What's in a Day's Work?

Volume 2 1988

it Of .i rni:;sionaiy 15 worker of outline lellowsflip is seldom null. Our ‘i ;alrle workers face an inCredible variety cfsrlh’ riqes and opporirinitics.
One of our teams in South West Africa, .irinq a 16-day field trip, travelled 000km, much of it on dirt roads, and con acted 68 public meetings. This included ibal meetings, military outreaches. church i evangelistic film showings, youth reetings. leadership seminars, radio iurch services and a television interview. Another field team held 89 evangelistic teetings in a seven-week field trip cover g 8 000 km by road. This entailed out raches to towns, villages, kraals, military sses and refugee camps. It included all ay leadership training courses, Sunday :hool lessons, church services, street lit ‘ature distribution, door-to-door (or hut-to it) visitation, hospital outreaches, youth ‘oups. women’s groups, men’s groups d Bible study groups. It also involved five iechanical breakdowns of our old vehicle, at stroke for me and a dramatic escape am Angola, running through a booby-trap ?d town and mine field, and swimming a ocadile-infested river, pUrsued by Marxist Dops!
Sometimes we have spent nights doing )ne-to-one” street evarvgelism, literature stribution and crisis counselling in the nse high-rise city centre of Hillbrow. ther times we’ve spent days distributing imanitarian relief aid, Gospels and New staments to Mozambiquan refugees. ome days have been filled with hours of refully selecting, collecting and packing ospel literature, records and Scriptures in )zens of languages, much research, plan ng and preparation, and often days of ng-distance travel by four-wheel-drive hicle or motorbike, often on bad roads.
More days than we care to remember ve been spent in frustrating queues, fil ig out endless visa applications, immigra )n. customs and other forms, and sitting in owded waiting rooms of embassies and )nsulates. Many hours at border posts d roadblocks and all too often in police ?lls and jails tool
On one field trip my brother and I were ‘rested three times during a two-week trip. t evaded ambushes and were escorted it of Mozambique at gun point.
Four Fronttine missionaries were impris ned in Zambia during October of last year nd two of our part-time field workers were rrested and interrogated in the Mozam ique secret police headquarters in Maputo arlier this year, Once our headquarters in ahannesburg was bombed by terrorists, We have also had our share of mechani al difficulties. On one field trip my off-road iotorbike suffered three punctures. Our 6mm projector has broken down too many nes, and the generator or electricity has tiled us at some crucial points. Once a )wer failure hit one of our ‘Jesus” film lowirlqs iii Swaziland lust as the Crucifi— tin in was being depicted. With a torch in md. I preached fervently for nearly an on before the electricity was restored and e could continue with the Resurrection.
on’ filiri 00fF n . I fOil rin’o’ttlCd arid
‘P st irig at fIre projccfoi to see what cculd he wioiiq. At last I riot iced that lire oar r eei of tire borrowed projector was ii
•th-rnirrute reel, whereas the film I was showing was a 60-minute film. For several minutes I sat as the sickening realisation of mminent disaster dawned on me, and I vis ualised the celluloid piled up in tangles on the floor. Suddenly I realised the solution and, leaving the two-hundred eager view ers blissfully unaware of the coming pro blem, I hunted for clothes pegs, dismantled them and, as the film was running, taped clothes pegs to the rear reel to extend its capacity. Only just in time was a catas trophe averted.
Another field team had a defective pro ector which did not re-wind the film. This ‘ had to do by hand each time with the 2- hour (four-reel) “Jesus” film. We’ve also had our share of blown bulbs, spilt trays of slides and upside-down slides.
On one memorable field trip we were returning on a dust road when several thuds under the vehicles alerted us to stop and see both our fuel tanks ruptured and the petrol pouring out into the greedy sand. Quickly we emptied all our bottles and tried to salvage as much as possible of the pre cious fuel. As Rob plugged up the holes with gum glue, I captured the spilt fuel with bottles in one hand and re-poured the petrol back into the tank with the other.
Then, after the frantic repairs, we con tinued, only to be forced to stop further on with an overheated engine. One look under the bonnet (hood) revealed that our alter nator (generator) had fallen out—this must have bounced under the car, rupturing both fuel tanks — and therefore we had lost our fan beltt With the African sun sinking low on the horizon, we began a one-thousand kilo metre return trip in the dark, using six pairs of socks as improvised fan belts, push- starting the panel van again at every stop.
onietirrros w’ve’ rrrinistered ‘.vilOjn ‘,ound of the mortars, machine guns arid helicopter qunships. Some rights trace;
and flares lit up the [ Sometimes wove faced great danger and often weve en joyed great blessings, warm hospitality and long church services. Sometimes we have been hungry and cold, shivering in the soft sand at night, often we are hot and sweaty. drenched with perspiration in the blazing tropical sun. Sometimes we have been dis appointed and depressed, emotionally ex hausted from the long roads, cross-cultural adjustments, and loneliness. Too often we have had to look at the dead and dying, decomposing corpses and burnt-out vil lages. Yet we have also had the joy
seeing people dancing for joy to receive
Bible, the privilege of witnessing hundreds stand to surrender their lives to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Some of our workers have suffered from tick-bite fever, heat exhaustion, typhoid and pneumonia. Others have had motor bike accidents, been stabbed, shot at and beaten by mobs — for preaching the Gospel of Christ. And we’ve sometimes returned home to unsyt girlfriends and break-ups, homes broken into by burglars, piles of unpaid bills and critical committees. home churches and friends.
Yet the results make it all worth while.
We’ve given clothes to the naked and food to the starving. We’ve visited some
those in prison for their faith and we’ve deli vered medical relief to sick, wounded and crippled tribesmen in Mozambique and Angola. We’ve given Bible teaching
church leaders, who have walked, bare foot, over 100km to meet us. We’ve shown Christian films to villagers who have never seen a film before. We’ve visited churches which haven’t had a visitor for five years, and we’ve given Bibles to Christians who have never had a Bible before.