p. 1149 | Selukwe Mission by W. C. Walston

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 27, 1913

Selukwe Mission

By W. C. Walston

W. C. WALSTON

THE friends who so liberally donated funds for the Selukwe Mission will be pleased to learn how this money has been expended. I can assure you that we here in Africa very much appreciate your liberality for the work in this country.

When we learned there were sufficient funds sent to purchase a farm for a permanent mission site on the Selukwe Reserve, Brother T. J. Gibson was instructed to look for a suitable farm. The Rhodesian government will lease only about one hundred acres to our missionaries on the native reserves, so we are somewhat limited in making our mission stations what we should like them to be.

Brother Gibson spent several weeks looking for a farm, traveling several hundred miles on foot with only one or two native boys as companions. After looking over the country in that section and visiting all the farms for sale that he could hear of, he reported to the conference committee, and I was asked to go and assist him in selecting one.

Among these farms was one owned by a lawyer living at Victoria. The place pleased Brother Gibson, and he obtained an option for two months. As soon as I could arrange to leave, I went to Selukwe, and was met at the station by Brother Gibson, with cart, four mules, and native driver, and we were soon on our way to the Victoria districts where these farms were situated. We spent eight days visiting the different farms, and decided that the farm owned by Mr. Herman, the lawyer at Victoria, would be a very suitable site for our new mission.

We asked for an extension of the option for a few weeks in order to place the matter before the conference committee for its approval, but Mr. Herman refused this request, telling us that he had been offered considerably more for

the farm by two or three parties since he gave the option. We had but three days to decide whether or not we should purchase the property, and immediately wired for instructions. The reply came to purchase, and we closed the bargain at once.

I am glad to tell you we own a farm for our new mission (and that, too, without an interest-bearing debt, as the money was raised beforehand), situated about ten miles south of Victoria, among the hills and mountains, in a fine basin or valley, nearly a mile across, and the soil is some of the best I have seen in this country. Several hundred acres will be ready for the plow with very little clearing.

The farm contains eighteen hundred acres, and is adapted to all kinds of grain and fruit grown in this country, and already has about two hundred fruit-trees; it is well watered and well suited to grazing. There is a good road from Victoria to the mission farm, and we expect the new railway line will reach Victoria in twelve months.

In our opinion this has been a providential opening for us to purchase the property, and we praise God for his guiding hand.

There are over thirty native reserves south of the place, where the message has never been carried, and we hope from this mission to be able to send out workers after they have been trained, to teach the truth to these souls in heathen darkness.

Victoria is about sixty miles east of Selukwe Mission. The cost of the farm, including the transfer, etc., was about £600. There will be sufficient funds to purchase stock and tools, so the mission will be well furnished to start with. The owner of the farm has some good cattle on the place, which he offers to us at a reasonable price. So everything will be ready for a good beginning at once. We have decided to name the new mission Glendale. Probably Brother Gibson and his family are now moving on to the place.