Pastoral work is essential for building up New Testament assemblies, following the pattern of the Apostle Paul who preached, taught, and confirmed churches. The sermon highlights the importance of evangelists, pastors, and teachers, emphasizing that true missionary work involves not only spreading the gospel but also establishing and nurturing local congregations. It details the extensive efforts and successes in pioneering gospel work and church planting in various global regions, including Angola, South America, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, and Russia, underscoring the dedication and sacrifices of missionaries. The message also addresses significant challenges faced by missionaries, such as government regulations, nationalism, ecumenical pressures, polygamy, and economic issues, concluding with a call to prayer and support for those serving in difficult circumstances.
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We'll be together again on the Acts of the Apostles, chapter fifteen. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter fifteen, on verse thirty-five. Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren, in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with him John, whose surname was Mark.
But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them. that they departed asunder one from the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed on to Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went through Syriac and Silasian, confirming the churches. Yesterday evening we were speaking a little bit about the pioneer aspect of missionary work.
That is the man who goes into fresh soil, places where the gospel never has been preached and takes the gospel for the first time. We'll be giving a few examples of men who have done that in different parts of the world. There were a number of others that I would love to talk about last night, but my time ran away. After the meeting, I was reminded that I didn't say anything about Hudson Taylor in China. that there's one man and missionary analyst that they have more respect for than another, it's that dear servant of God. As a very young believer, I remember picking up a book that was written by Mrs. Grant in Guinness.
It's called The Growth of a Soul. And I think apart from my Bible, I don't know of anything which was such a stimulus and a blessing to me from the reading of that book. It's Hudson Taylor's life in early years. And again, I can't imagine anybody reading that wonderful missionary volume without deriving a tremendous blessing from it. Hudson Taylor was the man who went into interior China, again a real pioneer. Just the other day I picked up a book that I've been looking for for a long time. Not as the biography of Mr. D.E. Hosts. Mr. Host was the man who took over from Hudson Taylor when he retired, a real man of God.
He was the brother of Mr. W.H. Host. He, of course, was the editor of the Believers Magazine for many years, a man who sat at the feet of Bishop Stanley Mall in Cambridge University, Divinity School, and a man who was a tremendous help to me when I was a young believer. Oh, we do thank God for these dear men. I think we have a tremendous lot to learn from them. And as we think of their history and the work that they did in pioneering with the gospel on virgin soil, it's a tremendous encouragement and stimulus to us in the present day. There's another man I would like to have talked about last night.
Just a couple of years ago, I was over in Peterborough in Ontario in Canada. And I heard that there was a man buried there who wrote that lovely hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus. His name is Joseph Scriven. I had heard the hymn song, of course, since I was a child. And I'd heard his name mention his connection with the authorship of the hymn. But I knew nothing whatever about his history. But when I was in Peterborough, a couple of years ago, I learned that he was buried there. And I went over and I saw his grave and learned a little bit about his history. He was the first preacher among brethren in Canada.
He came over to Canada many years ago. He was a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, in Ireland. Born in a little country town called Van Bridge. And there God saved him. And after he graduated from Trinity College... Around about the same time as J.N. Darby and Anthony Norris Grove, on these early men, when he came home and told his parents what had happened, his father disinherited him. He intended him to go into the army, but he had conscientious objections about bearing arms, and therefore he disagreed with his father, and the result was that he was disinherited.
He was keeping company with a young woman at the time, and they were engaged. Very lovely girl. She was riding a horse, going across a bridge, and the horse shied, and threw her. And the result was she was killed, and Joseph Scriven, with a broken heart, he decided to leave the country. He left Ireland, and he came over to Ontario. There was a man who lived in Peterborough who was a retired lieutenant of the Royal Navy. His name was Commander Pengele. He had two boys, and he engaged Mr. Scriven to educate the boys, and he built a little log cabin for him on the edge of his farm.
And that dear man went around the country preaching the gospel. He was the first preacher among brethren in Canada. After some time he again became friendly with a young woman. They developed into affection and love and they decided to get married. This young woman, her name was Roche, R-O-C-H-E, Miss Roche. And they decided to get married. But he took her down to the lake, Rice Lake, outside of Peterborough, and baptized her. They had to break the ice. And the baptizer, and as a result she got pneumonia, developed into tuberculosis, and she died.
And she was buried in a little cemetery there outside Peterborough. And there Joseph Scriven again was heartbroken. And on account of these two sorrows, he sat down, and he wrote that hymn, What a friend we have in Jesus, for all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. It has been translated into more foreign languages than any other English hymn, although it's so simple, and yet it's so beautiful. Now, just immediately after this, Joseph's scriven, he had a very high fever. And in a raging fever, in the middle of the night he got up out of his dead.
And he went down to the lake, where he had baptized that young woman. And the next morning his frozen body, frozen stiff, sitting on his knees beside the lake, he had gone to the Lord. And they took his body and buried it beside that young woman in the little cemetery there in Peterborough, at least outside Natana. You know that student, I looked at it, and some of the stories I heard about that dear man, he was a real pioneer. And I'm going to occupy time and talking about him tonight, but I would have liked to have mentioned his name last night. Again, he was one of that noble army, the noble band of pioneers that take the gospel into places where it has never yet been.
What a wonderful privilege that is to preach the gospel. Now I want to continue tonight in speaking about pastoral work and also some of the problems connected with the work of the Lord overseas. And again I want to be very brief in some of the things that we want to mention. But before we look at some of the personal experiences that we have had in different parts of the world along the line of building up New Testament assemblies, let me say that the Missionaries Commission is twofold. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. For as the gospel according to Matthew puts it, all authority has been committed unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Now, the function of a missionary or a preacher, an evangelist, wherever you find them is always too full. And I believe that any man that God calls and sits and sends into his work, his work is never done until those that have been brought to Christ, those that have been made disciples, are gathered together in New Testament scriptural fashion around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think that this is the teaching of the Acts of the Apostles. One could easily occupy all our time tonight in speaking about the Apostle Paul. Everywhere he went, on his three missionary journeys, when he went in and pioneered. After he had pioneered with the Gospel, he left a New Testament church behind. And then the passage that we have read together, after a time he went back again. And I want you to notice the four words that are used in the passage that we read. We read here, teaching, and preaching the word of the Lord. And then Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit. Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord.
Teaching and preaching and visiting. And then the last verse in the chapter, and he went through Syria and Solisia confirming the churches. Now it might be interesting to take these four words and with the detail of it. All I want to say before we look at some of the personal experiences that we want to talk about, that this is the teaching of the New Testament for the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. These are the three great gifts that God has given to his church today. In early apostolic days, those the Apostle and the Prophet, these were foundational gifts. But the gifts in the church today is the evangelist.
He's characterized by mobility. The man that goes out with the gospel, the pioneer, the evangelist, the pastor. The pastor is characterized by stability. The pastor's work, the shepherd's work. The man with the shepherd's heart is to build up and confirm the work that has been done in the gospel. And then the teacher, he is characterized by ability. So these are the three great gifts today, and they're very often combined in the same individual. I think the Apostle Paul certainly was an evangelist. He certainly was a pastor, and certainly he was an outstanding teacher. Oh, we do pray, God, the day that he would raise up men with these great gifts.
To do this work, not only to evangelize and pioneer, but to build up and to confirm and to teach and to preach the word of the Lord. Badly needed everywhere today. I think one of the great needs among the people of God is not only the shepherd, pastoral work among them, but also the consecutive expository ministry. of the Word of God. That's not picking a little verse here and another little verse there and another little verse somewhere else, lifting them out of their contacts and deliberating them and then preaching a nice little sermon from them. But it is the cheerful, expository, consecutive ministry of the Word of God.
Now, having said that, looking here at the New Testament pattern, I want to give a few examples of some things that we have seen during our lifetime along the line of pastoral work. And then I want to talk about the problems. The problems of the mission field a day. They're neither few nor small. There never was a day when there are more problems on the mission field than at the present time. And they're liable to get more complicated and more difficult as the time goes on. I was thinking today, I made a little note of it, of different places where we have seen phenomenal success, not only in the preaching of the Gospel but the building up of New Testament churches.
Before we look at some of the others, just let me mention the field with which we are more familiar than any other. That is, in Angola. There are three main areas in Angola where work has been done. There are other minor areas where work has been commenced and where it's still going on. But I don't think that there's any part of Angola where there has been more phenomenal success than among the Umbunda speaking people in BA. I arrived there for the first time in nineteen twenty four. And I can't say anything too high about my dear brethren who founded the work in BA.
The first man, of course, was Frederick Stanley Arnett. He went there in eighteen eighty-six. That's a long time ago. About ninety years. And the second man who followed him was Mr. Charles Swan. Mr. Swan was one of those early pioneers that followed Mr. Arnett in Garandensi. And Mr. Swan was the man who founded the station, Achalanda. That is where Betty, Betty, is working at the present time. She is the only worker from the assemblies in that large area today. I want you to pray for Betty. We had a letter from her yesterday telling us a little bit about her problems and her difficulties, and we look forward in the will of the Lord of seeing her once again this year.
We intend to go back. But the man who founded the work at Chalanda was Mr. Charles Swan. And then Mr. Edward Sanders spent fifty years in the work there at Chalanda, building it up and teaching and preaching and evangelizing in the area. Now, as well as Chalanda, there's another station called Qualondo, where a couple from British Guyana founded a work, again many, many years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Moraine. They came from Georgetown and British Guyana on to build up the work there. And then Mr. Frederick T. Lane, a man who is an Englishman from London, he went over, along with Mr.
Arnett, again one of the early pioneers, and he founded the work at Capango. And then the fourth place in VA, where work has been carried on for over fifty years, is Chittau. That work was founded by Mr. Ed Bodley. There have been many other fellow workers, associated with these dear men. And again, it's obvious, to grant all the details would be impossible. But in VA today, there are about two hundred and fifty companies of God's people, speaking the Ombundle language. Now, not all of them are assemblies. is not the material in some places to fund an assembly. And when I mean an assembly, what I mean by that is a place where we find the breaking of bread and all the functions of a New Testament church carried on every Lord's day.
But there is a Gospel testimony, and very often children's work and school work carried on at about two hundred and fifty places among the Ovingbungo in BA. We spent the first eighteen months. of our life in Africa and VA in learning the Ombanda language. The old pioneers were still alive. I had a wonderful privilege of spending a year with Mr. Swan Partigal. I spent many years in happy cooperation with Mr. Edward Sandler at Chalanda. I went out to Mr. Fred Lane at Capango, and Mr. Murrin, I knew intimately until he died.
And to me, to look back at those days, it's just a real benediction to think of these men that laid the foundations of the work. But there are about two hundred and fifty companies of God's people speaking the Umbunda language. Now leaving BA and going further into the interior to the Chokwe tribe, the man who founded the work there was Mr. William Maitland and Mr. Tom Lauda. They went there in nineteen hundred and five. And I mentioned Mr. Cuthbert Taylor last night. Mr. Taylor died of blackwater fever after he had had had seven attacks. And after he had spent seven years at Luma Kasai trying to build up a work, didn't see one single soul saved.
He was insulted by the old chief, a man called Machiavella, a man I knew very well. As far as I know, he never accepted Christ as a Savior. Some of his children did. But he insulted that, dear man, and gave him a very hard time. Cuthbert Taylor died. But among the Choke-B-Speaking people today, there are about two hundred assemblies. And when I say assemblies, I mean assemblies, where you find the breaking of bread among the Choke-B-Speaking people today. We thank God for Leonard Gammon. We thank God for Fred Offer. And we certainly do thank God for dear William Midland and Tom Lardis.
Robert McLaren, he spent a lifetime among the Choke, we tried too. On the way up in the north of Angola, in the diamond mines up in the northeast corner in the Lunda country, the Gospel has penetrated there in a remarkable way. Now these are two main areas. And then out on the Zambezi, on the frontier with Zambia, There are three stations there where a very fine work has been done. Albert Horton has been there for fifty years, who was a letter read from him this morning. He went out to nineteen twenty three, and this is nineteen seventy-three, and that dear man has been there for fifty years.
He is a wonderfully able man, a very capable brother. He has translated the whole Bible into the Luwina language. on the most capable expositor of the Word of God, but yet has voluntarily chosen to bury himself in that area, and he has safely carried on the work there for fifty years. A good work has been done there, not only at Kavungu, but Kazamba, where James McPhee lived. And again, he was a fifty-year man. James McPhee came from Scotland. And he spent fifty years in Angola. evangelizing and building up New Testament assembly. There are some of the ladies there today.
There are no men today at Kazamba, but there are three ladies. One elderly lady, over seventy years of age. She went out last year to stay with her daughter, Emily Rowntree, on their living and working there on the Zambezi River at Kazamba. Now, we've had practical experience of seeing the work that is going on there, and to me it's phenomenal, the way the Lord has blessed His work. Not only in pioneer work in the Gospel, but also in founding New Testament assemblies. Before the present emergency, when the war broke out in nineteen sixty-one, I have been at conferences in BA where we had three thousand believers gather together for the ministry of the word.
And today the work is practically on a self-supporting basis. At Capango and some of these other places are African brethren are carrying on the work. They do not get one penny from the outside. They're carrying on the work in these places, the medical work, the school work, the preaching, putting up buildings and so on. And all is done at the expense of the African believers. So we're very thankful and grateful for that. Now, leaving Angola for the meantime, I want you to think of some other areas in the world where similar work has been done. I was out in California some time ago, and a young man, a very brash individual, he came to me and he said this.
He said, I believe he said in twenty years that one could such a thing as an assembly here in North America. He had very, very little experience. But that was what he said. He said, I believe, he said, in twenty years there won't be a single assembly here in North America. And I smiled and I said, and my dear brother, you need to lift your eyes a little bit. And in every period God has his own people that are faithful and loyal and true to his word. And all you need to do is to travel a little bit and get your eyes lifted from your own little parochial area where you happen to live. Because if you do, you will see that God is working. If not working where you are, he certainly is in other parts of the world.
We've had a wonderful experience, to me, of going to the Latin Republics of South America. The fact that we speak the Portuguese language, it means that we have an open door in Brazil. I've been there twice. And we have also been in Argentina. And in all the Latin republics in South America except Venezuela. I have never been in Venezuela, but all the other republics of South America, we have been there. And we have seen it firsthand, the work that is being done on the men who are doing it. I am awfully thankful to God for good men, for pioneers that have labored in these lands in the wonderful way that God has blessed us with.
Now, very briefly. In Argentina today, there are about three hundred assemblies. And it's an amazing thing that in the capital city of Buenos Aires, there are between seventy and eighty assemblies in the one city. It's a city, I suppose, has about six million inhabitants, and there are between seventy and eighty assemblies in Buenos Aires. One dear man that was responsible for that work, along with others, was Mr. Sam Williams. Our brother Harpwood, who is in the meeting here tonight, has been in his home. He knows what I'm talking about, and he could corroborate what I say. That dear man went out there to earn his living, and after a time he gave up his work and gave all his time to the proclamation of the gospel.
He lived at a place called Lanus. I've been in his home, and from that parent assembly in Lanus. In Buenos Aires, there have been eleven friendly high boss, and all of those are New Testament assemblies today. In nineteen sixty-two, I was at their conference in Buenos Aires, and there were about twelve hundred people gathered together there for the ministry of the word. About three hundred assemblies, all in happy fellowship with each other in Argentina. And then another country, that we have had two visits, extended visits, is Brazil. In the center of Brazil, there's an area called the Rio dos, right in the center of the country.
Under that area, there are two hundred assemblies, all in happy fellowship with each other. It would be interesting to go into a little bit of history how that started. It is a completely indigenous work, a work that was done by the Holy Ghost in raising up two Brazilian brethren. that were in fire for the Lord, and filled with the Holy Spirit. They went around the country preaching the gospel among their own people. After some time, there was a Scotch brother called Stuart McNair. He went out there. And along with another an Englishman called George Howes, they went out and they joined up with these Brazilian brethren.
And right in the center of Brazil today, there are about two hundred assemblies there on the Rio docks. I spent a whole summer with them. two or three years ago, and certainly it was an eye-opener to me and a tremendous encouragement and blessing to see how God was working in that country. The work is spreading down into another province called Parana in the southern part of Brazil, and again it is a completely indigenous work. There was one dear brother called Agamiris. He's a Brazilian. He lives in a place called Gobernador Valadaris, right on the heart of Brazil. I went to see him one day, and I saw him sitting there with a little sewing machine.
He earns his living sewing the uppers of shoes for a shoe factory. That is the way he earns his living, just like William Carey. An honorably, day after day with a little sewing machine, he earns his living. Sewing uppers of shoes. But he's a real evangelist. And at night time, practically every night on the week, he's spreading the gospel around the country. He has an incurable disease. It's a disease that they call shagas. That is the Portuguese word. It's an insect that you find in water. And if a person drinks that water, on this insect, shag as they call it, it gets into their intestines, and it permeates every part of the body.
And it finally kills a person. There's no known cure for it. And dear brother Al Jemera, in spite of this disease that he has contracted in the work that he has been doing, there he is today pioneering with the Gospel on building up New Testament churches. I was at a conference on the MENA-Jurais in Brazil. I've been there twice. And at that conference there were fifteen hundred people gathered together for the ministry of the Word of God. One of the brethren that was ministering there was a brother called MUN. He's the brother of Catherine Morgan, the well-known missionary in Colombia. And that dear brother, he supplies for dentists in Brazil.
He has an open door for the gospel in São Paulo, one of the large cities there, and he has been very greatly used in the spread of the gospel in Brazil. So first of all, there's Argentina. And then there is the real ghost in Brazil. There's another country I just want to mention before we pass on, and that is Mexico. Some of our older brethren here tonight may remember the name of Eglin Harris, a man who went again to Mexico many, many years ago. He actually has children and grandchildren full-time in the work of the Lord today. Mr. Eglin Harris, an Englishman... who went out to Orizaba in Mexico many years ago and started a printing press on a work there.
It has been phenomenally blessed by the Lord. In the area where he lived, there are about fifty assemblies in that area today. Not only are these here people very much interested in the spread of the gospel, but they're building up New Testament churches. And if you go there, it would delight your heart on the Lord's Day to see these national believers in the work that they're carrying on. Another work that we have seen at first hand is Portugal. Within this last year, I have been there twice. Just a short time ago, I spent three weeks in Portugal. There's a dear brother there that I have known for thirty-five years. His name is Viriatos Sobral.
He's a Portuguese. And again, I'm not going to take time to tell his story, although it is intensely interesting. Up until the time he was nineteen years of age, he had never seen a Bible. He had never heard the Gospel. He was a devoted Roman Catholic. But he came over to the United States for an education, and in Bloomfield, New Jersey, he went to school. There was a young German in the college where he was. His name was Rodolf Binder. And he was a Christian. And he gave Gary out of the gospel. He gave him a Bible. And the result was God saved him. And after he got saved, he was walking down the street.
And on the storefront window he saw John three and sixteen. And he walked in. And he saw just a little handful of people sitting around the table remembering the Lord. Oh, he said, this is what I have been looking for. And for the first time he saw, in all simplicity, a little company of believers seated around the table remembering the Lord Jesus. Oh, he said, I've never seen anything like this in my life. And he associated himself with that little group. And then he wanted to go back to take the gospel to his family in Portugal. He had no idea at all of being a missionary. But he went back again to take the gospel among his own people. And when he landed there, the very first person he saw led to the Lord was his own mother, and then his father, and then a sister, and then a brother.
He started with his own family at a place called Rio Branco, a little farm place, a way up in the north of Portugal, and from there he started off to preach. Now, during the thirty-five years that he has been there, Viliato Sobral, personally, has been responsible for founding thirteen New Testament assemblies. About every six months, he goes into a new play. He has been abused. He has been knocked about. He has been in prison. He knows what it is to suffer for the gospel. But he's not interested in clothes. He's not interested in food. He's interested in nothing but the proclamation of the gospel and building up New Testament churches.
I take off my hut the very at all. is a dear, dear personal friend. And within this last year, I've spent time under his roof in Espino in Portugal. In Portugal today, there are about one hundred and twenty assemblies. And in the North, particularly, the man that God has used is Veriatis of Ra. Now, I would love to talk about other brethren in Portugal. All of them are dear, dear, esteemed friends. And all of them are carrying on work along this line, and God is richly blessed. There are problems. There always are. But at least God is blessing. Now, another place I would love to talk about tonight is Russia.
I have never been to Russia. But I know some of the men who have been there. I remember as a boy hearing Mr. E.H. Broadband talking about Russia. And, you know, we get the idea that the country is completely atheistic today. As far as the government is concerned, it is. But in the southern part of Russia, in the Ukraine, and in the state of Georgia, in the southern part of Russia, there are hundreds, literally hundreds of little companies of believers who carry on New Testament principles. And in the city of Moscow, and in the city of Leningrad, there's a large group every large day that gather together, not only for the ministry of the Word, but for the breaking of bread.
Many of them have been liquidated. Many good brethren in Russia have been sent to Siberia, and they have been liquidated in different ways under the hammer and the sicken, but God is working. And thank God, in spite of persecution, the work of God is going on. So this, I think, is encouraging. And my dear friends, I don't need to tell you that even here in this beloved land, God is working. And in spite of all that's going on all around, discouraging circumstances somewhere, and maybe a little group getting smaller and smaller. But don't forget that in other places there are companies of God's people that are getting larger and larger. We need to take the overall picture.
Sometimes on account of economic conditions, people have to leave on account of their work. on account of their job, but they go elsewhere. And if they have any conviction at all about the Bible and what it teaches along Church Testimony, they associate themselves with a little company that seek to carry on New Testament principle. Now these are the work along pastoral lines. And we do pray God today that would raise up men, more men, the evangelists and the pastor and the teacher to carry on this work. Now there are one or two principles connected with it I want to mention. We've tried to give a general overall picture of this pastoral type of work, and there's some things that I've learned during my life in connection with it, and I've jotted them down here just to help my memory.
In a country where there's a foreign language, one of the great necessities One of the outstanding necessities for working in a foreign country is a thorough, idiomatic knowledge of the language of the people. Now, any man who has been in any of these countries would tell you that on measure able to speak the language fluently and grammatically and idiomatically, you're very, very much hampered. That is a prime necessity for anyone that goes to a country to preach or to teach. They must know the language. In the part of the country where we lived, we have four languages. We had Portuguese, we had Ubundo, we had Chokwe, we had Sanga.
Sanga we had to learn from scratch. That is, learning. The language never had been committed to writing. And we had to learn these languages on a so long, lifetime's worth. Now, let me say, it cannot be done on a short-term basis. And the first main principle is that a man or a woman must know the language as thoroughly as possible. Now, the second thing is the word of God must be in the language of the people and the people taught how to read it. That means schools and translation work. And all, I'm grateful that in Angola today, in the four main language areas we have the whole Bible.
I'm awfully grateful for that. And for the men who have been fitted to do this great work, I thank God from the depths of my heart. In King Bundo, around the coast, around Luanda, they have the whole Bible. In Umbundo, where we spent twenty years of service, we have the whole Bible. And in Chokwe land, we have the whole Bible in the Chokwe language. The man who is responsible for translating. The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation into Chalkway was Mr. David Long, one of our dear fellow workers. He came to our home when he was twenty-one years of age, and he lived with us for five years. And I can't say anything too high tonight about the ability of that man in language.
He's a real linguist, and he translated the whole of the Word of God, which is a colossal task, into the language of the Chalkway people, and it's not an amateur job. It's thoroughly done, and it has been printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. And then, on the far reaches of the country, on the Zambezi, Albert Horton has been responsible for translating the whole Bible into the language of the Luwina people. And again, that is a fine piece of work. Mr. Horton is a real scholar, and God has used him in the translation of that word. Now, it also means that schools have to be organized. And of course, in schools, we have to give our time to schoolwork.
I taught school for sixteen years. I never had any training along that line. As a matter of fact, I was a shipbuilder by trade. And for anybody like me to start and teach school, well, it was something I didn't like. It was something that I never was fitted for. Never was trained for, but there was nobody else to do it. And for sixteen years I taught school right from scratch. But you know, if you want to build up a church, if you want to build up a New Testament assembly, that people must have the Word of God in their own tongue. And then they have to be taught how to read it. And the only one that can do that is the missionary.
And so here is this second great necessity in building up a work. That people must have the Word of God in their own tongue and be taught how to read it. Now the third thing I want to mention is it's a lifetime pass. Don't you tell me that it's a short-term project. It's not. To do a work like this, you have to give your life to it. And for people to talk about a crash program or something like that, that is absolute nonsense. Anyone who wants to do this work, it is a lifetime job. And anyone who wants to see a work that's solid and real and lasting, they'll have to give years to it.
Now, I think we say this with all affection, not in any hard way at all. Not by way of contradicting anybody. But what I want to say is that we have seen the work that has been done and the men who have done it. And in every case, it's a case of a man or a woman that has given her whole life to this tremendous job. And then the final thing, final principle is, the missionary must be taught himself in the Word and know how to teach. You know, it's nice to see any man that's able to open the book. whether it's in our own language here at home, or in the languages of these people overseas, unable to feed the Word of God.
Oh, there's a necessity for it here at home, but there's a supreme necessity to oversee. Now, if you pardon me, just for about five minutes, our time has gone. I want to speak very briefly, just mention some of the problems, and again, to help my memory, I've just noted them down. We can't go into detail about them at all, but it'll give you a little inkling of some of the problems that people are up against today. The first is government permission to enter a country, on the visa that's necessity, on the guarantee that they demand of anyone going into a foreign country. When I went to Angola, all I needed was a valid passport, but that's fifty years ago.
You couldn't do that today. The day before yesterday, I sat at the desk here at part of the Ponds, and I filled in a lot of forms addressed to the Portuguese government asking for permission to go back. I don't know whether they'll grant it or not. I tried to be as polite and courteous as I possibly could. I wrote out my application in the Portuguese language and tried to be just as gracious about it as I could, and asked them if they would graciously permit me to go back to the land where we have spent the most of our life. But you know, what they say is final. If they say no, there's no appeal. And it's one of the great difficulties today in many foreign lands.
If you want to go there, you must have permission from the government and you must furnish a guarantee on sponsors in the country that will guarantee that you will not be a liability on the country. And then when you do get there, there are government regulations concerning the work. In Angola we had Decree seventy-seven. Now Decree seventy-seven demanded that, first of all, we teach school. And all our schoolwork must be done in the Portuguese language and no other language. We're not allowed to use the native vernacular in school. It must be done in Portuguese and not in Ghana. And the people who teach school must be duly qualified to teach the Portuguese language.
That's number one. Number two, you must carry on medical work. You must offer medical assistance to the Africans. And number three, you have to teach trade. We had to teach carpentry, bricklaying, brick making, agriculture, tailoring, shoe repairing, and all kinds of things when we were there. And the government will demand that you bring up your work to a certain standard. And unless you do... They'll send around a commission from the government and they'll examine your work. And unless it comes up to a certain standard, they'll tell you to get out and make way for somebody else that's able to do it in a more efficient way.
So first of all, government permission and then government regulations. And then there's nationalism. I don't need to tell you tonight about the feeling in many parts of the world. Anti-white feeling. Anti-foreign feeling. You know what has happened in Uganda? As far as we are concerned, we haven't a scrap of color feeling or racial feeling of any kind. I think the Lord graciously has completely wiped that out of our mind. But mind you, when you go over there, on account of communist propaganda and agitation, you'll find a very, very strong current of feeling against the white man in some areas.
And in other areas it's anti-foreign. A foreigner of any kind is not welcome. So you have to be prepared to meet that, this nationalistic feeling. And then there's ecumenicalism. You know what has happened in the Congo in Zaire recently. The government there has demanded that all evangelical bodies must come under one head. And, unfortunately, the head of this organization is modernist in every sense of the word, controlled by the World Council of Churches. And some of our dear brethren, most of them, the majority, they have no sympathy with this ecumenical movement at all. But unless you conform, and unless you come in and submit to these people, you're totally get hurt.
Make way for somebody else. Now, that is the problem that our brethren are up against in Zaire. In the Katanga, many of them have gotten out. And up until the present time in the Northeast Congo, they have them allowed to stay. But for our long, God only knows. And then this polygamy. Again, this is a great big question that I'm not going to discuss here tonight. When you want to form a New Testament church and find the number of men that is four and five and six wives, what are you going to do about it? Well, maybe on another occasion we'll have opportunities to talk about that. But it's one of the great problems in the work today. And then there's the question of inflation. I suppose all of us know that yesterday the dollar was devalued ten percent.
You know, that may not affect us here. But within this last couple of years, the dollar has been devalued twice. And just yesterday, it was devalued ten percent. Now this is a very real problem for people who live in Brazil and these countries overseas. It just simply means that anything that they receive along the line of the devoted giving of the Lord's people, it has devalued ten percent. And that cuts ten percent of their income. And then in Brazil, there's a tax problem right in the country. And in Brazil today, a tax law has just been put on the books that everyone, every missionary, has to pay thirty percent of their gross income to the government in tax.
And this goes back retroactive. Retroactive, it goes back for six years. Now this is inflation. And again, I'm not going to discuss this in detail, but is there a real problem? for many of God's dear children. Now, I think I've talked long enough. I don't want to speak any more about problems, although I have a dozen other things here that one might speak about. But it all points out to the fact that God is working today, not only in the spread of the gospel, on the building up of New Testament churches, but their problems are increasing. day after day, and it means that we must get on our faith before God and bear up our dear brethren and sisters before the Lord, that God will sustain them in these difficult days in which we live.
May it be so for His namesake. I shall we pray. Our God and Father, again we lift our hearts to thee with thankfulness and praise for the wonderful way that thou art working. We thank thee that in spite of all that the devil is sought to do in destroying thy work. We thank thee that art working, and we praise thee that the church is being built on the gates of hell shall not prevail. Our Father, we do pray that all our dear brethren, in different parts of the world, that in all honesty and sincerity are seeking to serve thee, We pray that thou would encourage them and bless them.
And our Father, in spite of problems and difficulty, we do pray that thou would take care of them. And our Father, we ask of thee that may see thy hand working in a wonderful way, not only in the spread of the gospel, but building up these little companies of thy dear people. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.