Rev Neil M Ross
Zimbabwe. At the beginning of September, the Form 6 extension at John Tallach School was well on the way to completion. The project made good progress under the able management of Mr Maarten Vroegindeweij, engineer, but he returned to Holland on completion of his contract. Miss Norma MacLean, Deputy Head, is now overseeing the completion of the project with the assistance of Mr Pulani Mzamo. The costs for fitting the Science laboratory are much higher than first estimated, but hopefully the Ministry of Education and other donor groups who support education development in Zimbabwe will meet some of them.
Mr Leendert Boon of Mbuma Mission is having unexpected difficulties in obtaining a work permit from the Zimbabwean Immigration Department. Until recently, the Department has allowed expatriate staff to work in the country while awaiting a permit, but has now adopted a stricter policy. Consequently Mr Boon has had to return to Holland. An arrangement has been made whereby he will do some of his administrative duties from Holland, in the hope that he will soon receive a work permit.
It was with regret that the Foreign Mission Committee accepted the resignation of Sister Celia Renes. Although she has been working as a nurse in Mbuma Mission for almost six years, she was not granted a renewal of her work permit and has returned to Holland. The Committee recorded its grateful appreciation of her loyal service, including 12 years on our Mission in Kenya.
The Zvishavane manse extension, which includes an office, is progressing well. It is expected that translator Mr Tricot Mwedzi and an assistant, under Rev Z Mazvabo, will soon occupy the office to continue translation work on the Shona Bible.
Kenya. Rev Keith Watkins, Sengera, says the Mission has enjoyed having visitors, among them Justin van Kralingen from London, who gave valuable administrative help and completed his three months in July. Mr John G MacLeod, Inverness, and his wife Mary, filled their three-week visit with much activity for the Mission, and Mr MacLeod stood in for Mr Watkins to allow him and his wife have a holiday together. Elizabeth Munns from London gave three months of voluntary assistance and contributed enormously to the success of the Sabbath School Conferences in August, helped by her sister Rebecca who was there for a short visit.
The Sabbath School Conferences were divided into five age groups. “With the younger four groups,” Mr Watkins reports, “our theme was the Wilderness Journey. The oldest class had studied the wilderness journey before, so
we did something completely different with them: the Protestant Reformation. There is little to no knowledge of Church history, and this ignorance is a major contributor to the unbiblical nature of the religion that fills the land. . . . It was especially beneficial for these young people to see, in the progressively Reformed nature of the Reformation as it travelled from Germany to Zurich to Geneva, that our Church’s doctrine, worship and practice are not strange things invented by ourselves, but just the historic stand of the best of the Reformers, as drawn from Scripture.”
“The Metrical Psalms translation into Ekegusii continues apace,” says Mr Watkins, “and we anticipate the production of a significantly-expanded book at the turn of the year. . . . An attractive booklet of the Alexander Duff articles published in The Young People’s Magazine is being printed in English. Weekly reading classes are being conducted on this material. Also we are printing booklets on various Reformation characters, to capitalise on the interest stimulated in many of the young people by the Conference.”
On the compound, “difficulties with the electricity supply just will not go away. The supply from the national grid continues to go off intermittently, because of weather and load shedding. . . . Two weeks ago we had a direct lightning strike to the compound in the late afternoon. The only injury to life, thankfully, was a crow burned up by the strike. The only electrical damage was to the main switch of our computer network. This demonstrates the quality of the improvements made to the electrical system. In the past, such a problem in one area would feed back right across the compound, and many pieces of equipment would be damaged.”
At Rianyakwara Primary School, the teachers have worked well this year, and the school has a different atmosphere to it. Also, the school grounds are now fenced and gated, which increases security and decreases truancy. Water collection has been upgraded, and the large verandah at the back is being enclosed to provide another classroom. The school library is now fully stocked with books, most of them donated by an American organisation which specialises in establishing school libraries in Kenya.
Since August there has been quite a sharp decline in the use of clinic services at Omorembe Health Centre. “We are monitoring the situation,” says Mr Watkins, “to see if it is merely temporary, or whether something more permanent is causing it. Monthly clinic expenditure always far outstrips its income, and for what would appear to be very little gospel benefit.” He points to “the constant upgrading of the Government’s health provision, and the local authorities’ repeated turning of a blind eye to the ‘quacks’ who are so popular with the people,” and notes that the worthwhileness of this particular activity needs constant monitoring.
Although there is famine in East Africa, there has been none in the southwestern corner of Kenya where our Mission is, despite a dry spell some months ago. However, the people are finding life difficult because of the phenomenal rise in the price of maize, their staple food. Also it is more difficult for the Mission to give food to the poorest of their people as the funds to buy food do not go as far as in the past. In any case, the reserves in the Mission’s Poor Fund are low and will not allow the purchase of anywhere near as much maize as previously.
Israel. Rev John Goldby, after his seven years of work in Israel, is now settled as pastor of our Larne congregation. He hopes to continue his contacts among the Jews as far as that will be compatible with his pastoral duties, and he has continued to meet over the internet with the translation teams in Israel, as they continue their work on The Westminster Confession of Faith and the revision of the Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament.
These few notes about our work in Africa and Israel are a reminder, we trust, of our need to ply the throne of grace for the divine blessing on our efforts “to preach the gospel in the regions beyond” (2 Cor 10:6).