THE Dube family settled at Zenka, 80 miles north west of Ingwenya, in the early 1950s. They came from the Inyati district, 25 miles from Ingwenya.
Ma Ngwenya, the widowed mother of seven boys and three girls, was one of the outstanding Christian women in the Zenka congregation, and in the whole Mission. She was big in stature and big in faith, and had much authority among the women in our Church there. In connection with most problems that arose in the congregation, her influence among them was great as she gave a wise, firm lead and a good example, as to how they were to conduct themselves.
While her fatherless family was growing up, Ma Ngwenya worked hard in the fields, sowing and reaping her crops. She saw to it that her children were well-cared for and educated. Bekitemba (later to become the Rev. B. B. Dube of the Zenka congregation), the sixth of the boys and the ninth of the family, was educated at the Mission school in Zenka, and then at John Tallach Secondary School, Ingwenya. He went on to the Teacher Training School at Mbuma, where he joined a group of students under the tuition of the late Rev. James S. Fraser. All the students received their Teacher Training Certificates, and a goodly number of them also received the blessing of the Lord in their souls under the preaching of the Word of God.
Ma Ngwenya delighted in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. On one occasion, when she was at Ingwenya for a communion season, she and other visiting women were entertained to tea in one of the mission houses. She was obviously rejoicing over what she had just heard being preached in the church by the minister, who was a visiting deputy from our Church in Scotland. “Christ was exalted!” she declared. In her desire to hear more of such preaching from him, she added, “I could follow that man across the sea.”
Ma Ngwenya’s death, in April 1977, caused a very great blank in the Zenka congregation. At the age of over 80 years she passed away to be, we believe, with Christ and with those who exalt Him evermore.
-J.N.
(Compiled from notes by the Rev. Aaron Ndebele and others)