The life of OLLY RAPER has turned and twisted in dramatic and unexpected paths only God can create. Tony Cummings spoke to the singer, preacher and administrator of the From Minus To Plus outreach.

Olly's time at Bible college was tough going. An English speaking student at an Afrikaans Bible school, Olly was not popular with his fellow ultra-conservative students. Olly's relatively long hair and his increasingly outspoken criticisms of apartheid meant that Olly had many an encounter on and off the rugby field. But he persevered and was within a year of completing his studies when Phil Enlow came to South Africa to tour. Phil was a popular figure in the Southern Gospel circuit in the States being an ex-member of the Imperials. Phil was impressed with the South African Bible student-cum- gospel singer and asked Olly to return with him to the States. The South African jumped at the chance. Olly's experiences on the American gospel circuit weren't all good. "I travelled 38 States with Phil in eight months," says Olly. "I worked with guys like the Imperials, the Couriers, Andrae Crouch, the Cathedrals, lots of people. I met people who were household names as gospel musicians or evangelists. But after eight months I believed it was time to leave. One thing I discovered in America was the inconsistency of the Southern Gospel music circuit where they preached it but didn't live it. I personally worked with folks who'd do all night sings, they would preach and then be groupies and all that stuff, to me that was an irreconcilable thing, again because of the heritage that I had. We had very clear guidelines and I thought, 'I've seen what I came to see, I've learnt what I came to learn as far as I can go, now it's time to move on."'

Olly decided to come to Britain for six weeks for a visit. Olly's sister Evangeline, at Bible school here, tried to persuade her brother to settle in Britain. Even the principal of the Bible college phoned Olly and suggested he could have his credits transferred from South Africa so he could come to Britain. But Olly was adamant. He was homesick for South African sunshine. But back in the country of his birth Olly found he couldn't settle. "Somehow I knew that my destiny lay in a place other than the place of my birth; Britain. I found that unbelievably difficult. I came eventually to my dad and said, 'Dad, I can't stay.' Now, everybody was just waiting for me to slip back into the shoes that I'd left and work the extra year of study and then take a church and be part of the system. And I said I can't stay. I said, 'I'm going back to England and I believe that's where God wants me to live and work. I'm going back as a missionary to England.' Great words from a 21-year-old guy. But I really believed it. I came back to England and enrolled in Bible College. I finished in 18 months because they gave me 18 months credit for the 2 years work I'd done in South Africa. I finished and got my diploma of theology through Elim Bible College in 1977 and having achieved that I said, 'God, now what?' In the interim Peter Van Den Burg, who is now the general manager for Christ For All Nations, my sister Evangeline his wife, and I began to sing around in a group we'd formed called Rufaro. It is an African word which means happiness, peace, well-being. Before long Rufaro were singing anywhere and everywhere. We were part time students and full time musicians singing. Evangeline played the keyboard, I played the guitar, badly. We'd do Andrae Crouch songs like "I Don't Know Why Jesus Loved Me", "Take Me Back" and all those, because that was all we knew. I wrote about three or four songs. It just grew and grew. Soon we were doing concerts, services, open air evangelism, everything."

Rufaro found themselves in such demand that they were able to scrape a living in full time gospel music ministry. They recorded three albums for Pilgrim. For six years the group endured the trials of on-the-road fatigue and cheap equipment including "some microphone that made you sound like Donald Duck." A turning point came in 1981. "We were asked if we would come and co-lead a crusade in Birmingham with a chap who was coming from South Africa by the name of Reinhardt Bonnke. He was preaching, but they wanted us almost to be the draw card so that people would come to the crusade meetings. Reinhardt was unknown. The meetings were scheduled for about 14 days at the Birmingham Town Hall and for the first two days we hardly filled the place. But Reinhardt preached, we sang and by the end of the week the place was very, very well filled and by the final meeting was totally full. At the end of that time on the Monday night Peter came and said to me, 'I need to talk to you. God's told me to go and work in South Africa with Reinhardt. I'm leaving.' And of course by implication so was his wife. I said, 'Rufaro is over, after six years.' That wasn't easy because we had established an identity for ourselves and also there were many folks who'd said, 'God never destroys a ministry.' All I could say in my naivety was, 'Something has to die if something else is going to live.' Within a month and a half of having said they were going to leave they were gone. Reinhardt needed someone to come and work as a mechanic on his trucks immediately. Peter said, 'I don't care whether I'm a mechanic or whether I work in the stamp-licking department, I'm going to be obedient to God', and he left. I looked at my wife, I looked at myself and said, 'Is God telling us to go home?' And God spoke very clearly to Bridget and I and said, 'No, if you are faithful in small things I will make you to be a ruler over great things in Britain. I've called you to work in Britain.' At that time we had very little of anything. By that time I was earning £25 a week with Rufaro. Now that was going. I said, 'God, how are we going to live?' I made a pact with God, a covenant, and said, 'God, if you can't look after me better than a normal boss I will understand that you've changed my job description. But as long as you provide for us I'll serve you. It doesn't mean that I want to be rich, it just means that my wife and my children don't suffer because I've been obedient to you, because I believe God, you're a better boss than the world's got.' Pete and Angie went. All of a sudden I was on my own. I phoned around to many of the churches I'd sung in, preached in, seen people saved, people touched, lives wonderfully ministered to. I phoned and said, 'I'm on my own,' and they said, 'Yes, we've heard. It's such a shame. Rufaro were great.'" But at first few bookings came in for the now solo singer preacher. When they did it was very, very tough. "Literally, I put my wife and my kids in the car and we would go 20 days, 25 days, 30 days ministering." By 1983 the family was sleeping on a friend's floor.

Says Olly, "I'd been used to a lovely home, South Africa was my home, I was warm, I came out of sunshine, I had my degree, I could go to South Africa and pastor a church. I had the telephone in my hand, phoning a church denomination to say, 'Look this is nonsense, find me a church. I'll become a minister and pastor a church.' But I couldn't do it."

There was a breakthrough. A Baptist manse was available to the Rapers at a ludicrously cheap rent of £10. But even here there was a major snag. The house was in the urban wastelands of Birmingham in an area where prostitution and drug addiction were rife. But it was for the Rapers an opportunity they grabbed. "We moved in on the Wednesday, collected our boxes, those which we could remember where they were stored. I was invited to preach up in Leeds for four days. Sunday morning I spoke about God being our defender and our resource and I preached with great fervour, 'Satan can steal your goods but he can never take your joy'.

"We came home to discover that our house had been burgled, ransacked. It was a total mess, shambolic. We had gone and bought food and put it in the freezer so that when we came back we could feed our kids. The thieves had come and opened the deep freeze and all the food had run down, it was all ruined. And all the clothes were scattered all around. They had really done us over. Everything electrical gone. I went to bed with my wife at two o'clock in the morning and I put my arms around her and said, 'Honey, it's okay.' As quiet as she is - she comes from good solid Brethren stock - you never talk back to your husband - she sat up in the bed and said, 'It's NOT alright.' I said, 'You're right, it isn't.' I said to God, I'll serve you but you need to supply for us. I'm going to ask Father to do something about this.' I turned over in bed and said, 'God, you said faithful in small things. I don't know how much more I need to prove to you that I'll serve you but now we are in desperate need. I've got nothing, I have no income, I have no way of replacing what's been stolen and I have a wife who says to me, "Where's your God?".' The next morning there was a cheque lying on the floor. Now, to the best of my knowledge nobody except the guy who works here with us and ourselves knew we'd moved. Nonetheless there was a cheque, not made out to me, made out to my wife, with a note: 'Dear Bridget, we just thought this would bless you. We felt God would have us send you a cheque for £30 to put food in your fridge.' I tell you, it blew her away, it blew me away."

The Rapers lived very happily in the house for the next nine months. By 1984 Olly felt his solo ministry was being re-established. "I heard about Reinhardt's tent in Africa. I kept in contact with Reinhardt - Peter and Angie, they were family of course. Reinhardt was to open a 34,000 capacity tent in Soweto. I thought, 'I've got to see that! We had moved into Halesowen earlier in the year. I decided to go across to Africa and take a few folk from Britain. While out there Reinhardt said, 'Why don't you start an office for us in the UK?' I had already started to organise a few meetings for Reinhardt in the UK anyway. I said to Reinhardt, I'll work with you but not for you.' I was concerned about putting all my eggs in one basket. Reinhardt said, 'That's fine. I'm not looking for your ministry to be destroyed. There's room in CFAN for a man who has a ministry.' I said, I'll work for you and arrange things and begin to build things in the UK.' I didn't want to be accused of using Reinhardt just to build my own thing. To cut a long story short the whole thing began to take off. A day arrived when revival reports that we had had printed were delivered to our house. They arrived in a truck with a big pallet. A guy got out of this big truck and says to my wife, 'Where's your fork lift truck?' Bridget said, 'What are you talking about?' 'Well,' he said, 'there are all these books, what are you going to do with them?' I told him, 'We post them from my house.' We were getting sacks and sack of letters. I said to my wife, 'This threatens to get bigger than we thought.' I never dreamt back then that God had a plan with CFAN, Reinhardt, Peter, Evangeline, me, all of us. We are looking down these tiny country lanes. That is our perspective. God is looking from heaven saying, 'Well, actually guys, soon you will see all these country lanes leading to a highway. When you all get together then the convoy can get moving.' There was such a momentum starting to gather pace beginning with the Fire conferences in 1986."

Alongside the ever expanding work in CFAN administration, and his continuing preaching ministry Olly was also increasingly popular with easy listening gospel albums for Rob Andrews' Chapel Lane company including a duet album with Evangeline. "In 1992 Rob said, 'Let's do an album of old hymns.' The 'Redeeming Love' album took me right back to my roots."

Today with Chapel Lane recently forging a manufacturing/distribution deal with Nelson Word Olly's music is reaching more people than ever before. But Olly's other gifts are much used too. "I preach every weekend and travel around the country (preach many days in the week). My wife says I have an insatiable desire to travel and to preach. More than anything else I love it. I love to share the gospel, to see people getting saved."

Olly is already planning his next album for Chapel Lane. Like 'Heart And Soul' it will have an integration of many new, contemporary elements to his singing. But above all there will continue to be an emphasis on strong, honest, biblical lyrics and a lifestyle that speaks of abandonment to the Lordship of Christ. "To me for gospel music to be effective it's all about message, not about rhythm, fast or slow. I know some guys who are great in the area of Christian music. But the message that they preach has become totally negated because of their life. But even if they avoid gratuitous sin Christian singers can begin to compromise. I'm not prepared to. In the music industry there are very real dangers, the trade off is very often very simple. I've had folk come to me on a number of occasions and say, 'We can really do something with your voice if you change this or do that, we can really do something with you.' I have to tell you there were times in the natural when I've said, 'Wow, wouldn't it be great to be rich and famous.' And I thank God for every Christian who's reached the top of the musical profession in the secular world. Fantastic -go for it guys. For me God called me first to be a preacher who happens to sing. I sing because the work of God within me expresses itself in a song. At the end of the day if I've no voice I'll still sing because the song is not a note, it's a heart."