Elias Letwaba - An Exceptional If Little-Known Man

You probably have never heard of Elias Letwaba, even though was a man of exceptional ability and character. There are several reasons for his not being well-known. Firstly, his ministry was in rural Africa, the Upper Transvaal in the first half of the twentieth century. That on its own would take him somewhat out of the lime-light. When you couple that with the fact that he was blcak and that his own denomination, the AFM, followed a policy, at that time, where non-whites were second-class members of the church it becomes even more easy to believe that he would not be well known.

He was one of John G. Lake's early converts and many believe he was the one that received Lake's mantle for healing. He is credited with over 10,000 healings and miracles during his ministry. Lake himself, wrote of one incident where a baby had a broken neck and he had no faith to see it healed, so he left so as not to rob Elias of his faith. The baby was healed, and Lake had to repent of his unbelief. He realized that his greater medical knowledge of the seriousness of the condition was actually a hindrance in this case.

He started a Bible School called Patmos Bible School in Potgietersrus, this school trained thousands of Christian workers that spread the Gospel throughout the rural areas of South Africa. It was never formally recognized as a Bible School for training Pastors, by the AFM, so most of its graduates were forced to do the ministerial work without any recognition by their denomination.

Elias was obviously a man of exceptional humility. Most people who have worked that many miracles and are doing a good work for God would have a hard time staying in a denomination that held separate baptismal services for whites and non-whites, and as a structure made it clear that the non-whites were second-class members. Yet Elias not only stayed true, but he refused to be sidetracked from what he believed his call was to dabble in politics, or fight against the racism in his denomination.

That's the thing I like best about him and why I thought he should be better known. Don't let anything sidetrack you from your call. If people are unfair, ignore it, do what God has called you to do. He's the one we are working for after all.