THE services at Zenka are still fairly well attended and in the past few weeks we have had the pleasure of welcoming several newcomers who have recently moved into this district from Bubi. Many of the old residents of the place, however, continue to live on in heathen darkness and it is an important part of our work to visit their kraals regularly, read the Bible and pray with them and try to induce them to attend the services. The following account of a Sabbath afternoon’s visiting which took place about two months ago may serve to throw some light on this aspect of our work.
After the services of the day were over, Mr. Radasi, Mr. Paul Hlazo and I set off to carry the Gospel to some non-church-goers in the district.
Our first visit was to the kraal of Kumalo, an old heathen, whose wife, more than twenty years his junior, is one of our most faithful members. We found the old man sitting on a log by the side of one of his huts, as forlorn and pitiable a figure as one could meet with anywhere. His only clothing was a tiny bit of goatskin round his loins and a threadbare khaki greatcoat thrown loosely over his shoulders. On being asked why he did not attend church, he replied: “Ah! as you can see for yourselves, I am an old, weak creature, not fit to go anywhere.” “How is it, then, that you are able to attend beer drinks?” said Mr. Radasi. “I cannot even go there now,” he answered wistfully, “and I cannot go to church because I have no clothes. The children would laugh at me if they saw me entering the church like this,” and he stretched forth his scraggy arms and revealed his naked, emaciated body to view. We pointed out to him that the wrath of God which abode upon him for his neglect of the Gospel was more to be feared than the laughter of children, but instead of taking to heart the solemn words of warning, he kept bemoaning the feebleness of his body and his lack of clothes. We then read to him and his wife the first chapter of the First Epistle of John and spoke briefly on the words: “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Before parting we taught Kumalo the simple prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, oh God,” and asked his wife to remind him daily that he had promised to make use of it. “I will remind him,” said his wife cheerfully, “although I know that he will attack me bitterly for doing so.” We assured the old man that if only he would come to hear the Word of God, we would gladly furnish him with clothing from the parcels which kind friends in Scotland have sent us.
Our next call was at the kraal of a man known as “Old Ngwenya,” a veteran heathen with three wives and twenty-four children, one of whom is the local headman. (“Old Ngwenya” once had seven wives!) In spite of his numerous progeny, his kraal is in a derelict and filthy condition, with the cattle-kraal so close at hand that even in this comparatively cool season of the year, we were tormented by swarms of flies. After the customary exchange of greetings, the old man began to bewail his many infirmities, particularly the painful and well-nigh sightless condition of his eyes. We at once took the opportunity of speaking to him of his spiritual blindness and of his dire need of the Saviour who alone could save him from “the blackness of darkness for ever.” While we were speaking to him, one of his wives arrived from the well with a calabash of water on her head. Taking in the situation at a glance, she warned us that we were wasting our time in speaking to her husband as he was too old and feeble in mind and body to grasp anything that we might say. Taking her statement at its face value we directed our fire on herself. It was pathetic to witness how often she shifted her ground of defence until she was at last reduced to complete silence. Her chief excuse for neglecting the means of grace was that her husband forced her to toil from dawn to dusk and that she had neither time nor energy to think of anything more than the physical necessities of life. After a word of prayer we left them with the exhortation to pray for the new heart which finds its delight in the things of God.
Our last call was on Nkala, a man who has more than once felt the power of the Truth and whose conscience is often much too lively for his liking. After a spell of beer-drinking and wife-beating he will attend church with great diligence for two or three weeks and then return to his besetting sin with renewed vigour.
Nkala was so ashamed of his recent misconduct that throughout a lengthy conversation he never once raised his head or looked us straight in the eye. His wife is one of our most regular attenders, and although on our arrival, she was prostrate with malaria, she rose from her “sick bed” to join in the prayer we offered, and she listened with obvious appreciation as we sought to bombard her husband’s conscience with Law and Gospel for upwards of half-an-hour. As we left the kraal, she said: “You have been trying to catch a fish to-day but the fish has dived to the bottom of the pool and is hiding among the reeds.”
The following Sabbath Kumalo was in church, probably for the first time in his life. Having made a start at the eleventh hour, he continued to attend regularly until his last illness overtook him a month later. He died last Monday and was buried on Tuesday. During his illness, Mr. Radasi and I visited him frequently and while we cannot go so far as to say that he gave clear evidence of a saving change, we rejoiced to note how willingly and reverently he listened to the reading of the Bible and to prayer.
“Old Ngwenya” did not respond so promptly as his former drinking partner, Kumalo, but we gave him no peace until he too entered our place of worship for the first time in his life. Resplendent in ostrich-feather cap, khaki jacket and kilt of monkey tails and polecat skins, his entry caused quite a flutter in the congregation! He has attended several times since, and we trust that He to whom nothing is impossible will yet bring Old Ngwenya into the Light of Christ.
Nkala will not be persuaded to resume attendance on the means of grace. Giving as his reason that he has nothing suitable to wear, he absolutely refuses to present himself where prayer is wont to be made. May He who is mighty to save break down Nkala’s refuges of lies and draw him to Himself with the bands of everlasting love!