SOUTH AFRICA 2010
My original intentions had been to minister in Rio de Janiero in May of this year…. but those plans were changed by God.
For several months I had heard of a movie (true story) called ‘FAITH LIKE POTATOES’ and had been informed I needed to watch it. I got a hold of the movie and for a few months just didn’t get around to viewing it.
2009 became 2010 and finally tried watching only to fall asleep (a combination of it being too late and me too tired) twice before actually making it through the whole movie. No stunning revelation. No earthquakes. Mission accomplished. Not sure why, but decided to watch the 54 minute documentary featuring the real Angus Buchan, not actors, and as I watched, God gripped my heart. His voice spoke straight to my heart: “you will learn from this man”. But how?? My wife had gone to bed and was reading… I went and told her I don’t know how, but I know when God speaks.
The next day I called my pastor/friend Gary Maroney to see if he was planning on joining the team to Rio? He said he had a previous commitment to South Africa. There would be a revival conference, something like a mini crusade and then the preachers from the conference would go to minister/preach in the local communities calling the nation of SA , the people of SA to repentance and revival. He said there would be 2 speakers at the crusade Sammy Tippet (whom I have ministered with before and been greatly inspired by his life) and a simple farmer turned evangelist by the name of Angus Buchan! I shared with Gary what The Lord had spoken to me just the day before and asked him if I was crazy? “No, that sounds like God. You need to call Sammy and tell him”. I called Sammy and told him my story. “The Lord is in this” he said. “I will carry suitcases, help where ever needed” I offered. He responded that I would preach in the churches.
Within 2 days of the word from God the trip was set!! I felt like my ministry and my faith life would be dramatically impacted. The team believed there would be a time set aside for the preachers to have a Q & A session with Angus and this is how God would fulfill His word.
Who is Angus Buchan?
He is a man who was a farmer by trade. He is Scottish by nationality. As a young man he was quite successful owning a 3500 acre farm in Zambia. Due to civil unrest and spiraling inflation he had to abandon his farm. He left with his wife, children and a truck hauling a disassembled tractor and headed for South Africa, where he found a very overgrown, difficult piece of ground to turn into a farm. He worked 18 hours a day at first, running off the Zulu’s who came seeking work. Eventually he hired some, one who became his foreman and most trusted, loyal friend. The farm had no well and his family lived in a tiny travel trailer. He was an angry man, a troubled man and he felt like if he could ever get this new farm up and running, his anxiety would go away. The day came when the farm was successful, the debts were paid, and still Angus described it: he couldn’t sleep at night and felt like a car engine revved up at full RPM’s. He was about to burst.
By now he had more children, but was a powder keg waiting to blow.
He was invited to attend a Methodist layman’s meeting at a local church. As he heard the message of Christ from another farmer, he recognized that Jesus was the great need in his life. He entire family went forward and surrendered their lives to Christ. He understood that he could not obtain eternal life or peace with God by his good life, his good works, his money or his good intentions. Only the innocent blood of Jesus Christ could satisfy the debt owed for the sins of the world.
Angus put his trust and faith in Gods finished work. The bible says “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.. old things pass away, behold all things become new.”
Angus returned to his farm a new man. His love for people could not be held back and he began to tell all his employees about The Savior. Before work started every day they would sing hymns and read from the bible. The people saw a different Angus and were being won to Jesus.
Whenever he had time Angus would lay flat on his back in his cornfield (his ‘green cathedral’) and read his bible. With a ‘common sense, no nonsense, God said it, I believe it’ faith, this farmer became a powerful man of faith. God did many miracle exploits through his ministry including growing bumper crops of potatoes even when there was no rain. One night a Zulu woman was stuck dead by lighting. Her family rushed to tell Angus and he brought the truck to take her to the hospital. They wouldn’t allow it saying “no, you always tell us how powerful your God is, you pray for her”. He bent over her and prayed “in the name of Jesus rise up’. He reached down and she stood up! He said “I didn’t do this, do you understand?” She responded ‘yes’.
Several times God has done authentic miracles to validate His gospel message as he goes out to the deepest, most remote places in Africa.
I believe the secret to the almost unbelievable blessing on his ministry is the discipline and devotion he gives to prayer and the word. Unless he is traveling, his typical time with The Lord is 4AM to 9AM. At one point, seeking a specific answer from God, for 6 months he met with God every day from 4AM to noon. God gave him a mandate to preach the gospel; from Capetown to Jerusalem.
His favorite bible character (and mine) is Elijah and he is cut from the same cloth. A simple man, a praying man, and a man of incredible faith whom God uses in mighty ways. His reputation as a man of faith has grown and he routinely gets requests to go where farmers face severe droughts to pray for rain. And the rain comes. He has preached 100’s of crusades (over 25 years) and about 7 years ago he felt led to host, what is now called THE MIGHTY MANS CONFERENCE on his farm in SA.
- The first year 240 men came.
- The second year 600 came.
- The third year 1000 came.
- The fourth year 7000 came.
- The fifth year 60,000 came
- The sixth year 200,000 came.
This year he felt led to ask the adjacent 2 farmers not to plant their crops, believing the minimal fee they charged would be able to fund the farmers for their missing crops. He did not plant maize either and as he tells it, if he was wrong, they would all be bankrupt. Shortly before the planned date he came under intense satanic attack. He went to a nearby mountain and stayed 5 days and nights fasting and praying, until God assured his heart that satan would not prevail! Four weeks before I arrived in SA, over 350,000 men from all over the world came to Shalom (Angus’ farm) to attend this years conference!!! I spoke to one man who said he was part of the registration team and there was over 400,000 men. It may be the single largest gathering of men in the history of the Christian church.
He is a simple man with simple messages, but the anointing of God is absolutely evident as repentance, brokenness, and thousands turning to Christ are the fruit of his ministry.
When I saw the itinerary for conference, I saw the that there was no scheduled time with Angus. I was sure God had told me I would have time with him, but now I wondered how? Saturday I attended the morning session and as I walked the streets, again I wondered ‘God how are you going to do this’? I looked up and there 2 feet from me was Angus walking my way. We exchanged greetings and I told him why I was in Africa and not Rio. We talked, exchanged cards and we prayed together in the street. He prayed a very special prayer for me which continued to take on even more significance as I left town and began my preaching assignment the next week. It continues on. I heard The Lord!!
That same afternoon hundreds responded to the message Angus preached. The night before Sammy preached and many people responded just as they have all over the world for now 40 years.
I love that God is not a respecter of persons, He is looking for (2 Chronicles 16:9) and will use, in a powerful way, anyone who will lay down their life for Him.
It fills me with such a sense of expectation and anticipation for the future!
A chance to talk and pray with Angus Buchan. Not the way I planned, but just as God had promised!!!
As I mentioned above, I preached in a black part of town called Khayalitsha, in a small church suffering from discouragement and disappointment. The pastors wife told me later, “we considered canceling the meetings, we just didn’t have the heart for it”.
I came that Sunday morning and preached on dealing with discouragement and casting our care upon Him. The pastor rejoiced and his wife wept. She said after the first meeting“I am encouraged. God has healed my pain”. She was then excited for the rest of the week.
I preached 3 different messages that Sunday and God spoke to the people. After one service the entire congregation came forward, we formed a circle holding hands and sang and cried, praised and poured out ourselves to God. It went on for almost an hour.
At the end of the week Pastor Jeffrey told me “Marshall, if I could have scripted the messages we needed to hear, I would not change one thing. You have touched our hearts. No other man would have been right. You were the one”. Of course, we know this is God. He sees the whole world. Re-routed from Rio to Khayalitsha, South Africa, we had a match made in heaven!
My roommate and I were told by the organizers that we were the first white preachers to ever do extended meeting in this part of town.
The HEART CRY 2010 CONFERENCE was on the subject of revival. It was held in Worchester, the town where the revival of 1860 took place in which Andrew Murray had such a key role. We held the conference in the very church where God worked so powerfully so many years ago. Sammy and Tex Tippit, Pastor Gary and Darlene Maroney, their dear friend Hazel and I to got spend some time and meet together. I learned a great deal and met some wonderful people.
My brothers and sisters, I feel like I am in first grade again. I sincerely, deeply, believe God has so much more for me to learn. All ministry has disappointments, trials, and tests. But God is giving me a resilient heart, a persistent faith, a stronger faith. He continues to help me believe ‘with God all things are possible” Even in travail there is joy, there is assurance, there is confidence in Him. How can it be? Amazing Grace, what else?
As I write this report I’m listening to a christian concert. The current song is titled “WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE TIME THATS LEFT?” I think that might be one of the most important questions a Christian will ever answer. Jesus answered it this way… work while it is still daylight. The night is coming when no man can work. There is a time when our opportunity to serve God will be over. Everywhere I go I see sweet Christians who are so entangled in this life that they feel too paralyzed to move out into ventures of faith. About six years ago Rhonda and I made a conscious decision to drastically alter our lives and we asked God to move in a powerful way… He has.
But we had to step out in faith. If your reading this report and your hungry for more of God, don’t be afraid. He’ll hold you in the palm of His hand as He takes you along new paths of faith. He will be Elijah’s God to you.
God has taught me that when we risk in God, it is no risk at all.
It will be challenging, it will be stretching, but mostly it will thrill your soul!
I praise God for my wife Rhonda.
Just yesterday I heard that our Angola 2008 crusade continues to bear fruit. To this day 2 years later God is still at work.
Christian leaders in the Congo, heard about the work God had done in Cabinda, where we preached in a soccer stadium and they asked Sammy Tippit to come and preach in their country. He did and hundreds responded. A contingent of leaders from Cabinda came and told Sammy “we are still super excited about what God did when Marshall and Billy came. Many hundreds have come and still are coming to follow Jesus. Please send them our love and tell them the churches are continuing the vision they helped to impart”. From Angola to the Congo, I can’t say anything but Thanks to Sammy and to God be the glory!
More than ever we need your prayers. Pray for us to be steadfast, disciplined, quiet and strong in faith.
We appreciate your love, prayers, encouragement and friendship.