Old PathsStand ye in the ways, and see, and ask forthe old paths, where is the good way, andwalk therein, and ye shall find rest for yoursouls. Jeremiah 6:16

The secret of the LORD is with them thatfear Him; and He will show them Hiscovenant. Psalm 25:14

Vol. 12, No.12 Straight and Narrow December 2003

Life by the Faith of ChristBy E. J. Waggoner (Based on Galatians Chapter 2)When Peter was at the conference in Jerusalem, he told the facts about thereceiving of the Gospel by the Gentiles, through his preaching, saying, “God,which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost,even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifyingtheir hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:8, 9) God put no difference between Jews andGentiles in the matter of the purification of the heart, because, knowing thehearts, He knew that “there is no difference; for all have sinned, and comeshort of the glory of God,” so that there is no other way than for all to be “justi-fied freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 3:22-24) Yet, after having been shown this fact by the Lord; afterhaving preached to the Gentiles, and after having witnessed the gift of theHoly Ghost to them, the same as to Jewish believers; after having eaten withthose Gentile converts, and faithfully defending his course; after having givena clear testimony in conference, that God made no difference between Jewsand Gentiles; and even immediately after himself making no difference, Petersuddenly, as soon as some came who he thought would not approve of suchfreedom, began to make a difference. “He withdrew and separated himself,fearing them which were of the circumcision.” This was, as Paul says, dissim-ulation, and was not only wrong in itself, but was calculated to confuse andmislead the disciples. The fact that this was dissimulation, which was appar-ent, only emphasizes the fact that there was no real difference among thebrethren. It was fear, not faith, that for the moment controlled Peter.

Contrary to the Truth of the GospelA wave of fear seems to have passed over the Jewish believers, for “the otherJews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carriedaway with their dissimulation.” This in itself was, of course, not walking“uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel;” but the mere fact of dissem-bling was not the whole of the offense against the truth of the Gospel. Underthe circumstances it was a public denial of Christ, just as much as that of whichPeter had once before, through sudden fear, been guilty. We have all been toooften guilty of the same sin to permit us to sit in judgment; we can only notethe fact and the natural consequence, as a warning to ourselves.

See how the action of Peter and the others was a virtual, although uninten-tional, denial of Christ. There had just been a great controversy over thequestion of circumcision. It was a question of justification and salva-tion,—whether men were saved by faith alone in Christ, or by outward forms.

Also in this issue:

Progress in Poland – Allen Stump . . . . . . . p. 3

Youth’s Corner – E. G. White . . . . . . . . p. 6

The Work in Africa – Clayton & Williams p. 7

Meeting Announcement . . . . . . . . . p. 12

A Special Letter(The following letter was written as

a response to last month’s article on

Righteousness. It echos the thoughts

of many others. . . . . . . . . . . Editor

I enjoyed your recent article inOld Paths. I have been battling thissubject for a long time. It hasbecome a sore spot for me. There aresome who put so much emphasis onovercoming that my walk with Godbecame a drudge and depressing. Iwould go to church and worry thatmy dress was not long enough orwas not made out of correct materi-als. I would worry that my potluckdish would offend someone. I wouldworry that my praise story wouldnot be good enough. I told a testi-mony one day about my strugglewith a certain food item and how theLord helped me. I saw one personshaking his head and mumblinghow we must be more earnest.

The constant badgering byanother person about every little

Continued on column 2, page 16

Clear testimony had been borne thatsalvation is by faith alone: and now,while the controversy is still alive,while the “false brethren” are stillpropagating their errors, these loyalbrethren suddenly discriminatedagainst the Gentile believers, becausethey were uncircumcised, in effect say-ing to them, Except ye be circumcised,ye can not be saved. Their actions said,We also are in doubt about the power offaith in Christ alone to save men; wereally believe that salvation dependson circumcision and the works of thelaw; faith in Christ is well, but there’ssomething more to do; it is not in itselfsufficient. Such a denial of the truth ofthe Gospel Paul could not endure, andhe at once struck directly at the root ofthe matter.

“Sinners of the Gentiles,”and Sinners of the Jews

Paul said to Peter, “We . . . are Jews bynature, and not sinners of the Gen-tiles.” Did he mean that they, beingJews, were, therefore, not sin-ners?—By no means, for heimmediately adds that they hadbelieved on Jesus Christ for justifica-tion. They were sinners of the Jews,and not sinners of the Gentiles; butwhatever things they had to boast of asJews, all had to be counted loss for thesake of Christ. Nothing availed themanything except faith in Christ; andsince this was so, it was evident that theGentile sinners could be saved directlyby faith in Christ, without goingthrough the dead forms which had beenof no service to the Jews, and whichwere given largely as the result of theirunbelief.

“This is a faithful saying, and wor-thy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesuscame into the world to save sinners.”(1 Timothy 1:15) “All have sinned,”and stand alike guilty before God; butall, of whatever race or class, canaccept this saying, “This Manreceiveth sinners, and eateth withthem.” A circumcised sinner is nobetter than an uncircumcised one; asinner who stands as a church-member,

is no better than one who is outside.The sinner who has gone through theform of baptism is not better than thesinner who has never made any profes-sion of religion. Sin is sin, and sinnersare sinners, whether in the church orout; but, thank God, Christ is the propi-tiation for our sins, as well as for thesins of the whole world. There is hopefor the unfaithful professor of religion,as well as for the sinner who has nevernamed the name of Christ. The sameGospel that is preached to the world,must be preached to the church; forthere is only one Gospel. It serves toconvert sinners in the world, as well assinners who stand as church-members,and at the same time it renews thosewho are really in Christ.

“Justified”“Knowing that a man is not justified bythe works of the law,” “we havebelieved in Jesus Christ, that we mightbe justified,” said the apostle. Themeaning of the word “justified” is“made righteous.” This is the exactterm that appears in other languages,which are not composed of foreignterms. The Latin word for righteous-ness is justitia. To be just is to berighteous. Then we add the terminationfy, from the Latin word, meaning “tomake,” and we have the exact equiva-lent of the simpler term, “makerighteous.” In an accommodated sensewe use the term “justified” of a manwho has not done wrong in a thingwhereof he is accused. But, strictlyspeaking, such an one needs no justifi-cation, since he is already just; hisrighteous deed justified him. He wasjustified in his deed. But since all havesinned, there are none just or righteousbefore God; therefore they need to bejustified, or made righteous, whichGod does. Now the law of God is righ-teousness. See Romans 7:12; 9:30, 31;Psalm 119:172. Therefore Paul did notdisparage the law, although hedeclared that no man could be maderighteous by the law, meaning, ofcourse, the law written on stones or in abook. No; so highly did he appreciatethe law, that he believed in Christ for

the righteousness which the lawdemands but can not give. “For whatthe law could not do, in that it wasweak through the flesh, God sendingHis own Son in the likeness of sinfulflesh, and for sin, condemned sin in theflesh; that the righteousness of the lawmight be fulfilled in us, who walk notafter the flesh, but after the Spirit.”(Romans 8:3,4) The law, whichdeclares all men to be sinners, couldnot justify them except by declaringthat sin is not sin; and that would not bejustification, but a self-contradiction inthe law.

The Law Can Not Justify“By the works of the law shall no fleshbe justified.” Shall we say, Then wewill do away with the law? That is whatevery confirmed criminal thinks. Per-sistent law-breakers would gladly doaway with the law which declares themguilty and will not say that wrong isright. But the law of God can not beabolished, for it is the statement of thewill of God. (Romans 2:18) In veryfact it is the life and character of God.“The law is holy, and the command-ment holy, and just, and good.”(Romans 7:12) We read the writtenlaw, and find in it our duty made plain.But we have not done it; therefore weare guilty. “All have sinned, and comeshort of the glory of God.” “There isnone that doeth good, no, not one.”(Romans 3:23, 12) Moreover, there isnot one who has strength to do the law,its requirements are so great. Then it isvery evident that no one can be justi-fied by the works of the law, and it isequally evident that the fault is not inthe law, but in the individual. Let theman get Christ in the heart by faith, andthen the righteousness of the law willbe there also, for Christ says, “I delightto do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thylaw is within My heart.” (Psalm 40:8)He who would throw away the lawbecause it will not call evil good,would reject God because He “will byno means clear the guilty.” (Exodus34:7) But God will remove the guilt,will make the sinners righteous, that is,in harmony with the law, and then the

Old Paths - 2 - December 2003

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law which before condemned themwill witness to their righteousness.

“The Faith of Christ”

Much is lost, in reading the Scriptures,by not noting exactly what they say.Here we have literally, “the faith ofChrist,” just as in Revelation 14:12 wehave “the faith of Jesus.” He is theAuthor and Finisher of faith. (Hebrews12:2) God has “dealt to every man themeasure of faith” (Romans 12:3), ingiving Christ to every man. “Faithcometh by hearing, and hearing by theWord of God” (Romans 10:17), andChrist is the Word. All things are of

God. It is He who gives repentance andforgiveness of sins.

There is, therefore, no opportunityfor any one to plead that his faith isweak. He may not have accepted andmade use of the gift, but there is nosuch thing as “weak faith.” A man maybe “weak in faith,” that is, may beafraid to depend on faith, but faithitself is as strong as the Word of God.There is no faith but the faith of Christ;everything else professing to be faith isa spurious article. Christ alone is righ-teous; He has overcome the world, andHe alone has power to do it; in Himdwelleth all the fullness of God,because the law—God Himself—was

in His heart; He alone has kept and cankeep the law to perfection; therefore,only by His faith,—living faith, that is,His life in us,—can we be maderighteous.

But this is sufficient. He is a “triedStone.” The faith which He gives to usis His own tried and approved faith,and it will not fail us in any contest. Weare not exhorted to try to do as well asHe did, or to try to exercise as muchfaith as He had, but simply to take Hisfaith, and let it work by love, and purifythe heart. It will do it; take it! �

(The preceding study was printed

from the original edition of the book,

The Glad Tidings, pp 74-80 . . . Editor)

Progress In PolandBy Allen Stump

(Most of the information in this report

has been supplied by Slawomir Platek.

He also supplied all the pictures except

for his portrait. . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor)

Poland is a land of rich heritagesteeped in national tradition andRoman Catholicism. Here 38 million,out of 40 million people profess theCatholic faith. Like their famous son,Pope John Paul II, the country issteeped in Mary worship. In this spiri-tually dark country the Lord is raisingan army of workers who are dedicatedto sharing the truth about God’s greatlove in giving His only begotten Son todie for our sins.

Pastor Jacek Poreda has been lead-ing out in the work in Poland. Besideorganizing camp meetings and holdingSabbath services, He has translatedmany of Ellen White’s books into thePolish language. He has also translatedseveral books, booklets, and tracts onthe truth about God as well. However,his resources untilrecently have onlyallowed him to reproduce materials inlimited quantities. He, along withBrothers Piotr (Peter) Maciejewski,

and Slawomir Platek, RafalLewadowski have begun in earnest, apublishing work that shows signs ofgreat promise. The great need they hadwas an economical way to reproducematerials. While visiting at the campmeeting in Niedzica Zamek, Polandthis last summer, Jacek had shared withme the idea of getting a large photo-copy machine to reproduce materials.It was realized that this would not bethe most long-term ,cost -ffective man-ner, but, in the short term, it seemedmuch cheaper and easier than trying toget a printing press and all the thingsnecessary for the use of such amachine.

The idea of getting a Risograph typemachine was discussed. ARisograph isa duplicating machine that is some-times described as a cross between acopy machine and a printing press. ARisograph electronically scans thedocument to be reproduced and pro-duces an image on a master that isperforated with the image. This masteris then wrapped around an ink drumthat has a very fine screen that allowsink to be pressed through the perfo-rated master. The paper is run throughthe machine and is pressed between the

master on the ink drum and an impres-sion roller. Most Risographs arecapable of producing up to 120 copiesa minute and are very easy to run.While not as economical in every caseas a printing press, Risographs havecome to fill an important place in theprinting industry. In fact, this is thetype of duplicating machine that the

Some of the Polish brethrenwith Erwin and Vlad

Erwin, in the middle, withPiotr and Jacek, setting up the

Risograph

brethren in Africa and Romania arecurrently using.

While Brother David Clayton and Iwere in Europe this last summer wealso discussed with Brother ErwinZoor of Germany the need to establisha printing work in Germany. Erwin hastranslated several materials and wasusing a copy machine for reproduction.We discussed with him the concept ofgetting a Risograph type of machine.After coming back to the United States,I was contacted by Brother Zoor whotold me that he was looking on the Ger-man edition of the Internet auctionstore, E-Bay, and had found a verygood Risograph for a reasonable price.Making the proper bid at literally thelast minute, Brother Zoor was able tosecure the machine. After sharing thenews of this acquisition with some ofthe brethren in Germany, it wasthought that a newer and even moremodern machine might serve the Ger-man field better. Funds were providedfor a new machine and it waspurchased.

Later Erwin called me asking coun-sel about what to do with the first

machine. I suggested that the brethrenin Poland could put it to very good use.Since all credit belongs to the Fatherfor being able to acquire the firstmachine, it was felt by Erwin that sincehe had freely received, he should freelygive. Therefore arrangements weremade for Brothers Jacek and Slawomirto go to Germany to get the donatedRisograph.

Brother Jacek’s car is a very small

Fiat that a six foot plus person, such as

myself, can hardly set in. Putting the

duplication machine in it would be

impossible. It was thought that a car

could be rented, but this did not work

out. Graciously, Brother Erwin Zoor

agreed to take the Risograph to Poland

in his station wagon. Brother Vlad

Ardeias from Romania accompanied

Brother Zoor on the trip to Poland to

help with the loading and to visit the

brethren there. The stop at the Ger-

man-Poland border should be noted.

Normally each car is examined and any

materials, such as they were carrying,

would be examined and charged a duty

tax by the custom officials. All the cars

before them had been carefully looked

at. A blanket covered the Risograph,

but it was very plainly visible that

something big was being transported.

However, when Erwin’s turn came, he

was quickly sent through! This was

amazing on two accounts. First, no

duty was required on the Risograph.

Second, Erwin forgot to bring all of his

car documents normally required and

they were allowed to pass without

them being requested!

Erwin and Vlad arrived at BrotherMaciejewski’s house tired and in needof rest. After a short nap, the Risographwas set up and instruction was given onits operation. After some singing byPiotr and his daughters and a nicelunch, it was time for Erwin and Vladto leave. The brethren in Poland reallyappreciate these two brothers takingthe time to bring the Risograph andgiving them the instruction on its use.

The garage at Brother Piotr’s houseis currently being made into a printingroom. Brothers Piotr, Slawomir,Andrzej (Andrew) and Rafal are work-ing on the renovation. Poland is a verycold place in the winter. To be warmand efficient, the garage is getting quitea facelift. It will be heated by hot waterbeing piped into a radiator comingfrom the heating system for the housethat can use either wood or coal. At thetime of this writing, the printing roomis almost ready.

Brother Slawomir, who lives about186 miles from Piotr’s house, wroteabout his travel to be available to helpwith the ministry.

“When we will be printing I will go

to Piotr’s house, about 300 km away, to

help. To travel there I hitch hike. I

always have a good time even though

sometimes I have to wait a long time

for a ride. The last time I put on four

pairs of socks because it was very cold.

But it is a good time when I can travel

with somebody and I always want to

give the driver some literature, usually

Steps to Christ in Polish that Jacek has

translated and had printed. Also, hitch

hiking is a good kind of transportation

Old Paths - 4 - December 2003

Piotr, Erwin, Jacek, and Vladwatching the Risograph work

The outside of the garageturned print shop

Rafal beginning the remodel-ing work on the garage

Rafal installing a door frame

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because you don’t have to spend muchmoney!”

Some books are already prepared for

printing and a monthly newsletter is

planned as well. The newsletter’s title

will be, Prawda na czas obecny (Pres-

ent Truth). Jacek Poreda will write the

first issue whose main article will be,

“Ten Najcenniejszy Dar” (The Most

Precious Gift), which is a study on the

love of God. Topics for future issues of

the newsletter are currently being laid

out. The first issue will be followed by

topics such as, “The Grace of God,”

“The Mercy of God,” and other gospel

based subjects. Plans are to also have a

monthly health corner and other fea-

tures. Every one who would like to

write an article for the newsletter is

invited. The brethren currently have a

contact base of about 200 addresses.

Brother Slawomir is also currentlyworking on translating the Bible studyguides, “Christ Our Righteousness.”

The brethren are also working onelectronic publishing. They haveestablished a Website with the address,www.obecnaprawda.prv.pl. BrotherSlawomir is heading up this phase ofthe work. He, with the other brethrenwant to invite all the Polish-speakingbrothers and sisters to visit the site, butespecially later, as it is currently underconstruction and they only have a lim-

ited supply of materials on it now.Something notable already on theWebsite is a link to songs from the2003 Camp Meeting held at NiedzicaZamek. These songs are in MP3 formatand ready for downloading. After hav-ing heard these songs at the campmeeting, mostly from Piotr’s daugh-ters, I can say that they are beautifuland could be appreciated by even thosewho do not understand the Polishlanguage.

Plans are being made to put elec-tronic versions of the newsletter,books, and even personal testimonialexperiences that can help build the

faith of otherson the Website.Location infor-mat ion formeetings beingconducted inPoland wil lalso be avail-able on theWebsite. Cur-rently there arethree different places in Poland (north-ern, central, and southern areas) wherethe brethren are holding regular meet-ings. Just a few days ago somebodycalled and said that they had seen thecontact information on the Website andstated that they, with their sister,wanted to come for Sabbath.

If you are Polish; or have some Pol-ish friends to whom you would like tosend some materials in Polish; such asthe monthly Prawda na czas obecny

(Present Truth), please feel free to con-tact the brethren in Poland. Email is thefastest and easiest for those who haveInternet access.peter4truth@tlen.pl

Pastor Jacek Poreda: sano7@wp.pl.

Piotr (Peter) Maciejewski (Editor:Prawda na czas obecny) :peter4truth@tlen.pl.

Slawomir Platek (Webmaster andassistant): slpl@tlen.pl.

You may also write the brethren bypostal mail. The addresses are:

J.K.Poreda, 43-100 Tychy, Po Box70, POLAND

Piotr Maciejewski 87-731Waganiec, Zbrachlin Stary 16,POLAND

You may call Jacek from the USAbydialing: 011-48-32-3266588 (homenumber) or 011-48-507617075 (cellphone)

The brethren in Poland are verythankful for the Lord’s goodness andthose whom the Lord has impressed tohelp with the work in Poland and mak-ing this gospel dream to become areality! �

Getting the print room ready

Almost finished!

Piotr and his daughterMalgosia playing.

Peter working on his laptop

Slawomir Platek

Youth’s Corner —Character Building“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeththem, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built hishouse upon a rock: and the rain descended, and thefloods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon thathouse; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, anddoeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man,which built his house upon the sand: and the raindescended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was thefall of it.”

The formation of character is the work of alifetime, and it is for eternity. If all couldrealize this, if they would awake to thethought that we are individuallydeciding our own destiny for eternallife or eternal ruin, what a changewould take place! How differentlywould this probationary time beoccupied and what different characterswould fill our world!

In character-building it is of the greatestimportance that we dig deep, removing all the rubbish,and building on the immovable, solid Rock, ChristJesus. The foundation firmly laid, we need wisdom toknow how to build. When Moses was about to erect thesanctuary in the wilderness, he was cautioned, “See . . .that thou make all things according to the patternshowed to thee in the mount.” In his law God has givenus a pattern, and it is after this pattern that we are tobuild. The law is the great standard of righteousness. Itrepresents the character of God, and is the test of ourloyalty to his government.

Thoroughness is necessary to success incharacter-building. There must be an earnest desire tocarry out the plans of the Master-builder. The timbersused must be solid; no careless, unreliable work can beaccepted; it would ruin the building.

The whole being is to be put into this work. Itdemands strength and energy; there is no reserve to bewasted in unimportant matters. There must bedetermined human force put into the work, inco-operation with the divine Worker. There must beearnest, persevering effort to break away from thecustoms and maxims and associations of the world.

Deep thought, earnest purpose, steadfast integrity, areessential.

There must be no idleness. Life is a sacred trust; andevery moment should be wisely improved. Its resultswill be seen in eternity. God requires each one to do allthe good possible. We are to make the most of the talentshe has intrusted to our keeping. He has placed them inour hands to be used to his name’s glory and in theinterests of our fellow men.

The Lord has a precious reward in this life for thosewho keep his law. He says, “My son, forget

not my law; but let thine heart keep mycommandments: for length of days, andlong life, and peace, shall they add to thee.Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind

them about thy neck; write them uponthe table of thine heart: so shalt thoufind favor and good understanding inthe sight of God and man.”

But a better than earthly reward

awaits those who, basing their work on

the solid rock, have built up symmetrical

characters, in accordance with the living word. For

them is prepared “a city which hath foundations, whose

builder and maker is God.” Its streets are paved with

gold. It is in the paradise of God, watered by the river of

life, which proceeds from the throne. “In the midst of

the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there

the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and

yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree

were for the healing of the nations.”

Remember that you are building for eternity. See that

your foundation is sure; then build firmly, and with

persistent effort, but in gentleness, meekness, and love.

So shall your house stand unshaken, not only

when the storms of temptation come,

but when the overwhelming flood of

God’s wrath shall sweep over the

world. Then every house built upon

the sand shall fall, and great

shall be the fall of it; for the

ruin is for eternity. (Ellen G.

White, Youth’s Instructor,

February 19, 1903)

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South Africa

We arrived in Johannesburg on Thurs-day, Sept. 18, after a wearying nightflight of 10 hours. After the swiftestpassage through customs and immigra-tion that we had ever experienced,Brothers Charles Ndlela andMdutshwa Zikhali were standing in acrowd of people, who were all holdingplacards with names on them, greetedus. They recognized us long before weeven saw them and started waving andbeckoning to us. After greetings andintroductions we got into the car,which they had borrowed for the occa-sion, and headed for the place wherewe would be staying.

Viewed from the air, the city ofJohannesburg gave the impression of atown built in the desert because every-thing was brown. There was scarcelyany greenery anywhere, as thoughthere had been a long drought. It wascold (at least for a Jamaican).

After about twenty-five minutes wearrived at an area called Belleviewwhere a room had been rented for us tostay. Here we met some other brotherswho had come to meet us. After a littlediscussion we had a chance to get amuch-needed bath and some rest aftertraveling for two days. Afterwards weprepared for the first evening meetingthat was to be held in a rented hall. Atthis first meeting there were about 20people and I spoke on the subject of“The God of the Bible.”

Interest in the truth about God beganin Johannesburg with Brother OnwardMakeche. Sister Fathima Ngwenyafrom Zimbabwe had introduced him tothe message. He saw the truthfulness ofthe message and began to cautiouslyintroduce it to his friends in the localSeventh-day Adventist Church. By thetime we arrived in Johannesburg therewere perhaps 150 persons in that churchwho acknowledged the truth of the mes-sage, while there was a group of aboutthirty young people who were veryaggressively working to spread it, andwho were in imminent danger of beingdisfellowshipped from the church.

We found these brethren in SouthAfrica to be humble and sincere.Everyday Brothers Onward, Mdu,Mphathisi and sometimes BrotherCharles or Sisters Shilette and Admire,would come and prepare meals for us,then they would stay for hours askingus questions and seeking to learn more.They sought only for the truth andnever asked us for anything else, beingmore anxious to give us whatever littlethey had, although they are very poor.None own a vehicle or their own home.Most of those who have accepted themessage are people who came fromZimbabwe, but who have a hard timegetting jobs because their papers arenot yet finalized. They are living withfriends or family. There are also somenative South Africans among thosewho have embraced the message.

At the study on the second eveningwe had a few more visitors who werecurious about these meetings, includ-ing an elder from the local S.D.Achurch. Howard spoke on the subjectof “The Son of God.”

The next day was Sabbath and wewent to visit the local SDA church

along with the brethren who are stillmembers there. There were about 300people present, meeting in a rentedschool auditorium. There was a lot ofsinging during the service that wegreatly enjoyed. The entire congrega-tion sang lustily. Africans have anatural ability to sing in the variousparts: bass, tenor soprano, etc., and theharmony was rich and melodious. Ireally enjoyed it and I regret that myrecording equipment could not dojustice to it.

The elder who had invited me to eatwith them had earlier spoken to me andtold me that he believed in what wewere teaching, but he was not happywith our methods. His idea was that ifwe worked in a more disguised mannerand were not so open in condemningerror and promoting the truth, theneventually we could get the wholechurch over to the truth. He said that hewould never ever leave the SDAchurch. When I asked, “What if theSDA Church leaves the truth?” He saidthat could not happen because the HolySpirit would lead it back. I wanted totalk to him some more but, unfortu-nately, when I sat beside him at lunch,he hardly spoke a word.

That night was to be an all nightmeeting. We were sure that the peoplewould be very tired and sleepy, andafter a sermon or two, most of themwould be fast asleep. We also felt thatafter a full day at church they would beworn out and just not able to bear thestrain involved in an all night meeting.However, the brethren insisted that allwould be well and so, rather reluc-tantly, we submitted to their program.We, however, knew our limitations andstayed at home in the afternoon andtried to get some sleep to prepare for it.

The Progress

of Truth in AfricaBy David Clayton with Howard Williams

The following is an edited report on the

work in Africa first published in the

November 2003 issue of Open Face

published by Restoration Ministries in

Jamaica. Sorry that space is too lim-

ited to include many photos. . . Editor.

That evening Howard and I werevery pleasantly surprised. About 50people were there when we started at9:00 p.m., and by the time we ended at5:00 a.m. the following morning, therewere still about 30. The people held uplike champions. A few were fightingsleep, yes, but the majority was veryalert right through. They were thrilledwith the messages as we spoke about“The Holy Spirit,” “God on Trial,” andalso told of our experiences with thechurch and how we weredisfellowshipped, and discussed theproblems with the church. I have neverseen people so eager and receptive tothe truth, and so anxious to learn more.During the time between presentationswe had real African singing. The con-gregational singing was wonderful,but there were also some special itemsby a group called “Unshaken.” Thesewere especially delightful.

One of the ladies who belong to thisgroup had come to the meetings on theprevious two nights. She was sothrilled that she wanted the rest of herfriends to hear so, in order to get themto come she decided to ask them to singsome songs. After the songs, some ofthem went home, but others stayeduntil morning. One young lady wasbeing urged by her sister to leave sothey could go home, but she refusedand eventually her sister had to leaveher. She stayed until morning andnever once closed her eyes.

Sunday evening a meeting wasscheduled at Brother Charles’ house(since the meeting hall was no longeravailable). Howard was unable toattend, but I spoke on “God’s Adminis-tration.” Those who came were veryhappy with what they learned.

Monday was our last day in SouthAfrica and thankfully Howard wasfeeling much better except for a coldand periodic sneezing. We wentaround town with some of the youngmen looking for a used photocopier,which, we were told, could be pur-chased for a small sum. After seeingthe work they were doing with very lit-tle resources, we were anxious to help

them to find a way to reproduce litera-ture. After visiting a few places werealized that the copiers were moreexpensive than we expected. Thecheapest second hand copier we sawcost about $400.00 (US) so wereturned home without purchasingone. However, before we left Johan-nesburg, we made sure that they hadthe funds for this photocopy machineand since returning home we havereceived news from Brother Onwardthat they have obtained this machineand that it is doing a great work for thetruth!

As we searched for this copier wepassed through some of the morewealthy areas of Johannesburg and werealized that some parts of the citywere very modern and like some of thebest cities in the United States. How-ever, the area where we stayed was oneof the poorer areas and in many waysreminded us of some parts of down-town Kingston, Jamaica.

That day we had lunch at BrotherCharles’ home. His wife had made“pap” for us. Pap is made from groundcorn (maize) and is Africa’s main sta-ple food. In South Africa it is called“pap” but in Kenya and Tanzania it iscalled “ugali.” It was my first experi-ence eating “pap,” but Howard wasaccustomed to the taste, having been toAfrica before. This “pap,” is madewithout any salt or seasoning. The con-sistency of it is somewhat like turnedcornmeal, but more firm. It is eatenwith the fingers, usually with someother food that is salty such as Chinesecabbage or something similar. Weenjoyed this meal and Howard madearrangements to buy a few pounds ofthis white cornmeal so that he could tryto make pap when he went home.

That evening we went to see Mdu’ssister who had really come to appreci-ate this truth and is photocopyingpages and passing them out to friendsto study and read. She was delighted tohave us in her home. We had a lovelydiscussion and then a wonderful meal.It was hard to say good-bye and we didnot leave until about 10.00 p.m.

Tuesday morning came too quicklyand it was time for us to leave SouthAfrica. Our next stop would be Nai-robi, Kenya.

Nairobi, Kenya

Our flight to Kenya was three hoursand thirty-five minutes. On arrival wehad a rather speedy and quiet customsclearance. As we looked at the personswaiting for passengers with placardsbearing names, we did not see ournames, so we decided to wait on theinside. Later on I walked on the out-side to see if anyone would recognizeus, but no one did. Finally I made aphone call to Pastor Moses Nyamora,our contact person whom we were tomeet, and discovered that he was on abus on his way to the airport. A fewminutes later he arrived. It was the firsttime on our trip that we would be tak-ing public transportation with ourentire luggage. However, we had towait for another group of brethren whowere also coming by bus to meet us. Sowe waited, and waited. After a longwait and a few phone calls back andforth we were told that they hadalready arrived at the airport, but hadgotten lost, as they had gone to thewrong section. Eventually they foundus, the wait was over, and they arrivedoverjoyed to meet us. We got on a busand headed for the city of Nairobi.

The drive to Nairobi was similar towhat it might have been on a bus inJamaica. The driver drove like he wasthe only one on the road and all the traf-fic in his way had to pull over when hedecided to pass another vehicle. It wasnot too strange to two Jamaicans.However, when we got to Nairobiitself, it was a different story for me.Here the traffic was jam-packed withjust inches between each vehicle.Pedestrians crossed the road at theirown peril, as the drivers did not seem tobe aware of their existence. It seemedthat at any moment there would be acrash and an impossible pile up, butmiraculously, we got to our destinationunscathed.

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From Nairobi, an ancient taxi tookus to the area where Moses lived. Fromthere, we got into two smaller taxisand, finally, after a bumpy ride oversome very bad roads, we arrived at thesmall but cheerful home of Moses.

Brother Moses Nyamora lives in asmall two-bedroom house with hiswife and 11 children, four by his wifeand the other seven adopted. (Twomore children have been receivedsince we left!) Moses and Prisca arevery nice people. Prisca is a pleasant,hard-working woman. I was amazed tothink that so many people could hold inone house, but the children sleep threeto a bed in one room. While I was there,I was greatly impressed with BrotherMoses’ household. First of all, thoughthe tiny house was heavily overworkedwhile we were there (at times therewere more than 20 people in the houseas there was a constant stream of visi-tors coming to see us), Sister Priscanever once seemed to be annoyed orflustered. Though she was constantlybusy cleaning up or preparing food, orotherwise entertaining the guests, shewas full of cheerfulness and a hospital-ity that was remarkable. We also hadconversations with the children andwere impressed with their mannerly,forthright yet hospitable, and relaxedattitude.

Moses’ wife was a reflection ofmany women in Africa. I must confessthat I have never seen women work sohard, so cheerfully. They accept theidea that it is their duty to bear theheaviest burdens and we often sawwomen, especially in Ghana later, car-rying loads on their heads that seemedto be almost taller than they were. Inaddition to these loads many of thesewomen often had a baby strapped totheir backs in the customary Africanway.

We were scheduled to spend onlyone night in Nairobi before leaving forthe town of Arusha in Tanzania, wherewe would be attending a camp meet-ing. After the camp meeting, we wouldreturn to Kenya to spend a few moredays, and at that time we would hold

some meetings there. We were hopingto leave early the next morning(Wednesday). However, there was a bitof a delay. Sister Esther McDanielfrom Smyrna (the editor of Hearth to

Hearth newsletter) was scheduled toarrive that morning from the USA, asshe also would be attending the campmeeting and visiting some places inKenya. Though her flight arrived ontime, her transportation from the air-port was delayed. By the time shearrived, got cleaned up, and had somefood, we were significantly later thanwe had anticipated.

The journey from Kenya to Tanza-nia was made by taxi. Seven of us,including the driver, were crammedinto the car and although it was a fairlylarge car, it became a bit of an endur-ance trial before the journey was over.The journey took place in two stages.The first stage of the journey was fromNairobi to the Kenya/Tanzania border.For the second stage, we got anothertaxi that took us from the border toArusha. It was bush country for mostof the way and the road was verystraight for miles and miles, but therewere moments when we really gotexcited as we had the privilege of see-ing some of the natural life of Africa.Once we saw an ostrich trying to crossthe road to get to a female on the otherside. When he saw us he ran off a littlebit, but we got a good look and a fewfar-off photos. He was much more col-orful than they often appear in picturesthat we have seen. Then later we saw aherd of about eight giraffes cross theroad ahead of us. They stopped on theother side and again we got some pho-tos. We also saw some zebras and aherd of camels. It was very interesting.We also saw many of the Masai peoplealong the way. Apparently there was adrought that had already been in prog-ress for many months. Everywherewas brown and dry, and as a result,many of the Masai had come in fromthe bush and were living a little closerto civilization. At least that is what oneof them told me when we stopped at theborder.

Arusha Camp Meeting

When we arrived in Arusha we foundour host, Brother K. Kitomari waitingfor us at the bus stop. From there wewere taken by bus to the place wherewe would be staying. We, along withSister Esther and her traveling com-panion, Annah Nyambeki fromNairobi, would be staying on the pre-mises where the camp meeting wouldbe held. This was in the Usa River area,at a place called Powellimav. The otherbrethren would be staying at a largehouse some distance away in an areacalled “Maji Ya Chai,” close to whereBrother Kitomari lives.

The premises where the camp meet-ing was to be held had been rentedfrom the Lutherans, who have estab-lished a training school there forhandicapped children. While we werethere these children were attendingclasses in shoemaking, sewing,machine shop work, welding, etc. Wewere quite impressed with the workthat was being done. The campus wasquite beautiful by any standards. Theassembly hall had been rented for ourcamp meeting, while we (Howard,David, Sisters Esther and Annah), hadrented a couple of rooms in one of thecottages for the duration of our time inArusha.

We had come to Africa with aguarded attitude, not quite sure what toexpect. We receive many letters fromAfrica with requests for various thingsand stories, which at times, are hard toaccept at face value. Due to this, wewere at first cautious. We were won-derfully surprised. The brethren whomwe encountered in Africa were, for themost part, the best of people and theyare working hard to spread the truth.We found that Brother Kitomari (a for-mer minister in the IMS branch of theSDA Reform Movement) had trans-lated several books into the Swahililanguage. We were amazed when heshowed us several booklets such asWho is Telling the Truth About God,The Mystery Demystified, The Omega,etc., as well as several tracts, all

carefully translated into Swahili andwritten out by hand, preserved in note-books, but neither typed nor publishedbecause of a lack of funds. We couldsee that he had put a lot of work intotranslating these materials. Before weleft we made sure that he had themoney for typesetting these books andmade a commitment that we wouldprint at least a supply of these booksand ship them back to Africa.

Another day Howard caught sight ofa tract in a woman’s Bible entitled,“Mungu wa Biblia.” We borrowed thistract and looked it over. Though wecould not read the words we realizedthat it was a translation of our tract,“The God of the Bible.” Upon inquirywe discovered that this tract, alongwith a couple of other tracts, have beentranslated by Pastor Adam Mwambene(also a former minister in the IMS). Hehas not been able to get these tractsprinted in large amounts because of theexpense involved, but he has been dis-tributing photocopies.

I was left with no doubt that thesebrethren are sincere believers who lovethe truth and have a great interest inspreading it. Brother Alfred Mukhoolifrom Uganda was present along withBrother Fred Musungu and a couple ofothers from his country. We learnedthat he had travelled all the way toHoma Bay in Kenya to plant the truththere. As a result of his visit PastorMaurice Anyango, a Seventh-dayAdventist minister of nine years, hadaccepted the truth and has now becomethe main advocate of the truth in theOyugis area, after being put out of theSDA ministry.

Brother Ephraim Ngwenya droveover 2,000 miles to come from Zimba-bwe with a small group from his homechurch, including his wife ,Sibonisiwe, his sister, Fathima, andBrother Vusa Ncube, a Bible workerfrom their group. As with theZimbabweans whom I met in Johan-nesburg, I found them to be earnestpeople with a love for the truth and agood understanding of the word ofGod. Melody Tshabalala, mother of

Michael Sibanda, who is in prison, wasalso with them and four men fromZambia traveled with them as well.

Brother Moses Nyamora is pastor ofa church of more than 60 members whoall believe the truth about God and hewas present along with his sister,Annah Nyambeki.

Howard and I did most of thepreaching at the camp meeting. How-ever, there were contributions frommost of the others from the variouscountries and even one presentation bySister Esther on the subject of homeschooling.

Many of the brethren here seemed tohave the same difficulties with legal-ism that we encountered in Europe.The same question came up aboutwomen covering their hair and braid-ing their hair. Some of the brethren,especially the ministers, seemed tohave a good understanding of thesethings but some of the others seemed tohave difficulty with appreciating theanswers that I gave to some of thesequestions. Brother Mwambene whis-pered to me that it was because of theextreme legalism that existed in themovement they had previously beeninvolved with and they still had thosebad ideas in their heads.

During my trip to Europe a fewweeks earlier, I had seen three areas inwhich the people seemed to need the

greatest instruction. It was the same inSouth Africa and also at the campmeeting. These areas are: The God-head, Biblical Church Organization,and the issues related to the Law andChrist our Righteousness. For this rea-son, the messages were focused onthese three areas. Our messagesincluded topics such as “God’s Admin-istration,” “Sons and Not Servants,”“The God of the Bible,” and others of asimilar nature.

Beginning on Sabbath afternoon, wehad reports from the various countriesrepresented and were informed of howthe work was progressing. The startingpoint of most of these experiences hadbeen the visit of Howard and Lynnfordto Africa two years ago when they vis-ited Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania.We were especially blessed by the tes-t imonies from Kenya, Uganda,Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Later someinformation came to light that led us tobelieve that all was not well in Zambiaand that some of the representativesfrom there were not altogether straight-forward in their report and activities.(If you have been supporting ministersfrom this area, you may call or writeSmyrna or us for details.)

The camp meeting ended with a bap-tism where six precious souls gavetheir lives to the Lord. This baptismtook place in what seemed to me to be

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an irrigation ditch, where the waterwas just about at the knee of BrotherKitomari, who conducted the baptism.I was made to understand that thiswater was from the Usa River, but itmust have been just a part of it that wasdiverted for irrigation because thechannel in which it ran was clearlyman-made and was very narrow andshallow. It was a real challenge toBrother Kitomari to lift up the candi-dates after he had put them under thewater, and there were a couple of neardisasters when he stumbled, but by thegrace of God there was no mishap. Thesinging in the open air was exhilarat-ing. It was a lovely scene with thesnow-capped peak of MountKilimanjaro towering over the land-scape. Nearer at hand, and covered inclouds, was Mount Meru.

The camp meeting was scheduled toconclude with a workers meeting,where an effort would be made to bringsome kind of organization to the workin Africa. There were representativesfrom all the countries present exceptfor Zambia, whose elected representa-tives left before the workers’ meetingsstarted, for reasons that seemed to bevery suspicious. The only remainingperson from Zambia was a youngbrother named Chinyemba Mafo whocame from a different part of Zambiathan the ones who had left.

During the meetings, we looked atvarious issues such as:

� The need to recognize who wastranslating materials and in whichlanguage, so as to avoid repetitionsof the same work.

� To identify the cheapest ways ofworking in carrying our message tonew places.

� Ways in which we could keep ournewsletter lists up to date so that lit-erature and newsletters will not besent to people who don’t appreciatethem.

� The possibility of maintaining com-munication with each countrythrough one recognized person, es-pecially as a means of coping withthe many requests for assistance,

which often come to overseasministries from unknown individu-als.

� We also discussed the question ofwhether or not there should be acommon name for all those who areinvolved in propagating this mes-sage. This idea at first wasappealing to a few; however, it wasrapidly discouraged as we weremostly of the opinion that we didnot want another monolithic de-nomination with centralizedcontrol. This was eventually thehappy consensus of all present.

� We also discussed the idea of for-mulating a statement of beliefs towhich we could all subscribe.

There was a bit of discussion on thislast idea and some were also of theopinion that we needed this to ensurethat we have a uniform faith. However,other factors were looked at. Somewere of the opinion that a statement ofbeliefs would not so much serve tounify us, but rather to become a meansof separating us from others. It was alsopointed out that we might make a state-ment with which we could agree, butwhat was to stop our children from add-ing to, or changing that statement? Thiswas felt to be an open door by whichcorporate apostasy could be introduced,as has been the case with the SDAdenomination. Eventually we agreed toleave that matter alone and to continueto make the Bible our sole authority,even though we did not have one hun-dred percent agreement on this point.

Tarangire Wildlife Park

The end of the workers’ meetingbrought an end to the meetings inArusha, with one day to spare, so thebrethren decided to take us to one oftheir national parks. We decided to goto Tarangire because it was the best ofthose that was nearby (only two and ahalf hours away), and it was also muchless expensive than Serengeti andNgoro Ngoro National Parks.

During preparations the morning ofthe trip, Howard seriously hurt hisback, so he was unable to visit the park,

missing out on an exciting trip. At thewild and natural setting of the park, wesaw among other things, lots of zebras,wildebeests, giraffes, elephants,gazelle, antelope, meerkats, ostriches,etc. and even a few lions, We managedto come very close to them but westayed in the vehicle. It was a real thrillfor us to see these animals living intheir natural environment.

Along the way to the park, we alsogot to see a lot of the natural life of thegrasslands of Tanzania. There weremany people of the Masai tribe, alongthe way herding cattle or just walkingalong the roadside. Some of them hadspears, but every single one of them,even the little boys carries a stick. It is atrademark of the Masai. All the menwear a red robe with blue stripes. Thisrobe is just basically a piece of clothdraped around them.

The Masai

The Masai is a nomadic tribe living inKenya and Tanzania who have neversuccumbed to the ways of “civiliza-tion.” Once we saw a Masai riding amotorbike and it was a source ofamazement to our African friends.However, once we even saw one in anInternet cafe sending an email, dressedup in all his Masai regalia! TheseMasai live by their cattle. They haveherds of cows mingled with goats andsheep. Over and over we passed soli-tary Masai men or boys (some perhapsas young as seven or eight years old),alone, out in the bush, watching over aherd of maybe fifty or a hundred cowsmingled with sheep. Each one had histrademark stick and some had spears.This was their job all day.

These Masai drink the milk from thecows. However, they also periodicallypierce a vein in the neck of their cowsfrom which they will draw blood thatalso forms a part of their diet. They areclosely bonded to their cows anddepend on them for their livelihood.We passed many Masai villages. Theseare mainly temporary mud huts that arecovered with thatch. In the center ofeach village there is often an enclosure

of thorns in which they keep their cattleat night. For centuries Masai youngmen have proven their manhood bykilling lions with nothing but a spear.Brother Moses told me, “If a lion sees aMasai, he will run away at a very fastspeed.”

While we were in Kenya, a reportappeared in the newspapers that theMasai had killed ten lions that hadwandered out of one of the nationalparks. These lions had killed some ofthe Masai cows and, in revenge; theMasai had killed ten of them. The con-servationists were incensed at thekilling of the lions, however, a spokes-man for the Masai said, “When thelions kill one hundred of our cowsnobody says a word, but as soon as wekill a single lion everybody is upset.”These Masai are not required to havepassports or to pass through immigra-tion or customs when they move fromone country to another. The officialsleave them alone and do not attempt tosubject them to the same regulationsthat govern the movement of ordinarypeople!

Kenya Again

On Friday, the day after our visit toTarangire, we returned to Nairobi.After another wearying drive wearrived at about 3:30 in the afternoon.We shopped around to find a monitorfor a computer that was being donatedto the orphanage in Oyugis beforereturning to Moses’ home on the out-skirts of Nairobi.

On Sabbath we had a good meetingin Nairobi with maybe 80 people therewho have accepted the message. Thesewere mostly members of BrotherMoses’ church, but there were alsosome who had come from Kisii, manymiles away. Some of them, such asBrothers Evans Magare and RichardMogendi, had been Sunday keepingpreachers. However, they had acceptedthe Sabbath and were thrilled to learnthe truth about God. They were anx-ious that we should come to Kisii alsoto spend some time teaching their peo-ple there. Unfortunately our schedule

was too tight to allow us to do so, andwe had to promise that we would prayabout the possibility of doing so some-time in the future.

Also present were some who wererefugees from the Congo and their con-dition was heartrending. Their clotheswere ill fitting and the children wereragged. They have been living on char-ity for 18 months now because thegovernment of Kenya has not acceptedthem. They sang a touching song,about their condition, in Swahili andsomebody translated for us. The songsaid,

Our Father in heaven, hear us as we

are praying for you to bless us

Father, we are in a corrupt world.

O God where are we going, with our

loads on our backs

Children are dying because of hunger,

O where are you God?

We are now asking you God to bless us.

Mothers are running, Father will you

help them?

Fathers are running, Father will you

help them?

Children are running, Father will you

help them?

What mistake have we made, Rwanda

and Burundi?

People are being killed like animals,

God, where are you?

Churches are empty, Christians are be-

ing separated,

Rwanda people and Ugandans are

running, God, please help them.

Sudanese people are running, God

please help them,

Burundi people are running, God

please help them

Congo people are running, God please

help them

It was deeply touching. They sangwith feeling from their own experi-ence. These people had beenPentecostals, but then when they heardthe message about God, throughMoses, they accepted the truth.

Of course, there is a glaring needhere for all kinds of things. After see-ing the condition here, I am moresympathetic towards the “handsstretched out” attitude of some Afri-cans even though we had the badexperiences too. But these cases werethe exception. The people, for the mostpart, displayed unexpected nobility.

The drive to the orphanage inOyugis was another long and wearyingone. On the way through Nairobi tocatch a bus I was forced to run with twosuitcases and, as a result, my backstarted giving me problems. BothHoward and I were now suffering fromthe same problem and I hoped that thebrethren would not conclude thatJamaicans had weak backs! The busride was not helpful to our backs, espe-cially since we were sitting over therear wheels of the bus and could feelevery bump and pothole in the road.The bus that we travelled on was one ofthose large old buses (in Jamaica wewould call it a country bus). Every fewmiles somebody would get up and startpreaching in a shrill strident voice.This was sometimes punctuated by thecrowing of a rooster, which was appar-ently also a passenger on the bus, a fewseats ahead of us.

The scenery was fascinating,although Howard saw very little of it.He was again not feeling well. He hadleft Nairobi with a high fever and wasof the opinion that he had contractedmalaria. However, I did not think it wasmalaria, because everyone had reas-sured us that there was no malaria inthe area of Nairobi. The brethren inNairobi got him some malaria pills,which he duly took, but for most of thetrip to Kisii, on the way to the orphan-age, he was sleeping off whatever bughad gotten into his system.

A man was sitting beside me on thebus and we soon struck up a conversa-tion. I discovered that he was apoliceman, and one of the security offi-cers responsible for guarding thepresident of Kenya. However, he wason holiday and on his way home to visithis wife and child in a place called

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Kericho, because the president was atthat time away on a visit to the USA.This man gave me a running commen-tary and pointed out all the places ofinterest along the way. At one point wepassed by a road to a place calledEldoret, and he told me that this wasthe place where all the great runnersfrom Kenya originated. They allbelonged to a particular tribe, whichlived in that region called Eldoret.

The Orphanage in Oyugis

Finally, we arrived in the town of Kisiiwhere we got a minibus that took us toOyugis where the orphanage is. Assoon as we arrived at the gate an explo-sion of laughing, shouting childrenerupted around us and we wereswarmed by hugging and kissing chil-dren of all sizes and ages. It was a bitoverwhelming! Later in the eveningthey burst into a song that almost tookoff the rafters. They seemed veryhappy and we recognized that God isdoing a real work here. There was wor-ship each morning at 5.00 a.m. with adifferent child each day leading out inthe lesson and prayer.

One of the highlights of this trip tothe orphanage was the singing. PastorMaurice has done a great job with thesechildren and young people. They havea lovely choir which sang several timeswhile we were there and, each time, Iwas deeply thrilled by the singing. Thechildren range in age from about threeyears to about 19 with a mixture ofboth boys and girls. Each child seemsto know his duties very well and carriesout his or her task willingly and cheer-fully. One noticeable feature was theway the older children looked after andsupervised the younger ones. Theatmosphere of the family was very real.

The rented facilities at the orphan-age are not too bad by Africanstandards. However, there are only twotoilets to serve nearly 90 persons, andthese toilets are in the African style,simply a hole cut into the concretefloor with a pit underneath. Many ofthe other facilities would also be inade-quate by western standards. The

cooking is done on wood fires in asmall log building and the dishes arewashed outside in the open air. How-ever, the children cooperate in makingthe best of what they have and theyseemed to be quite happy.

While at the orphanage we were ableto meet a few of the persons from thearea who have accepted the truth aboutGod. One of these was a man presentfrom the “Jesus only” belief who wasquite enthusiastic when he discoveredthat we did not believe in the Trinity.However, we soon got into a discus-sion on the subject where we began tolook more closely at the problems withthe “Jesus Only” belief. To his creditthis man listened carefully and at theend admitted that there were somethings which he had not thought about,and which he needed to look into morecarefully. After two days at the orphan-age, we departed for the journey backto Nairobi, from where we would beleaving for Ghana. We left SisterEsther behind as she was scheduled tospend two more weeks in Oyugis at theorphanage. This was really where herheart was and she was so happy to bethere that it seemed she would cheer-fully have spent six weeks there.

After arriving back in Nairobi, wespent the night packing our things andsaying goodbye to Moses’ family.They were sweet to the end and sang afew songs for us before we turned in tobed on this final night. We left the fol-lowing morning to go to the airport. Wetook off from Kenya full of memoriesand a little sad to leave so many goodfriends behind. However, we were get-ting really homesick and the thought

that we were one step closer to homemitigated our sorrow at leaving. Sadly,after leaving us at the airport, BrotherMoses was beat up and robbed. He wasbadly bruised on his chest from beingbeat upon with the butt end of arevolver!

Ghana

After a five-hour flight, we arrived atthe airport at Accra, Ghana with somemeasure of misgivings. Our contact inGhana, the person who had arrangedthe meetings, was Brother Paul OseiAgyeman. We had first heard of thisbrother through Erwin Zoor from Ger-many, who had told us of a brotherfrom Ghana who had shared the truthabout God with 18 churches that hadaccepted the message. We had madecontact with Brother Agyeman, but wehad no clear information as to whetheror not we would be met at the airport.We had received an email simply giv-ing us instructions as to which buseswould take us the 450 kilometers fromAccra, where we would land, toBerekum where the meetings would betaking place.

The passage through the airport atAccra was smooth and quick. It is avery small airport by today’s standardsand everything was relaxed and lowkey. In fact, it was like this generally allover Africa. As soon as we had col-lected our baggage and stepped out ofthe restricted area, our fears wereallayed. Four young men were stand-ing there holding up placards on whichour names and photographs wereprominently displayed! After enthusi-astic introductions we got into aminivan on the side of which was alogo of the three angels of Revelation14, with “Remnant International Mis-sionary School,” written in bold lettersalong each side of the van.

From the airport we were taken to ahome in Accra where we met BrotherPaul. He had visitors with him fromGermany, so his attention had to bedivided between them and us. How-ever, this gave us an opportunity, as weate a meal, to observe quietly. After

Children from the orphanage

eating we set out on the journey toBerekum, which would take us the restof the day. It was an exhausting trip thattook even longer than anticipatedbecause of a boiling radiator on thevan, which caused us to stop regularlyto refill with water. We arrived at about9:00 p.m. that night, weary, and glad tofind a room with two beds waiting forus.

The next morning, after breakfast,Brother Paul explained to us that wewould not be having any meetings thatfirst day, but we would have the oppor-tuni ty to rest and to do somesightseeing. In fact, he had arrangedfor us to be taken to a village threehours away where we would see mon-keys living in perfect harmony withhumans. The meetings would begin thefollowing day and would consist offour meetings each day for five days,all of which would be taken by Howardand myself. This was a rough schedule,but we were prepared for it.

The visit to the monkey sanctuarywas interesting. We had the usualtrauma with the van stopping everyfew miles to refill. Otherwise every-thing went well. When we arrived, allwe saw was a village with people.There was not a monkey in sight. How-ever, I soon spotted one in a nearby treeand, after we procured some corn,which we held out to them (unknownto the ranger who was our guide) theystarted to appear by the dozen. Soonwe had monkeys of all sizes around us.They walked about all over the carsand the houses and calmly sat beside useating from our hands.

The ranger had taken some of thevisitors on a tour but both Howard andI were suffering from back problemsand we declined to go on the tour.When the ranger came back and foundus feeding the monkeys he asked us tostop and explained that they did notwant the monkeys to become depend-ent on humans. He was very nice aboutit and, in fact, was thrilled to haveJamaicans there. He, like everybodyelse in Africa, knew all about theJamaican Reggae singer Bob Marley

and thought that Jamaica was the great-est place on earth. This was one thingthat amazed us while there. As soon aswe mentioned that we were Jamaicansanywhere in Africa, immediately webecame special people. Everybodywanted to tell us how wonderfulJamaica was and how they dreamed ofcoming there one day.

Denominational Madness

At first we had many questions aboutBrother Paul and his work in Ghana,but the more we learned, the moreimpressed we became. Brother PaulOsei Agyeman is the successor to theposition of chieftain, or local king, inhis ancestral village. In fact, the reign-ing chief recently died and severaldelegations have been sent to BrotherPaul requesting that he take up hisposition as chief. However, he hasrefused to accept such a position. Hetold us that he could never accept sucha position because being a chiefinvolves paying homage to deadancestors, and other spiritualistic ritu-als that are incompatible with Christianconvictions.

Brother Paul is the foremost leaderof a group of nearly 2,000 people in 19churches who have been put out of theSeventh-day Adventist denomination.The SDA leaders have acted in an arro-gant and high-handed way towardsthese brethren that is almost unbeliev-able. However, the end result is that inthe Mid-west Ghana Conference of 31churches, 17 churches have been putout of the SDA organization, while 14have elected to submit to the tyranny ofthe leaders, and to remain with the con-ference. Two other churches fromanother conference have also been sep-arated from the SDA organization.

The controversy started when theconference organized ecumenicalmeetings, some of which involvedSunday-keeping ministers preachingin Seventh-day Adventist churches.Brother Paul, who was at that time apopular lay evangelist working hand inhand with the conference to establishnew churches, raised objections to

these ecumenical meetings and the dis-agreement between him and theconference became so sharp that theconference instructed his church boardto disfellowship him. When the churchboard refused, they instructed thechurch to dismantle the church board.When the church refused, theyexpel led the church from thesisterhood of churches.

They accused Brother Paul of manythings and made it known, amongother things, that he was educating thechurches not to return tithes to the con-ference. A delegation of 11 elders from11 churches in the conference decidedto investigate the accusations of theconference and to that end they came tothe Berekum District where BrotherPaul operates. The first church theycame to had, that very week, returnedthree million (3,000,000) Cedis (theGhanian unit of currency) to the con-ference, so the elders discovered thatthe allegations of the conference offi-cials against Brother Paul were nottrue. They visited the conference officeand stated their findings. The confer-ence officials were so infuriated thatthese elders should dare to disagreewith them that they drove these eldersaway from the conference premisesand told them that if they should evercome there again without the permis-sion of their various pastors theywould be disfellowshipped. True totheir word, the next time these eldersreturned to the conference office on thesame mission, they disfellowshippedseven of them. Four of them were notdisfellowshipped because they werefrom the Berekum District and, in thatDistrict, it was not easy for theconference to disfellowship thoseelders.

Many other things happened whichcannot be covered in such a shortreport. We intend to do a special reporton what happened in Ghana in the nearfuture. However, the final arrogantmove of the conference was to demandthat all the churches in the conferenceshould write a letter stating that theywere Seventh-day Adventists and that

Old Paths - 14 - December 2003

Vol. 12, No. 12 - 15 - http://www.smyrna.org

they were willing to obey the confer-ence. Fourteen of the churches meeklycomplied with this demand, 17 of themhowever stated that they had alwaysbeen Seventh-day Adventists and thatthey saw no reason to write such a let-ter. In addition, they were willing toobey the conference only where theconference was in obedience to God.These 17 churches, consisting ofapproximately 2,000 people were sum-marily dismissed from the sisterhoodof churches.

These brethren have accepted thetruth about God and are working tospread the message in Ghana. Theyhave a small radio station that broad-casts 20 hours each day and also aprinting press. God has blessed themwith a 70-acre farm and another80-acre piece of land where they areestablishing a missionary trainingschool. One building for classes hasalready been constructed. They werevery happy for the message that weshared with them because, althoughthey had come to understand that Godis not a trinity, they had many ques-tions which needed answering and bythe grace of God we were able to sup-ply many of these answers and to givethem a better understanding of thetruth. These brethren will be having acamp meeting in Berekum fromDecember 28 to January 4 with close to2,000 people expected to attend!

Meetings in Berekum

Our meetings in Ghana were held onthe property of 80 acres where BrotherPaul lives. The building where we metwas very plain. It is constructed ofboards and is just a framework with thebottom half boarded up and the top halfopen to the elements. A zinc (tin) roofand a concrete floor complete thisbuilding. However, this is the patternfor most of the schools, and many ofthe churches, which we saw in Ghana.This building will hold perhaps up toone hundred and fifty persons, and itwas here that we had our meetings. Themajority of those who attendedcamped out at Brother Paul’s house, or

in other buildings on the property.Howard and I however, also held meet-ings in the church back in town eachnight, and so arrangements were madefor us to stay at another house closer totown. This was the house whereBrother Paul had formerly lived and itwas on these premises that the printingpress and literature storeroom werelocated.

The enthusiasm of the young menand women who attended these meet-ings in Berekum was a great blessing.One thing that will live in my mind wasthe memory of a whole roomful ofthem diligently taking notes and writ-ing down every Bible verse that wementioned. They were quick to graspwhat we were saying and as BrotherPaul quizzed them the following morn-ing, they demonstrated that they notonly understood, but also rememberedvery well the things that we had taught.Another thing that I will not forget isthe way they said “amen.” They wouldbe very quiet during prayer, but whenwhoever was praying would come tothe end and say, “In Jesus’ name,amen,” Then there would be a roar of“amen” which almost raised the roof. Ihave never heard amen said in such anenthusiastic manner anywhere else inthe world.

While I was in Berekum, duringthese meetings, an irritation developedin my throat that seemed to migrate tomy lungs and after a while I had a con-stant irritating cough. Eventually mythroat became very sore and my voiceleft me. I could only speak in a hoarsewhisper and even that effort was pain-ful . We had already had somewonderful studies on the subject of thegodhead, but I was anxious to deal withsome of the issues of the law and righ-teousness, and I was scheduled tospeak on the topic, “Delivered from theLaw,” that day. I was not willing to putoff, or to leave out, that subject.

After trying, with much success, ahome remedy, the brethren got outsome public address equipment to aidmy voice. There was no electricity butthey had a generator and soon had it

going. With this equipment, I preachedin a whisper, but everyone heard veryclearly. I was not very comfortable butGod gave me strength and I had the sat-isfaction of seeing that the messagewas a great blessing to those wholistened.

This throat irritation bothered me forthe rest of my time in Africa, becausealthough the hoarseness graduallydiminished, I coughed constantlywhenever there was the slightest pres-sure on my lungs and this includedwhenever I sat down and leaned back,or whenever I lay down. I was not sureif this problem developed because ofsome virus or germ that I encounteredand to which my body was not accus-tomed, or because of the excessive dustwhich was prevalent everywhere inGhana. Many of the roads are made ofa combination of asphalt and dirt. Thisdoes not hold up very well and theresult is that there is dust everywherealong most of the roadways. The trees,the buildings, everything is coveredwith dust.

The national food staple of Ghana isfufu. Fufu is a combination of cassavaand plantain. This is beaten into a pastesomewhat of the consistency ofkneaded white flour, which is eatenwith the fingers after being dipped insoup, and is supposed to be swallowedwithout being chewed! Howard and Ifound this to be more of a challengethan we could face. Banku, a similarcompound made with cornmealinstead of cassava, was equally diffi-cult for us. However, we discoveredthat Ghana has some of the best yamsin the world. We thoroughly enjoyedthe yams and so we asked for yamsfrom then on, and we did pretty well ona diet of yams and plantains. In themornings I had bread with peanut but-ter. Most of the time we were in Africa,Howard elected to do withoutbreakfast.

When the time came for us to leaveGhana, it was with a feeling that therewas still a great deal left for us to do. Itseemed that we had just barely begunto know the people, and the truth is that

we had only met a very few of the 2,000 who had beendisfellowshipped. Nevertheless, we were anxious to gethome.

The Journey Home

We left Accra on Wednesday, October 15. By the grace ofGod, we arrived in Jamaica at mid-day on Friday, October17, gladder than we could express to see our families again. Ittook a few days for us to fully recover from the rigors of thetrip. My voice is now normal and our backs are doing betteras well. Nevertheless, it was not long after we returned homethat I started missing Africa, thinking of the work that is stillto be done there and hoping that the Lord will make it possi-ble for us to return to this area of His vineyard where there isso much potential for the truth to grow. �

Old Paths - 16 - December 2003

Old Paths is a free monthly newsletter/study-paper published by

Smyrna Gospel Ministries, HC 64 Box 128-B, Welch, WV

24801-9606 U. S. A. The paper is dedicated to the propagation

and restoration of the principles of truth that God gave to the early

Seventh-day Adventist pioneers. Duplication is not only permit-

ted, but strongly encouraged. This issue, with other gospel

literature we publish, can be found at our web sites. The urls are:

http://www.smyrna.org and http://www.presenttruth.info. Phone:

(304) 732-9204. Fax: (304) 732-7322.

Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Allen Stump – editor@smyrna.org

Associate Editor . . . . .Lynnford Beachy – berean@smyrna.org

Pensacola, FL Meeting—Last Call

Brother Lynnford Beachy will be having meetings inPensacola, Florida, on December 5-7 at Emerald Coast Min-istries, 30 South 3rd Street. You may call Jack Van Ord forfurther details at 850-458-5549. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor

detail of my life made me want to walk away from the God-head movement. But I realized a year ago that ourrelationship with God is a love affair and nobody has a rightto tell me how to grow in that relationship. God accepts me asI am, and I in turn accept others as they are and just love them.This brings about loving service because it comes from theheart. I loved the article and you put it so beautifully. Thankyou. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Internet

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