ALWAYS A READER

I would suppose that it was because one of my aunts was my teacher in a one roomed school for the first five years of my education, that I was well taught in the importance of reading. Her favored gift at any birthday was a book. As a boy, through reading, I travelled the world, but especially Africa. It never occurred to me as I read of Livingstone, that one day I would actually stand under the tree where he preached at Smithsdrift; preach myself in a near by village stone church house, and drink water from the very deep well serving the community. The Northern Cape was my home for twelve years. It was while I was there that I taught myself how to be a printer and began to put into print, in the language of the people, the message of Jesus.

The printed word is lasting. I have seen it survive the violence of African wars, reach into the most remote places, and transform men. Yes, many of the Africans spoke English, but they also spoke several other languages, and it was when we started to print in those that it was clear that they were really being touched. They had their Bibles already, but without guidance they were like the Ethiopian who answered Phillip' question, "How can I except some man guide me?"

The largest African "Church" in South Africa is made up of thousands of persons who have followed leaders who themselves need guidance. It is called the "Zion Christian Church," and is led by untrained men who gather small clusters of followers who meet, and dance, and sing, in the open. Their doctrinal teaching is very basic, a mixture of what appeals to that particular leader. He will have drawn from African traditions, the Old Testament stories, and any religion he may have heard of, including Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, and Eastern Religions.
What blends them into one, is that they have a central African "Chief" type leader, to whom they pay offerings, and attend an annual Easter time feast and gathering at Moriah.

They are ripe for good doctrinal teaching and some very good ministers have come from that background, but without the teaching, it is a case of the blind leading the blind. The printed Word in their language, makes all the difference and can introduce them to a formal teaching program in a classroom..

We used offset printers for years, but it was when a computer and a Risograph printer came available, that we were really blessed. A computer was used to set the type with a lazer printer, and the Risograph reproduced it without needing a dark room, or camera. It was clean and it could be done in a book store without the problems ink and offset printers made. You can not handle new books and serve customers with black ink on your hands!

Our Risograph was imported directly from the factory in Japan. We used master copies from the computer, though it can be linked directly eliminating even the need to do a lazer copy first. I used a lazer printer because I already had one, but I also liked to use paste-ups occasionally.

Most young Africans are being taught to read now, but they still need Christian things to read, and they need them in their own language, whether it be Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Northern Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Ndebele or perhaps something else. To each one, his own language is very near to his heart.

They want to read, but "How can they unless someone prepares the Word for them."