GUESTS, NOT CITIZENS

We were unique in that our family entered South Africa with a permanent resident permit and green card from the word “Go”. All the missionaries that I knew later entered with a temporary permit that had to be renewed periodically. Because we were residents and not citizens, I was always very careful to remember that we were guests and were there to do the work of the Lord only. I was especially cautious to steer clear of expressing opinions of a political nature. It is not the place of a guest to criticize his host He canalways be “invited” to leave or escourted out.

On one occasion when a reporter from a local television station, reporting on a major Christian convention in America, saw my display and with a camera-man at the ready, wanted my statements which would quickly become political in nature. I declined to comment. I knew what careful editing and network connections can do with the meaning of even normal conversations. They aired my refusal to comment, with their own comments which confirmed what would probably have happened had I spoken up.

I had entered Namibia shortly after a very politically involved Episcopal priest had been deported. As we had no telephone, so our phone could not be tapped, though it would have been if we had one. We had no congregation as yet to infiltrate, and we had turned away those who came to our door trying to buy liquor, so the only thing left was to send a man who offered to interpret for us. That we were grateful for. He found that we were only teaching Scripture. After all, that was why we were there.

When we moved to Kimberley, it was a completely different story. Our message was the same, but there we did have a phone, and I once commented to a friend that our phone was tapped. When he wanted to know how I knew, I simply pointed out that every day at the same time, when they changed the tape, the phone jingled. We never heard it make that little jingle ever again. I am sure they found it a complete waste of time and effort anyway, unless they were really interested in our calls to the butcher to place an order.

I knew it to be a fact that there were “conversions” in our local congregations that were actualy motivated to provide an inside ear to all that was said there. In the end one man himself reported that this was so, when he truly came to believe and serve the Lord.

After I was asked to serve as superintendent of the mission, two more incidents happened. In that job that had to be totally expected. On one occasion, I was served a summons to appear in court as a witness some 500 miles away. The case had nothing to do with me personally, even my work. An African man had been soliciting money door to door and had used the mission’s name. That make it my job at the time. One means of funding subversive activity was in just that way, so I was called to confirm if he was legitimately collecting money. He was not, but after travelling there, the case was thrown out of court, and the judge gathered up his golf clubs and was away without me ever being heard. Fortunately I had enough time to arrange to visit two churches on the trip or it would have been a wasted thousand mile three day trip. The man had wisely changed his claimed connection from house to house and so confused the evidence that the case was thrown out. Before I even reached home again, he was arrested in another city doing exactly the same thing. That time, he was “permitted to escape” by a greedy guard.

On another similar occasion, perhaps the same man, visited my office in downtown Johannesburg, to solicit money and offered as credentials a false endorsement, supposedly signed by the superintendent of the mission, at the time that was myself! Needless to say, I confiscated his letter immediately. The head of the Special Branch visited me in this connection but he left again a happy man. We can be glad that God does not send us to straighten out politicians, but to preach the gospel.

To this day, I still have my green card and original permanent resident documents. Legally we could probably return to South Africa at any time, but I think we shall now wait until we reach the land of our permanent citizenship where we can spend eternity with our loved ones and friends who happened to live in a far country. We shall all be with our brothers and sisters in the Lord there. We are guests in this world, our citizenship is in Heaven. “This world is not our home, we are just travelling through.”