South and South Central Africa: A record of fifteen years' missionary labors among primitive peoplesDavidson, Hannah Frances
History
South and South Central Africa: A record of fifteen years' missionary labors among primitive peoples
Davidson, Hannah Frances
Brethren in Christ Church -- Missions; Missions -- Rhodesia; Ndebele (African people); Tsonga (African people)
Brother Cress recovered from his illness, but concluded that it was best
for him to return to America, and wrote the Board accordingly. He felt
his loss keenly. The work in general resumed its normal condition until
the last week in March, when our bishop and overseer, Elder Engle,
became sick. He had been very busy with the work, and in his frequent
trips to Bulawayo, sometimes in the rain, he may have exposed himself.
His condition did not seem serious, and he was not obliged to keep his
bed continually. On April 2 he walked to a garden near by, and when he
returned he again lay down. He ate heartily of the dinner prepared for
him, after which his wife came to the dining-room and ate with us. At
the close of our 3 P. M. dinner she went to her room, but returned at
once and asked me to fill the hot water bottle and come over. I did so
and found Brother Engle having a heavy chill and speaking the Zulu
language rapidly, seemingly unconscious of our presence. We endeavored
in every way to help him, but soon found that he was rapidly becoming
paralyzed. Sister Heise and Brother Lehman were called and a
consultation held. It was decided to send a messenger to the fort, ten
miles away, and from there telephone to Bulawayo for a doctor. Brother
Cress had left that day to go as far as the fort on his way to Bulawayo,
and he was also to be informed.
All night we watched by the Elder's bedside, but there was nothing that
could be done. Brother Cress arrived near noon the next day, but the
doctor did not arrive in time. That was a dark time as he lay paralyzed
and unconscious in the little mud hut he called home, far from his
children, far from the comforts of civilization, with none of his family
or relatives, save his devoted wife, by his side. As it became evident
that the end was near, that heroic mother, who had been such a worthy
companion in all his labors, stooped over and imprinted on his face a
kiss for each of their seven sons in far-away America. At 5 P. M., April
3, he breathed his last. Thus, in less than two months from the date of
Sister Cress' death, Elder Engle also was called home. The loss of our
sister was great, but this seemed to be a still greater blow on the
mission.
He was so absorbed in the work, and no sacrifice was too great, no labor
too hard, for him to endure. Perhaps, if he had spared himself a little
more, he might have been able to continue longer in the work. Who knows?
The language was difficult for one at his age, yet he was making heroic
efforts to acquire it, and could make himself pretty well understood. We
have seen him, after reading the Word, stand before the people, with the
tears running down his face in his great love for them and in his desire
to help them to Christ. And the natives knew that he loved them and they
in turn loved him and greatly lamented his departure. The language of
many of them might be summed up in that of one woman. As she stood by
his coffin, weeping, she said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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