African Cameleon

Mamadou asked,"Can I be forgiven?"

Typical African Market.

In the downtown Market in Pita, Guinea, West Africa, we had a stall. There amongst the shoe sellers and odds and ends we had books in French, Arabic as well as cassettes AND Bible society comic books about Abraham, Elijah – the Prophet of Fire, The Life of Jesus etc.

Many young people would come and chat. We often spoke of the Good News of Isaa. (Jesus in Arabic) One day as we were sharing the Good News with a small group of people, this one young man, a school teacher, asked, “Can I be forgiven?

He explained his situation. I have made my girlfriend pregnant. I love her very much but the family will not allow me to marry her. What am I to do? Can God forgive me?” By this time he was very distraught and tears were welling up in his eyes. We explained to Mamadou that Jesus came to died on the Cross to take our punishment and reconcile us to God. If we confess and forsake our sin He will forgive us our sin and cleanse us for all unrighteousness.

The only answer to our sin and undoneness is to turn away from sin in true repentance. Then to turn to Jesus, the One and Only Saviour, in true Faith, believing that He will forgive us because of the Cross of Calvary.

“There is Salvation in no other, for there is no other Name under heaven whereby we must be saved.”

CAN I be forgiven by God? YOU SURELY CAN!

Wherever you are THE Message is the SAME. Turn to Jesus and Be forgiven!!!

Protecting the Children from Drowning

When I was a boy during World War 2, our family visited my Uncle and Auntie at a lettuce farm at Wacol Queensland. There they had a large dam with cement sides for watering the lettuce which were flown to the American Troops in the Islands. My mother was afraid that I would fall into this dam and drown. The family had been swimming there during the hot summer afternoons. I was about three years of age. My mother took me to the dam and held me under for a few seconds enough to frighten me away from it.

Andy, Robbie and Jenny in the Congo

Now back to Africa the year 1975. David Rowlands  just older than Andrew had fallen down into a half empty 44 gallon drum (200 litres.) head first and was miraculously saved by the house boy name Ya Seba.

Our Andy and David Rowlands

This was a warning to Esther and I as at our back door were two water drums for catching rain water. They were also filled from a pump down in the valley. Often they were half - empty. Robbie and Jen just loved to play in the water leaning over the side of the drums which were lower down. The girls could stand on the verandah and reach in to splash in the clear water. The near accident with David Rowlands reminded me of my childhood. Yes, you guessed right.

Esther took the girls and dunked them under and held them there upside down for a few seconds just to give them the needed scare and make them keep away from those drums.

The girls came up screaming and yelling their heads off. At that moment Andy was in the bath. He heard his sisters screaming and climbed up in the window ledge stark naked and yelled at his mother in protective elder brother language, "YOU NAUGHTY MUMMY, YOU NAUGHTY MUMMY!!!" The girls never played in the drums again.

Off to the local river

They did have lots of fun down in the river with tyres though.

The Day I ran off the Runway at Tshofa

Kimp'Efile 'The Gift of God' Cessna Stationair 206

I had been flying all the previous day and was very tired. My wife urged me to stay home and relax. But there were passengers waiting for me and I was scheduled to pick up the Church leader Ya Lubange, the chief Nurse, and the Schools Inspector at Lubao at 10am next morning. It was a 47minute flight from Kipushya to the North East.

We landed at Lubao on time. The passengers were waiting for us. This was when I realised that I would have to land at Tshofa down over the mission and onto a new rough strip. The wind was blowing strongly from the south east which would prohibit a landing with the wind.

We arrived at Tshofa and found a DC3 parked at the end of the bush strip. Apparently it had past over the Tshofa landing strip before heading into a severe thunderstorm. The rain was so heavy one engine failed, so they turned back and landed at Tshofa on one engine. They parked there until they could get a mechanic to look at their crippled aeroplane.

I flew over the runway to assess whether I could land over the DC3 onto the strip. It seemed to be fine so we went in for the landing. Over the DC3 I cut the motor to glide in when we hit the first of three huge undulations. The C206 bounced a little as we went on down. The second undulation threw us up into the air. Now things were getting dangerous. What should I do?

There was still one more undulation to come so I put on full power. Then we had a full power stall and the plane cracked to the left quickly. We were soon in the long grass which was actually much better than being on the runway. Pastor Lubange prayed loudly in His prayer language.  I cut the engine and we came to a halt just a few metres from a deep erosion gully. We were all glad to be safe on the ground.

I prayed a prayer of thanks to the Lord for His protection.

 We climbed out to look at the damage. There a 20cm crack in the pod carrying the baggage and grass in the engine, otherwise we were intact. How I praised God for sparing our lives.

The local Military arrived all agitated. They had seen us come in to land then we disappeared.

They had their rifles at the ready. They soon calmed down and left us to unload the plane and then push it back onto the runway in front of the DC3. I called Esther and told her what happened. She contact Ed Psalm the Corn project Pilot who came the next day to escort me to Kipushya Mission.

Most accidents happen because of pilot error. It was a good lesson for me not to attempt difficult landings when I am tired.

The Mbala came in the Night

It was in the wee hours of the morning that we were wakened by the noise in our chicken house. Our hens were locked up and we thought they were protected.

Esther had raised them from little chicks as she had a small paraffin incubator which could take about 50 eggs. These grey, white and black speckled layers were her pride and joy.

African Wild cat  Serval

She quickly got the torch and went outside to see two bright cats-eyes staring at her from the small window in the Chicken house. I was very intrigued at how such an animal could get in as the door was closed.

We called out to one guard. He was asleep. When I called Ndjibu the second guard on Joan Bond’s house he quickly came and brought his bow and arrow with a poisonous tip.

Speckled grey, white and Black Sussex hen

The cat was sitting still on the window ledge mesmerised by the torch light. One twang with the Bow and arrow then the animal fell from his ledge onto the floor of the chicken house. We waited a while then Njibu said, “He’s finished now. The poison has got him.” There was no movement from the henhouse. I gingerly opened the door and shone the torch in. the animal was in the corner with the arrow sticking out of his stomach. Ndjibu quickly pushed passed me eager to gain his prize and his next meal. As soon as he enetered inside the animal leaped at him but with the the arrow right through him. It ripped into him. I jumped back as quicky as I could and slammed the door. A bit of a 'scardy cat' I think I was. Now I had left Ndjibu inside with the animal in the dark with no torch. Soon the poison had done its work and the animal was limp.

Ndjibu emerged from the hen house not letting go of his prey but with a 3centimetre gash in his arm which needed four stitches at the mission hospital over the back fence. One of Esther pet hens was DEAD.

Esther's Unexpected Visitor in the Egg Box

It was Sunday evening when Esther headed out of the house with her torch going across the Kipushya Mission station to the evening Missionary Fellowship In her spontaneous way she had felt lonely on her own. Her husband was away flying in Katanga Province of the Congo and all her children though little tots were at Missionary Boarding School at Sakeji in North West Zambia. She prayed in her heart, “Lord I need some reassuring sign that I am loved.” God showed her in an unexpected way.

Andy helps Dad building the Chicken Pen

 She suddenly decided to check the eggs in the chicken koop where there we three laying boxes built into the back of the moveable pen. When she opened the lid there were five eggs. She decided to get them when she returned home from the meeting.

After the meeting she went and got a bowl and came with her torch to collect the eggs. You always needed to carry a torch in the Congo as there were driver ants which proceeded in their millions with all the protection of their soldiers. Then there were black stinging soldier-ants which paraded in lines about 8 abreast whose sting was worse than a red-hot needle. Then there were the snakes and not very often but sometimes the big cats.

When she’d arrived at the pen she tucked her torch under her arm, lifted the lid and scooped up the eggs. Now surprisingly, there were only four. Around the box she went with her hand looking for the missing egg. Not there? So she switched on the torch and had a good look in the box. Now there was a snake in there with the egg just in its neck. It could not bite her because of the size of the egg. Esther grabbed her hand and cried out, “Oh..... thank-you Jesus!” She kept feeling her hand while being very appreciative of the expression of God’s Mercy and Love to her individually.

She quickly called David Emmet next door to come and help her. He had never killed a snake before but between them they decapitated THE SNAKE, EGG AND ALL.  Esther said they did such a good job on it it was cut to smithereens. (little pieces).

Even snakes cannot harm you when you are walking with the Lord.

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Amazing little plastic Pipe for the Blue Truck

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.

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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