Mbuma Mission,
P.B. T5406,
Bulawayo,
RHODESIA.
3rd July, 1974
Dear Mr MacLeod,
I am sorry that this report from Mbuma has been so long in coming to you. I hope that the news it contains will not be too stale for the August magazine.
The Mbuma winter Communion was held at the end of April. We were pleased to have visitors from overseas with us.
Rev. D. Ross and family paid their first visit to Mbuma since arriving in Rhodesia in March. He preached at Mbuma for the first time on Thursday. His text was Psalm 25 v. 11. His sermon on Saturday was most stimulating and searching to the Lord’s people. The text was Eph. 5 v. 14.
There were very large congregations gathered especially on the Lord’s Day when Rev. A. Ndebele preached on Isaiah 63 v. 1. We were encouraged that some of our ex-patients were with us to hear the preaching of the Gospel.
The work of the hospital carries on from day to day. It is easier to write about the medical work than the spiritual. In the former realm we see some results and the people seem to be increasingly conscious of their need of medical help. We are encouraged that some of our hospital clinics have grown in recent months. Spiritually we note only a superficial interest among the majority of the patients. Although they will accept Gospels and tracts and listen politely while God’s Word is explained one feels that ancestral worship and superstition is more real to them. Only the ministration of the Holy Spirit can enlighten their minds in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please remember this great need in prayer.
You may remember a woman about whom we wrote in the June, 1973 magazine. After her discharge from hospital she moved to stay with some relatives in a different area. One night earlier this year our ambulance went to collect an elderly woman patient. It was the same woman, but she was so weak and emaciated that we did not recognise her. One of our elders who knew her reminded us of her. We were disappointed to see the tell-tale white beads on her wrists — sure signs of her involvement in divination. The elder visited her regularly until her death a week or so after admission. He told us her story. She had again become ill and had been persuaded by her relatives to consult a diviner. Her condition continued to deteriorate and finally she returned to us. She confessed to the ambulance driver that “the world had her by her feet” but if she was spared she was determined to forsake these things and turn to the Lord. She would not part with the white beads because she said that though they had no significance to her now she did not wish to offend her relatives. However before her death she asked for them to be removed.
We are unable to say whether she was enabled truly to embrace the Saviour but we take encouragement from the fact that she showed such an interest in the Gospel despite her background of darkness and superstition. It is reported that her relatives were very impressed by her confession and that there were no heathen rites at her burial.
We all send our kind regards to you and your family.
Yours sincerely,
Jocelyn Cox
(Correction: Last month’s letter should have been signed D.A. Ross.)
Oh, the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth!
David Brainard