by Rev. William MacLean, M.A.
Ingwenya Mission
Rhodesia.
3rd January 1973
Dear Mr MacLeod,
I shall endeavour to comply with your request for a letter on my visit to our Mission in Rhodesia. I crossed from Auckland to Sydney on Wednesday 13th December. On the following morning I boarded a Boeing 707 of the South African Airways for Johannesburg. After 17 hours of flying with a half hour stop over at Perth and again at Mauritius we landed at Johannesburg at 7.55 p.m. At the airport I was met by my nephew, George Nairn, who saw to my welfare while in the city. From Johannesburg I travelled the following day, Friday 15th, by plane to Bulawayo. Rev. A. Ndebele, members of the staff at Ingwenya, Mr and Mrs Jan Van Woerden and my cousin Murdo MacKay were meeting me at the airport.
On Saturday I was shown through the school buildings, the library and the church, and I visited the graves of the Rev. James Fraser and Mrs Nicholson whose memories will long remain green in Rhodesia, and the grave of the Rev. John Radasi who also with devotion and unflagging zeal laboured on the Mission here. On Sabbath 17th December I preached twice through an interpreter. The services are at 11.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again at 2 p.m. Rev. A. Ndebele was not present at the second service as he had to hold the usual afternoon service in Bulawayo. Although the school-boarders, 200 teenagers, were on holiday it was estimated that a congregation of about 300 was present. During the hour’s interval between the two services the people remained on around the church without food or drink for the second service. On Monday my cousin who had been in Ingwenya for the weekend took me for a trip to Bulawayo. On Tuesday I had a service in Libeni at 3 p.m., and on Wednesday at the same hour in Gadadi, two of the out-stations connected with Ingwenya and where services are regularly held. The prayer meeting was on Thursday at 8 p.m., at which I again presided. All these services were well attended. At the communion seasons in Ingwenya there are up to 600 people in the church and about 200 outside. The Fellowship Meeting on the Friday is now a regular feature of communion seasons in the congregations of the Mission. On Thursday we went into Bulawayo to meet Dr James Tallach who was expected to arrive by plane that day. His plane having been delayed by fog at London airport, he did not arrive until Friday. We were all pleased to see him, and to get the news of Scotland.
On Saturday 23rd Rev. A. Ndebele took Miss Marion Graham, Miss Margaret MacKenzie and myself to Zenka. We left about 7 a.m. and arrived about 10 a.m. Miss Katie Mary MacAulay had gone up two days earlier to prepare Zenka manse where we were to stay. In the afternoon two of the Zenka elders, Mr Paul Mayaye Ncube and Mr Ndebele, the minister’s venerable father, and a deacon, Mr Sibanda, called to welcome me. They were of the opinion that I had come out as their new minister. Old Mr Ncube said, “It is the gospel we need. The gospel is the medicine for our souls. It is the gospel we need”. His photo with his bicycle when he laboured as a lay missionary in the Shangani Reserve is in the “Life of James Fraser”. It was he who said, “The whole Reserve will yet be lit up with the glory of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ”. We had a cup of tea together. After they left, the ladies from Ingwenya said that the deacon, Mr Sibanda, was a trophy of grace, one of the fruits of Rev. D. M. Campbell’s ministry in Zenka. On Sabbath the services were held in the open under the shade of a large tree, as the church could not accommodate the congregation. It was truly encouraging to see such a concourse of people coming to the means of grace. I preached twice through an interpreter. It is estimated that about eighty per cent of the congregations throughout the Mission were made up of young people in the 20-30 age group. On Tuesday Mr Ndebele who is Interim-Moderator of Zenka took us in the land-rover to Nkai, where I again preached at 3 p.m. It was at Nkai that the veteran John Mpofu whose photo is also in James Fraser’s book laboured. It was his son, Alexander Mpofu, who visited Scotland and who died shortly after his return home. There are two communions held in Nkai with an average attendance of about 150. On Wednesday there was a meeting of the Rhodesia Presbytery in the church at Zenka at 9.30 a.m. I was pleased to meet Rev. Petros Mzamo again who with his elder had come through from Mbuma. The opening devotions, the singing, reading and prayer was in Sindebele, reminding one of the former days in the Outer Isles Presbytery when the opening devotions used to be in Gaelic. The Minutes were read in English and interpreted by one of the elders. I was associated with the Presbytery.
The two students Mr B. B. Dube and Mr Nathaniel Mpofu had their Presbytery examinations. The examination was very thorough. Each student was examined for two hours. They both acquitted themselves very creditably. They both appear to be very fine young men. May they be raised to be able ministers of the New Testament. It was 3.45 p.m. when the Presbytery adjourned. After a meal prepared by the Ingwenya ladies for members of the Presbytery, we set out in Mr Mzamo’s land-rover for Mbuma. There are two communion seasons in Zenka held in the open with an attendance of about 600.
At Mbuma I was hospitably entertained in the home of Sister Joesiya Cox and Sister Cathie Ann Turner. Miss Margaret MacKenzie was also there and Miss Catherine Tallach. Dr James Tallach’s house is almost next door. He had his meals with us. The prayer meeting was on Thursday at 3 p.m. I preached to a congregation of about 150. Mr Mzamo had a service at the same time at one of the out stations. There are 13 stations connected with Mbuma, and 15 stations connected with Zenka where services are regularly held. After the prayer meeting I was shown through the hospital by Dr Tallach and Sister Cox. It appears to be a very modern hospital and well equipped — a veritable Bethesda, as the patients, some of whom never heard the gospel, hear from the Doctor and his staff of God’s house of mercy — the refuge, the rest and the healing that is in the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners. I preached twice on the Sabbath to a large congregation. The church was packed to capacity, the majority being young men and women all smartly dressed. On Monday I again preached the New Year’s service to a large congregation. There are also two communion seasons in Mbuma with an attendance of about 500 at each communion. There is one communion in the year at each of the following places: Donsa Dam with an attendance of about 200, Mano Mano attendance 100, Samarkantani with an attendance of about 100. In all there are eleven communion seasons one each month except in the month of December. Before leaving on Monday evening for Ingwenya I had the pleasure of visiting Rev. Petros Mzamo in the manse. In both manses and with both ministers I felt as if I were back in Scotland. Miss Catherine Tallach took me back in her car to Ingwenya. On Tuesday at 3 p.m. I had my last service in the Cameron school, one of the Ingwenya out-stations. The school is in memory of the late Rev. Neil Cameron’s visit to the Mission. This evening Wednesday 3rd I will be leaving for Bulawayo to get the plane for Salisbury en route to London and Glasgow (D.V.). My cousin is kindly accompanying me to Salisbury.
My visit to the Mission in Rhodesia has been one of the happiest episodes of my life. It can be summed up in what the Queen of Sheba said when she visited King Solomon, “Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes have seen it: and, behold the half was not told me”. Whenever I preached I felt drawn out in love to the Africans. They are a loveable people, kind and most courteous. It is a cause for thankfulness to see such gatherings of people and of young people at the services, and to meet among them those who gave evidence that they had passed from death to life. The footsteps of our God and King are to be seen in the forests of Africa where He has planted His vineyard, that shall yet extend from sea to sea according to the prophecy. “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God” (Ps. 68:31). It should be a cause of encouragement to the people of the Church at home and abroad and to the many friends in Holland whose financial support is so generous that the gospel in its purity is preached at the Mission, that the worship and ordinances are in accordance with the mind of the Lord as revealed in His Word and that Christ as the alone Saviour of sinners is lifted up and extolled. May ministers, doctors, teachers and nurses hear the Macedonia cry of Rhodesia, “Come over and help us”, and be led to labour in this wonderful country.
In conclusion I would like to pay my warmest thanks to Miss Marion Graham, Miss Margaret MacKenzie, Miss Katie Mary MacAulay, and Miss Sheila MacLeod at Ingwenya, and to Sister Cox and Cathie Ann Turner at Mbuma for their great kindness and hospitality and to all for the gifts and mementoes of my visit to Rhodesia. The self-denial and devotion to duty in their respective spheres of the Mission staff can only evoke admiration and praise and a desire that their labours will be abundantly blessed.
“Therefore I wish that peace may still
Within thy walls remain.
And ever may thy palaces
prosperity retain.”
With kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
WILLIAM MACLEAN