God has a wonderful plan for the land "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," (Zephaniah 3:9,10). And right at the heart of that plan is the Republic of South Africa. This sketch of South Africa grows out of the several weeks I have spent there in 1985 and 1988.

South Africa is at the southern tip of the continent of Africa. Its strategic location is of vital importance to the United States. In many ways we are more dependent upon South Africa, than South Africa is upon us because of her treasure-house of strategic minerals and her strategic sea-lanes, so vital to our national security. South Africa is the one place in the world, outside the Soviet Union, where we can obtain the quantity of strategic minerals essential to the production of steel. Her sealanes, along the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and along the Indian Ocean, are among the most important sea-lanes and "choke-points" in the whole world. Much of the West's oil from the East comes around the Cape of Good Hope.