Africa was a particular focus in the 2010-2011 annual international reports at the General Conference of Elders. At Sunday morning’s meetings, Chairman Melvin Rhodes led the presentation with amazing stories of God’s interventions to preserve the integrity of the United Church of God throughout the world. It was a summary of events across the world where individuals, coming from continents away, helped one another as God enacted providential breakthroughs and heroism through patient faith and divine insight. Members put the clarity of Scripture first to protect themselves and entire church congregations. In the midst of it all, God also solved long term issues and created new opportunities for United’s churches and evangelism efforts throughout this important region of the world.

The context of these positive developments was five months of unrelenting crisis as Satan attacked all United congregations with strife and division, leaving no corner of the globe untouched. “In January and February we were faced with losing many countries where we had members,” said Mr. Rhodes.

Most people don’t understand the size and complexity of Africa. It is an immense area from east to west, as well as from north to south. Cultural diversity is the greatest of any continent on the planet. The distance from the west coast African city of Dakar, Senegal, on the Atlantic Ocean to Mombasa, Kenya, on Africa’s east coast is greater than Dakar to Washington D.C., across the Atlantic. The area of the United States can fit three times in Africa with room to spare. See “The True Size of Africa.”

Mr. Rhodes described the situation throughout Africa where he, along with Ministerial and Member Services Manager Victor Kubik, led the efforts to preserve God’s churches in Africa. Mr. Rhodes’ pastoral background serving congregations for many years in Ghana and Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, was useful to the United Church of God throughout the crisis.

The southern African countries of Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi experienced major disruptions of the church when all six ministers left, though in some areas, most members did not. Mr. Rhodes said that for months, brethren “had been cut off from information from the Home Office.” Lack of Internet/e-mail for many in these international areas and direct misinformation by certain men were causing confusion and uncertainty in the congregations. Predatory activities of former ministers in the midst of the confusion meant, in the words of Mr. Rhodes, “The sooner we could get to them the better. There were problems everywhere.”

With a zeal for the membership like the apostle Paul, it was imperative that UCG ministers get to these congregations, “confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith,” but also reminding them “ that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Act 14:22) .

Francophone Africa

The French speaking countries in Africa were an acute concern because of the language barrier. “We have very few French speakers among the eldership,” said Mr. Rhodes, “and there were even fewer men who could go because of full-time jobs.” It was particularly difficult to resolve the problems for brethren in the small French-speaking Atlantic coast West African nations of Benin, Togo and Cameroon, each with their own distinctive cultures and native languages.

Mr. Rhodes does not speak French, so on March 13, he took a French speaking-volunteer, Jack Scruggs, as translator for a whirlwind seven-day trip to help the brethren in French West Africa. Mr. Scruggs is a retired 68-year-old church member from Portland, Oregon, who learned French at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Mr. Scruggs served in foreign intelligence for the U.S. government in Paris, French-speaking Vietnam, Morocco, Senegal and other places throughout the world. Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Scruggs had not met previously.

Official Opposition

After an overnight stay in Douala, Cameroon, where they were met by the local deacon, Moise Mabout, the three men flew to Cotonou, the capital of Benin, a country the size of Tennessee. They had to wait all day for their Air Chad flight, which was six hours late.

Mr. Rhodes told the GCE that the authorities “were not very nice, didn’t seem to want us in the country, threatened to deport us and put us on the next plane out. I noticed that [the next plane out] was to Libya! Things were not looking very good!” The deacon, Mr. Ganagla, in the Cotonou, Benin, church, talked with customs officials at the airport. Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Scruggs were able to get in with a “transit” visa. They learned this meant that they had only 48 hours before they had to be out of the country.

The delegation then had dinner at the hotel, along with the elder from the Lagos, Nigeria, congregation, Oludare Akinbo.

Wednesday, Mr. Rhodes met with the entire Cotonou church for three hours in the evening. He gave a Bible study, translated by Mr. Scruggs into French, on preparing for Passover. Included in the sermon was a segment on examining yourself in the light of Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit. He spent some time elaborating on the first fruit of the spirit, which is (agape) love. After the study, there was a Q & A, during which members asked, “Where is this love?” They said, “We’ve never felt it.”

The brethren asked candid questions and received equally candid answers regarding the difficulties in church leadership. Mr. Rhodes was very forthcoming that the members were not the cause of the crisis but the unfortunate victims of a struggle by former U.S. ministers over the control of power in the church. In an interview later, Jack Scruggs explained that the Cotonou brethren and leadership “noted the contrast between Mr. Rhodes’ message of the UCG ministry of service and their previous minister’s desire to lead.” They were not “impressed with the perceived arrogance” of that minister when he had very recently visited Cotonou, urging them to split away from United to follow him in creating a different church. The brethren had said that they had only had one ministerial visit every two years. Melvin Rhodes assured the brethren of the commitment of the home office leadership to ensure a minister visit them on a much more regular basis to serve them.

After those comments, little did Mr. Rhodes know that things would work out that very day to make that commitment a reality. Oludare Akinbo, Nigeria’s UCG pastor, who had come for discussion with Mr. Rhodes, stayed for this Cotonou Bible study. He does not speak French, like the Cotonou brethren do, and had never met them, despite living only 60 miles away in nearby Lagos, Nigeria. But during the meeting, he learned that he and the brethren speak the same native African dialect, Yoruba! Just like that, the Cotonou brethren had a minister who can speak a language they understand and who will be able to frequently visit the congregation.

It was as if long-lost family members had found one another. After very affectionate well-wishing and farewells, the brethren left confirmed in their decision to remain strong in God’s work in the United Church of God. Mr. Akinbo returned to Lagos, Nigeria.

Very early Thursday morning, Jack Scruggs went to the Benin national police headquarters and the Foreign Ministry to ask for an extension on the 48-hour transit visa. He was told that if they were still in the country after the deadline, they had to report to the Department of Immigration. Mr. Scruggs interpreted this in English to mean, “Get out of Dodge.”

So they did. A member who owns and runs a car transport service volunteered to drive the delegation 85 miles to Lome, the capital of Togo, which he said would take 90 minutes. It turned out to be a faith-building, six-hour marathon of bad roads, no air conditioning in 100 degree heat, thousands of pot holes, typical African border crossing bureaucracy and a car breakdown. To top it off, there was not one bathroom facility during the entire trip! The trip ended in hitch hiking, with a stranger driving them safely to the final destination—an outdoor café outside the Lome airport.

At the Café, they met for two hours with two leaders from Ghana (Messrs. Henry Aikins and Frank Arthur) and the Togo elder Mr. Kossi Fiaboe who acts as Chief of the Bureau of Telecommunications for the Lome International Airport. The Ghanaians left after their discussion, and Mr. Fiaboe led Mr. Rhodes and the others to a meeting with 25 members representing the Togo brethren in Lome. As in Cotonou, Mr. Scruggs translated the two-hour meeting in the same format of sermon and Q&A. The questioning was very sharp but appropriate in light of the crisis. Mr. Rhodes was asked about the former minister’s claims that United’s leadership was going to abolish the Sabbath, Holy Days and also many other accusations.

Mr. Rhodes explained that these fabrications were without any basis in fact. He attributed the lies to Satan, the author of chaos who is attempting to destroy God’s work.

Like the brethren in Cotonou, Lome brethren expressed deeply-felt appreciation for the attitude of service brought by the Council representatives. They said they would confer and give United their decision. Mr. Rhodes was invited to speak on the Sabbath if he had to remain in Lome.

The original plan was to return to Benin and fly back to Douala, Cameroon, for the Sabbath service. But the Benin authorities had made it clear that they could not return to Benin. This meant that they were effectively stranded in Togo. Mr. Rhodes had the option of moving farther west into Ghana, where he has a multiple reentry visa, but Mr. Scruggs could not do that. Rather than separate, Mr. Rhodes decided to remain with Mr. Scruggs until they could get a direct flight out of Togo. They were able to book a flight for a Saturday-night return to Paris, where they could link up with their original flight schedule. Meanwhile, they had the opportunity to attend Sabbath services in Lome, which turned out to be quite providential.

This time Mr. Rhodes spoke on Christ-like service, asking members if they had the heart of a servant. On a continent where a high percentage of people have domestic servants (who are often treated badly) and where abuse of authority is commonplace, the sermon was well-received. Halfway through translating, Mr. Scruggs was tired and asked if anybody else could translate. The elder’s son had attended school in Ghana and knew English. He stepped forward. At one point, he had difficulty translating a passage into French and someone suggested he speak Ewe, the local dialect, which is also spoken in the Volta Region of Ghana. Just like that, English-speaking ministers can serve the Togo brethren with sermons translated into Ewe. Literature will continue to be received in French.

As a result of the trip, the two Togo congregations and the Benin congregation will use their native languages for translation, meaning a much higher level of service from UCG ministry. And there is a member to translate from English to French in Cameroon.

Speaking for the congregation, Mr. Fiaboe expressed appreciation for the messages and openness of Mr. Rhodes, saying the congregation would meet together and give a final decision about remaining in United. Mr. Fiaboe invited Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Scruggs to his home and later took them to the airport where they boarded flights to the United States Saturday night.

A few weeks later, Mr. Fiaboe wrote and informed Mr. Rhodes that, after discussion, the Togolese brethren had decided to remain in United. Mr. Rhodes had left behind recordings of four sermons, which the brethren had listened to. They found no hint of a change of doctrine in any of them, which assured them we were not changing doctrine—something they had been told. They also cited the sermon on Christ-like service as a reason for remaining in UCG. They were excited about the new emphasis on serving. The teens in Togo now have the opportunity to attend summer camp in Nigeria and the members in Togo will continue to have their own Feast site.

At the GCE, Mr. Rhodes asked Mark Mickelson, pastor of the churches in Nigeria, if he would be willing and able to oversee Ghana, Benin and Togo in addition Nigeria. Oludare Akinbo will visit Benin frequently and help out in the other countries as needed. Former Nigerian pastor Fred Kellers will also help whenever he’s able to travel there.

Mr. Mickelson will be visiting Cameroon and Congo in late June, where he will speak to the congregations in those countries. If the translation problem can be solved, these two countries can also be served as part of a wider West African region. This will save the church money and enable the United Church of God to serve the people of each country with more frequent ministerial visits.

Nigerian elder Oludare Akinbo also spoke at the GCE and related that, in Nigeria, a West African nation of 150 million people, no members have left the United Church of God. The church has been trying to get Mr. Akinbo into the U.S. to attend a GCE for some years. This was the first time he had been able to get a visa to visit the United States.

Southern Africa

To complicate the difficulties of the brethren, some areas of Africa experience extreme poverty and have great difficulty meeting for the weekly Sabbath. For example, by the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in 2008, Zimbabwe brethren were confronted with starvation. Conditions are better now for the brethren in Zimbabwe, and by Passover, churches in Southern Africa were stabilizing. After Mr. Rhodes officiated at Passover in Johannesburg this year, he flew immediately to Kadoma, a small town south of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, where all the brethren rented a large house for Passover, night to be observed and the First Day of Unleavened Bread. It enabled all the brethren from the entire country to be together as never before, greatly strengthening them. It only cost $1,000 to bring everybody to one location and house and feed them there instead of the minister having to travel to all the scattered brethren through the immense geography at much greater expense. Mr. Rhodes made the commitment to do this two or three times a year, greatly inspiring the brethren! The church looks forward to much greater spiritual strength and inspiration as times continue to deteriorate in the world.

Mr. Rhodes remembered that Kadoma (formerly Gatooma) had been the home of the first church member he had baptized over 33 years ago. The man had left the church in 1994 over the heresy of the Trinity, which had crept into the church leadership’s teachings at the time. The following morning, the man came to Mr. Rhodes’ hotel and, after a discussion, expressed an interest in further fellowship with United. He asked to see Mr. Rhodes again on his next visit. Another church member had been very confused over the recent difficulties in the church, but after the visit said he and all the brethren were thrilled—it was like being newly baptized.

In January 2011, United only had an attendance of 18 in Johannesburg, seven in Cape Town, and 18 in Durban, after all the ministers left to form a new church. Three months later in April, the attendance had doubled in both Johannesburg and Durban.

The “International Reports” at the GCE finished with an update on India and Sri Lanka (see pg. 7). Mr. Rhodes then thanked all those in all the international areas for everything they had done to serve brethren through the recent very challenging period experienced by the United Church of God.