AFRICA projects a picture of yesterday and tomorrow, the ancient and the ultra modern. Donkey trains burdened with cotton or coffee struggle beside paved highways that are hosts to the latest cars and trucks. In Nairobi the roar of lions and the screaming of jet engines make a delightful duet. Swank supermarkets form a background to fresh-air shops where merchants' sit crosslegged on the ground while selling their dried fish, tropical fruits, and vegetables. 'Twenty-first century" architecture creates a glass, brick, and steel backdrop for an African village where the villagers continue living as they have for centuries in their round huts built of sun-baked bricks domed with thatch.
It all seems so anachronistic! What conflicting emotions Livingstone and Stanley would have if they were alive and could travel through Africa today! What conflicting emotions Pastor Alvin E. Cook and I had as we traveled through the Trans- Africa Division for three intriguing months! Any world-famous Cook tour couldn't begin to compare with the tour Alvin Cook cooked up for us!
Right here let me introduce Alvin E. Cook, Ministerial Association secretary for the Trans-Africa Division since 1966. Australian by birth, Cook has labored in New Zealand, South Africa, and England, as well as his homeland. For a quarter of a century he has been holding forth the word of life to scores of thousands who have attended his public meetings. You couldn't travel or work with a more amiable, sociable, dedicated individual. We started our trip as friends and ended as brothers. We debated every major issue the church faces and some it doesn't face! We ended up with a solution to all our problems--EVANGELISM! Our unalterable conclusion was that if the whole church involved itself with a direct soulwinning program most of our problems would take the nearest exit. When we weren't debating we were enjoying the scenery and animals and rehearsing our life's history. Cook's unique way of expressing himself was a continual delight. One thing sure, if an automobile could travel one mile on one laugh we could have dispensed with petrol (gasoline, that is).
14---1,400---14,000
Our travels carried us into ten countries, where we held fourteen ministerial institutes, each lasting an average of four days. From Cape Town to the Congo we met with fourteen-hundred workers and traveled a total of fourteen thousand miles by auto.
The magnitude of this trip would demand a book-length report if all names and events were recorded. Let me wrap it up by paying tribute to both national and overseas men and women who are devotedly laboring for the salvation of souls. Africa, whose commercial products range from platinum to pineapples, boasts of its wealth of diamonds and gold. But the real diamonds and the real gold are found in the form of people who have not only received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour but who are sharing their faith as workers and laymen.
He Kept Two Sundays
It is more than symbolic that the first Seventh-day Adventist in South Africa, William Hunt, a miner from Nevada, who arrived on the diamond diggings in Griqualand West, brought with him precious tracts filled with our message. Some ridiculed by crediting him with laziness be cause he kept two Sundays. But these charges led others to investigate his strange habits. From this small beginning, our work spread rapidly until today we have 287,516 members in the Trans-Africa Division.
What we now see in terms of churches, schools, clinics, and hospitals came into existence, but not without a high price. Mission-station grave markers are outward evidence of this high price. Famed Solusi Mission has its tiny plot of sacred soil where lie several pioneers. This is just a sample of the victimizing element of death usually brought about by the unsympathetic nature of blackwater fever and malaria. When you stand before the graves of a father and twelve-year-old son who died together in 1898, you realize anew what little concept we have of the hardship and privation endured by those who started our work in various parts of the world. The least we ought to gain from their "faithful unto death" spirit is a new determination to consecrate ourselves fully to the task of fulfilling the gospel commission.
Above-the-Knee Dresses
Before giving an evaluation of our work in Africa, permit me to relate several interesting experiences. Some countries in Africa ought to receive a gold medal for their standards on dress. Many people think that this continent is inhabited by tribes without history or culture. Nothing could be further from the truth. True, Africa is engaged in the struggle of harmonizing their own culture with that of the West. The following sign in the Blantyre airport vividly demonstrates this cultural conflict. Then it added that the Malawian culture dictated strict modesty, and it would be greatly appreciated if visitors would act in accordance with their custom. It occurred to me that hanging a copy of this sign in many Seventh-day Adventist churches would be entirely in order!
Forty Cows for a Bride
The dowry system is both strange and interesting to the Westerner. The government and the church have been unsuccessful in eliminating this system. It is gradually being altered by making dowry payments more reasonable. Depending on the tribe, dowry ranges from twenty to fifty head of cattle. The man with only daughters, such as myself, is in a most enviable position! I asked one of our pas tors how much he paid for his wife. He replied, "My wife was expensive, I had to pay forty cows!"
It was pointed out that if the wife ever leaves her husband she and her parents must pay the dowry back. This has a rather stabilizing influence on the marriage contract! Another feature was emphasized which concerns man's attitude toward that which he pays dearly for. After all, isn't it natural to think more highly of your wife if it cost you something to get her! The value of something free is often questionable. After thinking these arguments through, the question struck me "Who gets a wife for nothing anyway?" Most of us men, during courtship days, have invested quite a bit in our wives in the form of candy, gifts, postage, long-distance calls, entertainment, and travel! But they are worth it all, and we would do a great deal more for them.
