Posted on 02/23/2011 2:46:05 PM PST by T Minus Four
“Africa has been held in reserve by the Lord,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in an October 2010 visit to Burundi. “Africa will someday be seen as a bright land full of gospel hope and happiness.”
A congregation in Madagascar holds worship services outdoors prior to baptizing new members into the Church.DOWNLOADLOW(56 KB)HIGH(1.13 MB)I agree to the Licenses and Restrictions for image use.© 2011 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reservedA congregation in Madagascar holds worship services outdoors prior to baptizing new members into the Church.CAPTION© 2011 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reservedAfrica is one of the fastest growing areas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with some 320,000 members, the majority of whom have joined the Church over the past 30 years. They have found that hope and happiness spoken of by Elder Holland by embracing the teachings of Jesus Christ.
To accommodate such rapid growth, many are needed in lay leadership roles to maintain more than 900 congregations across the continent. As a native of Nairobi, Kenya, Elder Joseph W. Sitati served in many lay leadership positions and now is serving in the Quorum of the Seventy, a senior leadership body of the Church where members are given the title of “Elder.”
His first knowledge of the Church came through a 1985 business conversation. The meeting agenda turned from engineering to religion, and Elder Sitati discovered an entirely new approach to life in the message his colleague shared.
I understood who I am as a child of God, a new concept for me. … I knew why I was here on earth, where I was going and why. I saw a new perspective on the family — that it was the central doctrine of the Church. That information helped me reorder my priorities. I had thought that success in the world would apply in my family, but it’s really the other way around.
Elder Adesina J. Olukanni, serving in a leadership position over West Africa added,
“The Church makes our members better fathers, mothers, sons and daughters with the knowledge of who they are and their potential — the great potential to do good.”
Early converts such as Elders Sitati and Olukanni possess a unique perspective on the growth of the Church in Africa. They’ve observed small congregations in a handful of countries increase until today the Church has a presence in 32 countries.
“Now is a time of great transition across Africa,” Elder Sitati said. “Cultural traditions are breaking down; people are migrating to the cities. In a new and unfamiliar environment with very little to hold on to, they become more responsive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are, overall, a religious people, very receptive to the Spirit, and they find a sure hope in the teachings of the Church. They join the gospel culture.”
Elder Sitati described positive changes in the lives of a pair of fellow Africans who also became members of the Church:
Isaac worked as a gardener but was unable to support his wife, who, of economic necessity, lived 2 ½ hours from Nairobi. After his baptism and following Church teachings, Isaac broadened his understanding of his personal potential. He worked hard, volunteered for additional training and found a new job. The new Church member eventually upgraded from an embassy driver’s job to his own business.
Shem lost his job shortly after he joined the Church in 1989. His wife’s experiences in Relief Society, the women’s organization of the Church, helped them start a food business. “They now have a thriving catering business based on the skills they learned in Relief Society,” Elder Sitati explained.
The Church’s presence in Africa began with missionaries in South Africa in the early 1850s. It was not until the late 1970s that membership noticeably increased across the continent of Africa.
Nigeria, for example, had an entire congregation join the Church in 1978, many of whom had learned about the Church years before and were patiently waiting for an approved organization. In less than 10 years, there were nearly 10,000 members and the first stake (a geographic division) was organized. By 1999, membership increased to nearly 43,000 and stands at approximately 100,000 today.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Thousands of new members have joined the Church with more than 4,000 becoming members in 2010 alone. Mozambique had 40 members in 1999 and has increased to more than 5,000 today. Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the Ivory Coast also have sizeable congregations. There are a total of 102 stakes and districts, 18 missions and nearly 320,000 members across the continent. The Church presently owns or leases 725 meetinghouses in 34 African countries.
While these numbers are significant, they don’t tell the complete story of the Church’s impact in Africa through such efforts as humanitarian aid, education, spiritual edification and teaching self-reliance to improve the quality of life.
A pipeline installed under the supervision of the Church’s humanitarian aid outreach transports clean snowmelt from Mount Kenya to villages miles away. “Water is a precious commodity here and many people don’t have access to clean water,” Elder Sitati said. One woman covered five miles each day for 40 years to collect water. The new pipeline to her village now dramatically reduces her journey. The first time she got water from the pipeline was the first time she had ever tasted clean water ( see video on clean water projects ).
This clean water initiative is only one of several African humanitarian efforts implemented individually or in partnership with other relief organizations. The Church is also helping to eradicate measles. According to the Red Cross, millions of African children have been immunized against measles, leading to a 92 percent decrease in measles-related deaths across the continent between 2000 and 2008. More than 50 thousand medical personnel have been taught and equipped to perform neonatal resuscitation, which translates into thousands of infant lives saved. Wheelchairs have also been provided for tens of thousands of African residents ( see video on wheelchair initiative ).
Another outreach, the Perpetual Education Fund, is a Church loan system that facilitates university and technical education. The program is funded through contributions of Church members and others throughout the world that support its mission to help families become more self-sufficient. It is a revolving resource in which money is loaned to an individual to help pay for training or advanced education. With better skills, the student then pays back the loan to the fund at a low interest rate. Since 2001, around 3,000 people have benefited from the program in Africa.
Educational opportunities come to African communities in a variety of ways.
A cooperative food initiative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, trained local farmers to produce a successful crop of cassava, an important nutritional element in the diet of the residents. Local Church leaders supervised the project that began in 2006.
“The people had to learn new agricultural practices: better preparation of their fields, appropriate irrigation and even plant spacing,” explained Wade Sperry, field operations manager for the LDS Charities Food Initiative. In the first year, the newly developed plants and the new farming techniques produced 900 tons of the much-needed food supply, a 50 percent increase over other methods.
“This project offers local self-reliance at its best,” said Ferron Squires, director of the program. “These subsistence farmers have increased their production, improved processing and marketing. They have given back to those in need with their surplus. It’s a great success story.”
Success and change comes in small steps for Church members in Africa, but the steps continue despite enormous challenges in physical, political and cultural environments.
“The African people are a kind and patient people,” said Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve after a recent visit with members of the Church in Mozambique and Nigeria. “They don’t have a lot of income or resources that allow them financially to do things, so they just do them out of sheer effort. They will walk miles and miles and miles to accomplish something that they are prompted to do by the Holy Ghost to further the work.”
It is that will coupled with hope, Elder Sitati maintains, that makes transformation possible. “The teachings of the Church give them hope. People can climb from adverse circumstances; they embrace those teachings and their lives are blessed. The Church arrived in Africa at the right time. It’s not a quick fix to all the problems faced by people in these lands, but it is a sure fix.”
eye roll placemarker
92
Brigham Young comments about blacks
“You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind....Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290).
“In our first settlement in Missouri, it was said by our enemies that we intended to tamper with the slaves, not that we had any idea of the kind, for such a thing never entered our minds. We knew that the children of Ham were to be the “servant of servants,” and no power under heaven could hinder it, so long as the Lord would permit them to welter under the curse and those were known to be our religious views concerning them.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 172).
“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 110).
Now then in the kingdom of God on the earth, a man who has has the Affrican blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of preisthood; Why? because they are the true eternal principals the Lord Almighty has ordained, and who can help it, men cannot. the angels cannot, and all the powers of earth and hell cannot take it off, but thus saith the Eternal I am, what I am, I take it off at my pleasure, and not one partical of power can that posterity of Cain have, until the time comes the says he will have it taken away. That time will come when they will have the privilege of all we have the privelege of and more. In the kingdom of God on the earth the Affricans cannot hold one partical of power in Government. The the subjects, the rightfull servants of the resedue of the children of Adam, and the resedue of the children through the benign influence of the Spirit of the Lord have the privilege of seeing to the posterity of Cain; inasmuch as it is the Lords will they should receive the spirit of God by Baptisam; and that is the end of their privilege; and there is not power on earth to give them any more power. Feb. 5, 1852 in front of the legislature.
I keep wondering why, if God lifted the curse of blackness, there are still black babies being born.
Point #1. Why is the "financial state of these people" even a consideration...aren't their souls the important thing? since that's what Christians are concerned with.
Point #2. If these people are so penniless, where is that much vaunted "humanitarian relief" of the mormon church...is headquarters in SLC opening up the various warehouses and storehouses to them so that their life can be enhanced?
Point #3. I bet the used bicycles of the 53,000 mormon missionaries could be donated to these poor folks so they don't have to "walk miles and miles and miles to accomplish something that they are prompted to do by the Holy Ghost to further the work.”
I bet the mormon members would dedicate a portion of their planned spending in the new City Creek Center...if they were asked...(It’s one of the biggest shopping centers in development today, anchored by Nordstrom and Macy’s. It is nestled in one of Utah’s largest-ever commercial real estate projects. A stream will run through it, and there will be two 18-foot waterfalls and a retractable roof. Bucking an industry trend, much of it will not be open for business on Sundays.
In many respects, City Creek Center in the massive 23-acre City Creek development being built in downtown Salt Lake City will be like no other shopping center in the country when it opens in March 2012.)
Just wondering'....
“Africa has been held in reserve by the Lord,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said
_________________________________________________
So thats why the mormon god wanted the mormons to be racists...
“The African people are a kind and patient people,” said Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve
_______________________________________________
Well somebody run out of patience in 1978
Must have been the mormon god..
or the US government...
That tax thingy is a great motivator...
(@.@)
“The teachings of the Church give them hope...”(Elder Sitati)
_______________________________________________
Guess there was a change and that hope started in 1978..
Until then the African people and their American cousins didnt have any hopey changey from the mormon institution...
Dude, missionaries have been going to Africa ever since the Euro powers had ships.
Africa is probably one of the MOST visited continents when it comes to missionary work.
But what about Europe?
Most of that continent is spiritually lost!
Today’s picture of Christianity that I see is of someone ministering in an inner city or African village or some village in Peru. You never see images of people converting Germans to Christ, or ministering to poor Eastern European children in villages with no running water.
And because of this, Islam is taking over Europe with incredible momentum. Where did this idea of evangelism and missionary work meaning go to the developing world ONLY come from?
The only missionary I ever met that went to Europe went to minister to Tatars. I don’t get it.
I wonder, if LDS adherents would read the actual Journal of Discourses and see for themselves the blasphemies and hateful crap authored by the founder and subsequent ‘prophets’ of LDS inc, would they reject Mormonism as not the God they thought they were to love? We have more than one apologist for the mormon religion posting mindlessly aligned web links who appears determined to continue following the god of Mormonism regardless of how many Momronism blasphemies are shown to them. Dare we pray that the everyday Mormon adherent doesn’t believe the crap their own founders and leadership have proclaimed?
The hundreds of condo units in four high-rises are being developed by the LDS Church. Since City Creek construction began in late 2008, Utah’s once-booming economy and real-estate market have taken their hits, with the latter remaining mired in a downturn marked by falling prices and foreclosures.
The church doesn’t list its condos on the area Multiple Listing Service, so it’s hard to know exactly how that component of the City Creek development is faring, said veteran downtown real estate broker Babs De Lay. But there are hints, based on the overall market, with De Lay characterizing the downtown condo market as sluggish in all price levels. Many finished units remain unsold.
Last summer, the church acknowledged that condo prices in City Creek were being “re-evaluated.” Under construction at 35 E. 100 South, units in the 20-story Regent development were originally priced from around $300,000 to as much as $1.7 million. Prices in the 150-unit project, set for completion in mid- to late 2011, were lowered to the mid-$100,000s. Ninety-five have been reserved with deposits.
Hmmmm...last summer...in October is when the mormon leaders sent out the letter commanding members to take over ALL the cleaning responsibilities of church buildings.
There is little access to the Internet and illiteracy is still an ally of the blasphemies in Mormonism. Most Europeans are too savvy to drink the smithian koolaid.
I hear what you’re saying. But I’m talking about Christianity and Christian missionary work. They as well as the Mormons seem to think missionary work means a trip to a developing nation. But hey, half or MORE of the German or Norweigan (etc.) population being unsaved is overlooked.
Dude, missionaries have been going to Africa ever since the Euro powers had ships.
__________________________________________________
Christian missionaries, yes...
But not mormon missionaries...
Even in 1978, Africa still wasnt “ready” or something...
Some African mormons begged the missionaries to come but SLC refused to send any...
Its only been recently and because of the shortage of WHITE mormons, that Hispanics illegal or not and black Africans and Americans and other nonwhites have suddenly become necessary to be “reached” by the mormons...
Those racist doctrines are still on the books but the mormons pretend they never were there at all...
They as well as the Mormons seem to think missionary work means a trip to a developing nation.
_____________________________________________
Christians might but not mormons...
They can just stay home comfortably in the US and dead dunk your Catholic ancestors into mormonism...
What do you think those huge fancy temples are for anyway ???
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie explained this in Mormon Doctrine, p. 476-477, 1958 ed. –
Those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritualrestrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. . . .Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no circumstances can they holdthis delegation of authority from the Almighty (Pearl of Great Price – Abraham 1:20-27) . . . . The present status of the negro rests purely and simply on the foundation ofpre-existence. Along with all races and peoples he is receiving here what he merits asa result of the long pre-mortal probation in the presence of the Lord. [Appendix pp.A—8-9]
“The race and nation in which men are born in this world is a direct result of their pre-existent life.”—Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1986ed., p. 616
In the 1979 edition of McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine, reprinted as recently as 1997, it says: “Cain, Ham and the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart.”
“For most white members, the ban controversy is over, but the issue continues to haunt many black members, especially in the United States. They are constantly having to explain themselves and their beliefs—to non-Mormons, other black converts and themselves. And no matter how committed to LDS teachings and practices they are, they must wonder: If this is the true church, led by a prophet of God, why was a racial ban instituted in the first place?” (”Faith, Color and the LDS Priesthood,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 8, 2003, pp. A1 & A12).
In 1994, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the First Presidency, assured the faithful that “the Mormon Church will never be without a prophet and that prophet will never lead the church astray” (Salt Lake Tribune, September 3, 1994, p. D-1).
Yet -
“There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things . . . All I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness, and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter any more. It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year [1978]. It is a new day and a new arrangement, and the Lord has now given the revelation that sheds light out into the world on this subject. As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them” (Bruce McConkie cited in Black Saints in a White Church, pp. 34-35).
From Wikipedia on Harold Bingham Lee, 11th president of the LDS
It was Lee who blocked the LDS Church from rescinding the Negro doctrine in 1969, a move favored by Hugh B. Brown. In 1969, after McKay’s health failed, and some others within the church leadership thought the doctrinal basis for the exclusion of people of African ancestry from the priesthood was shaky, the remaining First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (minus Harold B. Lee, who was traveling) voted to rescind the racial exclusion policy; however, that vote was reversed when Lee returned and called for a re-vote, arguing that the policy could not be changed without a revelation. (Quinn, Michael D. The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City: 1994 Signature Books Page 14)
When McKay died in 1970 Joseph Fielding Smith became church president and Lee was called as First Counselor in the First Presidency. He continued to gain practical experience for what was expected to be a long presidency of his own, he being decades younger than Smith.
However, Lee’s presidency proved one of the briefest in the history of the church, lasting from Smith’s death in July 1972 to Lee’s sudden fatal heart attack in December 1973.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
God don’t like racists
Until the internet, Mormons had scant access to their hidden doctrines, nasty history and really goofy stuff that their past prophets taught.
Thanks to search engines, things have changed. Every day, many more Mormon members are looking up things like the Adam-God doctrine and many other fun little things you didn’t learn in Sacrament Meeting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.