Solusi Mission, Matabeleland by M. C. Sturdevant; M. J. Sturdevant

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

Solusi Mission, Matabeleland

By M. C. Sturdevant; M. J. Sturdevant

KNOWING of the faithfulness of the REVIEW readers in supporting the work in the foreign fields, and of their interest in the old Matabeleland Mission station, I will give a brief report of its work, and of our endeavor to push out into places unentered.

God has greatly blessed the work here the past year. Most of the members of the church are still faithful to their vows. Progress has also been made in the school. Its work has been mostly in the hands of Brother G. A. Ellingworth and our native teachers, I teaching only a few classes each day when I could be at home. I have been called away much of the time by matters outside. The work of the farm and the care of temporal things have been upon my wife and myself.

Mrs. Sturdevant, being the only white woman on the place, has had heavy burdens in the domestic department. All the care of the homes and of the children has been upon her. Yet God has greatly blessed us all in health. Mrs. Sturdevant has not had the fever during the five and one-half years of our stay here. I have had the fever only twice, and that the first season. We mention this only that God may have the glory. We feel that we would indeed be ungrateful did we not tell of his keeping power over us.

I would urge you, my fellow workers, not to be afraid to move out into unentered fields when God puts the burden upon you. The call is a pledge in itself. God will care for you. Not one moment have we longed for home since coming here, knowing so surely that it was God who called us here.

And now we feel that we can no longer stay here at Solusi, for we greatly desire to push on into places not yet entered. Last May, Elder W. S. Hyatt came to help in the work here so that I could go and find a new opening. I felt that God was calling me to this work, and May 27 started with three of our boys for a trip six hundred miles farther to the north, two hundred miles beyond Brother W. H. Anderson and within thirty-five miles of the end of the railroad that is to be built to Cairo. The work of building is stopped at the present, but it is expected to go on again at almost any time.

We had the privilege of stopping with Brother Anderson a few days, and seeing the work the Lord is doing through his servants there. God has truly blessed them, and a good beginning has been made. We also stopped at Kalomo, and got permission from the government officials to go on and choose a place, asking them for a grant of land, and receiving every encouragement to that end. We also had to get permission from the magistrate and native commissioner of Mwombashi, the place toward which we were traveling.

Receiving this permission, we proceeded to search the country for a place, and to visit the natives, inquiring of them if they wanted a teacher to come and live among them and teach them the way of God. I do not know how one could find a more hungry people than we found. And when told it would be many months if not a full year before we could come, they cried out, “Why wait, so long? Why leave us so long in the dark?” The hardest thing I ever did was to leave this people and return to Solusi.

And now I ask you, my brethren, How long are these people to wait? We need a man and his wife to take charge of the station here, and that very soon. We also need and ask for means to go on with. In a country like this one can not start a new mission without some outlay. We are expecting our brethren in the home field to come to our help, and we believe you will respond. Let us finish the work quickly, and go home. Jesus has promised to come when we have carried the gospel to all the world. We have been slow enough. Let us now scatter out into the new places. I will go; who will come? Who will give that others may come?

While hunting for our mission site, many were the young men who followed us, urging us to hasten and start the school, that they might learn quickly. Two young men, knowing which way we had gone, followed our footmarks twenty miles in the country, hoping we would take them at once and teach them. As we were on our way back to the town, they returned with us, and stayed with us that night. The next day we were to take the train home again. One of these young men would not leave, but said he was going with me. I told him he could not. He said: “I have one pound; lend me money sufficient to go with you, and I will work for you till I can pay you back.” I saw he was a good boy, willing to take hold, as he had helped us carry our equipment after overtaking us, without receiving any remuneration, so I brought him home. He is with us to-day, and I am expecting him to be a help to me when I shall return. Pray for us in this our new undertaking.

We are trying to close up the work here so it will be left in a healthy condition. Last year the children here helped me plant a little garden outside of our regular mission garden in anticipation of this new undertaking. It brought us twenty pounds ($100). This will help us to buy some cattle. So while we are calling for help, we are also trying to help ourselves. We are teaching the children that they have a part to act also. They are all going to help all they can. While our whole soul is in this work, we are not unmindful of other fields and their needs, and of the home field and its earnest strivings. Our hearts are with you, and we believe your prayers are with us.

M. C. STURDEVANT, M. J. STURDEVANT.