Out of Africa

Roberta and I arrived home Friday from two weeks in South Africa. On the left you see me with a couple of friends I made while I was there. The reason we went was so that I could minister at three Shepherds' Conferences along with Wayne Mack, Bill Barrick, and Joel James. The first was in Johannesburg. 240 people attended and heard messages from Wayne, Bill, Joel, Tim Cantrell, Brian Beidebach, and myself. It was quite cold in Johannesburg (down to freezing tempatures at night) but the fellowship was warm and the teaching was hot. The response was encouraging and we had a great time.

Next we went to Polokwane in the Northern Province of South Africa. There were 130 folks at this conference including all 60 students of Christ Baptist Seminary. Most of the students are black and a number of pastors from some of the remote villages attended this conference. The weather was a little warmer and, again, the fellowship and teaching was encouraging. Here Wayne, Bill, Joel, and myself were joined in the teaching by Nicki Coertze and Johann Odendahl.

This is a picture of me with one of the seminary students, Anthony. Anthony is a graduate of The Master's College and is hoping to return to his home country of Uganda and pastor a church. It was great to spend time in Polokwane with men like Anthony. One of the highlights of this part of the trip was the singing. We sang several songs in Sutu and you knew you were in Africa. These men really love the Lord and they are enthusiastic about serving and worshipping Him.

From Polokwane we then headed to the southern tip of Africa and the city of Cape Town. 80 people attended this part of the conference which was an improvement on previous years. Again, the conference went very well and we enjoyed the fellowship very much. The nice thing about this trip was that we got to minister to three very different groups of people, all of whom love the Lord and are serious about serving Him.

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and fortunately we had some free time and some good weather so we were able to explore some of the beauty of this city. The highlight of Cape Town is Table Mountain.

We were able to go up to the top of the mountain and enjoy the spectacular views, like the one below.

The trip was great. I spoke 27 times in 12 days and it was a great privilege to minister the Word to the folks at the conference. In Cape Town we were joined in the ministry by Pastor Mark Christopher who went to seminary with me. It was encouraging to see the work that the Lord is doing in South Africa and these conferences are a big part of encouraging the ministry there.

There were many other highlights from the trip. One more that I will share with you is seen the last picture. Yes, that is Roberta, inside the cage, petting a Cheetah. It's just what you do when you are in Africa. As you can tell, we had a great time and maybe we'll have opportunity to tell some of you more about it.

Note: I'm thankful for the responses I received to my last blog about the family. I found it interesting that the comments were from three young couples with no children (yet), a young single man, and a "homeschooler." In my next blog I will come back to this issue. Perhaps some more people would like to enter into the discussion, maybe some who have been married longer and have some children.

God bless you and if you have an opportunity to go to South Africa, I would highly recommend it.