“We are exceedingly glad to write you this little note to give you a hearty greeting to you all in this district, so that the old men, women childrens, boys and girls and whose tribes of this country are anxiously to send you a good compliments as they couldn’t reach there to see your faces or to gathered in the same Church.”
It goes on: “But we were very glad to receipt those representatives who came from their long journey as far as when they came from and we had a very good general service and Mr. Horlick was one who had held the service in our Church and it was interests wonderful to hear from him about his describes preaching he told us many things about jesus christ our saviour and how a man would follow the secularity of the kingdom of God.”
The letter concluded as follows: “We thanks you very much for sending us these Deputation to visit us and to hear many things from them how do you loved us. We haven’t more information to tell you about. farewell, Sirs with lots of salutation to all. We hope you are whole in good health we should like to hear if you are better.”
“Mr. Horlick” requires some explanation. The natives were not familiar with the names of the strangers who had come amongst them, but seeing on the walls of the verandah a glazed sheet, which had arrived a few days before, advertising the merits of “Horlick’s Malted Milk,” they assumed that this “banner with a strange device” had some reference to their visitors. Hence the mistake.
From Kafukula we continued our journey eastward to Kawimbe, the oldest of the Society’s Mission stations in Central Africa. On the road, which was hilly and very beautiful, we were met by Dr. Wareham. At Abercorn, the Government centre for the northern part of Northern Rhodesia, we were hospitably entertained by the Magistrate, and then we continued our journey to Kawimbe, ten miles away, where another great welcome awaited us. Hundreds came out to meet us, many of the women and girls being decorated for the occasion with yellow and red flowers in their black woolly hair. They escorted us, laughing, singing and dancing all the way to the Mission station, which is 5,600 feet above the level of the sea, and picturesquely situated in a shallow basin. The native village is built on the hillside half-a-mile away, and is well laid out. Four miles off to the west is Fwambo, the original site of the first Mission station on the Tanganyika Plateau. A few miles to the east is the boundary between Northern Rhodesia and German East Africa. To the south-east is the fertile and populous Saise Valley, forty miles along which the sphere of the Society’s work abuts upon the field of the great Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland. It may be mentioned that the river Congo takes its rise a few miles south of the Mission station. We remained at Kawimbe for nearly three weeks. The Annual Meetings of the Central Africa District Committee were held there during our stay. The first week was spent in seeing the work, visiting parts of the district and interviewing the missionaries and preparing for the meetings of the District Committee. One day, under the guidance of Mr. Govan Robertson, we spent over twelve hours in visiting several of the villages of the district, and accomplished the latter part of the journey in the dark. We shall long remember the struggle in the dusk through the almost impenetrable undergrowth of a picturesque mountain pass, and afterwards through the long grass.
The three Sundays spent at Kawimbe were days of great interest. On the first two large numbers of people came in to meet us from the neighbouring villages. On the second a crowded harvest-thanksgiving service was held at which offerings in kind were contributed, including sheep, goats, fowl, eggs, nuts, maize, beans, flour, cloth, bracelets, cash, etc. On the third Sunday I visited one of the adjacent villages with Mr. Robertson. Communion Services for the Native Christians and the Missionaries were held. An interesting incident during our stay was the unveiling of a brass tablet in the Church commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the commencement of the work on the Plateau.
The work at Kawimbe is divided amongst the three missionaries by mutual arrangement. We had not the pleasure of meeting the senior missionary, Mr. Draper, who was away on furlough.
An early morning prayer meeting, a morning service and an afternoon class are held every Sunday. The number of Church members has been steadily increasing in later years and has now reached forty-seven. There are in addition fifty Catechumens (Christians under probation). The Church work, as far as the men are concerned, has been affected by the attraction of better pay offered elsewhere at the mines, in the stores and in German East Africa. Most, however, of the Christian men who have remained at Kawimbe have gone out regularly to preach, and some have conducted Bible classes in the villages in the neighbourhood. Besides the station classes and Sunday schools there have been during last year classes in fifty-three villages, attended by over 900 persons. There is a branch of the International Bible Reading Association. The Educational work makes steady progress, and schools are held in every village in the extensive district. At the close of 1912 there were 2,408 children on the school rolls, with an average attendance of 1,691. For the most part the school buildings are provided by the people themselves. Dr. Wareham carries on a much valued medical work, connected with which is a small hospital admirably adapted for its purpose.
Our visit to Kawimbe completed our tour of the Society’s Central Africa stations.
Northern Rhodesia can still be described as a land that is dark, but at the mission stations we visited, and at many a little outstation, the light of the Gospel is being kindled, and everywhere there is promise that the darkness is turning to dawning. The Church is in its infancy, but it is a growing Church; and, under the blessing of God, will in the days that are coming be His instrument in spreading the light where now the darkness reigns.