Michael Cassidy - My Life and Times: Part 2

One lovely story, which I share in my memoir, is of an utterly devastated atheist woman whose husband had just died. She suddenly found herself sort of praying: "God, I don't know if you exist, and I suspect not, but I am a reader and I'm going to the Cape Town library, and if there is a book there by which I can find you, take me to it." Walking down an aisle in the Religion section she suddenly stopped, put her hand up to a shelf on her right, and pulled down my evangelistic book Chasing The Wind. She read it twice in two days and was gloriously converted to Christ. She spent the balance of her days in a Christian literature ministry. She had a new life in more ways than one. That chuffed me quite a bit, I must say!

In African Enterprise, we also tackle the practical side. During a mission in Accra, Ghana, I went to see our team's ministry among street kids and prostitutes. Our team wins these people to Christ and then disciples them, but also gives the girls a two or three year course in dress-making or hair-dressing, or computers, and the boys a course in carpentry or repairing electric devices like air-conditioners. It was so moving and such fun in the girls' class when they sat me down to give me a hair-cut!! After a few years these young ladies are rehabilitated back to society to set up stable homes and earn an income. AE also gives them a sewing machine, or hair-dryer or laptop to get them going.

From the start of our work, especially in South Africa, we saw part of our Gospel duty as involving the socio-political. Thus we took a strong stand against Apartheid, this incurring much Government wrath. But in 1993 -'94, we were able to facilitate some critically important dialogue by bringing in a Kenyan diplomat amd economist called Washington Okumu. When International Mediation had failed, initiatives taken by Okumu prevailed to make peaceful elections possible, in spite of civil war looking imminent between Inkatha Zulus under Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and African National Congress Zulus under Nelson Mandela. It was a privilege at a key moment in South Africa to play a significant part. I elaborate on this in my memoir.

In the Word side of the ministry, we focus mainly into preaching and direct evangelising. This is not done mainly through large meetings, although we do open and close each mission with a large rally. But our main focus is into our oil-strike strategy of what we call Stratified Evangelism. This requires us to tackle every conceivable type of stratum with a method appropriately geared for it.Thus in a mission there could be as many as 60 or 80 meetings in a day in settings ranging from street-corners, market-places, schools, hospitals and clinics, prisons, police stations through to business houses, colleges, universities, schools, civic government offices, or special lunches or dinners for senior leaders and politicians. This is fishing where the fish are.

If I had my life over again I would not want to spend it in any way differently. It makes me excited to think of Eternity being affected by ministries we have carried out over 50 or more years in Africa. And now there are 10 teams all across Africa carrying the work forwards. Yes, all the time, new Footprints in the African Sand! How might you get involved in our ministry? Perhaps you would enjoy going onto our international website at: africanenterprise.com. This would give you a pretty good overall idea of our ministry -and where you might like to get involved.You can also connect to our London office at: africanenterprise.co.uk

In any event I would earnestly ask any reading this little blog to pray for African Enterprise. That would bless us big time!