Active and Successful Evangelism in Central Africa
By W. C. DUNSCOMBE
Worshipers of Demons Coming into the Light—The Effective Work of Industrial Schools— Devoted Missionaries Planting Torches of Light and Truth All Through the Dark Continent By W. C. DUNSCOMBE, M. D. During our recent tour among our mission stations, we could not help but be impressed with the thought that our industrial mission farms have now reached the place where they are prepared to carry forward the message in Africa with the loud cry. When we survey this mighty continent, with its vast distances, and consider the smallness and feebleness of our force, we are compelled to wonder, at times, how the truth can go to all the tribes before the end shall come. It has heretofore seemed to me that many years must elapse before the unhealthy regions, far in advance of any railway or steamship facilities, can ever be evangelized. The message comes from the home land that no new stations can be established just now,—that the treasury is empty, and that even with the existing stations, it is a severe strain to meet the appropriations. But when we actually come in contact with the different parts of the field, there can be no room for doubt or despondency. Rescued from Worship of Demons
Our work has advanced to a stage where we can already see ways and means whereby it shall be advanced to a glorious triumph. Rhodesia is that vast tract of land lying partly in and partly near the center of Africa. All over this country are native kraals. In the southern part is our oldest established mission, at Solusi, not far from Bulawayo. To the north, two hundred miles beyond Victoria Falls, is the Barotse Mission. In the eastern part we have the Somabula (Glendale) and Tsungwesi. All these stations have now been established for several years. They are manned by experienced and tried workers. At nearly all these stations, training schools are established. Our forces are becoming well organized; and hundreds of natives who, until a short time ago, were worshiping evil spirits, are becoming converted, and are receiving an evangelistic training. Industries and Native Workers
As we look back to twenty-five years ago, and consider how small and how weak most of our schools in the United States were, we can look forward with confidence to the time, in the very near future, when these industrial schools in Africa will be turning out every year hundreds of workers who shall penetrate Africa's remotest bounds. But we do not have to depend upon the work's being pushed throughout Africa from these Rhodesian stations. On the east coast, among the Zulus in Natal, we have another center at Spion Kop. Further north, in Nyasaland, we have a well-organized central training school, with thirty-nine outstations. In German East Africa and British East Africa the work is well started. We have just received word from Brother Rogers that he has selected a site for a new station near Abercorn, in the southern extremity of Rhodesia. It is right next to the Belgian Kongo, in the thickly populated territory, and undoubtedly many natives in the Belgian Kongo can be evangelized from this station. Last year a Belgian brother began work in the Belgian Kongo itself. In Egypt, in Abyssinia, in the Barbary States, and on the Gold Coast, there are well-established centers. One of our oldest missions is among the Kafirs in the southern part of Cape Colony. So now, by the providence of God, in the north, in the south, in the east, and in the west, we have these industrial schools planted a few hundred miles apart. The new region where Brother Rogers has gone, which is about five hundred miles north of our present northernmost Rhodesian station, would almost seem to complete our chain of stations in central Africa. Beacon Lights in Every Quarter
It seems but a few years since the great lakes of Central Africa were first discovered by Livingstone and Stanley. Who can doubt that God has been directing His missionaries to push out into these various parts, until the lighted beacons can now be seen in every quarter? Who can doubt that these beacons will daily shine brighter and brighter, until the beams from one shall reach the beams from the next, and the whole of darkest Africa shall be lighted by the glory of God? We are surely coming to the time of the loud cry, and soon shall our Saviour come in the clouds of heaven to gather home the harvest. Another very encouraging thought is that the conditions on our stations are every year becoming more healthful. Every one who has followed our mission work in Africa can remember numbers of our missionaries who have succumbed and died, and others who have been in feeble health since, as a result of continued attacks of malaria or of black water fever. But now the conditions are becoming better. Our missionaries are learning how to take better care of themselves. As the land is cultivated, the mosquitoes gradually disappear. Miasmic Regions Becoming Healthful
The Solusi Mission, where several of our workers died, is now a healthful place. In the last four or five years, several of our workers have contracted black water fever in the Barotse Mission. Sister Anderson is just now recuperating from a severe attack. But the sanitary measures proposed will doubtless make even this a healthful station in the near future. Another very encouraging feature is that our stations are rapidly becoming self-supporting. In the past, they have received money to build houses and to buy cattle. But these necessities have now been met, to a large extent, and the money formerly appropriated to them can be appropriated toward the work in other parts of the world.