Solusi Mission, South Africa
By R. P. ROBINSON
It was our privilege to be numbered among the one hundred and fifty recruits sent out in 1913. We left Washington, D. C., December 1, expecting to work for the Zulus, at the Spion Kop Mission, in Natal. On account of a more urgent call for help at the Barotseland Mission, north of the Zambesi River, it was decided for us to connect with that mission as soon as the fever season was over in June. As we landed in Cape Town Jan. 15, 1914, we could not go as far north as Pemba for several months. Ten days after our arrival I was suddenly taken with a violent attack of appendicitis at the Cape Sanitarium, where we were stopping. An operation was unavoidable, and this kept us at the Cape until March 17, when we continued our journey toward the interior. Having over two months more before we could enter Barotseland, the brethren thought best for us to go as far as Solusi Mission, where we could get acquainted with mission life, as well as put in some good time on language study, there being at that mission a good teacher from Barotseland. During our visit with old friends at Emmanuel Mission, in Basutoland, word came concerning the serious physical condition of the worker at the Barotseland Mission. Help was needed immediately, so it was decided for us to go directly to the Solusi Mission, to take up Brother and Sister Wilson's work; relieving them to go on to the Barotseland Mission, to assist there till June, when it would be safe for us to go there. We arrived at the Solusi Mission April 5, and took up the work as soon as Brother and Sister Wilson left. We have now been here two months and a half, and it was decided last week for us to remain. We had become so well acquainted with the work and liked it so much that we were glad to stay. I have never been connected with any work that I enjoyed as much as I do this mission work, and no work ever appealed to me as this does. There are nearly seventy pupils in our school at present; and could the young people of the homeland look into their black faces, many of them would be stirred to consecrate their lives to God in this work. Before coming to a mission station, I did not begin to realize that there would be so much that I could do. The privileges and opportunities before me each day are unlimited. And how I improve these opportunities means much to my influence with the natives. Week before last one of the boys came down with pneumonia and pleurisy. He13was very ill, and the doctor, who happened to be here at the time, said he did not think that the boy would live. I felt very much concerned, so I had four boys bring the poor fellow on a stretcher to a vacant room near our house. I cared for him night and day, besides keeping one or two of the boys with him all the time. His fever was running over 105°, and every evening I knelt by his bed in earnest prayer to God for him. God heard my prayers and blessed my efforts. After ten days his fever dropped, and he told me this morning that he wanted to go to school tomorrow. When I came to the mission I told the school I was here to help them, and that I wanted them to come to me night or day if they needed help. One of the boys who speaks some English said to me the other day: “Now I know your words are true. When you said that, I said, ‘I am going to watch and see if he does it,’ so now I know you love the black man.” Nothing has given me more influence with the natives than my watchful care of their sick brother. Sometimes my heart aches as I see the ignorance and degradation of this poor neglected people. The pleasure and joy of serving them far exceeds the few privations and inconveniences we have to meet in this land of heathenism. The more I become acquainted with this work, the happier I am, and the more certain I am that I am where God wants me, and where such as I can accomplish the most for him.