African Bible Colleges

ANNUAL REPORT 2005

Greetings in Christ:

PROVIDENCE - a great word that we need to hear more often! It’s a word that expresses Divine guidance...God’s intervention to accomplish His purposes.

It was SIXTY YEARS AGO that I was introduced to Providence - without being aware of it. World War II was into its fourth year and I had just been awarded a coveted appointment as navigator on a newly commissioned destroyer. As I was about to pack my bags for Norfolk, “out of the blue” came an abrupt change of course - orders to immediately report to the Gulfport Naval Station on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. There was an emergency!! Japanese Kamikazes (suicide planes) were coming out of nowhere, and we were bringing down anything that flew - all too often our own. A new kind of officer was needed - “Recognition Officers” who, in an instant, could recognize “friend or foe.” I arrived feeling I had suffered bad luck at its worst...until my path crossed that of My Nell¹s. All of a sudden my “misfortune” became “good fortune” - which I now realize was God’s marvelous intervention to accomplish His purposes!

SIXTY “storybook years” of marriage have “flashed by” on what Nell and I call “Our Sentimental Journey.” And, we find, most appropriately, on this special anniversary year, that:
2005 has been a year ”PROPELLED BY PROVIDENCE”

LIBERIA
Remember last year’s report concerning Liberia? We had a plan: To be joined by our son, Del, and his wife Becky for a trip to LIBERIA...on a very significant date - January 6th! This was the very date, when by FAITH, we first stepped foot on Liberian soil back in 1970...we planned to do it again.

If there is one lesson we have learned in our 36 years in Africa, it is that “our plans are NOT always God’s plans.” While things in Africa seldom go according to plan - it’s been our happy discovery that this is usually because our all-knowing God has a BETTER plan! Like the airport controller, He keeps us on His course by ordering changes in ours. I say this because we did NOT fly to Liberia on January 6th as planned. As the new year dawned, the sporadic civil war in Ivory Coast erupted once again and the International Airport, through which we had to travel in order to reach Liberia, was closed indefinitely. The fact that this was Divine Providence became clear three months later.

This needs to be said before we move on. I hate to admit it, but prior to these plans I had been playing the part of Jonah, “The Reluctant Missionary” when it came to returning to Liberia. To Nell’s constant pleas to return, I would reply, “There is no way we can think about restoring the campus without an iron ore company first coming back to restore the city and give us the infrastructure needed to exist! And, what company in its right mind would spend the hundreds of millions of dollars to do this in a country that is considered one of the few “failed states” in this world.” Her reply to all this brilliant reasoning was simply,” Where is your FAITH?”

Liberian graduates with Jack, Nell, Del, and Becky.

Finally, her persistence penetrated - Providence prevailed. And, on the morning of our
rescheduled departure, I found myself saying to the students at Chapel, “We read in Proverbs 21:1, that a King’s heart is like streams of water in the hands of the Lord and that He turns it whatsoever way He wills. If God can turn the heart of a King, then, surely, He can turn the heart of an iron ore company to rebuild Yekepa making it possible to restore our college. Let’s believe God for this!” And, off we went.

We were met at the bullet riddled airport by a delegation of our graduates, and on Easter morning both Del and I preached at their churches. That afternoon we attended a reunion where some 70 of our graduates who had somehow made their way to Monrovia - we wish you could have been with us to hear the testimonies to God’s grace during the
last 15 turbulent years!!

The next morning we were off to Yekepa...a 200 mile trip that used to take four hours turned out to be a long and difficult eight. The road was in ruins and there were United Nations checkpoints every 10 miles - manned by the largest occupying force in the world outside Iraq - 15,000 troops from around the globe. We arrived to find the desecrated ABC campus overgrown with jungle. In order to make our way from building to building, we hired slashers and cut pathways. Amazingly, instead of feeling overwhelmed with discouragement, we found ourselves saying, “We MUST raise this college up again, company or no company!” God was waiting to hear this - our FAITH had to be in Him, not a company, if He were to work in our behalf!! Faith In Action - God in Motion!

Upon our return to Monrovia, we attended a meeting of all American expatriates at the US embassy. We “just happened” to be there for the first such meeting since the beginning of the war. On the way one of our graduates, who was shepherding us to the US Embassy through a battered but bustling Monrovia, said, “Have you heard the good news? While you were up in Yekepa, two iron ore companies met with Liberia’s i n t e r i m government - they are actually vying for the contract to rebuild the mine and the city of Yekepa!” This unbelievable news was verified when we reached the embassy - it was the main focus of the Ambassador’s message. There was great rejoicing in the streets of Monrovia when it was announced that Mittal, the largest iron ore company in the world - with a history of helping the countries in which they operate, had received the contract. No doubt about it, we had been propelled by Providence!!

ABC entrance sign discovered.

And, because of this, we are again making plans - to return to Liberia in January 2006. Elections have just been held. Mittal is at work - and God is beckoning. The Yearly Report for 2006 should be most interesting!

UGANDA
Nell and I traveled to Uganda the middle of June for a most important occasion. An inspection team of seven from the Ministry of Education was to visit the campus. Whether we received a provisional license that proclaimed us to be a bonafide university with the right to grant degrees hung in the balance.

They arrived with rigid looks of determination - tape measure in hand. Quietly they went through the entire campus, measuring rooms, closets, windows - taking meticulous notes. We were proud of this beautiful new campus...but there was nary a note of praise. When all the measuring and inspecting was done we gathered at the Vice Chancellor’s house, that’s Dr. Palmer Robertson’s Ugandan title, and the mood didn’t change as they went over documents and details.

Inspection committee with Robertsons and Chinchens

It was at this point that they excused themselves saying they would retire to go over their findings and be back in the morning with a decision. As they drove out the gate I could see that coveted license following them out the window. Oh, me of little faith! When the team arrived the next morning it was immediately evident there had been a “change of heart.” Those smiles that had been missing were now “ear to ear.” They had returned as bearers of good news that they were eager to share, exclaiming, that they had never inspected such a fine institution and were happy to recommend approval for our license - promising it would be in hand before the college opened in September.” It arrived within TWO WEEKS!! Propelled by Providence!

In September, we made another trip for another inspection. This time it was for ABC’s new Ugandan radio station (READ NELL’S ENCLOSED LETTER for the story). While there, we beheld the NEW college in operation - met the professors and spoke to the freshman “pioneer class!!” Our dream fulfilled! African Bible College #3 underway! Inspection committee with Robertsons and Chinchens ABC’s library with 17,000 volumes Trinity - Tuscaloosa Administration Building Could this crossing of paths be an “Act of God’s Providence?”

The ABC Christian Academy student body with flags flying representing the 28 countries from which they come. What a mission field!!!

The Malawi Minister of Lands was on campus to enroll his daughter. Our paths crossed, and he expressed his appreciation for all that African Bible College was doing for his country - our hospital, academy, radio station and college. Then, rather offhandedly, he asked, “Do you need more land for expansion?” Amazing! That’s the word that came to mind. Son, Paul, along with Dr. Boersma who oversees our hospital and Headmaster Dan Linsz at our Christian Academy, have vociferously been expressing the need for more space for these two growing ministries of ABC!! When I answered with an immediate “Yes,” the Minister replied, “Write me a letter of request.”

Katrina, the Twins and Providence

Nell and I couldn’t resist including this picture of Paul and Palmer as I bring this Yearly Report to a close...it complements the beginning. The Twins are standing in front of what was Nell’s grandparents home that overlooked the sparkling shoreline of Gulfport, Mississippi. It was on the sea wall in front of this beautiful home that, with bended knee, I proposed to My Nell. It struck us, how Providential that on this special 60th anniversary year that these two sons, along with Palmer’s exploding church in the Phoenix area, had this urgent desire to reach out to this devastated paradise...where their parents had started that “storybook life.”

Cordially yours in Christ,

Jack Chinchen