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Article appeared in “The Daily Inter Lake”
newspaper.
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake
In a place where exotic wildlife is plentiful
but Christians are few, Frank Brisendine has found
a calling.
The Lakeside denturist and his 18-year-old daughter,
Racheal, recently participated in an innovative,
new program called Hunt SA Ministries that combines
safari hunting in South Africa with mission work.
The Brisendines hunted for five days, then spent
another five days working with local families
and visiting AIDS patients in hospitals.
It was Rachael’s first hunting trip. She
had only shot a gun twice, but as they were sighting
their guns, she hit the bull’s-eye dead
on. She proved her prowess on the African plains,
bagging a Bless buck, wildebeest and warthog.
“She outshot me,” Brisendine said.
“She’ll be in the record book on the
Bless buck.”
Combining hunting with mission work isn’t
as unusual as it first sounds, he said.
“Most hunters are Christians, especially
in Montana,” Brisendine said. “Most
of us feel closer to God out in the woods.”
Participants in Hunt SA Ministries stay at an
upscale lodge near Grahamstown, not far from the
southeastern coast of South Africa.
The safaris on private land offer more than 35
species, many with trophy potential. A percentage
of the meat goes to the landowner, and Hunt SA
is setting up a food program using the meat to
feed the area’s needy residents.
“These hunters catch a vision” once
they see the needs of the South Africans and how
much assistance is needed, Brisendine said.
He and his wife, Claire, are returning to South
Africa in a couple of weeks.
“This time we’ll help with starting
a Bible college. We’re taking the money
we’ve raised with us,” he said. “The
last time we were there, there were people who
came to the Lord, but there was no follow-up.
This school will train people for six months so
they can go back to their own communities”
and share the tenets of Christianity.
Without adequate follow-up from missionaries,
there’s no way for the South African natives
to sort out Christian beliefs from historic belief
systems founded on witchcraft and even black magic,
Brisendine said.
“It gets all mixed together. That’s
why there’s such a need for Christian pastors,”
he said.
Brisendine is raising $60,000 to help build the
Bible college. Once it’s finished, the ministry
expects to train 50 students every six months,
drawing from a 900-mile radius.
Rachael, who was born in Romania and was adopted
by the Brisendines when she was 4, also has done
mission work at Romanian orphanages and plans
to study disciple training with Youth With A Mission
in Mexico starting next January.
She was touched by the AIDS patients and the poverty
in South Africa.
“These people have to walk miles and miles
just to get water,” she said.
As in other parts of Africa, AIDS has gripped
South Africa in epidemic proportions that have
forced the government to triple the size of hospitals.
Medication for AIDS patients has been banned there,
Brisendine said, with the idea that the disease
will be less of a problem if patients die as quickly
as possible.
Brisendine plans to make three trips a year to
South Africa for mission work, and he wants to
take others there. He’s working with Easthaven
Baptist Church to bring a group over there.
For those who like to hunt, the trip is reasonable,
he said, starting at $2,900.
“I hunted in the Bob [Marshall Wilderness]
last year and it cost me $4,000,” he said.
“I went to Africa for $3,000 and got six
animals, plus food and lodging. The exchange rate
is great right now.”
Brisendine has raised about a third of his $60,000
goal. Donations are being processed through Easthaven
Baptist Church.
“Africa’s really caught me,”
he said. “It’s not for everybody.
You have to do what God calls you to do.”
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached
at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com
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