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)
In the school some were making good progress. English and some other
branches had been added to the curriculum, but the Bible continued to be
the chief Textbook, and some were acquiring a fair understanding of it.
Natives have generally a keenness of discernment and a clear grasp of
the subject, so that it is necessary for the teacher to be well prepared
for any question that may arise. The one who was first at the mission
was a philosopher and a keen thinker. Nothing seemed to escape him. I
have heard him deliver most excellent sermons and bring far more out of
a Sunday-school lesson than the ordinary teacher. One day in reading the
book of Isaiah, he came to the eighteenth chapter. He knows nothing
about Ethiopia, but after he had finished reading, I inquired what
people the prophet referred to. He thought for a moment and then
exclaimed, "I believe he means us, the black people."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Continuation of the Work
Furlough
The missionary, however robust he may be, cannot keep at his work all
the time; for he generally works seven days in a week and fifty-two
weeks in a year. After a few years of such labor it is necessary to call
a halt, if one does not wish to break down altogether. New missionaries
can take much of the burden, yet those who have something of the
language and can speak to the people must be ready in season and out of
season, to talk, interpret, explain, as well as to have heart-to-heart
talks with the people.
I had now been actively engaged on the mission station for four
strenuous years and was greatly in need of a rest and change. The Board
at home, as well as the missionaries on the field, had been urging me to
go south for a few months. The only difficulty in the way was the need
of some one to take the school, and so we had been looking forward to
the return of Brother and Sister Lehman from Cape Town to take charge of
it. They, however, had been looking on the fields for mission work at
the Compounds on Johannesburg, and had decided to go there. As a last
resort we decided to ask Matshuba to do the teaching. He was capable of
doing it, and he was also becoming able to do some interpreting from
English into the vernacular.
Before this happened an event occurred which more or less concerned all
South Africa, and especially Rhodesia. I refer to the death, on March
26, 1902, of Cecil Rhodes at his home, Groot Schuur, near Cape Town, the
place where he had so kindly received Brother Engle on our first coming
to Africa. It had been his request to be buried in Rhodesia, the country
that bore his name. In the Matopo Hills was a beautiful spot which he
had discovered and to which he gave the name, "View of the World." This
is about fifteen miles from Matopo Mission, as the crow flies, but over
twenty-five miles by wagon road. Here, on the summit of a large granite
hill, in the heart of Matopo, is the spot he selected to be his last
resting place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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