Sojourn on the Veld: A Call to Mission, Machines, and Brotherhood in South Africa's Age of Apartheid

Sojourn on the Veld is the unique story of a sacred mission, secular vocations, and Christian brotherhood. Through this unique blend, the author, along with his teammates, shared spiritual hope and provided material aid to the Tswana homeland of South Africa during 1978-1980: the height of the apartheid era. The teammates were members of the Agape Movement of Campus Crusade for Christ (now called CRU in the US). Their dual objectives were, first, to advance Jesus's message through evangelism, discipleship, and local church support. And second, to assist the physical well-being of the Tswana people through their wide range of skills: teaching, medicine, physical education instruction, agricultural consulting, and engineering. The team would find they also had an underlying third objective of racial reconciliation.

The story covers the author's conversion, his call to overseas missions, and the intense Agape training. The book then describes the arrival of the team in Africa and their adjustment to living, working, and ministering in a foreign land. The core of the story follows the course of the author's spiritual growth that enabled both his ministry and secular work to be fruitful. It describes his iron-sharpening-iron team relationships, trial-by-fire leadership development, and even the stirrings of romance.

The team was one of the few white groups to live in a black area during apartheid. Ultimately, the team's lives validated, to a community calloused by apartheid, that black and white can live in harmony together. The storyline of the author's growth in understanding racial issues explores the dimensions of society's cross-racial problems.

Sojourn on the Veld can serve as a handbook for anyone seeking God's calling, responding to the Great Commission in an overseas mission, or searching for a Christian framework for race relations.