Mbuma 11.8.81
Dear Friends,
Two months have passed since we moved up here, the nurses first, followed two weeks later by ourselves. This brought an end to the rather wearisome twice-weekly clinics we were running from Ingwenya and Bulawayo. Settling in is proving a rather lengthy process. Exchange control regulations make the purchase of electrical equipment difficult and we have been unable to establish any link e.g. radio-telephone with the “outside”. Since the necessary equipment is not forthcoming we are looking into the possibility of buying our own.
The girls trained by Miss Cox at Ingwenya are also very much at the stage of settling in. They are now having to put the theory they learned into practice and the transition is not easy. However, considering they had no knowledge of either at the beginning of the year they are doing very well.
Shortly after coming here David Ndlovo and I toured the North of the mission district — especially the Samokantana and Gampagalala areas. The trip was informative but rather depressing. At Mbuma itself and to the South the picture is more encouraging. A preaching plan has been drawn up for Mbuma and the four-preaching stations outside so that they are all supplied regularly. There are two services at Mbuma and one in the out-stations. As well as the Thursday Prayer Meeting here there are weekly meetings for the school-children at Mbuma and Lutsha.
The dispersal which occurred during the war resulted in several of our members and adherents teaching in the Binsa area among the Tonga people. This week a small group from the Mbuma Kirk Session, headed by David Ndlovo are travelling to the area to assess the possibility of missionary work among them. By all reports they are a very poor and backward people. Needless to say they took several parcels of Dutch clothes with them to afford these poor people relief.
Though we do not feel isolated or threatened and have plenty to keep us healthily occupied, security — or the lack of — in the Nkai area continues to cause alarm on occasions. One store not far from us has been closed because of repeated robberies. Rev. Dube, Zenka, was shot at in front of his home by three armed robbers who were trying to intimidate him into giving up school funds. They fled without getting anything when someone else entered the home. Reports of buses being robbed are not uncommon. The police are taking stronger measures this month D.V. and are hopeful of getting the situation under control.
On a cheerier note we are looking forward to next week’s (20th August) induction and ordination of Mr Mazwabo to work among the Shonas. He is to be based at Shabani (D.V.) which is a small mining town between Bulawayo and Fort Victoria to the south of the country. The whole of our work here is very much on a missionary footing but, with no support from medical or educational institutions Mr Mazwabo will be in very much the same situation as Mr Radasi at the beginning of the century.
Miss P. Van der Ridder arrived just as the hospital was about to open and Miss J. Coote a few weeks after. They are now both immersed in the work here. We look forward to the arrival of Mr N. Murray in the near future D.V. They are, or will be, welcome for themselves, for the skills and experience they bring and the impetus we trust they will give to the Lord’s work here. Where work is “in the Lord” it will not be “in vain”.
Yours very sincerely,
James Tallach.