On a visit to our mission in Rhodesia last year I had the opportunity of attending a communion season at Mano Mano. This outstation is part of the Zenka circuit. There is no Church building there and services are normally held in the school buildings.
My journey to the communion began on Friday at Bulawayo where I left Rev. Donald Ross and his family. At Ingwenya I saw the two ton truck which I was to drive to Mano Mano. David Ndlovu was in process of welding a part underneath. The truck was then loaded up with all the necessities for a “bush” communion including food, water, beds, blankets. Several women got on the truck at Ingwenya. Outside the mission compound we went along the narrow bushy track leading to the Ingwenya Dam where we picked up several more women and their baggage. We then followed the truck driven by James Mpofu, the house master at Ingwenya, who was to show us the way to Zenka.
Arriving at Zenka we found many more women and some men waiting to be transported to Mano Mano. The scene was one of great activity — loading cases on to roof racks, filling up with petrol, greeting old friends and new. Rev. A. Ndebele had arrived before our convoy at Zenka and he was trying to repair some technical fault in his Peugeot. When our truck was loaded we set off without our intended guide — James Mpofo — whose truck was also immobile for the moment. Our guide for the rest of the way was Miss Margaret MacKenzie who had accompanied us from Ingwenya and who had been to Mano Mano before.
The afternoon service on the Friday of the communion was to be at 2 p.m. Our heavily laden truck with its singing occupants bumped into the school enclosure at 1.50 p.m. We immediately saw the unique vegetation at Mano Mano. Palm trees are a common sight and there are other trees of great height which were beautifully green when we saw them although the area had had no rain for 9 months.
We had scarcely time to take our breath and to greet Rev. P. Mzamo who had travelled from Mbuma when the bell was rung indicating the start of the service. On one side of the school below some tall trees the school benches were laid out and the school children were sitting row upon row waiting for the service to begin. We took our seats in the shade at the rear of the congregation and joined in the singing of the Psalms in the Sindebele language. This can be done quite easily as the translation into Sindebele was made phonetically and the words may easily be read and sung even if not understood. Rev. P. Mzamo preached in English and the sermon was interpreted into Sindebele. The text was “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing”. We were made very much aware of the fact that such communions seasons would only be blessed where and when the Holy Spirit was working. The flesh is indeed unprofitable and it was a timeous reminder that the Lord’s people should be pleading with the Lord for his Spirit to be poured forth.
After the service the benches were taken back into the school by the children and the various trucks were unloaded. Beds were set up, water was fetched from a barrel at the school and a log fire was lit. The huts assigned to the Europeans for the week-end were used in the past as teachers’ houses. They were made entirely of mud bricks with thatched roofs. We had the pleasure of Rev. P. Mzamo and Rev. A. Ndebele’s company at our evening meal. It was a privilege we thought to be with two of the Lord’s servants who labour amongst their loved Amandebele people. They are fully aware of the many problems — spiritual and otherwise — that confront them and they are quite convinced that the only solution to these problems is an outpouring of the Spirit throughout their land.
That evening we wended our way up to the school class room where at 8 p.m. in the evening and 8 a.m. in the morning a combined worship and prayer meeting was held throughout the week-end. These meetings were held in Sindebele. That first evening a dog came in through the open door and sat beside one of the benches until the end of the worship when it left with the company. There were quite a few children at these meetings. Their bright smiling faces were a cheering sight and they sang heartily the Sindebele Psalms. A chapter was read with light from a Tilley lamp and that evening we heard Paul Magaya Ncube pray. He it was who first evangelized this part with his Bible and bicycle. He was glad to be back again and to see old friends once more.
The preparation day service on Saturday was held at 2 p.m. Rev. A. Ndebele preached on Psalm 45: 2. “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.” The interpreter on this occasion was Bekethemba B. Dube. He is a student of the Church and lives at Zenka. We were directed to Christ that afternoon and compelled to agree with the many reasons alluded to by the preacher proving that the Saviour Jesus is fairer than the children of men. He is indeed the “friend that sticketh closer than a brother”.
After the evening Prayer Meeting, we talked with the Mission Staff and friends, including Miss Graham who had arrived at midday, Yantiene Van Saane — nurse at Mbuma who had arrived with Rev. Mzamo, and Truce Ringleberg who works with Jan Van Woerden in his Orphanage at Bulawayo. We discussed what preparation for a communion Sabbath would include if properly engaged in. As we spoke sitting outside beside a log fire we could see lightning in the distant sky. This we were told was a sign of rain and we thought of the great need the people of that community had for rain to fall as the ground was very dry after 9 months without rain. This made us think of the great need there was for God’s Spirit to be poured forth in Rhodesia and throughout the world, for the present spiritual state is one of great barrenness and drought.
On Sabbath morning as we breakfasted in the open air after the Prayer Meeting, we could see the elders making ready the tables for the service. All the benches from the school were laid out in a clearing below the trees. People began to gather slowly for the service to be held at 11.30 a.m. They came from all directions out of the bush into the clearing. At 11 a.m. the bell was struck to tell us and the local people that there was half an hour to go before the service. When we assembled for the service the seats were by no means full, but already there were over one hundred present.
Rev. P. Mzamo took the service preaching from Hebrews 5:8. His three heads were: 1. Though he were a son; 2. Yet learned He obedience; 3. By the things which he suffered. Half way through that service there was a light refreshing sprinkle of rain and we believe that there were drops from on High poured forth for poor sinners’ souls that morning. With such wonderful subject matter the Gospel message was clearly delivered that morning and a declaration was made of the wonders of God’s love to poor sinners shown forth in His Son Jesus Christ. As the preacher’s voice rose and fell so did the interpreter’s and we felt that he was at one with the preacher in his love for souls and for the only Saviour for them — Jesus. Fencing of tables was conducted in the usual way but of course was interpreted. The text used for fencing the tables was John 3:33 “He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.“
As the service progressed the numbers increased. A cyclist would appear from one side while from another a number of mothers with babes on their backs. By the time the tables were being served there were about 200 adults there with many children. Most of the boys who arrived late sat on the ground to the right of the packed benches while the girls who arrived late were at the other side also sitting on the ground. The table address was from Psalm 107:9 “For He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” There was only one table, most of the communicants being women. It was a privilege to partake of the Lord’s supper in this far off part of our mission and we believe the Master was there.
The first service of the day having concluded there was a half hour break before the next service. We went for a refreshing cup of tea. The rest of the people at the service who had come that day all stood in the shade of the trees near the benches for the whole of the time and then sat down again when the bell was struck for the next service to begin. Rev. A. Ndebele preached from the text Ephesians 5:14. The heads of his sermon were: 1. Those that were sleeping and were dead; 2. They were to awake and arise from the dead; 3. Christ shall give thee light. Solemn warnings were sounded against those who were dead and sleeping. We were warned that we cannot and ought not to trust in ourselves, our works, our religion, our baptism, or going to the Lord’s table for our salvation. It is Christ alone that will save us and give us light. We were exhorted from the truth to redeem the time for the days are evil. In Rhodesia the days are evil. The Political situation is serious — it was compared to two bulls with horns who are going to gash each other to death. Witchcraft abounds and is still believed in by the majority, beer gardens are to be found everywhere, ancestor worship is still practised and some countenance such activities and mingle these practices with Christianity. For poor sinners who are caught up in such practices the call was made to look to Christ and He shall give light.
At the conclusion of this service Rev. A. Ndebele gave an exhortation in Sindabele to the people present that they should come to the services as often as they could — not just on the communion Sabbath Day. How necessary this exhortation was may be gauged from the fact that the normal congregation at Mano Mano on a Sabbath consists of 5 women, 2 men and children. The congregation then dispersed. Some were taken on the trucks that had come for the communion and they could be heard trundling away into the bush with the people inside singing Psalms. Others got on their bicycles while the most part lingered a little while to speak to friends and then walked off through the trees.
On Monday morning everyone was ready to go and the cars and lorries all packed up before the concluding service of the communion at 8 a.m. Rev. P. Mzamo preached from Hebrews 3:14. “For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end”.
Jesus is the beginning of the confidence of the believer and so it should be, that we should be continually beginners in that way that, as we go on fighting the good fight of faith, we should continually have our eyes set on Christ. We should be earnest, diligent beginners setting out energetically and prayerfully for Christ and for God’s glory, holding, by God’s grace, this beginning of our confidence, steadfast unto the end. We were asked the question that day “What think ye of Christ?” Are we tied up in the world or are we holding on to Jesus and witnessing a good profession? It was a solemn note on which to end the communion services.
H. M. M.
Christ gives last knocks. When your heart becomes hard and careless, then fear lest Christ may have given a last knock.
R. M. McCheyne