In the morning Sister Engle and I were sitting at the table on the veranda, eating our breakfast, speaking of the plans for the day, and expressing a wish that there was some food to set before the people. While speaking, we heard a goat bleat, and presently two natives, one of whom was carrying a goat on his shoulders, came toward us. They put the goat down on the ground before us, saying as they did so, "The Chief, Macha, sent you this as a present." Here was the answer to our wish and unuttered prayer. Another native headman a short time previously had also presented a goat, and we had bought one, and these three would be sufficient for the dinner. Our praises ascended simultaneously, and we realized that the promise was again verified, "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." The native brethren entered heartily into the preparations, and with the assistance of the others, they soon had the animals killed and dressed, and in the cooking kettles. Fortunately there was cornmeal on hand which also furnished sufficient porridge. We rejoiced as we saw the people coming that there was food to set before them, even though the Gospel messenger could not be given satisfactorily; but there was still a greater and more blessed surprise in store. There were ninety-six grown people assembled, chiefly fathers and mothers, heads of families, and these were all seated along the veranda and in the shade of the tent. David took up the subject of Christmas and its origin by first reading it from the Zulu Testament, which, of course, they did not understand. Before he had read much the Lord sent a first-class interpreter, in the person of a Mutonga native who had worked for some time in Bulawayo, and there learned to read and speak the Zulu language and to understand the Gospel. He was not, however, a Christian, as we learned, but he proved a most ready and excellent interpreter for the day; and as the message was given in Zulu, he as readily interpreted it into the vernacular of the people. The Lord especially anointed our brother David for the message that day, and he most ably and feelingly presented the wonderful story of the birth and life of our Savior and His great mission in the redemption of the world. Perhaps the unique opportunity had some effect upon my feelings, but it seemed to me that I never at any other time heard the subject so well handled before a congregation of natives as it was on that day. The native men, especially, listened most attentively throughout that long discourse. Tears came into my eyes as I looked upon those seamed faces before me, those middle-aged and elderly men who, for the first time in their lives, had an opportunity of hearing of Him Who had come to earth nineteen hundred years before to redeem them. How much of the _makani mabotu_ (glad tidings) they grasped at the time it is difficult to ascertain.