A university hall packed with 2,000 African university students gathered after Christmas to face the challenge of cross-cultural mission. They came from everywhere between Egypt and South Africa.
February's EN reported on the Urbana Missionary Convention organised every three or four years for US students.The triennnial TEMA Conferences for Young People have drawn the attention to the needs of the unevangelised world.
It is less well known that East African evangelical students have been organising their own equivalent.
At Kenyatta University
The fourth such gathering, Commission 2000 (December 27-January 1) was again organised by the Kenyan Fellow-ship of Christian Unions, together with the Ugandan equivalent (both of them IFES-related national movements). African university CUs dwarf American IVCF 'chapters' and even the largest British university CUs. For example, Makere University has 1,500 members and Kenyatta University (the venue for the conference) some 1,200.
The programme was packed: each morning began with an hour's Group Bible Study on Mark, followed by fine Bible Expositions from Oscar Muriu, senior pastor at Nairobi Chapel, on the Life of Paul. After a short break, there were plenary sessions on The Uniqueness of Christ, Windows of Opportunity, Mission to Society (by a woman MP from Zambia), Mobilising New Missionaries and Moving on our Knees.
After lunch at 1.00 pm the enthusiastic participants attended two seminar/workshops each afternoon. The two-hour evening plenary sessions included specific prayer for countries where Christians are suffering, like Sudan. An especially moving moment was when the Ethiopians and the Eritreans, whose countries are fighting each other, appeared side by side in fellowship on the platform.
A number of speakers addressed the conference on 'A passion for Jesus', 'Reviewing the Task', 'Reaching Muslims'and 'Partnership in Mission'. There were only three of us muzungu (Caucasian whites) privileged to be plenary speakers.
African missionaries
We cannot overemphasise the strategic significance of such a conference. In the 18th century, Germany was in the forefront of mission (Halle, Moravians and the earliest British CMS missionaries all came from Germany). In the 19th, we British were in the forefront, and for most of the 20th it was the Americans. But already for the past 25 years we have seen increasing numbers of Asian and Latin American missionaries. But the prospect of warm, outgoing Africans beginning to move out into cross-cultural mission, is thrilling. African missionaries face particular logistic problems.
Finance?
Few African churches have financial resources to support cross-cultural missionaries. Both the Bible and mission history suggest answers. The evening Biblical study of 'partnership' reminded us how frequently Paul, Peter and John speak of 'partnership in suffering', and of the existence of missionary teams where 'these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions' (Acts 20.34). African missionary teams in which some members have portable, lucrative professions and skills that can help support the rest of the team is a real possibility. In history, of necessity, the first Moravians in Southern Africa practised such team self-support. William Carey worked for six years as manager of an indigo plantation, all the time losing money for George Udney, his Christian employer. William and Dorothy Carey (then unemployed after moving to the Danish colony of Serampore), Joshua and Hannah Marshman and William Ward the printer, were supported by money earned by Hannah from the schools she organised. This remarkable woman outlived the 'Serampore Trio', in reality a Sextet! These models could be followed in Africa today.
Eagerness and emotion
The strategic significance of Com-mission 2000 cannot be overemphasised. The commitment and eagerness of African Christians to serve Christ whatever the personal cost is a challenge to us all. Oscar Muriu listed biblical models of intentional poverty (Matthew 10.10), intentional celibacy (1 Corinthians 7) and self-support (Acts 18.3). In seeking to evangelise Muslim and Francophone Africa, 'white' missionaries stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. Missionaries from Asia and Latin America, but above all from Bible-believing churches in Africa are less obtrusive and closer culturally.
We are rightly cautious about appeals for commitment at such conferences, knowing that emotional appeals produce emotional responses from emotional people. But when men and women experience the Lord's own call to separate his chosen messengers (Acts 13.2) there is lasting fruit.
