Our Work in the Natal-Transvaal Conference
By HERBERT J. EDMED.
I SUPPOSE the conditions we meet in our work are much the same as in other fields, and yet it may be serviceable to our esteemed missionary students to know something of our experiences, and what they are preparing to face when, released from the comforts and discipline of college life, they launch out into the great work of giving the Lord’s last message to a perishing world. Here in South Africa we have to deal with a very cosmopolitan people, who may also be called “a mixed multitude,” because they are from nearly all parts of the world. According to the last official statistics published, Natal has a population of 1,108,754, made up of 97,109 Europeans (white people), 910,727 natives (chiefly Zulus), and 100,918 Asiatics. In the Transvaal Colony the white population, which consists mostly of European, Colonial Dutch, and Jewish people, numbers 300,000, with about 100,000 natives, and 50,000 Chinese. Our conference territory covers an area of 150,000 square miles. Adjacent to our conference limits we have Zululand and Swaziland, two countries wholly populated by native races numbering millions, who have never been touched by our work, although the South African Union Conference is now contemplating24opening a mission in Zululand, and a member of the Natal Parliament has offered to give us a farm for a mission in Swaziland. I trust this offer can be accepted, so that work may be begun among these two fine races of black people. None of the different peoples of Natal or the Transvaal are separated, and in every city and district our work must be planned to meet the needs of a very “mixed multitude,” and our workers must be educated to meet calls as widely different as are the people of our constituency. With the exception of probably four small cities and Johannesburg, our population is widely scattered. We have many small towns, which in Europe would be called villages; and also many small villages, which should properly be named hamlets; and, in consequence, much of the work outside of the leading cities must be done under most trying conditions. The farms are mostly from five to ten miles apart, and their homesteads are usually built well up under the mountains, with badly made roads and sandy hills around. The bicycle is a useful means of travel, although sometimes very difficult. We can not use it in the summer, owing to the rains that continue for about eight months. The other four months one can scarcely risk taking out a team, owing to the prevalence of horse-sickness. As showing how our workers fare, I take the liberty of quoting from a recent letter:— “May 8 we left Germiston for Pretoria (thirty miles). We slept that night with Brother Schmidt, and started early the next morning for Pienaar’s River, a ride of forty-three miles over stones, thorns, and sand. We reached there at 4:30 P. M., and immediately started out for some farms seventeen miles distant, through a dense bush. After traveling about six miles, we found the thorns so abundant, and they had made so many punctures in our tires, that we had to turn back, and we reached the railway waiting-room long after dark, and slept on the floor. “The next morning we started for Warmbaths, twenty-one miles distant, and owing to the bad roads, did not cover the distance until just before sunset. We knew that the angels had gone before us, and on our arrival we found they had opened a home for us with a poor Dutchman—too poor to buy a book. His home was well ventilated, and we had more fresh air than we wanted, but it was the best he could offer us. The people on the next farm sent us a loaf of bread, and some stamped mealies, which we enjoyed very much. Being very tired, we slept well that night. The next Monday we started to canvass the dorp (hamlet), and took orders from all the leading men, including the magistrate and the Dutch preacher. Then we left to go to Zwarts Hoek, a distance of seventy-two miles, where we felt that there were souls for whom Jesus died, and who must be reached with the message. Here again we found the road very rough, with stones and sand and broken sods. When about half-way, we stopped at another little farmhouse whose owner was too poor to buy our book, but he gave us a good supper and a comfortable bed, and the next day took us part of our way. We secured a few orders that day, and slept in the open veldt, under a tree, the next night. We were successful in securing orders the next day, and at the next sleeping place, a farm, we gave a Bible reading on the signs of the times to a number of farmers who were deeply interested. We have now been one week traveling, and have taken £25, or $100.50, worth of orders. The first night we slept in the open fields, we had to listen to the jackals all night, and on another occasion under similar circumstances, we had to light a fire to keep away the baboons, some of them as large as men, that wanted to steal our things. We feel that we have been on a road filled with rich blessings, and are grateful to God for the companionship and help of holy angels.” Among the white people, we have to meet with indifference to religious matters, and among the Dutch, although they are very religiously inclined, we must labor with most disappointing results. If one happens to secure the interest of a Dutch family, or an order for books, their church officials hear of it very quickly, and warn them against us and our books. They forbid them to listen to our instruction or to buy our books. They have a special antipathy to Sister White’s books, and they threaten to refuse to baptize, confirm, or marry their children, and to administer the church sacraments if they do not desist from buying. A worker frequently goes out for a trip like the one described above, and takes many orders, but on returning to deliver his books, finds that the Dutch minister has heard of his work and stopped his entire delivery. He goes from farm to farm under great difficulties to secure the order, then returns with his books, and fails to make a delivery. Yet we are thankful to say we have been able to place hundreds of our books among these scattered people, because the Lord has given us men and women for his work who would refuse to be discouraged, and who would endure the hardship almost to death’s door. It needs something more than theoretical education and thoughtless consecration to fit men for missionary work in such fields as this, and from the preceding I would conclude that in our educational system three graces are especially essential, and should be inculcated into the very hearts of our future workers; they are consecration, adaptability, and stick-to-it-iveness. These three have succeeded in this field to develop the work against hardship and trial, and they will bring victory every time where any amount of theoretical learning will fail as often.