NBH BHENGU: MAY HIS VISION LIVE FOREVER

A thug handing over a weapon to NBH Bhengu in one of his evangelistic meetings.

The late NBH Bhengu was a world renowned evangelist in the Assemblies of God in South Africa.  He was converted to Christianity in a tent meeting in Kimberley mines in 1929.  He started preached almost immediately after his conversion.  NBH, as many have come to call him, was passionate about evangelism, education, and people-empowerment.  His meetings were marked by one slogan consistently and throughout his ministry; 'Jesus is the Answer.'

Born as he was in a Lutheran Mission Station, NBH was influenced by the Pan Africanist thinking of his time.  In 1938 he planted his first church in Benoni Old Location, a mining township East of Johannesburg.  This little church later proved to be a catalyst in Pentecostal revivals around what is today known as Gauteng.  Evangelists like Phillip Molefe and others who later became leaders in the International Assemblies of God were products of this church at 4th Street and 4th Avenue, Benoni Old Location.

In 1945 NBH relocated to the Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape.  It was here where his ministry was propelled to international proportions.  Always focusing on the African townships of the time, NBH encourage self-sufficiency among his followers.  The townships were dangerous but he dared the situation and gained the respect of many.  At one time the political radicals of the time threatened to 'fry him in boiling oil,' but he continued.  That was not an empty threat; in 1952, during the 'Defiance Campaign' against apartheid, a white woman missionary who was a medical doctor was burnt alive in her car and some of the rioters at her flesh for strength.  But NBH soldiered on; that was how deeply he felt about sharing Christ with his people.

His vision was Pan-African; he wished to see the gospel preached from Cape to Cairo; unfortunately his vision and mission were curtailed by American Missionaries and their African cohorts.  To his dying days, in 1985, NBH decried being misunderstood.  Yet, never before or after has Africa seen a man as passionate for Christ and the people of Africa as NBH Bhengu.

MAY HIS VISION LIVE FOREVER!