Rev J MacLeod
It must never be lost sight of that our principal aim in sustaining our mission work in Africa is the propagation of the gospel of God’s grace – the enlightening of the minds of sinners in the knowledge of Christ. Since 1904, we have been sowing the good seed, planting and watering it, in the hope that God would give the increase. We believe that the great day will confirm that the labour expended was not in vain and that not a few shall be on the King’s right hand in confirmation of this.
The John Tallach High School and other primary schools, together with the Mbuma Hospital and the Thembisio Children’s Home, continue – with the generous help of our Dutch friends – to serve as useful handmaids to the gospel. They bring such people as are not normally within our “catchment area” into contact with the Word of God, perhaps for the first time. Divine worship is daily conducted at these institutions, even at the remote Rural Health Clinic at Lutsha, and those who come for medical attention have death and life set before them in the spiritual sense. The same arrangement will be set in place at Vovo, where the second Rural Health Clinic is now under construction.
Due to a poor harvest and subsequent shortage of maize, it was agreed to send out £1,500 (of which £500 was a private donation) to alleviate the sufferings of such as were facing famine conditions. Rev A B MacLean has
commented that the drought in 2016 was the most severe experienced by him during his 11 years on the Mission. There is now a shortage of US dollars in Zimbabwe, and this is having its own baneful effect on those who are on the poverty line. Solar panels have now been installed at Ingwenya and this is a great boon in view of the frequency with which the national grid electricity supply is cut off, and without warning. Assessment of the Mbuma solar requirement has been undertaken and it is hoped that problems with regard to the electricity supply there will also be resolved. Rev A B MacLean is presently home on furlough.
On December 26, a storm which lasted about half an hour passed through Ingwenya Mission and left a trail of destruction. An e-mail from Mr B Ncube, the Headmaster there, described it as follows: “We are indeed grateful that no one was injured, especially that it was the school holiday, and also that it was a public holiday with no workers around. It was also providential that Miss MacLean was at her own house because otherwise she would have been in the very office which was the worst hit. The damage is huge. My Headmaster’s office had its roof completely ripped off with a huge tree falling on the roof as well. Everything inside was soaked, and it is the main office, within which were most documents etc. The dining hall had its roof blown off; so was that of the Form 1’s dormitory and the Matron’s house too. Trees were uprooted and all over the whole compound there are fallen trees. Electricity poles also fell down and, as it is, Miss MacLean has no e-mail facility, as it has been cut off from the communication lines. With schools opening on January 10 we are anxious to try and have the situation attended to. We commit everything to the Almighty.”
Repair work has already begun and it is expected that the school will be open on the appointed date. In general the Mission continues to function and the emphasis continues to be on Biblical instruction. The five primary schools now have their own appointed Bible Knowledge teachers and pupils all have the opportunity of answering the Scripture and Catechism questions printed in The Young People’s Magazine.
The Thembisio Home continues to provide shelter for rejected and orphaned children. We are grateful to Miss Margaret MacAskill and Miss Petra Beukers for their visits, over the course of which they give further training to the housemothers. Dr J Bezemer has now completed his two-year contract period and has returned to Holland. Also missing from Mbuma is Miss G van Wijngaarden, who, after serving the Mission faithfully for many years, has now retired and returned home to Holland. We are grateful to both of them and wish them the Lord’s blessing.
In regard to our work in Israel, we are glad to report that the translating
and the printing of The Westminster Confession of Faith in Hebrew has now been completed. This work was initiated by Rev John Goldby in 2005. It was difficult for him to find suitable and sympathetic translators, but, after much searching, he was successful in doing so. Further difficulties arose only to be surmounted, and the determination and perseverance with which he pursued his objective is to be commended. Never before, to our knowledge, was this work attempted and completed; so we have in this Hebrew Westminster Confession of Faith a genuine first edition. Two lots of 300 copies have gone through the press, and we hope many more will follow. Two copies are to be lodged in the National Library of Israel.