Bhengu and Education
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu
and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of
God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden of
His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts
of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul
O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts
in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries
from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese
Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission
Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and
Reunion Island
Special
Answers to Prayer – 1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A
Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within
the Group
The
Split of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The
Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with
the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
Education is something the urban African prizes above all else. African mothers will skimp and scrape on their meagre wages to pay for their children to go to school. One of the ironies of the apartheid era was the slogan of the Liberation Revolutionaries “freedom first and then we will get education”, an attitude accompanied by boycotts and the burning of schools. If any of this had logic in it, it escapes me, for young people were furiously denying themselves a fundamental right as dear to them as life itself, one might say.
The Bhengu parents obviously
must have sent young Nicholas Bekinkosi to primary school, but from what
he told me, he had to struggle on his own to complete his education as
far as matriculation. It took him years. He would find a job somewhere,
work for a year or two, saving up all the money he could. Then he would
enrol in school for a year. Thus he finally obtained his much-prized
matriculation certificate. The Reverend Fred Suter recounts how when
Nicholas Bhengu came to the Dumisa Bible School to enrol, he dumped a
bag of money onto the table in front of Suter. It was an entire year’s
school fees, so keen was he to enrol.
Nicholas Bhengu never advanced beyond Bible school level in formal tertiary
education. Yet I think a university degree was something he deeply coveted.
Indeed at one stage he sought admission at Taylor University in Indiana,
USA. Hardly had he arrived at Taylor University than his wife Mylet became
so sick that he had to return to her in East London. So he left the university
almost before he started there.
It was on this occasion that a miraculous event took place. Bhengu missed
his plane to South Africa. Confidently he made a seat of his upturned suitcase,
convinced that the plane would return to pick him up. And so it did! Engine
trouble forced it to turn back to the airport. Bhengu could board and travel
to South Africa as he had believed he would do. It so happened that all
this took place at a terrible time in South Africa’s history. There
was rioting in the black townships, at its worst in East London where Bhengu
lived. It was there that a Catholic nun was killed and parts of her were
said to have been eaten. Churches were being burnt. One can imagine the
disturbance caused amongst Nicholas Bhengu’s black Christians in
the midst of such tumult. Bhengu arrived home just in time to call his
people together and give them stability and direction. Had he not done
so, chaos would have engulfed the assemblies and the young work would have
been destroyed.
Years later one of our white ministers, Colin Chambers, was admitted to
preach on a regular basis to the political prisoners on Robben Island.
He ministered to Nelson Mandela there and to a number whose names today
make headlines in the newspapers. He recounts how on his first visit to
the island a group of them sat him down to question him on the Assemblies
of God. They knew the church. They knew of Nicholas Bhengu. Once they were
sure that the Assemblies of God was not linked with certain other Reformed
or Pentecostal churches, they became quite welcoming. They sent their greetings
to Nicholas Bhengu whom some of them called “our father”. One
man in particular was enthusiastic in his greetings. He referred to the
riots in East London and said “Tell the Reverend Bhengu that I was
the man who at that time was sent to assure him that none of his churches
would be burnt down”. Indeed, none were burnt down!
Perhaps events indicated that it was not God’s will for Nicholas
Bhengu to enrol for training at Taylor University after all.
Incidentally, through the mention of Taylor University, I gained a small
glimpse of how vindictive the media can become when criticised. They don’t
like it at all.
In 1959, when Nicholas Bhengu had his tent campaign in
Salisbury (now Harare), the representative of Time magazine approached
us for an interview.
This
resulted in an article on November the 23rd 1959 entitled “The Black
Billy Graham”. In the article it was mentioned that Bhengu had enrolled
at Taylor University in Indiana. A week or two later Time’s journalist
called me again. Taylor University had complained to Time denying that
Nicholas Bhengu had ever been admitted to their student body. I was able
to assure the journalist that he was not wrong. Nicholas Bhengu had indeed
told him of his enrolment at Taylor University. The question was closed
but there was a little sting waiting for Taylor University. A week or two
afterwards in a Time article on something or other (I forget what) Time
magazine casually and seemingly without any reason whatsoever, made reference
to Taylor University calling it a “degree mill”. I took note
that it does not pay to clash with Time magazine.
One might say that although Nicholas Bhengu was not an academic, he knew
the Bible well and was astute in his sociological and political understanding
of the well-educated South African black. He could mix with influential
people and was highly respected by some of the most accomplished academics
in South Africa. One of these, the late Professor Dawid Bosch of world
wide acclaim had this to say:
“ I came to know Nicholas Bhengu intimately during the 1973 Congress on Mission and Evangelism. Since then, we were together many times until he passed away. I particularly remember his participation in the committee that organised the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA) which was held in Pretoria in July 1979. For two years before this we had met monthly to discuss all possible aspects relating to the planning of that mammoth convention. Bhengu attended virtually all the committee meetings. At many critical moments he gave quality guidance to our deliberations, always in his quiet and modest way. For me, Bhengu epitomised the Assemblies of God”.
Without a doubt, Bhengu’s keen mind, broad intellect
and rich experience placed him on a par with many whose high academic
achievements he himself
might have envied. His wisdom and vision seemed boundless.
Professor Walter Hollenweger, author of the compendious book, “The
Pentecostals” actually invited Nicholas Bhengu to be the visiting
lecturer at “Selly Oaks College” in England. Selly Oaks College
was connected with the University of Manchester. Bhengu spent a year as
a lecturer there, an accolade, one might say, for the young man who wanted
in his lifetime an education.
He realised the value of having an education. Thus he encouraged his
ministers, where possible, to study. I believe there are numbers of them
in the ministry
today for whom Bhengu arranged to pay fees. I was able to help more than
one from the white work at Nicholas Bhengu’s request. He was devoid
of the prejudice which in past times characterised many Pentecostal churches
who viewed educated ministers askance. For them to study theology at a
university was almost tantamount to sin. Bhengu had no sympathy with such
prejudice.