EARTHQUAKES AS “SIGNS”
Among the “signs” which our Lord mentioned as signaling His approaching return were “earthquakes, in diverse places” (Matt. 24:7). An article in the January, 1983, issue of Getrouw by Alexander Seibel on “The Background of Terrorism Illuminated from the Bible” calls attention to these signs mentioning especially the increasing frequency and intensity of earthquakes in our time. Citing as authority a book, The Cosmic Conspiracy by Stan Dyo, he points out that from 1897 to 1946 there were 3 earthquakes registering above 6 on the Richter scale. From 1946 to 1956 there were 7; from 1956 to 1966 there were 17 of that degree in violence. But in the year 1967 alone they numbered 17; in 1968, 19; in 1969, 21; in 1970, 24, and in 1971 there were 34 above 6 on the Richter scale. From 1967 to 1976 there were according to other statistics a total of 180 earthquakes registering above 7 on the Richter scale. Should we let these increasingly frequent and violent catastrophes pass without noticing what they tell us of the Lord’s approaching return and our need to be ready for it by believing in and serving Him?
WHAT ARE WE DOING IN SIERRA LEONE?
The January 24, 1983, Banner devoted five pages to a report of the editor on a visit to Sierra Leone and the work which representatives of our churches are beginning there. Persuing that report suggests nothing but appreciation for the good intentions and dedication of the workers there. Only one who has been through a comparable experience can appreciate the problems and variety of adjustments that have to be made as one sets out to learn the language and customs and to live and to work in such a different country and culture. The report does suggest some serious questions about our denominational venture into that area.
Since our churches ventured into Sierra Leone in a new effort to alleviate world hunger, Rev. Mr. Kuyenhoven had expected to find a poor land. Instead, he was “time and again . . . struck by the riches and fertility of the land.” “All of us have seen people make a better living on less fertile land. Why, then, should these people starve in a land where almost anything will grow? It is total mismanagement.”
“The list of organizations supplying aid to Sierra Leone is as long as your arm. In fact, that was one of the surprises to me. I thought (for no good reason) that Sierra Leone was a lonely, struggling country without much developmental aid and without many missionaries. But there are plenty of both. The US Peace Corps has one hundred young workers in the country.” “The British and Canadian foreign aid organizations are also represented, and material aid has been pouring in from Western European countries.”
Mr. Reid who was from 1951 to 1962 a British District Commissioner in this land and is now British Ambassador to Liberia is cited in the article as saying that “there ought to be a moratorium on development aid for ten or twenty years.”
This article reinforces the impression given by an earlier 5-page article in the Banner of October 27, 1980 reporting on interviews with two students from Sierra Leone and with Mr. Lou Haveman, an experienced World Relief worker who had made a preliminary study of this country with a view to our churches’ venture into it. Especially the report of the latter also pointed to mismanagement of the country’s resources as contributing to the plight of its people. What was the suggested remedy? “We have to be helping the poor-the people who don’t have a voice, the unheard ones. We have to hear them, and we have to give them the skills and the ability to demand the services and the resources that their governments have. If we can’t have some kind of influence in this way on the political structure, we probably won’t be successful.”
When the people in our churches are urged to give a special offering to relieve world hunger, perhaps even with the suggestion that they skip a meal to make their sense of that need more concrete, do they realize that their gifts may help the hungry only in such a tentative, indirect or remote way as this?
A seasoned and much traveled retired missionary recently made the remark that Sierra Leone is not a poor or neglected country . There are areas of the world where the need is far more urgent and there are programs more immediately directed toward meeting that need as well as bringing the gospel where it has not been brought. He suggested the programs of our Pacific Island Ministries for example.
The Apostle Paul in the latter part of his Roman letter said “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known . . . as it is written: ‘These who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand” (Romans 15:20, 21). PDJ