Mircales happen at Keir Tayler's crusades. People are "slain in the Spirit"
as Keir (centre) prays for people.

Bush-hardened Keir Tayler goes where others won't

Evangelist Keir Tayler

If you go into the African bush with evangelist Keir Tayler, it could change your life for ever.

It certainly did for one man who joined one of Keir's Hand in Hand International teams. One night the team was praying for people after a crusade. A man with a withered hand asked this team member for prayer.

It was dark, so I don't think he saw the hand . . . as being crippled," Keir tells the story. "This guy wanted prayer. The team was praying for everybody. So the team member just said, 'Come lets pray for this guy'. And so he did, a simple prayer, and then afterwards he said, 'I want to you to move the part of the body that was sore or stiff'.

"So the man lifted up this claw, and it became a hand."

That, said Keir, changed the team member for life. "He is in full time ministry now." he said.

Keir, who is based in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, started Hand in Hand International about four years ago. Prior to that he led missions into Africa as the missions director of the local City of Life church, taking church members with him.

As part of his ministry now, Keir takes teams of people from various churches. You don't need to be a pastor or a church leader to go with him. But you better be prepared to go places other people won't or just don't go to. Expect the worst. That's Keir's speciality.

An ex-Zimbabwean, his preparation, you might say, was 14 years of bush war as a member of the highly trained Selous Scouts. "It removed the fear of the unknown because you've been there," he says. "You've been to the extreme, you've had elephants charge you, snakes crawl over you at night, you might not find water tomorrow."

His own life changing experience came when he was wounded in Mozambique. At the time he had begun studies to become a doctor. He had been educated at a mission school in Rhodesia, and had had a religious upbringing. "But it was not a Christian upbringing. I knew religion, I knew the format, but I didn't know the relationship. That changed dramatically when I was wounded. "I got a bullet through both my legs. I was bleeding to death, and called out in the name of the Lord. Right there - I knew I was dying. And I had a Saul of Tarsus experience - a blinding light. From there on I was changed," he said.

He spent about four weeks in hospital and was visited daily by the chaplain, but could not share his experience.

"At that time the World Council of Churches was bringing peace to our nation. They were doing it through the barrel of an AK47, and I had just got a 762 intermediate bullet through both legs and I thought, 'Man if this is what they call peace and the church is backing this, then I am out of here'.

"I had tracked terrorists into Christian missions.

"I had a no respect for any church, my knowledge limited by my religious up bringing," he said.

That was until a friend visited from South Africa. Keir still had the bandages on his legs. His friend asked what there was for entertainment, and he suggested they see the film, Jesus of Nazareth.

"Within 48 hours we had both given our lives to the Lord, and we went to church the following weekend. I had an experience with God there, it was real, it was sincere, things happened," Keir said.

Keir's wife Cally and his partner in Hand in Hand International was converted at the same church meeting.

"My desire to become a doctor changed in one hour. I wanted nothing more than to serve this man who could give me incredible grace, mercy and forgiveness. While I am killing people in the terrorist war, I cry out and he allows me to live?"

It was only matter of time before Keir went to bible school in America. And from there on it was full-time ministry.

"Winning the lost, that's our prime focus, and we do that by going into areas most people don't want to go to," Keir says. "We don't often go into the big cities although when we do we go into the squatter camps, and we pitch camp right up in the middle of the area. We go right where the people are living so they have got virtually no excuse not to get there. If they are sitting in their homes, they hear what's happening.

"We go to the remote areas. For example we are going to Zongoene in Mozambique. That where the Limpopo River flows into of the sea. That is wild. The people are unchurched, they know nothing about keeping quiet in the service; they playing football, playing cards, the prostitutes are soliciting. They haven't got floodlights, so when we come with our floodlights its like daytime. So they're active, it's wild."

Keir says he holds leadership conferences during the day for the local church leaders regardless of denominational background, and the crusades are held at night.

In deciding where to go Keir often just looks at the map, a place catches his attention, and he goes there on his Yahama XT500 motorcycle equipped with long-range fuel tanks.

"I go in and try and meet a leader, a pastor or a fraternal group of leaders. It might take two our three trips before we do the crusade. And it becomes their crusade in the sense that they reap all the benefits, we pay for everything. We pay for the going, food for the pastors, the choir - we pay for the interpreters.

"All we want from them is a bit of their time and support. There is no debts left behind for them, just a blessing. They have been taught in a conference, and theoretically their churches should double over a week. If not there are other churches planted in the area."

Keir says that although they visit remote parts of Africa they have up to 9 000 people attending the crusades. It like a major event has come to the area.

Miracles, too, are part of the crusades. "We've had limbs straightened; two young girls in this area of Zongoene we have just been to were born blind, and afterwards they had perfect sight. It's incredible cripples walk, stand up straight."

In one area they went to the number of cripples healed was amazing, says Keir. This brought the superintendent of the local hospital down to see what was happening. People were coming in from miles around.

Keir says his ministry is based purely on faith. "We don't take up offerings, we don't expect any financial blessings that way. We' ve got to take everything with us. What we really haven't had, and what we really are looking forward to is for a church to get behind us. An international outreach is normally five grand (R5 000) and that's depending how far in you go.

"We mostly go tented, and we camp. This trip here we've got find our own water. So it's really rough and pioneering. And we go back every year to the same place so it is not a hit and run set up. We keep the relationship with the pastor going, we supply him with tapes and we take in literature, in their language."

Part of the ministry of Hand to Hand International is to takes teams of people into the mission field to give them a taste of what it is about, Keir says.

"For example we have had teams of 68, we have had teams of two. This time we have a team of 18. The teams are from different churches. And they are not always eldership.

"This trip we have two men from Holland coming, one of whom is pastor. So we are wanting an international flavour as well. We have had Americans out, we have had Germans out last year. That helps in two ways. They get exposed to Africa and develop a real heart for missions. And hopefully they go back to their countries with a different attitude towards Africa.

People interested in contacting Keir Tayler can e-mail him (ktayer@connx.co.za)

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