Zimbabwe
MR Jake van Praag, from Sydney, Australia, is now working on the Mission, as an assistant to Mr James Mpofu, the Building and Transport Supervisor. Mr Praag and his wife are living at present in Ingwenya. He also gives valuable and much appreciated assistance to Mr Ndbele, whose state of health is yet uncertain, by conducting services in the Ingwenya area, and in other ways.
The John Tallach Secondary School session is drawing to a close, and the pupils now await the results of their exams. The Form Four pupils, having finished their schooling last week, have taken their leave of the school in readiness for the next stage in their careers, some to higher education, others, hopefully, to work.
Miss Katie Mary MacAulay has returned to the Mission after her furlough and will be involved in translation and library work. Miss Sheena Ross is due to come home to Scotland for four weeks, God willing, when the school closes on 1st December.
Kenya
THE Rev. N. M. Ross has returned to Scotland in October after two and a half months on the Sengera Mission as temporary Superintendent, in order to implement the Synods decision to resume the work there. His place has been taken by the Rev. D. A. Ross, who is expected to come home at the end of the year. It is hoped that the Rev. Dr J. R. Tallach will go to Kenya for a couple of months from the middle of January. There is great need that an ordained missionary a minister of the gospel would be settled in Sengera, and we hope and pray that the Lord will yet send such a labourer to that part of the great harvest field.
The Rev. D. A. Ross reports that the Sabbath services at Sengera are being well attended. About 200 people, including children, are present at the morning service in the church, and half that number at the service at the hospital compound in the afternoon. The adult Catechism Class, before the morning service, is proving very useful for imparting continuous, systematic instruction, and the Sabbath School is well attended.
The former hospital will not re-open as a hospital, but part of it, on two floors, will be used as the new Outpatients Clinic (OPC). The work of making ready the OPC and its environs is proceeding well under the supervision of Mr Ian MacLean, the Mission Administrator, and it is expected that the Clinic will be in operation in a months time. Sisters Truus Ringleberg and Celia Renes are back in Sengera, preparing for the opening of the OPC and Sister Peta van de Ridder, who will be in charge of the OPC, expects to arrive in Sengera in the middle of December.
Because the present church is inconveniently located outwith the Mission, and also requires much work to be done to it since it is only a brick shell with an iron roof, it has been decided to change another part of the former hospital to a church. It is in a most convenient location and will be a commodious, clean and comfortable place of worship. Mr MacLean and the Mission workmen are proceeding with this work also.
Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – December 1999