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MICHAEL CASSIDY CONFERENCE: Biographies
Overview | Leaders Dinner | Saturday Breakfast | Biographies | Cassidy and Sikakane Sermons

		(Excerpts from the Cross and Staff article written by Elesha Coffman)
		Headlines from Africa rarely inspire hope these days. Riots in Ivory Coast. Genocide in Sudan. Chaos in Nigeria. Starvation in Somalia. It's tempting to echo Nathanel in John 1:46: "Can anything good come from there?" Jesus was the answer to Nathanel's question. According to South African evangelist Dr. Michael Cassidy, Jesus is the answer for Africa's traumas too. Cassidy, whose African Enterprise ministry has been taking Christ's good news to all corners of that continent since 1961, will bring a message of hope from Africa to The Church of the Good Shepherd this winter. He will be joined by Ebenezer Sikakane, a native Zulu and dynamic African Enterprise missionary currently working in Toronto. The GO Team and the CGS Men's Ministry invite you to hear their inspring message at special events scheduled for Feb 11-13. "Dr. Cassidy's leadership lessons alone would make us want to sit and listen to him," says pastor David Bowen, "but we add to those lessons the experiences he has had communicating the gospel to black and white, rich and poor, through church, parachurch, and state, and we hear a voice that may keep us from having to reinvent the wheel in our context."
HIS CALL: Cassidy spent a privileged early life in Maseru, Lesotho, then a British protectorate known as the "Switzerland of Africa." He realized that the black population of South Africa suffered greatly under the same social system that made his life easy, but he trusted politics to resolve the situation. Then, while he was studying at Cambridge, a classmate introduced him to Jesus Christ. He decided that only the Prince of Peace could truly reconcile Africa's divided peoples. Cassidy dedicated himself to furthering that goal. For guidance on how to start a ministry, he wrote to Billy Graham, who was then conducting his landmark crusade at Madison Square Garden in New York. A Graham staffer suggested that Cassidy seek training at his own alma mater, Fuller Theological Seminary. The seminary's founder, Charles Fuller, affirmed Cassidy's vision for evangelizing Africa and paid for Cassidy and fellow seminarian Ed Gregory to undertake a 31-city speaking tour in 1961.
AFRICAN ENTERPRISE: From that speaking tour grew african Enterprise, an organization with a mission: "To evangelize the cities of Africa, through word and deed, in partnership with the Church." The organization began with a handful of white Fuller graduates but quickly grew to include many black African nationals. Interracial ministry teams modeled and preached reconciliation throughout Africa, branching out from South Africa to Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya in the 1970s and adding Zimbabwe, Malawi, Congo, Ghana, Rwanda, and Ethiopia in the 1980s. African Enterprise-sponsored conferences draw participatnts from even more countries.
THE END OF APARTHEID: One of the ministry's biggest breakthroughs came in 1994, when white and black South Africans voted for the country's first post-apartheid president. The election could have degenerated into violence and slowed the country's transition away from decades of brutal repression. Instead, as the world watched in apprehension, a peaceful vote elected Nelson Mandela. Observers cited the efforts of African Enterprise, which included prayer chains, dialogues, and a 25,000-participant Jesus Peace Rally, as a major factor in the modern-day "miracle." Cassidy's book A Witness for Ever recounts this amazing work of God.
TODAY: About 40,000 people each year come to Christ through African Enterprise outreaches, and evidence supports Cassidy's belief that this spiritual renewal translates into better lives and stronger communities. The website tells us "After some missions, police have reported a significant drop in crime and even secular newspapers have reported community changes. Undoubtedly however, it is the increased hope, strength and zeal of local churches and their leaders that is so encouraging because these are the front line forces of Christ's mission in the world."
		Ebenezer Sikakane has been a close friend and associate of Michael Cassidy since 1962. A gifted Zulu evangelist, Sikakane met Cassidy while serving as his interpreter. He joined African Enterprise full time in 1970. Unfortunately, the pressures of Apartheid prompted Sikakane to relocate to Canada in 1978, where he taught at Tyndale College and Seminary in Toronto and headed its Intercultural Studies department. Michael has stated that Ebenezer was "one of the finest Zulu preachers in southern Africa [having] access to the very highest political leadership of the Zulu people ... [and building bridges] between Christians of different denominations." Now retired from teaching, Sikakane serves as African Enterprises's North American Partner Relationships Officer.