your Fellowship
With love in the Lord,
Jill Blundell
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Derek with Bishop Sylvanus Wani, with whom he put together the
African Pastors Fellowship
Kenya Trip
In the previous News and Prayer we gave details of the Uganda part of the latest trip that APF staff took to East Africa. That was preceded by a period of work and holiday in Kenya. We will reflect a little on this in this newsletter, the people and situations we met and some of the significance for the work we seek to do.
Refugees
The first few days in Nairobi, in early December, brought us into contact with refugees from a number of parts of Africa. Whilst in Kenya we met refugees from DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Sudan. Nairobi is the temporary home for many of these. Some are able to use this experience as a means of learning. Many of these are even in Bible Colleges. Ralph spent time with one pastor from DR Congo in one college and met a number of Sudanese pastors in another. These opportunities are not open to all, however. Many are still traumatised by the experiences they have been through in their own countries and many still slip through the net of official help. An afternoon spent in worship and sharing with some of these refugees helped bring these problems to the fore. Please pray for the refugee pastors who are seeking to support and encourage their fellows.
In the clouds with the Maasai
We were completely taken by surprise by the temperature when we eventually arrived at our base for the course with Maasai church leaders. We were freezing and had only taken light clothes. In the early morning and evening we were huddled over a charcoal fire in a jiko to keep warm. We have not found out yet how high we were, but I can tell you, it was high! (around 10,000ft.) Staying in the chiefs compound was a real privilege, especially as he had only made a personal commitment to Christ a few months earlier. Only one of his wives was at home, the other was away on a course. You can see some of the problems he has to seek Gods will about!
The roads were not any more encouraging than the temperature and when it rained it increased our nervousness at getting out. We did only get stuck once and then the course participants happily came and pushed us out.
Most of the participants were not pastors. In fact, in the strictest sense of the word, only one or two were. However, some 25 of the men had pastoral oversight over a congregation of believers and were clearly the people we had come to help. Hardly any had had any Biblical training and some had had very little education. They were all keen to learn and once the sessions were underway things moved well.
The problem was that we had asked for pastors and wives to attend and this created difficulties for the Maasai household. Special arrangements had to be made to look after the animals and in some cases, husband and wife had to take it in turns, day and day about. On top of this, many travelled several miles each way each day and so the course did not often start before 11am. Food took a chunk of time (on the first day, it rained so much that the cooking fires, outside were put out, and food was delayed until 3.30pm!) and so by the time we had finished around 4.30pm, not a lot of ground was covered. For this group, however, it was probably enough to take in.
In spite of this Jane had some sessions with the wives on their own.
This is an area of almost virgin soil for Protestant Christianity. It is only seven years ago that the first person felt called to faith in one of these valleys. He had been a tour guide in different parts of East Africa and in Nairobi had been given a Bible. When he returned to his village, he continued to read the Bible and felt God calling him. Finding that the local Catholic priest took his parishioners off to drink after Sunday services, he was unimpressed and knew there was more to faith than this. Two of his friends eventually joined him and they began to preach in the vi llages around and a small nuclear church was formed. Eventually they linked up with a visiting pastor from the Africa Inland Church and there has been encouraging progress since then. The original chap still acts as pastor although he has not yet had any training.
In the meantime God had been working in the life of Francis, who is now pastor of the church where we had the training and a number of small congregations have opened up in the area. It was a real privilege to share just a little with these pastors and their wives and to leave at least one terms tuition fees and boarding for Francis at a local Bible College. Money was also left for a number of these church leaders to get bicycles, which we are assured will be a great help, in spite of the terrain.
Nakuru and Nyahururu
To get to our next stage in the trip, we seemed to be going down hill for a long time, before we arrived in Nakuru. We arrived a day early but no one was phased by this as our Maasai pastor friend, David, made arrangements for us to stay with a school proprietor and his family for the night. It also gave us the time to see something of the work of a young man who had accompanied us during the previous week. Joseph used to work with Life Ministries, showing the Jesus film, but has felt a strong call to work with the street children and street mothers in the town of Nakuru. Many of these folk literally live off the town rubbish dump, even finding food there. Their main source of income is in collecting paper and plastic from the dump and selling it to be recycled. The smell was something never forgotten. So was the eagerness with which some of these children devoured the loaves of bread taken to them. Joseph has set up a programme by which street mothers are taught in a classroom during the afternoons, when no-one else is using them. They are taught basic skills and etiquette and serious efforts made to reduce their dependence on prostitution etc for their existence. A number of these street mothers have come to real faith in recent months.
Saturday and Sunday were spent in Nakuru with Bishop Meshack Maina of the Faith Victory Centre. On the first day we spent the morning and afternoon with some 25 pastors and half as many wives at the Kaptembwo church of FVC. The pastors came from about 10 different small churches. Listening to their stories was a challenge and made one think about the relationship between evangelism and the Church. Again it was valuable to have the chance to give some training to these pastors who had never had any formal training. We found out later that even Bishop Maina, who has been in this church for over 20 years has never had any formal training. (This is partly due to poor eyesight.) Interestingly enough, his wife, Grace, who is also a pastor has just finished a course at Eldoret Bible College.
Sunday service at the Faith Victory Church was a little chaotic, but a teaching sermon on forgiveness was very well received. On a number of occasions, church leaders, including the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya, have emphasised to us the lack of teaching in the Church. This really is a major prayer point. On Sunday afternoon, the Bishop kindly took us up to edge of the great Menengai Crater a reminder of the greatness of the God we have the privilege of loving and serving.
We were disappointed not to be actually going to Nyahururu for the seminar with the pastors and wives of the Anglican Diocese of Nyahururu. Instead we held the course on the outskirts of Nakuru at a Training Centre which the Diocese of Nakuru is building. In fact, it turned out to be a brilliant course with a lot of ground covered and good relationships established. It was very hot in Nakuru after lunch and so we suggested that the whole afternoon should be free and we made use of the cooler period after tea. Virtually all the clergy from Nyahururu were present with a high percentage of their wives. The Bishop and his wife were very active participants. We had wondered how this course would go as, in contrast to the previous week, all the clergy had had at least three years at college, some had diplomas, some had Bachelors degrees and some even Masters Degrees. The course was held in English. We need not have worried, though as we had a very receptive group who seemed to appreciate the almost 6 hours each day of teaching, discussion groups and workshops that were fitted in.
On one afternoon the Bishop of Nyahururu took us in to see the Bishop of Nakuru and another afternoon he took us up to Nyahururu itself. This was quite spectacular as we were able to visit Thomsons Falls as well as Berea Theological College. This is one of the colleges we have been in contact with concerning the APF commentaries. It is also one where a number of Sudanese refugees studying.
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This row of mobile phones on charge on this course shows
the way modern technology is reaching East Africa
Holiday
After the Nyahruru course we were privileged to have a three week holiday with all our family. Two of the families came out to spend Christmas with our daughter Ruth and her MAF husband in Kenya. We had a great time including a rest at Mombasa and a number of the more agile members of the family went up Mount Kenya.
Back to Western Kenya
After the Christmas and New Year break we were off to Western Kenya. We are indebted to Pastor Daniel Ogutu, of Mathare Valley, who made a car and driver available to us for this part of the trip.
On the way down to Kisumu we met up with Pastor Paul Korir of Eldoret Diocese, who shared with us at the Durham Day conference last year. He told us of part of the Diocese where malaria was a particular problem and we were able to give money for mosquito nets for the pastors living in this area.
The next course, in Nyangao, Rongo, was extremely rural, with no running water or electricity, but a number of keen pastors and their wives of the Pentecostal Fellowship church. This is a new fellowship, again with little training but a real desire to serve. The concept of a preaching plan over a number of weeks seemed to be quite revolutionary, but we have heard that at least one or two pastors have taken this on board.
Since returning to UK we have heard that one of these pastors has lost his home and belongings in a fire. APF does not have funds available to help towards the renewal of his home and purchasing basic equipment which will be about 380. If any supporters would like to contribute towards this we can make sure the money is passed on.
On one of the days we were here, Jane was able to go and visit Dorcas, the partors widow who is running a school meals project as an income generation scheme. She was able to take a sack of 100kgs of beans to Dorcas and was very encouraged by the way the scheme is running. It would seem to be a model for similar schemes where practical. If you would like to see pictures of this scheme let us know and we can send you a sheet. It might even stimulate support for similar ventures.
On the way from Nyangao to the Uganda border at Busia, we were able to call in and see Edith, the pastors wife who was provided with a water cart. This project is also going well. Edith was also pro- vided with a solar cooker. The week before she had used this for baking a wedding cake which had been much appreciated.
Are Bicycles Still Needed?
APF has been in the business of helping provide bicycles for pastors for so long, some people have asked the above question. The two letters below from Burundi will begin to give part of the answer - which is a resounding Yes, please There are two main reasons - i) there are so many pastors in East Africa and the number is growing all the time - and ii) the roads or paths are so atrocious that a bicycle does not always last so long - average about 5 years. The good news is that in some countries the price is dropping so £40-60 will help a pastor buy a bicycle.
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Dear Rev Ralph
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am very much grateful to you and to the African Pastors Fellowship for your grant to the Institut Theologique de Matana, may the almighty God bless you abundantly. I am very very sorry for this delay about the report of how we used the grant you gave last year for buying bicycles for mission and evangelism where by we bought 13 bicycles 8 with speed gears and 5 without speed gears, and 10 were for students and 3 for staff. I am pleased to tell you that those bicycles helped us so much in mission and evangelism and we managed to visit secondary schools, parishes and different congregations ,may the Lord bless you for that. We are so much grateful to you and to the African Pastors fellowship and i would like to say MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY
Yours in Christ
Rev Seth NDAYIRUKIYE
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Dear Ralph ;
Christian greetings from Gitega.
This is to inform you that we have received your gift of GBP 1050 and used it on 13th February 2004 to purchase 22 bicycles for our pastors whose names are the following :
The balance will be used to buy a lock, a carrier and a pump for each bicycle.
The Diocesan steering committee has beeninformed about your gift. All members of that committee have appreciated your gift and expressed their gratitude to you. The pastors who received those bicycles asked me to convey to you their thanks and appreciation.
Thank you again
Sincerely yours
Bishop John NDUWAYO
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Swahili Commentaries
Dorothy Almond has now completed writing her commentaries on books of the New Testament! The text for her final commentary, that on Hebrews, is now with APF. Commentaries on Romans and Revelation have just been printed. 2 Corinthians is with the printer at the moment. Luke is ready for the Press and Hebrews will be soon afterwards. We really do owe Dorothy a tremendous debt of gratitude for all that she has done. Pastors in East Africa are very grateful. Arthur Le Grand of Binley has also worked tremendously hard for us in getting the manuscripts into a form that can be just sent to the Press. Thank you Arthur.
The questions comes, what next? Some of the answers are obvious in the need to make sure these books get into pastors hands, the translation into other languages of East Africa and so on. All the same, what next for Swahili? APF has begun to work with the Central Tanganyika Press and others to find ways to stimulate the writing of more books, suitable for pastors directly in Swahili. Please pray for Michael Nchimbi and others as we seek to find what books are really needed and who can write them.
Kirundi
In the meantime progress with the translation from Swahili to Kirundi is encouraging - Galatians, Matthew (4 vols) and Acts are already printed and being used. Timothys and Titus are ready for printing. 1 Corinthians, James, Letters of Peter and Letters of John are already translated and being prepared for printing. In war-torn Burundi, one of the problems has been the availability of paper for printing. We have made arrangements, through World Emergency Relief for several reams of printing paper to be delivered to Bujumbura in the next little while. We trust that this will give a big boost to the production of Christian literature in general. Kinyarwanda and Chichewa Work on the production of these commentaries for Rwanda and Malawi is slowerand we ask for your continued prayers.
APF Day Conferences in 2004
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SW
St Chads Patchway
Bristol
Saturday 24th April
10.30 -4.00
Lunch will be provided for a donation Speakers will include Dr Isaiah Dau (Principal of Nairobi Pentecostal Bible College) Theo Mbabazimutima (Burundi) Emmaus Bandekile (Tanzania)
Please confirm with Chris Varney
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NW
St Andrews Maghull
Liverpool
Saturday 8th May
10.30 - 4.00pm
Bring your own lunch, drinks provided. Details of speakers ( including African students) still being organised
More details from Simon Rennie
0151 526 2971
Or APF 02476448068
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South
St Johns Shirley, Southampton
Saturday 12th June
10.30 - 4.00pm
Details still being worked out
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These are valuable times of fellowship when we learn of the joys and problems of those serving the Lord in such different circumstances than our own. Do try and come yourself to the one nearest to you and encourage others to come. Meetings for the NE, E and Midlands are planned for the autumn
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