Rural African Pastors
“The African rural pastor – a unique breed of men and women which you will not find anywhere else. To truly understand who these men and women are you have to see them in action, move with them, listen to them, stay with them … and hear them preach and pray. Over many many years I have carefully explored their hearts and watched them closely – trying to understand what makes them so very unique.
Taking of course into consideration that this courageous breed do not get any salary, no thirteenth cheque, no car or house allowance … never mind an i-pad to read your notes from. They travel by foot, bicycle or even dare to get on the local taxi to visit churches. They travel light. No extra baggage (they don’t own any), no extra food – God will provide on the way. But so is their passion for souls and planting new churches that this doesn’t stop them from pursuing souls. I know of a pastor that sold his last chicken so he could afford to travel via local transport to share the Gospel.
This breed is always friendly, always ready to share a word of encouragement and ALWAYS ready to bring a Word of Hope to a lost and wondering soul. They don’t have to prepare long sermons or spend many hours trying to Google another preaching theme…it’s in their heart. They carry the fire of God and it pulls them continually to do ‘what God wants them to do’, a pastor answered me.
I visited one of those churches today. A typical African grass roof church. Where Pastor Mafuta was teaching students the word of God. Many of these students had been attending the Bible Study for the last 5 years continually. I was humbled when they asked me to ‘encourage’ them. I mean…they just encouraged me!! Where do I find the words to explain how wonderful they were in the eyes of God. These men, this breed…is still untouched by ‘prosperity theology’ or ‘liberation theology’ or any other form of ‘theology’ – just a passion and love for Jesus Christ that makes them…’move’ as they like to explain when I ask their secret.
Today this is to all those men and women who are unfazed by ‘theology trends’ or other ‘world trends’. They themselves sometimes live in extreme poverty with very little material possessions – but they are unmoved by this.
They simply just LOVE God, they LOVE man and they LOVE to share to whoever would listen. Pastors, I salute you!
We currently train more than 700 of these pastors alongside the Zambezi river and other areas in central and northern Mozambique. Many of these pastors started their own orphan programs and agri-businesses to feed many in their communities. They are the true heroes of Africa.”
Written by Francois Rauch