How did you get in touch with the Christadelphians?
On July 18, 2005, an advertisement appeared in the daily newspaper of Córdoba, La Voz del Interior. It invited readers interested in studying the Bible in a systematic way to write to a given address for study material. Since my youth I have always had an interest in the Bible, but my reading had always been random and my knowledge patchy. I responded to the invitation in the paper and as a result completed the basic correspondence course, followed by an advanced course, and after this a third course.
The more I studied the courses the more I realized that the spirit of this message reflected what my parents had instilled in me many years ago in Entre Ríos, Argentina. They were Catholic, but I would like to think that, had they had the opportunity to consider the message preached by the Christadelphians, which in love I practice today, they would have responded as I have, recognizing the true teaching about God and His Son, the man Jesus Christ.
As well as the postal courses, I am very grateful to the brothers and sisters who came to Córdoba with love and dedication, and have taught me the Truth. As I pulled away from Catholicism I requested material to help clarify my newfound understanding on subjects I knew had been distorted by the Church, subjects such as baptism, celibacy, the sacraments, and the destination of the dead.
Finally, my conscience awakened, and full of faith and goodwill, I finished the appropriate preparation. On November 21, 2006, at the age of 88, I was baptized by my brothers here in Córdoba.
How has the first year as a Christadelphian gone?
The year since my baptism has gone very well. A great source of this wellbeing has been constant prayer to God through Jesus Christ. I pray for the health of my wife, family and friends. But the chief and constant focus of my prayer is that God, creator of all things, will send His Son Jesus Christ — according to the promise — as soon as possible, and that with his return to this earth the hatred, evil, corruption, and physical and spiritual poverty that fill this world will be ended. I pray also that, after the resurrection and judgment, Christ will establish the heavenly Kingdom of God on this earth. Then that promised kingdom of truth, health, love, and peace will become a reality.
I would like once again to express my heartfelt gratitude to Bre. James Hunter (and his wife Jean), Donald Luff, Robert Alderson, Hugo Petrilli, and Rubén Barbosa (and their families also). These all have helped me on the path to spiritual peace. To those brethren I hope to know, I offer my constant friendship. At the same time, I ask for God’s and Christ’s blessings on my brothers and sisters throughout the world.
Your brother with much affection,
Francisco Gilardoni
Searching the Internet for Truth
www.labiblia.com
I’ll begin by telling you how, some years ago, while I was searching the internet trying to find information about the Bible, I came across www.labiblia.com. From that day on I began to read the studies and teaching there. After a while I asked to be sent correspondence courses. That’s how I began my contact with la Misión Bíblica Cristadelfiana.
Before long I was invited along to some Bible studies at the Gran Palace Hotel in the center of Santiago, Chile. There I first met with Christadelphians, and I specifically remember a man with a beard and a rough voice, surname Petrilli. He had an unmistakable presentation, and from his accent I thought he must have been from Argentina. Afterwards I had a chance to talk with Hugo Petrilli, and he told me how he had been baptized 25 years earlier and was the only Christadelphian in Argentina all that time. I could detect his frustration at having to walk by himself for such a long time.
In 2003, I decided to be baptized, and on October 19 of that year I was baptized by brothers visiting Chile. At that time there was a concern at the back of my mind that there could be a repeat of the circumstances of my Bro. Hugo Petrilli, and I too could pass many years by myself. But that wasn’t the case. Sis. Giselle Pintado, who is from Ecuador, was living in Santiago, and before long Bro. Richard Castillo was also baptized. So here we are, three of us, on this long strip of land at the ends of the earth.
Recently, in the building where I work, some offices came up for rent, and the idea came to me that we might rent one as a meeting place. I approached the owners of the building, and they had no problem with the idea. With the support of the Bible Mission we have rented one of the offices, and equipped it with the necessary furniture: folding chairs, a desk, a lectern, clocks, etc. We are on the tenth floor of a building right in the center of Santiago, just 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas, the very center of the city.
We officially inaugurated our Centro Bíblico Cristadelfiano, on November 3 and 4, 2007 with a series of studies presented by Bre. Don Luff and Robert Alderson. A number of interested students came along on both days.
I hope that with God’s help we will continue to give simple studies each Saturday to those who are interested here, and that with time the ecclesia in Chile will grow. We don’t want to go at things too fast; it would be painful for us to stumble or fall in this project. We want to do things slowly but surely so that the Work of the Lord will grow “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither: and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psa 1:3).
Your brother in the Faith,
Bernardo Soto Raimil (Chile)
Welfare in Africa and Beyond
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be” (Deut 15:7,8).
This article looks at the problems of our brothers and sisters in Africa and beyond, and considers the help available to them.
Brothers and sisters in need in Africa…
In Kenya, the homes of several brothers and sisters have been destroyed in the tribal violence that followed the disputed elections there. At the moment 12 Christadelphian families have been displaced, but everyone has been affected. In many parts of the country, shops have been looted and transport has ceased, and everywhere food prices have rocketed. While there have been riots in the west of the country, in parts of the east the crops have failed, making the problems even worse.
The troubles in Kenya have been widely publicized and reported, and all the world’s media have sent reporters and camera teams to the country to film the disturbances — while, almost unnoticed, another catastrophe has occurred some 700 miles to the south. In Malawi and Mozambique there have been severe floods that have forced many people to leave their homes and seek refuge. In one area of Mozambique alone, two Christadelphian meeting halls were washed way, and more than 200 brothers and sisters have been displaced.
It is one of the tragedies of our world that, while in ‘the West’ we enjoy greater wealth than any generation before us, many in other countries live in crippling poverty. In Africa a third of the population lives on less than $1 a day, while in some countries as many as one adult in six is infected with HIV. Orphans are everywhere. Meanwhile corrupt men lead corrupt governments, making themselves and their friends rich while their people starve, and taking for themselves money that other governments and charities send to help the needy. The problems of Kenya are not unique; before these events the spotlight was on Zimbabwe, where inflation has made money worthless and another dictator hangs on to power.
…and beyond
In many countries of the world a similar tale could be told of individual brothers and sisters:
- A sister in Russia lived in an unfinished house. The roof was collapsing, and the snows of winter were coming, with temperatures below 0ºF. She had almost no money.
- A brother and sister in Israel are almost totally blind. She cannot see with one eye and the other has blurred vision, while her husband can only distinguish between light and dark with the one eye that is functioning. They have almost no income of their own.
- In southern Africa a sister was raped, and lived in fear because the man who attacked her was threatening to repeat the assault.
- Elsewhere in Africa a young boy was suffering from a strangulated hernia that needed urgent surgery, but his family and ecclesia could not pay the medical bills.
- A contact in Bosnia met an old woman whose only source of warmth was to burn old clothes in the middle of her room. He tried to help her, but he had little money himself.
This is the world to which many thousands of our brothers and sisters, and their children, awake every morning. It is a world that challenges their faith, their morality, and their care for each other. At the same time it challenges the rest of us to care for those in need as the Lord Jesus would wish.
This article focuses on Africa, and the needs of Christadelphians there, not because they are the only ones in need, but because the problems have been so serious, and because there are so many brothers and sisters there.
The challenge of Africa
The greatest help we can give to anyone in need is to teach them the gospel. It is good to provide food and shelter, to heal diseases, to alleviate poverty in this life. It is even better to provide a hope of life to come, when God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death or grief or crying or pain.
Responsibilities for preaching in our community are shared among the four Bible Missions. While the CBM of the Americas works in Central and South America, the CBM in the UK (www.cbm.org.uk) works in Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, and Europe. In Africa by God’s grace, there are around 16,000 brothers and sisters in 27 countries, and the number is growing fast.
CBM appoints for each country a linkman, a brother to lead a team that visits the country regularly, one who knows the brothers and sisters there, and to whom they can turn in time of need. Preaching is carried out by correspondence and visits, while at the same time local brothers and sisters are spreading the gospel themselves, and in some areas the knowledge of the Lord is spreading very quickly. This is the key work of the CBM. Yet, along the way, we meet many in real need. This is not surprising, of course: most of these countries are poor by western standards, and have no state welfare system for those in need.
It is not, of course, always easy to know how to help, or how much to give, and yet our obligation is clear. The apostle John wrote:
“If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1Jo 3:17).
Help for the problems in Kenya…
Everyone will be aware of the violence in Kenya that followed the disputed elections at the end of last year. In some way or another this has affected brothers and sisters throughout Kenya, and to a lesser extent in Uganda, where refugees have crossed the border to escape the troubles.
Most of the violence in Kenya has been in the west of the country, and it is there that our brothers and sisters have been most affected, particularly in Rift Valley and South Nyanza provinces. Throughout the country, brothers and sisters are in touch by email and mobile phone with the CBM Kenya team — particularly Bro. Alan Sutton, the linkman — so we have a good picture of how they have been affected.
Overall we are thankful that, at the time of this writing at least, the troubles seem to be calming down. In the west the homes of some brothers and sisters and their families have been destroyed, and others have either fled to places of safety or been evacuated. It is one of the blessings of the internet that it was possible within a few days to send money, and help was sent from the CBM Welfare Fund to assist these brothers and sisters and to provide for anyone else in serious need.
In the country as a whole, everyone has been affected by increased food prices. Food has been looted and is simply not available for sale. The Kenya team are monitoring all these situations, and as and when new needs emerge further funds will be sent, to supplement what local brothers and sisters are able to do for themselves.
…and in Malawi and Mozambique
The CBM has an office in Malawi, in which local brothers work to coordinate activities in both countries. Through them, as in the past, money has been sent to meet the needs of the brothers and sisters who have been affected by the flooding, and as in Kenya there is excellent communication with the linkmen, Bre. Trevor Radbourne and Arne Roberts.
When there is no food
In recent years, CBM has responded to disasters in Africa on an even larger scale.
The worst of these was three years ago, when there was a widespread famine in Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania, and in these countries many people starved to death. The drought in 2005 was the fourth year when the rains had failed, and many in Africa were unable to grow their own food and had no money to buy any, as the shortages forced prices up. Thousands of brothers and sisters were caught up in the famine, and we can be grateful that there are honest and caring brethren in those countries who can be trusted to help others and to arrange food distributions. In Tanzania money was sent to several regional centers to help brothers and sisters there. In Malawi, Mozambique, and Kenya grain was purchased in the towns, and trucks transported the grain to local ecclesias and distributed food for each family. In this way the families of around 10,000 brothers and sisters were provided with maize and cooking oil to see them through the famine. It was gratifying that, when brothers and sisters visited the families later, they were able to confirm that the food had been shared fairly among those in need.
The ravages of disease
In many parts of Africa, diseases such as malaria are a constant threat, and tuberculosis is increasing alarmingly.
Children are particularly vulnerable to malaria because mosquitoes become more active in the evenings when they may be asleep, and the children of some brothers and sisters have died as a result. In recent years, therefore, CBM has provided mosquito nets for the children of brothers and sisters. During 2007 around 4,000 nets were provided to families in Africa.
In some countries in Africa, AIDS is an ever-increasing threat. Millions of adults are dying from AIDS while they are still young, or in early middle age. The average life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is now 47 years, when it could have been 62 without AIDS. The effect on households can be severe. Many families are losing those who used to provide an income, and many of those dying from AIDS have surviving partners who are themselves infected and in need of care. They leave behind orphans, grieving and struggling to survive without a parent’s care.
We do not know how many brothers and sisters are infected with the HIV virus (many are not aware themselves), but we have a duty of care in those cases too. In countries where there are treatment programs, CBM helps brothers and sisters to register, so that they can obtain free drugs and medical advice.
Education is also important, and a booklet has been prepared that sets out to teach brothers and sisters how to avoid being infected, how someone with HIV should behave, and how an ecclesia should respond to those who do contract the disease.
The dangers of welfare
It seems hard to imagine that something as Christ-like as helping our brothers and sisters could be a source of trouble, yet even in the first century there were those who followed the Lord only because they enjoyed the loaves and fishes. The very first problem the early church encountered had to do with welfare:
“A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their
widows were being neglected in the daily distribution” (Acts 6:1).
Those problems have their counterparts today. There is always the danger that, when people see Christadelphians being provided for in times of famine, they will seek baptism not because of a real faith but as an insurance against the next time the crops fail. Others, seeing the influence that ecclesial elders have in welfare matters, may seek to become elders themselves for their own financial gain.
Sadly, these problems have happened, and do still happen. The only wise course is that the provision of welfare should be moderated with an understanding of human nature and a little common sense. Thus, when help is provided, it must be on a scale that will not attract undue attention. The aim is to help brothers and sisters through a difficult time, not to make them conspicuously wealthier than their neighbors.
As far as possible, brothers and sisters must be treated equally, so that nobody feels envy or jealousy at the help given to another. The aim is that, when a brother or sister is in need, they should turn first to their family. If the family cannot help, they should ask their ecclesia. If the ecclesia is unable to meet the need, the ecclesia itself should turn to CBM for assistance.
Self-sufficiency
The ultimate aim must be for brothers and sisters to be independent, and able to survive times of hardship without needing to depend on others. In many areas, for instance, brothers and sisters are dependent on growing maize, and if the rains fail either at sowing time, or before harvest, the crop may be lost. In several countries, CBM is seeking to help brothers and sisters to vary the crops that they grow, so that they can eat a more varied diet, and so that with more than one source of food they may be better equipped to cope with drought.
Another fund, the Christadelphian Meal A Day Fund (www.meal-a-day.org), has funded many projects throughout Africa that have this aim in mind. Some examples are:
- Providing water tanks for schools or ecclesias, which collect rainwater and provide drinking water for a village. Several villages have benefited in this way, and recently an ecclesia in Los Angeles donated enough money to provide a large water storage tank for one of the Fund’s children’s homes in Kenya.
- Funding wells or boreholes so that fresh water can be available for villages where there is an ecclesia. During 2007 another 30 wells or boreholes were provided in Africa by Christadelphian Meal A Day.
- Funding orphanages so that children who might otherwise be living wild can have a safe home.
CBM and the Christadelphian Meal A Day Fund work closely together, and both benefit from this cooperation.
The situations with which we began?
We began by thinking not only of Africa, but also of those in need in other countries. There, too, help is given to meet needs when they arise.
- The sister in Russia, living in an unfinished house, was given help to move into a flat, and financial assistance to enable her to start to earn her own living.
- Money is being sent to Israel to pay for eye treatment and to provide a small living allowance for the blind brother and sister.
- The sister in southern Africa who was raped has been helped to find a safe place to live.
- Money was provided so that the African boy with the hernia could have surgery.
- Money was sent to Bosnia to help the poor woman and to reduce her debts.
But these are only a handful of the thousands who have had reason to be grateful for the kindness and generosity of their brothers and sisters.
Contact Information
Any brother or sister wishing to contribute to the welfare of brothers and sisters in Africa can do so by contacting the CBM Treasurer, Bro. Philip Tarrant: phil.tarrant@btinternet.com
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One