Keith Strugnell, CBN WorldReach
regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, recently appeared on
The 700 Club. Co-Host Terry Meeuwsen spoke with him about how God
is working in Africa.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Please welcome Keith Strugnell to The 700
Club. It's wonderful to have you here.
KEITH STRUGNELL: Thank you, Terry. Lovely to be here.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: You have chronicled the 30 years of Go-Tell
Ministries in your recent book, Towards
the Glorious End. Well, communications, it's appropriate that
that's in the title, because you are a great lover of the media, and
God has really used that over the years. I mean, you brought Christian
classics like The Cross and the Switchblade to South Africa.
You've worked with Christian artist Sheila Walsh, who is very familiar
to our audience, people like Steven Curtis Chapman and many, many others.
How has God used that in the past, and what's happening in South Africa
with regard to the media today?
KEITH STRUGNELL: Well, another thing, of course, that we did
was the Billy Graham telecast, where the whole nation was touched by
the message of the Gospel. And we set up telephone counseling centers
all around the country and saw many people come, Franklin Graham and
so forth. But I think probably the most important partnership that Go-Tell
has entered into is in the last 10 years in our partnership with CBN
WorldReach, where it has extended our vision beyond just the horizons
of our nation. It's taken it further into the whole of Africa, initially,
and then we've divided it so that East and Southern Africa become ours.
And the Lord gave us a blitz strategy to saturate whole nations with
the Gospel so that we could reach people.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: You mentioned your relationship with CBN and
the work that God's been doing in the last 10 years. Tell me about the
kinds of projects that we have embarked on together.
KEITH STRUGNELL: Well, I suppose the blitz strategy was one
of the most important ones, where we would take whole nations and give
them multilevel opportunities to respond to Christ, so that a person
may switch on the television set and they may see a CBN program. Or
they may be going to some function and there's somebody showing the
Jesus film. And people have just come to Christ in droves as a result
of it. Take, for instance, East Africa. In the very middle of that blitz
that we did there was the bombing of the American Embassy. Now, God
used that in an incredible way. God can use tragedies. AIDS is a tragedy.
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Terry Meeuwsen
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TERRY MEEUWSEN: Yes. And one felt in Africa.
KEITH STRUGNELL: It's more than that. It's an opportunity for
us to use that to be able to proclaim the goodness of God.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: I saw that when I had the opportunity to be
there with you and we went out to some AIDS orphanages and hospitals.
People are very receptive to the message of hope and God's love. And
also, I visited some sewing centers with you that were really exciting,
because you see life-changing hope being given to people who are then
going to, as you said, go on and impact their communities themselves.
That's been radical, hasn't it?
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Sewing project
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KEITH STRUGNELL: Absolutely. Because, you see, 45 percent of
the people of working age are unemployed in South Africa. So, we have
to find a way of empowering these people to provide for their families.
We have to give them self-esteem. So, we teach them simple skills like
the sewing project. It started out of a pastor who was winning prostitutes
off the streets of Hillsborough, and he was discipling them, but because
they didn't have any money, they would go back onto the streets. So,
we thought there's got to be a way in which we can find out what assets
you've got, teach them skills so that they can begin to serve. And by
doing that, they can practically support their own families and their
own churches at the same time. People come into a sewing center, for
example, with despair, and their faces just drop. But at the end of
three days of training, they lift up. They've got hope. They've got
joy. And as part of the discipleship program, you can't just fill their
heads or their hearts with knowledge. You have to show practical help
to these people.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: We have many people who watch this program who
are - people who are called to pray for nations. How should people be
praying for Africa right now?
KEITH STRUGNELL: The Lord says in Psalm 2, He says, "Ask
of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost
parts of the earth for your possession." I believe that we can
dare to ask God for a nation by name. And we can say, "Lord, give
us that nation." And He will. He honors His promise.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: The 30 years of Go-Tell ministries and what
God has been doing in Africa are chronicled in Towards
the Glorious End, a book written by our guest, Keith Strugnell.
And it's available on our website at cbn.com. You can web order it now.
Keith, thank you so much for what you're doing and for being with us
today. God bless you.
KEITH STRUGNELL: Terry, thank you. God bless.
