Truth for the World Campaign in Africa

The 1995 Truth for the World African Campaign was conducted July 4 to August 2, 1995. A total of nine gospel preachers from Tennessee, Ohio, and Alabama participated. The first phase of the campaign was in the African nation of Uganda. There we met with church leaders who came from 23 of the 30 congregations in the nation. We conducted a three­day seminar on the book of First Corinthians. Daily attendance exceeded 200. Fifteen were baptized into Christ and one was restored.

We next traveled to Yala in the western section of Kenya for another seminar. African brethren told us that some of the American missionaries had discouraged them from attending our meetings. Attendance for the seminar was around 50 with preachers and leaders present from 16 congregations. We learned from these brethren of many problems in the church in Kenya such as choirs and hand clapping in the worship and women leading singing and prayers in the assembly with men present. One member of a denomination obeyed the gospel during the seminar.

Following our work in East Africa, we flew into Lusaka, Zambia, for the second phase of our campaign. We were met by faithful missionaries, Jerry Sullins and Lloyd Henson, and local church leaders, Timothy Zimba and Franklin Kumwenda. We divided into two groups. Jerry Sullins took one group to Ndola in the Copperbelt region for a seminar. Attendance for the three­day event in Ndola ranged from 300­500. Four were baptized and four erring members were restored to the faith.

The second group was taken by Lloyd Henson to the Southern Province where we worked in the Kabanga area. Several congregations came together. Five hundred were present the first day. Attendance soon reached 2,000. The local Christians had constructed a brush arbor for the meeting and a grass house for the preachers to sleep in. July and August are winter months in Zambia; we experienced some cool nights in the grass huts. Preaching began each morning at 7:00 a.m. and continued until night with time out only for meals and baptizing. Lessons were taken from First Corinthians with at least one, and sometimes two, question­and­answer sessions each day.

Faithful brethren in Zambia are also fighting liberalism. Among the problems they face are: "special music" in worship, hand clapping during songs, women assuming leadership roles, and fellowship with denominations, especially the Independent Christian Church. The use of choral groups in worship came up often in the question­and­answer sessions. Several confessed that they had sinned in singing in church choirs. A total of 31 souls put on Christ in baptism and 257 confessed sins and asked for prayers during the meeting at Kabanga.

The Kabanga and Ndola groups joined together to go to Livingstone for another seminar at the Zambia School of Biblical Studies. This preacher­training school is a result of the merger of the Botswana School of Biblical Studies, which has been successfully conducted by Jerry and Ray Sullins for several years, with the Zambia Bible Training Center, which has been in operation in Livingstone for more than 20 years under the leadership of Lloyd Henson, veteran missionary to Zambia. Elders, preachers, and leaders came from 25 different congregations to attend the Livingstone seminar. A deaf­mute man was baptized into Christ during this effort to make a total of 52 baptized and 262 restored during the four weeks of the campaign.

Interest in true New Testament Christianity and hearing the preaching of God's Word are still high priorities in many nations of the world, especially in Africa. Truly, "The fields are white unto harvest" (John 4:35). Brethren, we need to be busy carrying out the commission our Lord has given us (Matt. 28:19­20; Mark 16:15­16; Luke 24:46­47).