But You Were Invited! [Intro]

Well, it is 2012 and I am finally back to writing! Actually, I wrote this chapter back in August of 2011, but got distracted and forgot to save it.  I promised my wife, friends, students and self that I would get back to writing something every day in the New Year.  So, I am already one day behind on that promise.

You read my excuses in "Detour to the Tobacco Road."  I am afraid that I was just distracted and out of the habit.  Enough!  Back to the story in July of 1984 . . . .

We had permission for our meetings in Wedza from the police, the District Administrator (chief government official), and ZANU-PF to minister in public areas and in the 33 schools in the district.  We decided to start with the bus stop, stores and schools at a town called Matsine.  This was a major population center outside of the Wedza administrative township and seemed the ideal place for a week of ministry that would culminate in a series of "tent" meetings. 

Since we had permission to enter the schools, we started by approaching the Principal of Matsine Secondary School.  No sooner than we had spoken with him over tea, he insisted that we organize an evangelistic meeting at his school that evening.

He immediately convened all the students and we put on our normal "show" that featured songs in English and Shona with Pegi and me leading.  Once again, as "whites" and especially Americans, we were the show!  The students were then sent home to return later with their parents and relatives.  In the meantime, we set up our tiny PA system, a single flood light on a pole, film projector and screen in a central area with electricity fed from one of the classrooms.

At 6:30 it was already pretty dark.  It was winter. As Pegi and I began our singing, the courtyard filled with an estimated 2000 people.  There were 600 children from the primary school with another 150 from the secondary school.  The rest were parents and adults from the surrounding villages. 

We showed the T.L. Osborn film that was dubbed in Shona.  It was the prospect of seeing a film that accounts for the large crowds.  This was a rural area where there was little electricity and where only the very wealthy could afford black and white televisions in 1984.  [This film was a "documentary" of a mass evangelism event in Holland from the early 1960s.  It focused on crowds of up to 100,000, a simple "gospel" message given by the American Pentecostal evangelist, T.L. Osborn, and his instructions for the gathered masses to pray to "receive Jesus as their personal savior."  The film was made more exciting by the "miracle ministry" after the preaching as dozens of people "testified" to being miraculously "healed" when praying to "receive Christ."]

I think we should be clear here that Pegi and I were deeply conflicted about showing such a film.  We were trying to believe that the miracles associated with the ministry of Jesus in the 1st century could be experienced by "believers" in the present day.  However, our own experience had been less than satisfying. 

Yes, we both attended and participated in charismatic/pentecostal style meetings where the miraculous was said to occur, but had not seen any real evidence of anything more than psychological and emotional manifestations.  And, most of those manifestations were deeply troubling.  We never could accustom ourselves to people swooning under the "power of the Spirit."  Nor could we explain the ephemeral nature of these "healings."  The same people returned time and time again, night after night, meeting after meeting, preacher after preacher--for the same illnesses or psychological struggles with "demons."

Furthermore, why should we have to show a film of miracles happening in Europe decades before?  If God was healing by means of Jesus in the 1st century and in Holland in the 1960s, why wouldn't there be equally spectacular events for us in Zimbabwe?

But, we were in a circle where questioning the miraculous was as heretical as questioning the resurrection of Jesus.  Felix was committed to miracle ministry, Dave and Jen were deeply involved in charismatic ministry and the local Africans were eager for entertainment and attention.  Looking back on it now, it is humiliating to have been so committed to this construct of beliefs.  The power was not in the supposed miracles. 

The power was in the love, care and compassion that we expressed toward these people.  What had made Felix, Dave and Jen successful in ministry was that they really cared deeply for the rural Africans. 

Especially for Dave and Jen, their purpose in taking up residency there two decades before had been their desire to reach out and help the rural Africans.  They called this their "mission," but it was more than that.  They had committed their lives to the people of Wedza, struggling day-in and day-out with a dairy farm that really never had a chance of doing more than breaking even.  But, it was this dairy farm that gave dozens of workers and their families a livelihood and served as a station in the midst of Wedza where others such as Felix and we could operate.

If we could go back to Wedza today, I am sure that Pegi and I would be remembered, but not for any supposed miracles, nor for a film, nor for anything that we said.  Even weeks and months later, we would encounter those who had been to one of these events.  Inevitably, we would be greeted with smiles and repeated choruses from our signature duet, "From Glory to Glory."  It certainly wasn't the quality of our singing that caused us to be remembered.  I think that it was in our singing that we poured out our hearts to the people of Zimbabwe.  They didn't get my teaching, Felix's preaching or Osborn's miracle ministry.  They got our hearts as we poured them out standing under the light of a single flood light.

In our newsletter, we counted 800 people as committing to Jesus that night.  How silly, to count coup like this!  Over the next few days, many of those same 800 people would raise their hands again and again signifying that had once again accepted Jesus for the first time!  Such is the stupidity of trying to count members of the Kingdom of God.  Even the great King David had discovered that it is fruitless and even dangerous to try number God's people.  Such efforts are best left to the only One who actually knows the score!  It is particularly foolhardy when you even try to figure out who is "with you," especially in matters of religion.

So, what does any of this have to do with the title of this chapter, "But You Were Invited"?  Well, let's save that for tomorrow's story.

Next:  "But, I repeat--you were invited!"