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Maranatha Mission

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 28.

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Maranatha Mission

By W. S. Hyatt

W. S. HYATT
THE truth has been taking root in the hearts of the natives living near us, and several have begun to obey the Lord; a few weeks ago I organized a church at the Maranatha Mission. Last Sabbath was a good day for our little church. After Sabbath-school I spoke, Brother Moko interpreting. The Lord greatly blessed, and at the close of the service five adults presented themselves for baptism. One was a man living near, for whose acceptance of the truth all had been hoping and praying, but no one knew he had decided to obey.
In the afternoon we had the Lord’s supper for the first time with our little church. It was a precious occasion, and bound the hearts of the little flock closely together. Our church numbers thirty-two, ten Europeans and twenty-two natives. Seven more natives are keeping the Sabbath, and several others are deeply interested. We are encouraged to see adult natives accepting the truth, and some of them are developing into good workers.
Some of the schoolchildren are greatly troubled about the Sabbath; their people belong to other churches, and when they go home, their people refuse to allow them to keep it. One of our girls was crying yesterday, and asked us what she should do. Her father had promised her twice that she might keep the Sabbath, but each time he compelled her to go to work on that day after she had been at home a week or two. This was during school vacation. Others have had the same trouble. We pray that God will help us, and open the way so our children can obey.
We have here a large field. This province is larger than the State of Texas, and has fully 1,800,000 natives. Of this number 1,500,000 are Kafir-speaking. It was among these tribes that missionary work began over one hundred years ago. A century ago scarcely a native could read, but to-day tens of thousands can read intelligently. Truly, God has done a great work for this people, and we have done very little. There are more natives in the Cape province than there are Europeans in all South Africa. This people must have the truth. It seems to me that plans must be laid to do more for the tens of thousands of civilized and semicivilized natives, and also the large number of heathen among us. Our courage is good.
Grahamstown, South Africa.