Influential Friends

Michael Cassidy’s parents, Charles and Dee, to whom he was very close, shaped his life and values profoundly. Anyone reading Michael’s memoirs would quickly realise that his parents had a profound impact on him from as early as he can remember all the way through till...

Charles Fuller was the founder of Fuller Theological Seminary. He was the great mass evangelist between D. L. Moody and Billy Graham. He had a huge worldwide radio programme entitled, The Old Fashioned Revival Hour. He helped Michael Cassidy get started on African...

A Ghanaian by birth, Gottfried Osei-Mensah first achieved International recognition as the highly successful pastor of Nairobi Baptist Church. Gottfried is best known as the first General Secretary after 1974 of the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelisation. A great...

Abraham Vereide was a Norwegian missionary statesman who settled in the USA and invested in the raising up of excellent Christian leadership through the founding of the International Christian Leadership (ICL) with Billy Graham and President Eisenhower in the mid...

Michael Cassidy met Stephen Neill during the Nairobi Mission in 1968/9 and was invited to join him for three months sabbatical study in 1971. Michael enjoyed two other similar sabbatical times with Stephen at Durban Westville University and Wycliffe Hall in Oxford...

Michael Cassidy and Leighton Ford met at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1963. Leighton, Billy Graham's brother-in-law and long-time Senior Associate evangelist of the Billy Graham Association, came to the seminary for a lecture series while Michael was a student...

Michael Cassidy’s wife, Carol, has played a monumental role in his life as wife, friend, counsellor, support and wonderful mother to their children. She endlessly brought perspective and wisdom into Michael’s life as well as inspiration and a deep commitment to...

One of the Founding Professors of Fuller Seminary and President when Michael Cassidy arrived, Edward John Carnell was Professor of Philosophical Apologetics. He was a key influence in Michael’s Seminary life in liberating him and multitudes of other students from...

A fellow student at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, Robert Footner led Michael Cassidy into Christian commitment on October 23, 1955. Robert discipled Michael deeply and thoroughly and required a one hour meeting with him once a week during term time for two years....

Director of the East African Bible Society, John Mpaayei was the first person to translate the New Testament into Maasai and is well known for being an extraordinary East African Christian statesman. He was chairman of the African Enterprise city wide mission to...

John Stott was a British theologian and prolific author. He was rector for many years of All Souls Church in Langham Place, London. He was the primary architect of The Lausanne Covenant and for years a major leader and Honorary Co-chair, with Billy Graham, of the...

Olave Snelling is Michael Cassidy’s sister and extremely close friend. She is a radio broadcaster and television producer and the chairperson of UK Association of Christian Broadcasters. She is an intercessor, African Enterprise UK Board Member for many years and...

Don Jacobs was a theologian, preacher, sociologist, anthropologist, high calibre missionary and missiologist. African Enterprise got to know him in the Nairobi ‘69 Mission where he interpreted for Festo Kivengere from Swahili into English. He became a firm friend of...

Ted Engstrom was the Vice-President for many years and President for two years of international aid agency World Vision, before retiring in 1987. Ted was another significant mentor to Michael Cassidy. He was on the African Enterprise USA Board for over 35 years. He...

Edgar Brookes was a South African parliamentarian and Professor of History at Natal University, Pietermaritzburg. A founding member of the South African Liberal Party and a human rights champion, he influenced Michael Cassidy considerably with the notion of “the...

Michael Cassidy’s professor in Church History at Fuller Seminary, Geoffrey Bromiley, was someone who brought perspective to the complexities and controversies within the history of the Church. An expert on the Reformation, Geoffrey’s great life work was the...

Patrick (affectionately known as Pat) Duncan came as young colonial servant, post Oxford, to Basutoland. His father was Sir Patrick Duncan, the Governor General of South Africa when Jan Smuts was Prime Minister. He quickly became Michael’s childhood hero and Michael...

Francis Shaeffer was one of the great Christian apologists of the 20th Century. Michael Cassidy learnt of him through Nina (née Wynne) Baber who had visited L’Abri while travelling in Switzerland. Michael invited him to Cambridge University where he had one of his...

Professor of Homiletics at Fuller Theological Seminary, Clarence Roddy greatly encouraged Michael Cassidy in his preaching and taught him much about sermon preparation and presentation. He once said, “Mike, that sermon went all the way from Dan to Beersheba and died...

British theologian, priest, and Christian apologist Michael Green has had a significant influence on Michael Cassidy’s life since they met at Cambridge University where they were both studying in the sixties. Michael invited him to the South African Congress on...

Michael always called Calvin Cook “the father of the African Enterprise South African ministry”. Presbyterian minister, one time moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa and Professor of Religion (Wits University) and of Church History (Rhodes University)....

David and Annemie Bosch were close friends, colleagues, and co-belligerents with Michael Cassidy in bringing the Christian faith to relevantly address the missiological, social and political needs of South Africa between the seventies and the nineties. David was a...

Billy Graham inspired Michael Cassidy regarding evangelism when he preached at Cambridge University in his 1955 mission. Robert Footner, who led Michael to Christ, had himself been converted under Billy Graham’s ministry in Haringey, 1954. Michael received his first...

Chuck Colson was once an advisor to President Nixon in the ill-fated White House during the time of the Watergate scandal. He served time in prison for his role in the deception and it was there that he found the Lord through the ministries of friends from the...

Carlton Booth was the Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary when Michael Cassidy arrived there as a young man. They struck up an instant friendship and Carlton became an ‘Encourager Supreme’ to Michael as the African Enterprise vision was born and...