I was taking the delegation of Pastors from East Kasai to
the National Conference of the CPC (Communaute Pentecotiste du Congo). This
involved travelling via the Kisapo Swamps 457 kilometres to Kamina and then down
the Lubumbashi Road about 174 kilometres
to the coal mining town of Luena. Before
we left I had deliberately checked my tools and spares as this truck was
definitely not made for the boggy and sandy conditions of the Congolese bush.
It had narrow tyres good for deliveries on bitumen roads of Europe but not
Africa. It was also a petrol version. I saw a small 15cms length of clear
plastic pipe and popped it into my tool box. I mused that it might come in
handy. For what? I did not know.
As we travelled down
towards Kamina in the ‘Blue’ truck we had several empty fuel drums as well as
Pastors in the back of the three and a half ton Renault.
Pastor Ngoie Marcel had a large polyester coat which was
excellent for the cold dry season nights in Katanga Province. He’d removed his
coat and placed it on one of the drums up front of the rear tray. As we bounced
along on the bush roads his coat had tumbled down between the front cab and the
back tray right on to the exhaust system.
The next thing I knew was, the people in the back yelling and
screaming to stop. They shouted that they were on fire. I pulled up quickly,
raced around to where the fire was and found Ngoie’s coat on fire on the
exhaust. I pulled it off and saw that it had burnt right through the fuel line.
I plugged my finger over the line coming from the fuel tank and prayed that it
would not explode in my face as I lay under the side of the truck. When things
had had time to cool down I crawled out and then I remembered the piece of
clear plastic pipe. Praise God for his Kindness!
We were kilometres from anywhere and at least two hundred kilometres from home at the Mission. Outback Congo has no garages nor even
other vehicles for help. The roads are deserted for hundreds of kilometres. How
would we ever have found a small piece of plastic pipe out in the outback of
Africa.
There was only one
solution; that small piece of pipe.
When I tried, it fitted perfectly. How I praise the Lord for His kindness. I
had never had a piece of plastic pipe like that in my tool box before nor since.
It was a miracle, way out on the Savannah plains of the Congo. God sees our
need before we even know it. He knows the details of our lives.
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| On the farm roads |
The ‘Musungu’
Open-Air Preacher
After a difficult few
days of Conference there was a huge open-air Sunday afternoon meeting where
Eddie Rowlands preached in his second Congolese language Kiluba, on the the
Text from Deuteronomy_30:19 “I
call Heaven and earth to record today against you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.
Therefore, choose life, so
that both you and your seed may live.”
Well, Eddie told the story of his own brother who was a
smoker and drinker who died early. I think it was about 49 years of age. Then
he explained how He chose life in Jesus Christ and now he is well into his 70s
and he has eternal life in him.
The consequences for our choices are tremendous. They
are Eternal Life or Eternal (Death and separation from God Loved Ones and
Friends). More than one hundred and thirty Africans ran to the front of the
preacher in response to the call to commit their lives to Jesus Christ for His
safe keeping.
Maybe there is
someone who is reading this who needs to choose life in Jesus Christ today.Ask
Him to forgive your sin and wash you clean from an evil conscience. He died for
us all. He will do it!!<kenherschell@gmail.com>
The Roar of a Lion
and the Jumping Monkeys.
Along the farm roads as we were homeward bound from Kamina
to Kipushya again we stopped for a break and a cup of tea in the late afternoon.
We intended to sleep at one of Belgian cattle farms en route.
When we had just
poured the cuppa and began to drink one of the Pastors yelled, “Get in the
truck! Let’s go now. Hurry!!” I wondered what they were worried about.
The next
thing I saw was a huge black monkey bounding from tree to tree in such leaps it
was intriguing to watch. They yelled that a lion was on the plains hunting and
we soon started up and moved on into the night. We were not going to stop until
we reached the farms that night.
God gives His Angels charge
over us to protect us in all our ways. Psalms
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| Andy Herschell at the Wheel. |
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