CHRIST FOR AFRICA MISSION

PO Box 279

Tontitown, AR  72770-0279

Telephone:  479-361-2261

Email:  sacfaim@wmconnect.com

Reporting what God is doing through

indigenous missions in Southern Africa.

John and Anita Newton

My father was a Roman Catholic, my mother was a nominal Methodist. At age 16, I attended a revival meeting in a tent, conducted by local Baptists. There I was converted of my sins, accepted Christ as my Savior, and became a child of God on October 28, 1953. I felt led of God to be baptized at once as a public confession of my new found faith. I launched out in faith on February 14, 1954, until March 1979, in 8 African Countries,          in tent ministries, planting Indigenous Native Churches.

Anita Van Rensburg and I married on December 17th, 1966, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In faith,Christ For Africa Mission traveled with gospel tents preaching Christ to the people as far as finances would take us. We also did child evangelism with puppets and a ventriloquist doll for 5 years. During this time, we had 12,000 decisions for the Lord in our                 Kids for Christ Crusades.
From 1966 onwards, we enjoyed working for God in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zaire, and South West Africa (Namibia). We always had record attendances. Our large tent had 1000 seats and on many occasions we had two people sharing one seat. We would remove the side curtains off the tent and would have just as many people on the outside looking in. Many days it would be extremely hot and dry due to drought. The people would come for miles to hear the Word of God. Our Tent Meetings would last from a minimum of three weeks to three months in one location.     During this time, we would baptize 300—600 Africans during each outreach.
In 1979, we immigrated to the USA to obtain US citizenship. We became a vital link between the mission field and the churches here in the USA. We will always miss the African bush, the drums, the clapping of hands, their joy and their singing in such harmony, mud brick walls, straw decked elephant grass for roofs, water baptisms in crocodile infested rivers, snakes, wild animals and insects, the flat tires in thorny patched roads, radiators of vehicles overheating, broken down transmissions in the desert or sand roads, clearing broken trees from the roads, and waiting for the rain to stop so that we could pack our gear or wait two   or three days after the rains to dig our truck out of the mud. During times like these we always praised God, teaching and instructing the people how to pray and wait upon the  Lord. We enjoyed building and rebuilding churches in the bush. It is a very difficult way of life, but we knew that God had called us to do this work. We worked in terrorist infested areas in Rhodesia & Mozambique, where many of the church buildings were torn down by militants who had been trained in Cuba or the USSR. We have seen hunger pains, cholera, malaria, AIDS, … Death. Looking back over my 50 years in Africa, leaves Anita & I with a lot of precious memories — some sad ones - but grateful to be chosen of God as a Servant to proclaim the good news of His salvation to Southern Africa.
Africa may have come from the word aprica, meaning “sunny” in Latin, or the Greek word: aphrike, meaning “without cold”. Africa occupies 20% of the earth’s land surface, which is 11.7 million square miles, only Asia is larger. Africa is 5,000 miles long (north to south) and 4,600 miles wide (east to west). Its coastlines measure 18,950 miles; shorter than Europe’s because of the absence of tiny inlets and bays. Its climate varies widely from the temperature in High plateau to tropical along the coastal plains, to plain intolerable deserts.
THE INVASION AND SUPER POWER INTEREST:
The 16th Century Portuguese Maritime traders found that some West African textiles were superior to anything being made in Europe- then they invaded us with theirs. By 1920, every inch of Africa, except Ethiopia, Liberia, and the Union of South Africa, was under European rule or protection, or was claimed by a European Country. Today, Africa is a potential battle ground for the superpowers, who may well be as obsessed with it in 15 years time as they are with the Middle East today.
ETHNICITY, TRIBE AND LANGUAGE:
Only three countries in black Africa—Somalia, Lesotho and Swaziland—are blessed with ethnic uniformity. Removing tribal identity away from African ethnicity would be like telling a devout Catholic that he has been ex-communicated. Africa speaks 32% of all the languages available to the human race! In addition to the half a dozen European languages in use by Africans, there are 750 tribal tongues, 50 of which are spoken by one million or more people. Swahili, for instance, is spoken in East Africa by more than 25 million people, while Hausa is spoken in West Africa by more than 25 million people. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish speaking country in the continent. Swahili was introduced by the Arab traders. Cameroon is the only country in Africa that uses two official languages, English and French.
POPULATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES:
Africa has human resources that are as underdeveloped as its sunken treasures, over 500 million people, half of them not older than 15, who yearn for and eventually demand lives that are free from disease, poverty and repression. The problem of Africa is not that it is densely populated, but that it is unevenly populated. It is interesting to note that Kenya has the highest population growth rate in the world.
AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES:
Africa has the largest desert — the Sahara desert. The flattest continent in the world. There are just seven tractors for every 25,000 farmed acres and four pounds of fertilizer for every acre. The Sahara alone is growing at the rate of 250,000 acres per year. Even if Africa does not clear another acre, its fertile soil is capable of producing 130 times what it yields today. Africa has millions and millions of untilled farmland. Its farmland could feed itself and all of Western Europe. There is no other continent so blessed yet so hungry and destitute.
REFUGEES AND FOOD CRISES:
African refugees are about 4.2 million. 21 million people in Africa today depend on foreign aid to feed them, while 145 million Africans are facing precarious food situations. The colonialists signed the scenario for disaster, and the Africans seem to be trying their best to fulfill it. Across the continent, economies are collapsing, cities are deteriorating, and food production is declining. Populations are growing like weed-seed turned loose in a garden.
LEADERSHIP AND FREEDOM:
African governments fall at the whim of semi-illiterate junior army officers and some disgruntled despots, whole ambitions to stay in power are often given some divine impetus. Human rights are paper work as many more countries in Africa are prohibiting the work of Christian missions in particular.
ECONOMIC AND NATURAL RESOURCES:
Africa has 40% of the world’s potential hydroelectric power supply. It has the largest reserves of the untapped natural resources in the world’s nuclear minerals, ...These are essential to both the West and East in times of war and peace. Africa has the bulk of the world's deposit of diamonds. 30% of all the uranium in the world is buried in Southern Africa; so also is 50% of the world’s gold deposit. 90% of the world’s cobalt, 50% of its phosphate and 40% of its platinum are in Africa. Africa is blessed with 8% of the world’s known petroleum resources, 12% of the world’s natural gas, 7.5% of its coal and about 3% of the world’s iron ore are part of resources with which Africa is endowed.
CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGION:
The growth of the church in Africa has been a marked phenomenon in the last 10 years. Hunger for God’s Truth is becoming apparent in the continent. Specks of revival and very positive response of youths to the gospel is noticed in countries where religious tolerance is practiced.