Africa

Blogs in this category feature items of interest and incidents that happened when we lived in Sierra Leone

Two More New Features This Week.

Posted by

0

Podcasts of Lecture Series. Once again, click on the menu page above entitled “An Invitation to the Journey of a Lifetime.” I’ve uploaded a pod cast of Lecture One, Part Two of the lecture series given at the Evangelical College of Theology, near Freetown, Sierra Leone, May 16-19, 2016.

“The ‘Many-Splendored’ Wisdom of God. Monday and Tuesday I have the privilege of doing the Tishomingo County Pastors School at the First United Methodist Church in Iuka, Mississippi. Our study is entitled “The ‘Many-Splendored’ Wisdom of God: Studies in Ephesians 1-6.” If you click on the Ephesians page above, you can download the note-taking guide for these studies. Pastors receive one CEU for participating.

Two New Features: “An Invitation to the Journey of a Lifetime” and “What is the Bible?”

Posted by

0

Two new features for you to explore.

Podcasts of Lecture Series. Click on the new page in the menu above entitled “An Invitation to the Journey of a Lifetime.” That page is dedicated to a series of lectures given at the Evangelical College of Theology, near Freetown, Sierra Leone, May 16-19, 2016. You will find a description of the lectures and a podcast of Lecture One, Part One.

Video on the Bible. Click here to view the video, “What is the Bible?” on Youtube.

The “Fear of the Lord”—and One Night in Madina

Posted by

0

Image

Madina House

We had our last class on 2 Corinthians tonight. It has been a good course—none of us wanted it to be over. The class has been delightfully small—three students have been physically present in the class room, and three have been present by Skype—one in south Mississippi, one in Spokane, Washington, and one in Mexico City. Tonight we were finishing our study of  2 Corinthians 5:11-21 in the Greek text. Paul begins this passage by saying, “Because we know the fear of the Lord, we persuade people.”

The “Fear of the Lord” is opposite the fear of evil. Some years ago we were living in the village of Medina—about 2,000 people—Sierra Leone, West Africa. One night well after dark there was a knock on the door. Several men from the regent chief were standing outside. They asked me to bring my little blue Mazda B1600 pickup to the chief’s house. When we were on our way they told me to turn off the head lights—because someone might see us. They loaded the sick regent chief into the back of the truck and we took him to another house. The pastor of the local church explained it to me the next day. They believed the chief’s sickness was caused by a witch. If they could move him secretly, the witch would not know where he was. The fear of curses and swears, of jealousy and malicious intent were a staple of life. From this fear Christ would set us free.

The “Fear of the Lord,” however, is our trepidation before infinite good. It is our accountability before the almighty Creator of the universe who himself is pure self-giving love without stain of evil. Who can truly behold the vast universe that He has created without trembling before the Maker.

Although the Cross through which God has redeemed us delivers us from condemnation, it does not diminish the “Fear of the Lord.” The work of redemption only intensifies our awe and trembling before a holy God. Sin is so horrible and God’s judgment on the sinner is so terrible that nothing less than the Cross was sufficient to remove its stain. Roberto Stevenson, one of the students in the class, suggested that “the Fear of the Lord” in 2 Corinthians 5:11 was actually the “Fear of Christ.” After all, Paul says in 5:10 that we must all appear before “the judgment seat of Christ.” Yes, you say, but the Cross also reveals the great love of God in Christ—look at 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. There “Christ died for all.”  It was there that God “made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Doesn’t the fact that the God of the universe would go to such lengths for our salvation add to our trembling? The wonder of what he has done—and the realization that to reject him is to also reject “such a great salvation.” No wonder Paul said, “Because we know the fear of the Lord, we persuade people” to receive God’s offer of reconciliation in Christ.  

Kamakwie Secondary School—“being given over to death for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:11, ESV)

Posted by

1

In my last post I described what happened at Binkolo on our second night in Sierra Leone, September 3, 1969. It seemed that I was the one to whom other funny and embarrassing things happened over the next three years as Rosa and I completed our first term of missionary service. Maybe I’ll write about them another time. In this post, however, I’m not going to talk about the funny or the embarrassing, but about how the life of Jesus shines through our weakness and suffering.

In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (remember, I’m teaching 2 Corinthians this semester!) Paul uses the following words to describe his life as a minister of the New Covenant: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (ESV).

On September 4 we went up-country from Binkolo to Kamakwie (yes, for those not familiar with Sierra Leone, Kamakwie is more “up-country” than Binkolo—but not as many ants). For the next three years I was to be chaplain and Bible teacher (Bible Knowledge was a required subject) at Kamakwie Secondary School. I was straight out of seminary and so green that I made the grass look red, and I was the only missionary at the school. Those who had been there the previous year had either gone home or been transferred. There had been a big brouhaha (or, as we say in Sierra Leone, a “palaver”) that necessitated their untimely departure.

The school was in disarray. As far as I could tell that first year, there was no other committed Christian teacher for the 450 or so students in attendance. During the next two plus years the school was characterized by gross misuse of funds and by immorality of various kinds. I once found the boys in the boarding department drunk with wine given them by a respected person in town. At another time the walls of the senior prefect’s room were covered with porn given him by one of the school authorities. It appeared that everything was being done to intentionally corrupt the students. There was still tension among missionaries.

There was also anguish in our personal lives. During these years our first child died twenty-four hours after birth and Rosa all but died at the birth of our second. Throughout much of the last year I was suffering from recurrent intestinal cramps, fever, and chills, all the while endeavoring to stand as a witness for Christ in the midst of a godless mess. At one point my life was threatened and I have no doubt that at other times I was in physical danger. Although I had not been beaten five times with “forty-stripes save one” (2 Corinthians 11:24 KJV) as had Paul, I certainly felt “afflicted . . . perplexed . . . persecuted . . . struck down.” Yet, by the grace of God, “not destroyed.”

Paul thought his sufferings were necessary. He described them as “being given over to death for Jesus’ sake.” They were necessary “so that the life of Jesus also” might “be manifested in” his weak “mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11 ESV). And so it was at Kamakwie. By the time we left God had given us a strong Christian principle, several Christian teachers, and a youth center in town for the students. But the long term results were even more important. Many of the students to whom Rosa and I ministered during that time became strong Christians and leaders in the church—one became National Superintendent, another the Principal of The Evangelical College of Theology, and another the Principal of Gbendembu Wesleyan Bible College. We never know how, when we are faithful, the “life of Jesus” will shine through our human weakness.

September 3, 1969. Binkolo, Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Posted by

4

The time has come for the truth to be told concerning the events that occurred at Binkolo, Sierra Leone, West Africa on the night of September 3, 1969. The preservation for posterity of a true account of that night is important for several reasons. First, the recounting of this story has often led to distortion. Various exaggerated apochryphal versions of legendary proportion have gained credibility. Second, the true account will establish the fact that I was an innocent victim of the embarrassing events that occurred that night. Furthermore, after more than forty-four years, Rosa and I are the only two surviving witnesses. Thus, with her by my side, I am endeavoring to write a true an accurate account, which will be of interest to all persons concerned with the history of the American Wesleyan Mission in Sierra Leone.

It is necessary for me to give you a certain amount of background information in order to put that infamous night in proper context. Rosa and I had been married on August 15 of that year. On the second of September we arrived in Sierra Leone for what would be my first three-year term of service. Rosa had already completed one three-year stint. We were met in Freetown by two respected single lady missionaries, Dr. Marilyn Birch and Miss Lois Sheridan (later Miss Lois Sheridan Ellis). We remember awaking the next morning in the mission rest house, affectionately known as Summer Hill Villa, and hearing some children outside saying, “they done come from the United States of America.”

After some business in Freetown, we headed up country arriving in Binkolo about 10:00 pm. Binkolo, as most of you know, was an old mission station. The house, with high ceilings, dark wood paneling, overhanging eves, and large shuttered screen windows, had often been enlarged. It had numerous rooms and a total of thirteen outside doors. At this time Marion and Marge Birch lived there. Marion was Mission Director. We were to spend the night with the Birches. Another single lady, Marie Lind, was also present. Marie was writing a history of the American Wesleyan Mission and the Sierra Leone Wesleyan Church.
Dr. Marily Birch (Marion’s sister), Lois Sheridan, Rosa, and I got out of our van and began walking toward the dark house. One or two feeble flashlights lit our pathway. The women, who were wearing skirts, began to complain of driver ant bites. As many of you know, driver ants march in columns. They do not inject a toxin, but their pinchers are very painful. I felt no driver ants.

The three women and I climbed the steps to the veranda and entered the living room of the house. Marge and Marie were there to welcome us. There was one small candle. Its feeble light disappeared in the shadowy recesses of the ceiling. The rest of this mysterious house was enveloped in darkness. The women were busy picking of the biting ants. Suddenly, I, too, began to feel the sharp bites. As I began to squirm, Dr. Marilyn Birch, in her quiet way, said, “The only thing you can do is drop your pants.” So, since the doctor had spoken, I loosened my belt and let my pants fall. Immediately, the four-foot florescent bulb overhead burst into light. Marion, Marge’s husband, was not there because he had slipped out to start the generator. There I stood with my pants down in front of five women—three of whom were single and one of whom was my wife of two weeks. You have heard of people rolling with laughter. Rosa was literally on the floor doubled up and shaking uncontrollably.

This event had numerous after effects. Once when I was telling it in Dr. Marilyn’s presence, she said softly, “Well, what else could you do but drop your pants?” When new people came to Sierra Leone they, too, first went through Binkolo. When they got to Kamakwie, they would often look at me with a wry smile and say something like, “So, are you the one . . .” Marion had already told his version of the story. Once several years after we had returned from Sierra Leone Carol Earl, who had served as a nurse at Kamakwie Hospital, asked me for a true account. There were many distortions. Some thought this embarrassing incident happened at Gbendembu or Kamakwie. What I have here written, however, is a true and faithful narrative. You now know how, at the very beginning of my missionary career, I was caught “with my pants down.”

“Let’s try one more time. Give me a push!”

Posted by

0

“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV

As we were working on 2 Corinthians 3:4-18 in class, we were struck by Paul’s clear sense that his sufficiency was not self-sufficiency. It was God-sufficiency. According to Paul’s own testimony in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, God, and God alone, had made him sufficient as a minister of the New Covenant. How easy it is to attempt God’s work in our own strength—and ultimately, how futile.

When I taught at Kamakwie Secondary School in Sierra Leone, West Africa, one of my colleagues, Duane Steele, had a Honda 70 motor bike. As I remember, it was blue and white. Those Honda 70’s were a popular means of transport in the Africa of those days. I enjoyed riding it. One day he loaned it to me to ride over to the secondary school compound after school and visit with some of the students. After completing my business, I mounted the machine and kicked the kick starter. Nothing happened. I kicked it again. Nothing happened. I kicked until I had little kick left. What was the matter with this motor bike? So I enlisted some secondary school students to push me—my leg was tired, so we would push start it. They pushed me all over the school compound—the motor didn’t even sputter. Then I happened to look down. There was the key—in the switch, but not turned on! Somehow I distracted their attention long enough so that I could stealthily reach down and turn the key. Then I said, “Let’s try one more time. Give me a push.” And, of course, it started.   Sometimes we try to do God’s work by our own kicking and pushing— we have forgotten to turn on the switch. Even if we appear to have gotten things going, what we achieve will be futile in God’s sight.  

The “Big ONE”—in the New Testament, and in the Bible

Posted by

0

Last week I was telling you about how I, as a new missionary, learned to communicate with the students at Kamakwie Secondary School. I remember the first night when I went over to meet some of the young men in the dormitory—although they were speaking English, I couldn’t even understand their names. I’ve told people that I was so green in those days that I made the grass look red!

Anyway, as I said last time, I learned that I could help them grasp the message of the Bible by focusing on the people of the Bible. The Old Testament was about Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, etc. The New Testament was about Jesus and those who followed Him. We made banners for the New Testament books and hung them in the classroom. The Gospels gave us four pictures of this Jesus. Acts continued the story after his death, resurrection, and return to the Father. It told about what he, through the Holy Spirit, continued to do in his followers’ lives. The letters explained more about him and the Revelation looked forward to his second coming.

Last week we talked about the “Big Four” in the Old Testament—Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon. The New Testament, however, is about the “Big One.”—Jesus. The “big four” lead us to the “Big One,” who is really the “Big One” in the whole Bible. Let’s look a little at how that happens.

Several years ago Rosa and I went through the Creation Museum near Cincinnati with our oldest grandson, Patrick, and with our dear missionary friends, Chuck and Ruth Pierson. How I remember walking from the hall of Creation to that of Chaos. In the hall of Chaos I saw such pictures of human misery. One felt the consequences of Adam’s sin—the awfully separation from God, the destruction of human harmony through selfish violence, and the disruption of humanity’s relationship with creation. The first eleven chapters of Genesis depict this situation so well.

The First of the “Big Four”—Abraham. But then God came to Abraham (Genesis 12), and promised to redeem humanity and restore fellowship with God, harmony among people, and enjoyment of creation. All of this through him and his family.

The Second of the “Big Four”—Moses. God used Moses, the second of the “big four,” to begin making this restoration a reality by delivering Abraham’s descendants from Egypt. This deliverance “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15 ESV) reestablished their fellowship with God. God confirmed his relationship with them at Sinai and constituted them as a people who would live in harmony under his covenant. Finally, God brought them into the land where they would again, if they were obedient, enjoy the blessings of creation. This was a genuine deliverance, but it was incomplete. Obedience led to a good life, but not eternal life. Their fellowship with God was real but limited. God’s promise did not yet extend to the whole world. Finally, God’s people, beginning right at Sinai (Exodus 32),continually turned away from God into sin.

The Third of the “Big Four”—David. According to 2 Samuel 7, God established King David and his house to “plant” his people. That is, David and his descendents were to direct the people so that they would live in obedience and enjoy the blessings of God’s covenant.

The Fourth of the “Big Four”—Solomon. Under Solomon, David’s son, the people experienced the height of God’s blessing. Solomon’s later reign, however, foreshadowed the history of disobedience that followed. More often than not, David’s children confirmed the people’s habit of disobedience—until the nation was carried away into exile. The prophets began to look forward to great David’s greater Son who would fulfill the mission of David’s house by truly delivering God’s people from their faithlessness.

The BIG ONE—This “Big One” would be the son of David, but He would also be the Son of God—“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”); “you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:23, 21 ESV).

The Big FOUR–in the Old Testament

Posted by

0

Teaching my Sunday school class today took my mind back to Sierra Leone and to September 4, 1969. Rosa and I had just arrived in Kamakwie, Sierra Leone, West Africa, where I was to be chaplain and Bible teacher at Kamakwie Secondary School (see the picture in my last blog). We had been married on August 15 and I had been ordained to the ministry on August 17. Then, on September 2, we arrived in Freetown for a three-year term of missionary service. For the first three to four weeks of that school term the students learned nothing in Bible class. I mean this literally—none of the students learned anything! The Sierra Leonean proverb runs: “If every tree you climb has ants on it, check your own pants.” The fault was obviously mine—I spoke too quickly in American English and used educational methods foreign to their background. What was I going to do? I either had to find a way to communicate with these kids—or, go back to America!

There were many facets in my adaptation to Sierra Leonean ways that enabled me, with God’s help, to become a successful secondary school teacher. One thing I did was to focus on the persons of the Biblical story. What was the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Why, the Old Testament was about Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and the prophets. The New Testament was about Jesus and the people who followed Him. Many of the students were already familiar with several of these names either through Bible stories taught in primary school or through Muslim teaching that recognized some of these same people.

Today in my Sunday school class I discovered that Biblical names could help adult Americans as well as teenage Sierra Leoneans. Our lesson was on God’s promising David that he would establish his sons as his “house” who would rule after him. You can find it in 2 Samuel 7. I wanted to put David in Biblical perspective. So I asked the class, “After Adam, who are the ‘big four’ in the Old Testament?” Abraham, Moses, and David were clear answers. The class was ambivalent about number four. I argued for Solomon—Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon.

The next question was, “How are these four related?” “How does the Biblical story tie them together?” “What role does each play?” We talked about Abraham, Moses, and David today. Solomon as the beginning of David’s house is going to get our attention next week—when we look at Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1. The relationship of these three—Abraham, Moses, David—is integral to the Biblical story. In Adam humanity rebelled and was separated from God. The three relationships that made up God’s plan of blessing for human beings was ruptured—fellowship with God, harmonious fellowship among people, and responsible enjoyment of the world. When God called Abraham, he promised him that through Abraham’s family God would bless the world by restoring those very three relationships. Then, by delivering his people from Egypt under Moses, God began to fulfill his promise to Abraham. God’s people, however, refused to live in harmony under God’s laws, so they began to suffer. God made David king with the purpose that he, and his descendents, would overcome the people’s rebellion by leading them in faithful obedience. Then I realized that what I was teaching my class paralleled Christian Faith in the Old Testament: the Bible of the Apostles, my book just released by Thomas Nelson last month. Chapter one covers Adam; chapter two, Abraham; chapters three and four, Moses; chapters five and six, David and Solomon.

What do you think? I’d like to hear about your experience. Have you used Biblical persons as a way to tie the whole Bible together? Next Time: I hope to expand on this subject in next week’s blog.

Here, again, is an endorsement for Christian Faith in the Old Testament.
“As a pastor, Christian Faith in the Old Testament: the Bible of the Apostles really connects with me. I will use this well-written and informative book often in my reading, preaching, and teaching. In addition, I will encourage my congregation to read it! Dr. Cockerill helps everyone to grasp the wholeness of Scripture and provides aids to help us live an obedient life that reflects the full-scope of the Bible’s teaching.”
Steve Schellin
Senior Pastor, Southland Community Church
Greenwood, Indiana

One night—a Sermon, a Mosque, and a Cross (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Posted by

0

Image

A picture taken at Kamakwie Secondary School in 2002. The Principal, Mr. Hemo Brima, on the left.

Scripture Union camp was a spiritual highlight for secondary school students in Sierra Leone, West Africa. As chaplain and Bible teacher at Kamakwie Secondary School, it was my delightful privilege to participate in these camps. I am thinking particularly of a camp held at the Secondary School for Girls near Magburaka. It was always the custom at these camps to spend one night in village evangelism. We had walked to a nearby village. The young man who was to preach the gospel that night stood facing one of the houses. Fifty or sixty feet separated him from the house. The congregation was gathered in those fifty-sixty feet and on the houses’ veranda. I was sitting as inconspicuously as possible in a back corner on a side-wall in the shadows. A small Mosque was located next to this house. At the hour of evening prayer a half-dozen or so men entered this Mosque and began to pray. The Mosque’s hurricane lantern cast their shadows where I could see them as the men bowed to the ground and then again stood. With one ear I listened to the rhythm of these Arabic prayers, with the other, to the passionate proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. The difference was striking. 2 Corinthians 4:5 makes one aspect of this difference clear: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (ESV). A “Muslim” is one who is a servant or slave of God. We, however, who follow Jesus, are not simply called to be God’s servants or Christ’s servants, but servants of others for Jesus’ sake! We follow the one who said, “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27 ESV); “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14 ESV); and “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  (Mark 10:45 ESV, cf. Matthew 20:28). And then he proved it by going to the Cross!

 

 

Praying to “the Father of Mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:11)

Posted by

0

My wife Rosa had a dangerous, life-threatening delivery with our oldest daughter. We were in Sierra Leone. Although I was in the operating room, the attending lady physician, a colleague and close friend, would not look me in the face—her face was pale and her lips were tightly pursed. God told a godly African woman, known as a prayer warrior, to go and pray when she heard Mrs. Cockerill was in labor. God answered that prayer, and we have been thankful ever since. Some mission boards require missionaries to have several hundred prayer partners before they can go to their place of service. God invites us in Scripture to pray for our needs, for the needs of others, and especially for those engaged in his service. We know that God is not limited by our prayers, and yet sometimes we pray and ask others to pray because we feel that the more people who join us in prayer the more likely God is to answer.

When we turn to the eleventh verse of this passage (2 Corinthians 1:3-11), we are astounded: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV). Paul urges the Corinthian believers to pray for his deliverance and the furtherance of the Gospel, not so that God will answer, but so that they will increase the number of those who give thanks when God does answer! Paul is so confident of God’s answer that he is sure it will lead to thanksgiving! God chooses to act through our prayers—and sometimes not to act if we do not pray—because he wants us to know that He is answering! He wants to draw us close to himself through his gracious action and our grateful thanksgiving. What a privilege to pray aright (praying aright may be a topic for another day), to witness God’s answers, and to give thanks.