A Visit to the Tsungwesi Mission
By R. C. Porter
LEAVING Gwelo the morning of April 28, after trekking nearly all night, I took the morning train for Salisbury, arriving at 4:30 P. M. I was met at the station by Brethren Francis and Henry Wessels. They had come into Salisbury from their farm at Kimberley Reefs, seventy miles distant, for a vacation, on account of severe attacks of fever. I was taken to the Langham Hotel, where Brother and Sister Wessels had engaged rooms, and was very hospitably entertained by them during my stay. While in Salisbury, I improved the opportunity to look up the grant of a mission site in the Selukwe Reserve. Not having time to finish the business, I left it in the hands of Brother Henry Wessels to complete the arrangements for the Selukwe lease. April 30 I took the morning train for Inyazura Siding, seven miles from the Tsungwesi Mission. I reached my destination at 4:30 P. M., after a slow and tedious all-day train ride. I was glad to see Brother M. C. Sturdevant with two boys and a four-mule wagon awaiting my arrival. The luggage was soon transferred, and we were off for the mission. As we journeyed homeward, we noted that although we passed by much delightfully rugged scenery, the road to the mission was quite unbroken, there being but one small hill to pass over en route. The mission farm lies in a basin entirely surrounded by most beautiful mountain scenery. For fertility of soil and beauty of scenery, combined with freedom from fever, the Tsungwesi Mission is unsurpassed by any of our mission farms in Rhodesia. The 3,666 acres of land is all very good soil. Even on top of the mountain, a thousand feet above the valley basin, and all up the mountainsides, the soil is a rich red or black loam. In places grass grows eight to ten feet high on top of the mountains. The wash over the farm from the mountains is therefore a good fertilizer. Last year was extremely wet, and this year is extremely dry. The small beginning that has been made in farming is showing most excellent results. The mission workers have an abundance of sweet potatoes, monkey-nuts, beans, and other garden products. They will have enough mealies this year to provide for the mission, and sell about one hundred bags. There is abundance of good running water, and grass for a large amount of stock. The cattle and mules on the farm are fat and sleek. The new mission house is made of brick, with iron roof. It is enclosed with a good yard fence, and the yard is nicely laid out with neatly prepared walks, beautified by Rhodesian flowers. The house, yard, and campus are adorned with beautiful shade-trees, and the fields of grain lying in the valley, supported by a magnificent mountain background, add greatly to the beauty of the scene. There has been no fever here. Another item regarding the Selukwe Reserve, concerning which all are now quite familiar, will be of interest. The South African Missionary says:— "Plans are being perfected at the Somabula Mission whereby another station — Selukwe Reserve — will soon be in operation. By faith they go forward, believing that as God has opened the12way, he will send the necessary means for its establishment in his own good time. Pastor Gibson writes that the Church of England missionary is leaving the Que Que Reserve at the end of July, and that our native teacher has started work on a farm two and one-half miles from the reserve. At the last Sabbath service sixty-eight were in attendance."