ГНОМ
TODAY’S APOSTLES AROUND TI1E WORLD
EPISTLES
Sydney (Mrs. W. Boyd) I’carce
Nairobi, Kenya
America’s Racial Situation
_ * Outrages Changing Africa
THESE ARE DAYS of uncertain change in Kenya.
An election giving Kenya internal self-government was
held recently, as well as a meeting in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia, of the leaders of all the independent African
countries. The meeting was indicative of the African
peoples’ growing sense of unity as they look at the rest
of the world. It is as if a volcano, inactive for centuries,
had suddenly erupted. The white-hot lava from its inner
rage is going to bring many changes before it cools.
Africa today is an outraged continent. Sadly enough,
one of the targets is the oppression of the Negro people
in America. Africans have read in their newspapers ac¬
counts of what has been happening in the United States,
and indignantly they are asking that these conditions he
set right. Therein lies our own hurt anti blame, for this
cry should have come from God's people in America
and been heard by Africa, rather than the other way
around.
When will Southern Baptists become outraged enough
over the oppression taking place in our country that they
will correct this thing which has now become an actual
hindrance to the work of the Lord around the world?
Our prayer for Africa today could be no more pro¬
found than that expressed by one of our children: "Thank
you for Africa and the Africans, and help them to hear
about Jesus." May we as adults add: "And tear down
that great wall which we have so carefully built between
them and us, that they might be able to see the simple
sweetness of the gospel in our lives."
W. E. (Bill) Wyatt
Ibadan, Nigeria
Price Paid for Segregation
Is Costing in Human Souls
WHAT IS the real price we are paying to keep our
Baptist schools, churches, and other institutions segre¬
gated in America? It will cost in dollars if we integrate,
because many of the purse strings are kept tightly drawn
by the hand of prejudice. But the price we pay for
segregation is costing in human souls. Is it too high a
price to pay?
Sit with me on a Saturday evening beside a "bush”
church in Nigeria. The associational business has been
attended to, and now we await the Lord's Day. It is a
time of good fellowship. — moments to which I have
looked forward as an occasion for getting to know our
African pastors in this association. Our refreshments
are the native four-for-a-penny oranges.
We suck our oranges and talk, and then comes the
question: "Tell me, Dr. Wyatt, is it really true that in
your country there are some churches in which I would
not be welcome — of which I could not be a member?"
1 try as best I can. I know that many social, educa¬
tional, and economic problems in America present them¬
selves and are entangled with integration and racial
equality. It seems unfair that this generation has to face
and solve, as best it can. all the evils and problems im¬
posed upon it by unthinking and prejudiced forebears. I
know the situation is too big to handle all at once. I try
to present these difficulties in a gentle way, but the facts
remain. So 1 answer:
"No. my friend, you would not be welcome in most of
the churches I represent. Few would accept you as a
member. For. as you know., man does not see as God sees.
God looks into the heart, but man looks on the outward
appearance, and your face is a bit too pigmented.
"I can sit here with you and share an orange, but you
could not come into my home in the United States and
share one with me, for custom does not permit it, and
my neighbors would object.”
I do not have the answers. But I believe God does.
1 do not minimize the problems. Nor do I minimize God.
At work in the human heart, he can change things.
Patsy IMrs. J. Hunter) Hammett
Taipei, Taiwan
Parents’ Ancestor Worship
Bars Son’s Belief in Christ
A YOUNG Chinese Christian who comes once a week
for an hour’s study in English brought a friend one day.
My student told me his friend wished to talk of re¬
ligious matters — in English, of course. As they sat across
from me, waiting with smiling, expectant faces, I realized
the setting was perfect and the opportunity real not only
to teach English but to witness for Jesus.
The young man comes from a typical non-Christian
home on Taiwan. While he is not a professing Buddhist,
as his parents arc, they expect him to worship their
ancestors, or be considered unfilial. They regard their
ancestors as gods, who must be bowed down to and
placated with food, prayers, and offerings. And. as their
viewpoint is, if their sons do not remain true to this
family worship, who will worship them when they die?
He would believe in Jesus and gain peace of mind, I
think, were it not for what it might do to his family.
Let us pray that he will accept Christ and that “what
it might do" would be to lead his family also to the
worship of Jesus Christ. This is highly possible, as many
Chinese have become Christians through the family mem¬
ber who first had courage to step out and believe.
16
THE COMMISSION
