SIXTH, AND LAST, TERM IN CONGO
1945-1950
When we left Congo
I thought I would never return. But after an extended furlough we did
go back. When I left the Press I asked our colleagues to proceed just
as they must have done if I had dropped dead. I knew that the Mission
greatly overestimated my capacity for work. It would be injurious to
the cause of literature in future, if they depended on me and failed
to make the proper alternative arrangements. So on my insistence they
reluctantly agreed to release me from the work which had been my very
life for seventeen years, and find some other work for me. I hoped
this would be to itinerate in the villages just as much as my strength
would permit.
A Few Words about Our Fifth Furlough.
This volume does not
have room for stories of our furloughs, which in themselves would fill
a book. But our last furlough was so unusual that I must say a few
words about it. It was wartime. We were sent to Capetown, South Africa,
with bookings to the Argentine. But our ship never came. After two
months we had to cross South Africa, and sail from Durban round the
Cape of Good Hope and across to Buenos Aires on an armed refrigerator
ship. Then we flew five days by Pan-American Airways to Rio de Janeiro,
Recife, Belem, and Trinidad to Miami. At Richmond our daughters met
us after a separation of six years and eight months. The girls had
not seen their brother from age nine until age sixteen. Leaving him
and Dorothy (Mrs. Joe B. Hopper, headed for Korea) in America, we started
with daughter Alice, returning as a nurse to Congo, and others. To
get to Africa we had to sail by army transport to Egypt. We flew from
Cairo to Lagos on the west coast, then to Brazzaville in French Congo.
By motorboat we crossed Stanley Pool to Leopoldville, then up river
to Port Francqui, and on to Luebo.�
On to Kasha Station.
The Mission assigned
us to Kasha, the southeastern station of our Mission, some three hundred
odd miles from Luebo. Kasha was just a few hundred yards from the railroad
line from Port Francqui to Elisabethville, but the railroad station
was five miles away at Luputa.
In opening new stations
our Mission usually chose open country in the area to be evangelized,
then built a station. Native people would move in, as permitted, to
vacant land. Thus the local situation presented fewer problems. Because
of schools, Church, and medical help the people liked to live near
the Mission. Such people, together with the employees necessary for
carrying on our work, would need building sites and garden space. If
we had located in an established village there would be much conflict
of interest, and many quarrels for missionaries to settle.
Mr. McKee started
Kasha station on vacant land, after securing permission of the local
chief, and of the Belgian government. It was his intention to keep
the local population down to the absolute minimum, leaving the missionary
free for itineration. But when we arrived there we found Kasha village
already had as many as 300 residents, many of these being pupils in
the school.
We lived at Kasha
four years. Our duties were to preach the Gospel, and together with
other missionaries supervise the outstation work, the school and the
dispensary. When there were no other missionaries all the responsibilities
fell on Mignon and me. At first Mr. and Mrs. Holmes Smith were with
us a short time. Miss Margaret Moore also had the dispensary for a
while. About half the time Mrs. Stixrud ( then a widow) was in charge
of the flourishing dispensary. For some time Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt Miller
were there to help us. But much of the time we were alone, just Mignon
and I, with our African helpers. Some of these helpers were quite capable
in their departments, having been trained on older stations.
When we reached Kasha
there were about 250 pupils in the station school, and it grew to 500
before we left. Without the able help of Kazadi Alexander, Mignon could
not have handled it. In addition there were sixty-odd outstation schools,
all calling for oversight, and, if possible, visitation.
During recent years
the Congo government had been organizing its educational work throughout
the colony. This was a burdensome undertaking. Education had been almost
entirely in the hands of the missions, Roman Catholics and Protestant.
In earlier years large subsidies were given to Roman Catholic schools,
while the support for the Protestant schools principally came from
Churches in other lands. More recently the government agreed to give
subsidies to Protestant schools that qualified under the regulations.
Our years at Kasha were in a period during which this process of organization
was going on, and it made the school work far more difficult than it
had been before. While most of the school work fell to Mignon, it also
brought me many time-consuming duties, cutting down on time available
for other work.
My Own Duties.
My responsibilities
were many. First of course was preaching, and teaching the Sunday School
teachers. Preaching was not only done on Sundays. Five mornings a week
we had a sunrise prayer meeting. Part of the year it was a little before
sunrise, part a little after sunrise. Much of the time the sun rose
while we were in Church. Some of the time I gave a short Bible talk,
the other part it was given by the elder Muamba.
There was also preaching
on the outstations. However, when we were alone on the station my responsibilities
tied me down so I could not itinerate very much. People in all our
sixty villages wished for visits by the missionaries. When there is
so much more than one can do he has to do what he can and commit the
rest to the Lord.
The Christian people
are taught to contribute to the support of native preachers (never
to the support of the missionaries). The assembling of these offerings,
and distribution of the money, together with such financial help as
is available from America, requires much work. This fell to me, and
much other paper work, so my office duties called for much time.
It was surprising
how many French notes were needed in a year's time. With sixty families
widely scattered, besides a local population of 300 persons, and hundreds
of school pupils, many certificates of all kinds had to be written.
Once a year there
was the Mission Meeting at which all Mission problems were discussed,
and decisions made by vote of the majority. This takes time. But it
also gives lonely missionaries fellowship both social and spiritual,
so it is worth all the time it takes. The night meetings were usually
given over to preaching and Bible teaching, which is needed by those
who are so constantly giving out to others.
Spitting Cobra in Mission Meeting.
At the last Mission
Meeting we attended I had an experience which might have ended badly.
The meetings were held in a sun-dried brick chapel, with grass roof.
There were no doors, no windows, just open spaces in the walls.
One afternoon Mignon
said her usual seat in the corner beside me was too hot, and moved
to the middle of the room. I kept my seat next to her corner. As I
expected to take part in the discussion, I prepared my papers on a
briefcase on the bench where she had been sitting. Some of them fell
to the floor, behind the seat. I reached for them, and heard a strange
sound, a sort of �whoosh.� I could see nothing unusual. I had to reach
down a second time, and again heard the sound, and felt drops of liquid
on my bald head, and on my shoulder. I was puzzled, for the roof did
not leak, and there had not been any rain. I kept looking around for
some explanation as the business of the Mission went on. Finally I
saw a snake down in the corner behind the seat Mignon usually occupied.
I told the others, and with a stick and an umbrella some of them killed
the snake. It was more than a yard in length. Dr. Rule identified it
as the spitting cobra, a very deadly snake. It usually tries to blind
its victim by blasting venom into his eyes. This produces temporary
or permanent blindness. I presume he then bites the victim to kill
him.
This was a close call
for both Mignon and me. Had she had stayed in her seat that afternoon
it is quite probable that she would have lost her life. We were so
thankful she escaped.
Not having known anything
about these cobras before, I hastened to look them up in an old encyclopedia
when I got home. Shortly after that I killed a small one of the same
species which stood up on the coil of its tail and distended its black
hood just as the encyclopedia described it. It kept darting out its
tongue very fast. It was just about thirty feet from our kitchen door
at Kasha.
One other snake experience
must be mentioned. I had fixed up a photographic darkroom at Kasha.
One afternoon I was printing some pictures. I was in the darkroom with
doors closed for an hour or two. Next morning I returned to get something.
Observing some rubber cuttings lying in a corner, I decided to throw
them out. Reaching for the second handful I suddenly saw that the remainder
was not rubber, but two good-sized snakes coiled there. As it was dry
season when the people burn off the grass on great areas of the plains,
snakes seek refuge where they can find it. Almost certainly those snakes
had been right there with me in the darkroom while I made the pictures.
Hyena Caught.
The sentry pointed
out animal tracks in our yard. He and others wanted to set a trap,
and I agreed. Next day they showed me that an animal had come and chewed
off the rawhide strap they used to tie the trap, without getting caught.
Again they set the trap and later reported that the trap was gone.
They followed the trail, and out in the grass they killed the ugly
hyena which had been caught and gone off with the trap. They were very
proud of their catch.
An Elder Tried by Presbytery.
Our system of Church
government is Presbyterian. That means that all elders or bishops have
equal authority and equal responsibility before God. That is the theory.
But in the educational stage of developing the Church, the missionary
by reason of longer training and greater experience must carry a disproportionate
load. Our Kasha Presbytery met twice a year, during which meetings
the work of all our evangelist teachers was reviewed, new workers were
approved, unfaithful ones were disciplined, and in general decisions
were made for the next six months. These meetings should have been
a joy to me. For fellowship among Christians is an enjoyable experience,
though the Christians are of different races. Sometimes I was privileged
to have another missionary with me, but most of the time I was alone
in the Presbytery with my African brethren.
But the joy of some
of these meetings was marred by tensions which were hard to understand
until in the course of time the secret sins of a few false brethren
came to light. One man greatly tried us by keeping things on edge for
about two years, before he finally admitted that he had married a second
wife. He was removed from office, and his name stricken from the Church
roll. The term in their language is to kill, or to extinguish, his
name. But during the time he was with us he created many problems involving
other people.
We had another brother
who wasted Presbytery's time by talking so much without saying anything
worth while. Without discipline he was finally persuaded to resign
his office.
Among the group as
a whole there was sometimes a sensitive spirit, readily offended, and
sometimes there were sharp clashes of opinion. But generally speaking
it seems that our African brethren cool off more quickly from such
differences than would some of other races, and forgive and forget
quickly. That does not include those whose hearts are unhappy by reason
of hidden sin.
But problems of discipline
were always with us. Members of the Church would fall into sin. Some
repented and some did not. One of the encouragements of our missionary
work lay in the fact that so many of the backsliders returned and asked
to be reinstated in the communion of the Church. But I make no secret
of the fact that many a Church member goes astray, causing sorrow to
the missionaries and the faithful members of the Church. However, it
is worth considering that in general Church discipline is much more
faithfully practiced in Mission lands than in the homeland.
The native Church
officers sometimes shift onto the missionary more than his proper share
of responsibility for discipline, and for that reason he must carry
a heavier load than the theory of our system calls for. During most
of my years in Congo I was so occupied with other things that the load
of discipline fell mostly to other missionaries and the native Church
officers. But during our stay at Kasha I felt greatly burdened over
matters of Church discipline, and that took away some of the happiness
of my last term's work.
During our first year
at Kasha I went through the most painful experience of my life. It
concerned the discipline of an African elder (not a minister) whom
we shall call Kampanda. He was overseer of our most distant section,
looking after the work in nine faraway villages. An evangelist-teacher
had been sent to work in his section, whom we shall call evangelist
Kansanga.
This man came to me
with a very strange story. He said that months before, when he went
to that section, elder Kampanda, according to
Kansanga's wife, had
seduced her. They were guests at the elder's house. Kansanga left his
wife there while he went to his new village to arrange for a house.
On his return his wife told him about it.
Naturally I wondered
why he had let this dreadful thing remain a secret for months. He explained
that the elder bribed him not to tell, and at the same time threatened
him with dire consequences if he did tell. So he kept silence, he said,
until his conscience compelled him to come to me to reveal the truth.
The story as a whole
had a number of details that seemed hard to understand, and difficult
to believe. But the charge was so very serious that I felt obliged
to call a meeting of Presbytery to judge the matter.
This meeting lasted
four days, and was a time of heartache such as can be understood by
those who carry in their hearts a real love for the Church of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It was intensely dramatic, but no one could enjoy the
drama.
I was the only missionary
present. All sixteen pastors and elders came. One of them was elected
moderator of the meeting. The evangelist Kansanga was present, and
his wife, the accuser. The accused elder Kampanda was there, also his
wife, who was a fine Christian woman, totally loyal to her husband.
She refused to believe the charges against him. Both of the women were
mothers of large families.
All the charges were
brought before Presbytery, and none of the vile details were omitted.
Elder Kampanda, in the presence of God, solemnly declared he was not
guilty. There was endless questioning and wrangling.
The debate and questioning
went on for four days; oh, what painful days they were. At the time
we still had within the Presbytery a few men whose later history showed
that they were living wrong, and therefore did not have the peace of
God within their own hearts. Their nervousness and unreasonableness,
added to that of the three parties immediately concerned, were what
caused most of our trouble in solving the problem.
I tried to keep myself
within the limits of the Presbyterian system, which means that I was
sitting only as a member of the court, and not as a ruler over my African
brethren. Besides that, I knew very well that the Africans were much
better judges of the guilt or innocence of the accused than I was.
So I sat and listened hour after hour, day after day, though it was
almost too much for me to take.
Personally, I would
not have been willing to be convicted on such evidence as was presented.
For the woman who brought the accusation was admittedly an adulteress.
I thought upon the case of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, who accused
Joseph falsely. On the other hand, if the story were untrue, it was
hard to see why the woman would incriminate herself by saying anything
about it. No one else was accusing her.
In fact, she did try
to throw the initial responsibility upon the elder Kampanda by a tale
which I found it impossible to believe.
Before these charges
against elder Kampanda came to my attention I had heard that he had
previously been accused of other misdoings of various sorts, but always
managed to wiggle out and get himself cleared. That had made me doubt
him.
Another of the elders
(he was later proved to be living wrong himself) at one point in the
discussions became so furiously angry that he said to one who argued
against his views, �If I were not a Christian, and in this place, I
would kill you.�
What we needed was
to get a decision, guilty or not guilty, and to end a meeting that
was doing nothing but increasing bitterness among them. But I was only
one member of Presbytery, and I failed dismally in all my efforts to
bring the matter to a vote.
After recess one morning
Kansanga's wife walked into the meeting with a piece of rope over her
shoulder. When the meeting was called to order she rushed across the
room and threw herself prostrate at the feet of the elder Kampanda,
with the rope over her shoulder. She said, �You know that in our tribe
( they were of the same tribe) this is a matter of life and death.
I dare you, according to the customs of our tribe, to step across my
body and say you did not commit adultery with me.�
We refused to permit
heathen custom to be used as a means of settling a problem in the Church
of Jesus Christ, so we obliged her to return to her seat. But the atmosphere
was electric and I feared that physical violence might result before
she was gotten back to her seat. Quiet was restored, and the meeting
went on.
But as soon as the
discussion started, she again rushed across the room, threw herself
into the lap of the elder Kampanda with her arms around his neck, and
said, �You promised me that if our affair ever became public you would
marry me.�
It was very hard to
get her away from him. She was determined to stay there. At last she
was quieted and persuaded to return to her seat.�
Feeling that I myself
would not be willing to be convicted on the little evidence as presented,
though there might be truth in the charges, I made a motion stating
that it was the judgment of the majority of the Presbytery that the
charges had not been proved. When put to a vote this motion failed
to pass. Since that meant that a majority believed the man was guilty,
I finally succeeded in getting a vote on the opposite idea. It was
the judgment of a majority of this Presbytery that elder Kampnda was
guilty, and with great sorrow we were obliged to remove him from his
office. The motion carried.� That was followed by adjournment.
When the meeting closed
I was physically and mentally and spiritually exhausted.
(About two years later
ex-elder Kampanda admitted to me that he had repeatedly sinned with
Kansanga's wife, but he said that� part of her testimony had been false.
He claimed that it was she who led him astray. Both Kansanga and his
wife later led such lives as to indicate that both of them belonged
to the followers of Judas rather than the followers of Christ. But
oh, what damage had been done to the Lord's work in that section. )
Bad Malaria Fever.
The last day of Presbytery
I had some temperature. When we adjourned I went home to bed with a
bad malaria fever. I had not been so ill for many years. We were alone
on the station, so Mignon treated me for malaria. I took both� atabrine
and quinine. By and by the fever was broken. But I was unable to sleep
day or night.
Miss McDonald happened
to come to Kasha and wished to go to Bibanga. As she was an excellent
driver it was agreed she would drive us in our station car to Bibanga,
where two of our Mission doctors had gone for other reasons. They took
us on to Mutoto so Dr. Smith might have time to check me over, as it
seemed possible I might have African sleeping sickness.
As I could not sleep
without sedatives it seemed I might have to be sent to America on emergency
furlough. But after some days my nervousness subsided, and it was agreed
I could return to my work.
For the rest of our
stay in Africa, another three years, I discontinued the use of both
atabrine and quinine, fearing the effect on my nerves. I switched to
one of the newer drugs, called aralen, which seemed to prevent malaria
without side effects.
Monkeys and Elephants.
The supervision of
the work in the villages presented numbers of problems. One of them
was food for the families of the evangelist-teachers. Many times they
came to see me and reported that their families were hungry. The chief
complaint, when I asked why they did not cultivate fields, was that
they did plant fields of corn and manioc; but elephants came and destroyed
their fields, or monkeys came and stole their corn, or wild hogs came
and uprooted their crops. In the whole four years at Kasha I never
saw an elephant. But I saw trees they had broken, and footprints around
a pool of water some miles away, and definite footpaths they had made
through the high grass which elephants may have used for a long, long
time.
As for the monkeys,
it might be asked why the people did not kill them, for natives like
monkey meat. By killing them they could increase their meat supply,
and at the same time be preserving their other foodstuffs. But it is
very difficult to kill monkeys with bow and arrow, and even with a
shotgun it takes clever hunting to kill them. Gunpowder was costly,
and could be bought only in limited quantities with a permit, and many
of the available guns were not always good.
In the Idol's Temple.
It was not really
a temple. It was the porch of the chief's house, where he held court
and made decisions about the affairs of his people. There he sat on
a leopard skin when he held court. And close beside him was a small
idol of carved stone which I suppose he trusted to help him. It looked
like a very old idol, and was of better sculpture than other idols
I had seen.
We went there on an
Easter morning to preach the gospel of the Christ who rose from the
dead. Parking the car outside we were led into the harem where lived
the old chief with his many wives and children. Muamba, the elder who
was with me, was a nephew of the chief. In fact Muamba's father had
been the former chief of this tribe.
We talked a bit.
The old chief was
also an old beggar. He began to tell me about the cough that has since
taken his life. He wanted medicine, and I promised to send him some,
which I did. He also begged for a dispensary for his village. He said
the chief across the river had a dispensary. I told him our Mission
dispensary was in his territory. But he wanted one in his own village,
near his home. I suppose this was partly a matter of health, but also
a question of prestige. Then he begged for shotgun shells. My escape
from this was the fact that I had no gun, and did not keep shells.
Then we began to have
Christian worship right there in what was for practical purposes the
idol's temple. Nearby was the lifeless, powerless idol. It did not
see us. It did not hear the joyous Easter hymns, nor the resurrection
message reached by the chiefs nephew. Soon the service was over, and
we came away.
The old chief has
died since then. Where has he gone? God knows. I am glad that the eternal
destiny of souls is in the hands of a God who is omniscient and merciful.
If before he left this world old chief Kabue believed in the resurrected
Christ, we will still meet him in heaven. But if a merciful and just
God was compelled to send chief Kabue to that awful place prepared
for the devil and his angels, I am thankful that we at least tried
to bring to him and to his people the message of life eternal through
Jesus Christ.
Tribal Animosities.
�Tribal jealousies
and hatreds between Africans have been problems for our missionaries
through the years. Just as in the early Church there was conflict between
Greek and Jew, so today there is bitter opposition between African
groups, just because of tribal animosities.
At Kasha the animosity
became evident between the Bena Kanyoka who were historically the owners
of that section of territory and the people of outside tribes who came
there to live. Once it flared up badly. Somebody placed an anonymous
letter on the Church door. It started fussing and quarreling between
the tribes in our Mission village. I was disposed to ignore the matter.
But it grew worse, until the elders came to tell me that unless I did
something about it, and promptly, blood would flow in the streets of
Kasha village, and it would be my fault. So I called up three tribal
groups separately, and talked to them. I tried to let them see that
in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ we were one new tribe, and must
not hate each other. For the time being the feeling quieted down and
nothing serious happened. But from time to time I could sense that
the tribal animosity was still there, and might break forth at some
future time.
Building Work.
When we took over
Kasha station work from, Mr. and Mrs. Earl King he showed me the foundation
trenches for� building a new station Church, which was much needed.
Money was available, but not a builder. Mr. King had been too busy
to build it, and I also would be too busy with other things. The work
had been started months before by Mr. Hoyt Miller. So we were very
happy when Mr. and Mrs. Miller were temporarily located on our station.
He was interested in building the Church. We were delighted, and he
erected the building to our great satisfaction. I had some responsibilities
in connection with this work, but he did nearly all of it.
When he got through
with the Church he was looking around for other worlds to conquer,
as he had his gang of builders organized. We had money for building
a greatly needed dispensary, for the old mud and stick dispensary was
far from good enough for treating the 90 patients a day who came there.
Mrs. Stixrud and Kasongo had quite a reputation around those parts.
So Mr. Miller went
ahead with the job, and was getting along fine, when his new work at
Kakinda called him away; so the building work fell to me. I tried hard
to complete the building before leaving for furlough, and nearly succeeded.
It was in use soon after we left.
Our House Trailer.
Earlier in the term
some friends in the First Presbyterian Church in GreenviIle, Mississippi,
gave me a used automobile chassis and sent it to Congo. On this I built
a house trailer for use in itineration. We liked it very much and enjoyed
itinerating in it.
When we left for furlough
we were looking forward to having more missionaries on the station
after our return, and we hoped to be able to use our trailer much more,
in visiting our workers in the widely scattered villages.
Busy to the last minute,
we turned over our duties to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, who were sent to
relieve us, and started for what we expected to be our last furlough.
We hoped after one year to be back at Kasha for one long last term
before our retirement at the end of forty years of service.
Farewell.
It would have been
hard to say a final farewell to all our friends and to all our work,
but as a year is not very long, we could say goodbye rather cheerfully.
So we started for America.
The routine medical
examination was made on arrival in Nashville. I thought I was in good
shape and had passed the examination. So the report of the doctor surprised
me very much. My condition was reported to be such that I must not
return to Africa. With the proper medical care and necessary dieting,
I might live and work for years in America. But our life in Congo had
ended. It was a great disappointment.
We started our Christian
service with the verses: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and
lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy path (Proverbs 3.5-6). We trust Him now
to direct us in our retirement.
