Ingwenya Mission, Bembesi, Matabeleland, South Africa, 26th March 1924.—My Dear Mr Cameron,—I am still feeling better in health, ever since I came back from Johannesburg Hospital. It was very kind of you indeed to make arrangements for me to go there. I was very well treated and every attention paid to me by all the Authorities in the Hospital, and the doctor appointed to attend to my case visited me every day during all the time I was there in November and December, and did everything he could for me. As I was very weak when I went there, I was accompanied by one of our Deacons from Libeni, who stayed with my brother, who is working in Johannesburg. The Deacon was allowed by the Hospital Authorities to visit me every day. Two days within a week are usually allowed to visit patients in the Hospital. It’s a two days’ journey by rail from Bulawayo to Johannesburg. We had to get a permit from the Secretary of Native Affairs, Cape Town, in order to proceed to Johannesburg, as natives living in Rhodesia are not allowed to enter the Union territory without a permit, otherwise we would have been stopped at Mafeking and sent back to Rhodesia. Our students going to Lovedale and others were this year stopped at Mafeking, and permits were asked, and as they did not have them, they were not allowed to proceed any further, they were told by the Authorities that permits would be given to them by paying £1 for the stamp. They each paid the £1, and were given permits to resume their journey. I wrote to Dr Henderson, of Lovedale, about the matter, and his reply is as follows:—”Bembesi Students’ Tax.—Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 10th inst., I have taken the matter up with the Native Affairs Commission at Cape Town, and there is every prospect that the students will be set free from this payment in future. I am not sure that we shall succeed, however, in getting a refund.” That is the encouraging reply I got from Dr Henderson, and we thank him most sincerely for the trouble he has taken in this matter. As regards myself and my attendant, when we went to Johannesburg, Mr Jackson, the Superintendent of Natives, Bulawayo, made arrangements to get us permits free of charge, and we were grateful to him. Two of our students in Cape Colony—the boy at St Matthew’s College and the girl at Lovedale Institution—will be finishing their course this year. They passed their Second Year’s Teacher’s Examination last year, and are now in their third and final year. All our Students did well in their different examinations, also those studying at Tiger’s Kloof College, Bechuanaland. You will remember when you were here with Mr Fraser, that the Inspector of Schools complained that the school room we had at Ingwenya was too small to accommodate all the children attending it, and that a larger building made of bricks should be erected, and that the smaller schoolroom should be used for the infant classes. You then spoke to our men about the matter, and they promised you and Mr Fraser that they would build it. We were to have assisted them with the woodwork for the roof and with the desks and seats to be made in the style that the Inspector of Schools had suggested would be cheapest. Our people to provide the bricks and dig the stones for the foundation, and cut the grass for thatching, and put up the building; that was the arrangement made, as far as I can remember. This building should have been commenced in July or August 1922, but there was no grass for thatching that year on account of the drought, but last year there was plenty of grass suitable for thatching and plenty of water. When I spoke to our men about starting the building they said that they would have no time to build it, as they had just received instructions from the Native Commissioner to remove at once from where they were, as that place was a part of the Ntabazinduna Reserve; and that they were to remove at once to the ground set apart for them in the Fingo Location. And as some of them had to build 3 or 4 huts and their kraals for cattle, they would not have sufficient time to attend to the school building, and they decided to build it in 1923. I answered them by saying, I greatly sympathised with their difficulty, but I could not see my way to put off the building any longer, as it was urgently needed. If they undertook to do as much as they could on the building I would ask our people to assist them where they came short. They said they would have no time to make the bricks, and would also be unable to put up the building. A certain friend undertook to hire men to make the bricks, and to pay them; and I also promised to ask our people in Scotland to assist them in the putting up of the building; that they should now provide all the woodwork for the roof, stones for the foundation, and combed grass for thatching. The school room, which is 36 feet long and 20 feet broad, was finished last year. I am now glad that it is finished, as there will be no grass suitable for thatching this year, as we have had very little rain this season. The best rain that we have had was on the 2nd week of March; it then rained for 4 days, and somewhat improved the late crops, as the early crops had failed on account of the drought, and if we were to have more rain before the end of March or in the first week of April, the late crops would be saved. But it has come too late for the grass to grow any length, as it should be giving seed in March. The number of children attending our schools for the quarter ending 31st December, 1923, was 365—Ingwenya School, 165; Bembesi, 60; Libeni, 61; Morven, 47; and Induba, 32; and the yearly grant for the five schools was £58 5s. Chief Bitisani last year sent delegates to say he wanted a school set up for him and a teacher sent, who would be able also to conduct the services. He said that several of the Churches there wanted him to join them, but that he and his people had refused. He said he had seen all their methods and did not like them, and that he preferred our mode of worship to theirs. Moreover, he was not satisfied with the conduct of some of their teachers, and would not entrust his children to them, and that he had already a Church to which he belonged, and was satisfied with it. The delegates were told to tell Bitisani that I would send his request to our people in Scotland, and would let him know as soon as possible when I received the reply. Towards the end of last year, after I had received your reply, I sent two of our Elders and a guide, who knew the place, to visit Bitisani’s Kraal, to see exactly how he was situated, and to inform him of what you had said. It took them four days to reach Bitisani’s Kraal (fast walking, as they say.) He was very pleased to see them, and so were all his people. The Elders also conducted services in the Kraal. He was told what you had said. Bitisani told the Elders that a short time after the delegates had returned the Native Commissioners visited his Kraal, and told him that he was to be removed from that place that was given him to another place further on, in the same reserve; but did not tell him when or how far it will be from where he is now. And on that account this matter was postponed for a while. He further said, “that these new Native Commissioners do not understand our Church, but as soon as I am settled I shall come myself to tell you, and will see the Native Commissioner, too, in his office and explain matters to him fully.” We are all looking forward to the coming of Mr Tallach with great joy—I am sure he will be of great help to me here. His study of tropical medicine will also be of great help. We had the Communion here on Sabbath, the 23rd March, and the church was so crowded that some of the people could not get room, and had to remain outside. The services began on Thursday as usual, and a number of our new people from near Queen’s Mine were also present. I only wished that Mr Tallach had been here too. Trials and difficulties there are many, and united opposition to our Church from certain missionary bodies, but hitherto the Lord has helped us, unworthy as we are, and carried us through many difficulties. Most of our scholars have three and some four miles to walk every day in order to come to school, and some a distance of about five miles. The two schools put up in opposition to us, about half a mile and a mile from Ingwenya School, have both closed for the want of children, and the few children who were attending them come to our school, and their parents to our Church. I must now remain with kindest regards to you.—Yours sincerely, J. B. RADASI.
TRUSTING IN GOD.
The Christian must trust in a “withdrawing” God (Isa. i. 10): “Let him that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, trust in the Lord, and stay upon his God.” This requires a holy boldness of faith indeed to venture into God’s presence, as Esther into Ahasuerus’s; when no smile is to be seen on His face, no golden sceptre of the promise perceived by the soul, as held forth to embolden it to come near, then to press in with this noble resolution, “If I perish, I perish.” Nay more, to trust not only in a withdrawing God, but a “killing” God (Job xiii. 15); not when His love is hid, but when His wrath breaks forth. Now for a soul to make His approaches to God by a recumbency of faith, while God seems to fire upon it, and shoot His frowns like envenomed arrows into it, this is hard work, and will try the Christian’s metal to purpose. Yet such a masculine spirit we find in that poor woman of Canaan, who takes up the bullets Christ shot at her, and with an humble boldness of faith, sends them back again in her prayer.—Gurnall’s Christian Armour.