On 19th July I left Edinburgh to visit Malawi and Kenya. On this occasion I was able also to spend a few days in Mozambique to meet the people who have set up a congregation at Moatize in connection with the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Owing to the difficulty in procuring a flight during the busy tourist season, I travelled via the Persian Gulf which added to the length of the journey.
The following morning I arrived at Nairobi in Kenya where I stayed one night before continuing my journey to Malawi the next day. Two of the men who conduct services in Malawi met me at Blantyre Airport and during the next two days a seminar was held at Bangwe Church, a short distance outside the city. This was attended by about a dozen men who were glad to receive instruction and also to be able to ask questions relating to the doctrines and practices of the Church.
My first weekend was spent supplying two of the congregations which Mr Edward Mwase looks after. I stayed at Liwonde where there is a guest-house and travelled an hour’s journey to Ntaja where Mr Mwase lives. Both services were well attended, a good proportion of both consisting of young people.
On the Monday I returned to Ntaja and was able to examine quite a number of the people on their knowledge of the teachings of Scripture. On this visit, both in Malawi and Kenya, it was quite evident that the people were far better instructed in the doctrines of God’s Word than they had been earlier. It is gratifying to know this.
The following Thursday, along with Mr Ephraim Tembo, the student in Malawi, I left Blantyre to visit Mozambique. The first hundred kilometres of our journey were in Malawi. We then crossed the border into Mozambique and continued our journey for another hundred kilometres until we arrived at Moatize. Our journey took us through typical Africal bush country. Mozambique is just recovering from a war lasting for more than 17 years in which the country was devastated. More than a million people fled the country at the time and these have still to be rehoused in their own land. From Moatize it was only a further 15 kilometres before we reached Tete, which is situated on the Zambezi River. It was here we were to stay for the next four days.
At Moatize I conducted a service on Friday and had two services on the Sabbath. The main language in the country is Portuguese, while Sena is the native language. During the time that the Mozambicans stayed in Malawi they had learned Chichewa so Mr Tembo was able to translate the sermons into that language. Had it been necessary, there could also have been a translation into Portuguese as one of the men, who is a member with us, is a fluent speaker in Portuguese. On Friday and Saturday I also held Bible Classes with those who assembled in the church. The church was one which they themselves had built out of mud bricks. By their questions it was evident that they desired to know the Scriptural basis for our teachings and practices as a Church. On Sabbath morning when Mr Tembo and I arrived at Moatize, one of the men was instructing the people in the Shorter Catechism. Both the adults and the children were repeating the catechism by rote. It was good to see the interest they showed in seeking to learn the Shorter Catechism by heart. We were able to bring some Bibles with us to Mozambique. Though Portuguese Bibles were not available at that time, many of them would be able to read the Chichewa Bibles which we brought to them. A friend told us of a visit he paid to Mozambique to distribute Bibles. Coming across armed Remano guerillas, the Bibles were warmly received. They had not read a book for the seventeen years they were in the bush.
At the beginning of my third week in Africa, Rev. A. Ndebele and his elder, Mr Manzini, arrived from Zimbabwe. The next day we travelled south to Ngabu where the Communion was to be held. Services were conducted over the days of the Communion season and were well attended. On the Friday I was able to visit two of the refugee camps and hold services there. On Sabbath fifteen persons in all gathered to remember the Lord’s death at His table. After the Communion, services were held at some of the places over which Mr Waison Phiri has oversight. In one area there are three churches having about 200, 150 and 100 people respectively. I held a service in one of these places and examined some of the people on their knowledge of the Scriptures. These congregations had been started by an Ayrshire missionary. When he returned home and shortly afterwards passed away, the people continued to worship as they had been taught. On an earlier visit I had been invited to preach there and the people expressed an interest in the Free Presbyterian Church. Subsequently they joined our Church.
From Malawi, Rev. Ndebele, Mr Mazini and myself travelled to Kenya. Mr Donald MacDonald drove us to Sengera in the Kisii District of the country, a distance of over 200 miles. Dr Christina MacDonald who had been in hospital with malaria also returned to Sengera with us. Mr Ndebele had to delay his visit to Sengera by a day or two because of severe back trouble. At the weekend we were engaged in taking services at the different stations and the following week the Communion Services were undertaken. Here about twenty persons sat at the Lord’s Table on the Sabbath to keep in remembrance the dying love of the Saviour. During our time at Sengera we were able to discuss with Mr MacDonald and the men there the situation as it is at present. So far neither the Mission nor the Clinic has been registered but every effort is being made to secure this. It is to be hoped that those efforts will yet be crowned with success, though our presence there is opposed by the Roman Catholic Church in the area and by other sects. However, Dr MacDonald has been authorised to practise medicine in the area.
In Malawi and Mozambique registration has been granted, which should make our work in these countries more straightforward. The great need in the three countries is for a settled ministry and we ought to pray that the Lord would be pleased to grant this in His kind providence. The harvest truly is great but the labourers are few. Yet we are encouraged to pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His harvest.
My five week’s stay in Africa soon came to an end and I set my face homewards again, thankful to the Lord for His protecting care over me and my companions during our sojourn in the different countries. Our prayer is that the Lord may abundantly bless the work that has been established in these lands, and that all the efforts of the enemies of Christ’s kingdom to prevent it will be frustrated. There is a wide field at the present time in Africa for the preaching of the Gospel and it would be sad if none are found willing to go out and labour in the ministry of the gospel there. So, too, may the Lord raise up among the Africans themselves true sent-servants of Jesus Christ who will not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. Sad to relate, much of what is proclaimed in Africa as the gospel is what the apostle described as “another gospel, which is not another”, but which is a perversion of the gospel of Christ. May the glorious gospel of the blessed God sound out through the length and breadth of Africa until the whole Continent is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Then, and only then, will be fulfilled that precious promise that “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God”. Psalm 68: 31.