Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

can,"me,"me!"Missionary NumberLESSON HELPS FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 22, 1954THE FIELD IS THE WORLD,THE 5ED (S THE WORD Of GODVOLUME LIII WEDNESDAY AUGUST 4, 1954 NUMBER 5TheyTHE SPIRESing!Published by Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J."Of course, you can avoid a lot of trouble by juststepping over to my left any of you, excepting Samuel Maa!"Maa, the village chief,looked down along the row of townsmen drawn upto the right of the armed guard. Not a soul moved.at the head of the line,"Good!" said Maa to himself. The words they hadjust heard were grim. Now here was the governmentsoldier offering an easy way out. But in Maa's company no one moved.Some months before, Maa had been sitting withfriends in his palaver house by the side of the road.A group of young people, tired, dust-covered, but obpaused at the doorway and then,viously very happy,with a word of greeting, entered, for the villagepalaver house is open house for friends and strangersalike. Sugar cane was offered and accepted. Conversation was animated for a little while, then lapsed.One of the newcomers began to sing, softly, as tohimself. Another picked up the song; presently theothers joined in."Nice,"Maa remarked when it was finished.There were other nice songs. Would Maa and hisfriends like to hear them? Theywould. Then theyoung men really sang. Villagers drifted in,andwomen and children came to line the walls in raptattention. For these were songs of Jesus and his loveand the singers were members of the African Youthfor Christ, singing with abandon the catchy Christian songs of youth."We have some nice pictures, too." Who in Africa does not like to look at pictures ? "And we havepictures!"a little Book which tells all about theSplendid ! And so that afternoon in song, by picture,and the Living Word, the Gospel was set forth. Thenseveral of the group spoke brieflyof its power intheir lives. Would there be some who would wish toaccept this Christ of whom they sang and read andspoke? There were. And so a little Christian community remained when later the young men passedon their way. "Come back, come back to visit somewhen you Maa urged; and they said theydaywould.Maa and his people started to build a simple littlechapel. It was only half finished when they held theirfirst meeting. A European priest passed by. Off hehurried to report to the District Officer. "Send aguard and bring Samuel Maa to went out hiscommand.. . . Sabbath noon. The guard arrived at Maa'stown and ordered Maa to assemble all the townspeovisitors. Out in the sun-baked street heple and anyaddressed them."Now listen to he barked. "The Captainknows what has been going on here and you are infor it ! Some of you, that is. So, all you who are paganstill, and all of the priest's persuasion, line up hereleft. You shall be left in peace ! But you of thison mynew faith, stand here on my right; and it's prison,beatings and trouble enough for every one of you.Fall in!"More than a score took their stand with Maa andthe members of the Youth for Christ at the right ofthe guard. Not for a moment did one of the new littleevangelical community hesitate. Two rows of men(Continued on page 71)