Kolo Mission, South Africa
By E. C. Silsbee
WE have been here on the mission just two months now, and it is certainly gratifying to look out and see how greatly the Lord has blessed us in the work even in that short time. The plowing for the mission is finished and part of the planting done. We have finished sowing field mealies and oats, and have begun to plant garden vegetables. The fruit-trees have about finished134blooming, and we have the promise of a fair crop of fruit, all things considered. We have some new iron gates coming, which we plan to put in the fence wall where the old wire gates were; we have begun also to repair the fence wall itself, which, when all completed, we hope will be a successful barrier against the herds of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and flocks of fowls that swarm the country. At first we were often troubled with the mission’s being overrun with these domestic animals, and I spoke several times to our district chief Mohalefe about it. He tried to help us all he could by telling his people to herd their cattle toward the other side of the mountain. This last Sabbath sixteen of his people, including himself and his wife, came to church services, and said that they were also coming next Sabbath, to ask us to pray for rain. Chief Mohalefe has control of a large number of villages on this side of Kolo Mountain and vicinity, and is therefore widely known. He has lived near the mission for a long time, knows much of present truth, and is quite favorable toward it, but still allows his habits and love of the world to keep him from accepting it. It would do your heart good to be in our Friday night meetings, and hear the earnest testimonies of each and every one of the mission family, each striving to overcome his or her personal sins, and at the same time willing and anxious to help bear the burden of giving the gospel to all this nation “in this generation.” Do you think ours a small task? I am sure you would not if you could get before your mind’s eye the picture of a country with from one to five thousand villages, containing four hundred thousand people, practically all of whom must hear the message, with but two white and four native workers, with their families, to finish this work. “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Recently I had a Bible study with a native minister, which occupied the greater part of one day before dinner. This man has charge of fourteen missions with their ministers, and he has been studying a few of the points of our faith for some time. He said he came to ask about many points that were not clear to him even when explained by the white ministers of his denomination. The most important of these were the history of Sabbath and Sunday, the state of the dead, and the significance and true method of baptism. At the end of the study he questioned me as to how much our church could allow him for his having been ordained as a minister in his church in England; and after I had answered all his questions as best I could, he took his departure, saying we must be ready to receive him, for soon he would return, and, if possible, bring all his ministers with him to be baptized into our church. Pray for the work in Basutoland.