Andreas Martin Scheffler (Andre)
Born
16 JUL 1911Deceased
23 NOV 2001Occupation
MissionaryNotes
Andre matriculated in 1928 at Punt High School in Mossel Bay. In July 1929 he started working in the Deeds Office in Bloemfontein. There under the influence of the Oxford Group he answered the call todo missionary work.
In February 1932 he attended the Missionary Institute in Wellington where he qualified at then end of 1935.
With a bursary from the Dutch Reformed Church, from December 1935 Andre attended a short course at Livingstone College in London on tropical diseases and general medical care.
In July 1936 the Free State's Dutch Reformed Church sent Andre to their missionary outpost in Zambia. He learned to speak Chichewa and worked as a missionary at Broken Hill, Lusaka and Komoto.
In 1941 he returned to South Africa because of poor health. After a short stint at Roodepoort he started working in Saulspoort in Pilansberg, where he learned to speak Tswana.
In 1947 Andre accepted a missionary post based in Langa in the Western Cape. He focused on the building of schools and outposts as far as Namakwaland.
After 10 years of service in the Western Cape, Andre worked as a missionary in Queenstown. Here he learned to speak Xhosa. In his 4 years here he started the development of at least 14 schools and churches.
In 1961 he returned to Cape Town and in 1962 he became the preacher at Nyanga where he retired in 1981.
Andre played a leading role in the establishment of the Efatas School for the Blind and Deaf.
His memoirs are recorded in the book "Andre Scheffler, 'n dankbare dienskneg". He wrote this in the months before his death, which occurred at age 90 on 23/11/2001.
Please login to view the full profile.