Rev. N. M. Ross
FOR more than 30 years now our Church has been receiving much help for our missionary work in Africa from our many friends in Holland, under the leading of their mission committee, Mbuma Zending. Each year, they have a large missionary meeting; and this year the Free Presbyterian representatives invited to speak were Mr Buthi Mziya, Bulawayo, and myself.
The meeting, which was most efficiently organised, was held on Saturday, 4th May, in the huge fruit market at Geldermalsen, and was opened by the Convener of Mbuma Zending, Rev. Tj. de Jong, Staphorst. There were 6000 people present – a most impressive sight.
In addressing the gathering, (I am indebted to friends for a few brief translations of what was said in Dutch), Mr de Jong stressed that although we live in a very dark time God continues to work for the gathering in of His elect. He underlined the importance of missionary work and of supporting it, and stressed the commission of the Lord to His church: to proclaim the whole counsel of God, law and gospel, even unto the ends of the earth.
After the writer gave his address, Rev J. Roos, Opheusden, spoke on Psalm 9:2, “Put them in fear O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” After showing the necessity of men knowing themselves to be guilty before God, he spoke of the way of free grace in the Mediator, and that this is the doctrine which is to be preached on the mission fields.
Mr G. Nyhof, Urk, then spoke about the vision of the valley of dry bones, (Ezk.37), stating that it is man’s guilt that he is spiritually dead; that the Lord knows who shall be saved whether in Holland, Scotland or Africa; and that the work of the true servant of the Lord is to proclaim the word of the Lord to the dry bones, looking to the Lord to cause breath to enter into them.
After Mr F. Snoek, Urk, addressed the children, of whom there were very many present, Mr Buthi Mziya, Mission Administrator, gave some information to the meeting about an aspect of mission work in Zimbabwe.
The final speaker was Rev T. Klok, Kinderdijk. He spoke on the last verses of Mark 16, especially verses 15 and 16, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved….” In true conversion, he said, there must be first a “cutting down” or humbling of the sinner in which sin is made bitter to him. Mr Klok stressed the wonder of God making Himself known in His Son, the “altogether lovely one”.
We believe it is a reflection of the desire of our friends in Holland that the gospel would indeed be preached to every creature that they give such generous support to our work in Africa. The collection made at the meeting amounted to 100,000 Dutch guilders, or £40,000.
We were shown much kindness, especially by Miss Truus Ringelberg, home on furlough from Kenya, who kindly looked after myself and my wife and daughter in her comfortable home at Nagele for the few days we were in Holland. We are her debtors. We are also indebted to Mr van Vliet, Secretary of Mbuma Zending, and his wife, for their kind help and hospitality. It was a pleasure to meet many friends again, including members and ex-members of mission staff such as Dr Janette Hak, Nursing Sister Anne Zekveld, and Mr Donald MacDonald and his wife, Dr. Christine.
The Lord provides for His cause – and as far as His cause connected with the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Zimbabwe and Kenya is concerned, we must acknowledge with humble gratitude that He has been showing, through the instrumentality of our Dutch friends, that He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who sees and provides.
Mission Meeting Address
Given by Rev. N. Ross at the Mbuma Zending Meeting in Geldermalsen on 4th May 1996.
It is my great pleasure and privilege to be present with you today. I bring to you the warm greetings of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and I also convey our heartfelt thanks for your help in the past and at present.
I wish to emphasise that we are deeply indebted to you, the Mbuma Zending Committee and all of you who loyally support us, for your prayerful interest in our missionary work in Africa, and also for your generous material support given to our work. Under the hand of God, you have been enabled to give valuable assistance, and as the Scriptures say, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name.”
Your help is a great encouragement to us, both in the United Kingdom and Africa, as we undertake this solemn responsibility which Christ lays upon His Church: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Furthermore, without your coming to our aid, the work would be seriously hampered, and would have to be curtailed, or maybe even abandoned in one place or another. I have recently returned from Zimbabwe and Kenya, and I have much first-hand evidence of how invaluable your help is.
Of course, our main aim in Africa is to preach the gospel and teach the truth, but we must also engage in medical work and educational work. Not only are these activities a help in the work of preaching the gospel, but also they alleviate, to some extent, the need of the peoples among whom we work.
Obviously, there is no greater need that men have than that of their souls, whether they are Dutch, British, Zimbabwean or Kenyan. Therefore, there is no better gift to give to men in their spiritual need than the good seed of the kingdom, even the word of God. In stressing this point I wish to make a few remarks about verse 6 of Psalm 126, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
The word of God is seed which is precious indeed. It is precious because it is God’s word, inspired by the Holy Ghost. It is precious because it sets forth Christ as the One who became poor so that sinners such as we are might be made rich. It is precious because it is the word of life which, by the work of the Holy Spirit, begets new life in their souls, and brings them into possession of eternal life. It is precious because it has been blessed to multitudes to make them heirs of the inheritance reserved in heaven for them.
It is with this precious seed that we, as a Church, have gone to Africa. How solemn is this responsibility! It was this precious seed which the first Free Presbyterian missionary, Rev John Radasi, faithfully broadcast among the people to whom he was sent, more than 90 years ago. It is this precious seed which our ministers and missionaries in Africa today are enabled, by grace, to continue sowing faithfully.
The man who has a right to go forth as a preacher of the gospel, bearing this precious seed, is the man who is called by God. It is God’s prerogative to send forth labourers, and it is a blight on the Church when men go forth of whom the Lord says, “I sent them not nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” (Jer. 23:32). There is great and urgent need of more labourers being sent forth; therefore there is great need that we be praying that the Lord of the harvest would be pleased to send forth labourers into the harvest.
Although the man who bears this precious seed is commissioned by the Lord, his task will not be easy. There will be disappointments and trials; so much so, that he will have times of weeping, as our text shows. The seed often falls on hard ground and is snatched away. At other times it falls where there is some soil and begins to grow. It looks promising, but then it withers away in time of persecution. In other cases it is choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this world. It seems that the labourer’s work is in vain.
The true servant of Christ, whether a missionary or minister in Africa, or a minister elsewhere, will be no stranger to sorrow and tears, not only on account of his own sins and faults and shortcomings, but also on account of those trials connected with the ministry of the gospel. He is tempted by Satan, opposed by the ungodly, and maligned by the world. Not least, the awful plight of sinners on the broad way to destruction lies heavily upon the heart of the true minister. It is little wonder then, that the ministers of Christ make this request, “Brethren, pray for us.”
However, there shall be joy and gladness, sooner or later. The text tells us that the servant of the Lord, “shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” The promise of the Lord is, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it,” (Isa. 55:11). The days will come when there shall be “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,” (Mark 4:28). There was such fruit seen when Rev John Radasi sowed the precious seed, and there continues to be fruit from time to time even in this dark day.
Meantime, the duty of the Church is to persevere in faithfully sowing the seed, in obedience to the command of Christ, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19,20). This is what our Church, by divine aid and with your help, is endeavouring to do in Zimbabwe and Kenya.
There is another responsibility laid upon the Church of Christ. She is to plead with the Lord that he would make the seed to be fruitful. Only He can do it! The Apostle Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase,” (1Cor. 3:6,7). There are many people in and around our missions in Zimbabwe and Kenya, who are in gross spiritual darkness, and in whose souls the precious seed has not yet taken root. Our prayer is that the Lord would give an outpouring of His Holy Spirit – that He would send “showers of blessing” (Ezk. 34:26), so that in Zimbabwe and Kenya, and in all Africa, there would be abundant fruit – and all to the glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
On behalf of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and our Foreign Missions Committee, I sincerely thank you for being workers together with us in this great work. Amidst all the difficulties which the Church of Christ has to face in this wicked age, she is to take encouragement from the fact that her labour, in sowing the seed, is not in vain in the Lord. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”