Our New Mission Station
By W. H. Anderson
Here I am, in Buluwayo again. I left Cape Town May 8, for Kimberley. I stayed five days at Brother Willson's, and we had a pleasant time together. He has a fine bath and treatment room there, and they are prospering well. I soon found myself on the train again for Buluwayo. As there is not much to be seen on the road, and we had all the room we wanted, I made my bed, and slept most of the two days on the way. On arriving here, I was met at the station by the mission cart, and taken to the farm that night. All came running out to meet me, and seemed glad to see me again. I found about the usual number in school there. As I had a resolution from the union conference, and also a letter from Elder Hyatt in regard to the boys that I was to have, there was no trouble in getting the help I needed. Jim had laid his plans, and had gathered all the information he could get from his people, and was prepared to go to them with the gospel. It was a bitter disappointment when I told him that it was better for him to wait, and if the Lord wanted him to go to his own people, he would open the way for him to do so later. And as the Lord had not opened the way, he might better stay where he was. I do not see how he could be spared from the home station now. He is bearing heavy burdens there; and as he is as true as steel, they feel free to lay them on him. When any of the boys are in trouble, they go at once to Jim for counsel and advice; and he is very apt in bringing from the Bible just the illustration that fits the case he has in hand. It would have done our people good to have heard the testimonies of the boys whom I chose to go with me. I will give some as I remember them now:— Umlemo, who goes to drive the team, is a slave boy, and was brought to the mission by his master at the time of the famine. He said, “Once I was living in darkness far to the east. The Lord found me there, and brought me here in darkness, that he might show me the light. I now see it, and I praise the Lord for it. Now a voice calls from the north, and says, Go there. I recognize it as the voice of God. What am I that I should refuse to listen when he speaks? As I came from the east to receive a blessing, I now go to the north to be a blessing. Pray for me, that I may be faithful.” Pahlane is going with me as a native teacher. He is married, and his wife is with him. They accepted the truth when we were living at Kupavula, and we regard them as our own children. “Once,” he said, “I was in darkness. I worshiped the goat and the snake. I prayed to gods that are not gods. Now I have learned a better way. I am a child of God. Now I see a people who are sitting in darkness as I was; and I heard the Lord say, ‘Who shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I, Lord; see me, and make me a light and help them.’ May my lips be touched with the coal from off the altar, that I may speak the words of life to the people in that north country. Pray for me.” I found so many wanting to go there. I had to spend much time trying to tell them that we could use only a few, and that they would have to wait until another mission was established, and that there would be an opportunity for some of them to go and assist in opening the work. I am so glad to see such a spirit of consecration and willingness among them, and to know that they are so anxious to go and give the light to their own people. It is all they have ever been taught in the mission, and I think that they have learned the lesson. I came back to Buluwayo on Monday and have been very busy ever since. I am to leave here to-night for the Falls. I have in my company a native teacher and his wife, an ox driver, an interpreter, a farm manager, a house boy, and a hired girl. I have the girl and boy who were with us so long in the house at Buluwayo, so Mrs. Anderson will have excellent help in the housework. As this help is all native, it is not very expensive; and it is better than some of the white help that I have seen in this country. I hope that Mrs. Anderson can come the first of July. I think I shall be ready for her by that time. I expect my wagon in Buluwayo to-night, and that it will go on with me to the Falls.