Characteristics of the Workers

Characteristics of the Workers Characteristics of the Workers
J. Dow Merritt
Kalomo, Northern Rhodesia, South Africa

Down a path which winds through the long grass of Central Africa’s great savannah country quickly walks a black man. He wears .he red-trimmed blue cotton uniform of a messenger of the Northern Rhodesian government. The trousers of his uniform are of knee length. The long blouse is pulled in snugly at the waist with a broad leathern service belt. Under the belt is a long envelope, a message. This is a very odd sight! a messenger with a message! With a red fez set squarely on his brow, with oiled shins glistening in the sunlight like the flashing of drilling cavalrymen’s sabres, with bare feet, on he speeds down through the tall grass, this, messenger with a message. He lives but to deliver it. In the early nineties Cecil Rhodes, the Empire Builder, and DT. Jammison, his right hand man, invaded Matebililand and after much bloodshed subdued the people, giving to the British South African Company the rich farming and mining lands now known as Southern Rhodesia. (The British South Africa Company had a charter very similar to that of the Hudson Bay Company.) When things were quiet enough in the south to allow it, Mr. Rhodes with his men crossed the Zambezi River into the territory ruled by the Barotsi, a very warlike tribe living at the sources of the Zambezi, but demanding tribute from the timid tribes that lived on the plains, and if this tax were not forthcoming at the proper season, they would make raids on the villages, taking the cattle, killing the old men and women, taking the boys and girls as slaves and burning the villages.

Mr. Rhodes went to Chief Liwanyika telling him that he wanted the country ruled by the Barotsi and that he would have it. He pointed out to him that the Matebili, who were stronger than he, had had to submit; that the British arms were far superior to the clubs and spears of the people. He said that he wished to avoid war if possible for he did not wish to harm the black man, but wished that the European and African might prosper together. This king of the Barotsi was a wise man and chose to rule his people in their own land, to receive an annual grant of about $35,000.00, and a trip to England to see Queen Victoria (she gave him some fine uniforms trimmed in gold lace while he was in England) in exchange for the right to rule the plains tribes. Thus Northern Rhodesia became a virtual protectorate. A railroad soon followed Rhodes out of the Union of South Africa, then on north, crossing the Zambesi at Livingstone, then on farther north to the Congo border. This Cape to Cairo Line was never completed. The B. S. A. Company opened up Northern Rhodesia to white settlers and to missionaries. They surveyed the land for fifteen miles on either side of the railway line, laying off farms of about four thousand acres each. These were sold to a great many cattlemen and farmers only to be soon abandoned by them because of the unhealthful climate and the lack of markets for their produce. The project seemed to not be such a fine thing for the company as had at first been thought. Settlement of this country seemed to be a failure. So the Company willingly gave up its right to the land but retained the mienral rights, the British Government taking over the rule of the land and the protection of the people. Do you know that when the Dutch whites began to move northward during and after the Great Trek, they actually considered the extermination of the blacks? But the British accepted the responsibility of caring for these people, believing that God had placed it upon them. So a government was formed for Northern Rhodesia. A man of great experience, a knight, was chosen as governor. He likewise chose men of experience in ruling native people for his heads of departments. Then Provencial Commissioners, District Commissioners, District Officers and other officials were appointed because of their preparation and experience. And so English law was established. (The native people were ruled by English law in criminal cases, but marriage, divorce, property rights and inheritance were dealt with according to native tribal custom.) The men sent out to administer this law were not elected as we elect our officers in America, but were men trained from their early school days for this service, men loyal to Britain, whom she expected to carry out her wishes to the last letter. In order to carry out this law properly and to see that justice was done everyone, these officers were put out amongst the people. The country was divided into districts, say, two hundred miles long and one hundred miles wide. A likely healthful spot was selected on which to build the “Boma” or office from which the officer would govern his district.

About the first thing a District Officer would do when going to occupy his new office would be to send out a call for native men to enlist in the messenger service. The men who responded to this call were tested first as to intelligence, then those passing this test were given a physical examination, only those of fine physical condition being accepted. The result is that the messenger force contains some of the finest specimens of native manhood in Africa. The Boma consists of burned brick dwellings for the Commissioner and his officers and families, a compound of native huts for the messengers and their families, storehouses, a courthouse and a jail. The courthouse is a long flat brick building covered with corrugated iron roofing and situated in a clump of tall gum trees. On its sunnyside sit a group of native people, principals and witnesses waiting for their cases to be called. Some are laughing and talking. Some are sleeping. One is rubbing a small catskin between his hands to make it soft and usable. Another scrapes a stick with a sharpened piece of hoop-iron, smoothing it for a spear shaft. On the other side of the house sit the messengers on duty waiting for their turn to be called by the officer. Inside his office writing at his desk sits a middle- aged Englishman. His writing finished the magistrate puts his letter into an envelope then calls:
“Messenger!”
The man next for duiy jumps to his feet and on the double quick comes to within three paces of the. officer, then coming to attention and saluting, answers:
“Mwami!”
“Garry this message to the missionary at Kabanga.”
Aye, Mwami.”
“Make haste, the sun sinks.”
'Aye, Mwami ” Then again saluting and about-facing the messenger goes on his way. We have seen him going down through the long grass, him. with the oiled shins.

Missionaries go to places where the people live. These may be very out of-the-way locations. In Japan it may happen to be in a crowded city. In China it may be several hundred miles up West River. In our case Kabanga Mission was three days drwe by ox-cait from the railway station and postoffice, a hundred thirty-five miles from a doctor. Our nearest white neighbor, a Dutchman, lived thirty- five miles away.

I think I can better tell you what is required in a special way of the workers in Africa by telling you of the nature of the work, by telling you of how we wTork, what we hope to gain, about the climate, and other things. As to what should be the characteristics of the workers to othei fields I can only give what I believe, to be the general qualifications of all missionaries. I am sure that each field has its own peculiarities. A condition found in Africa may not be seen in India. But I do know this, that wherever he goes, North, South, East or West, the missionarv must have a message. He might lose that message. It has been done. In such a case he ought to come home. He has no more business with the heathen.

Reading from the sixth chapter of Isaiah
“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above h1'm stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twram he covered his feet, and with twain he did flv. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe. is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.

“Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and .said, Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” The prophet could never have volunteered to carry the message of God as long as he realised that his own righteousness was as filthy rags. But as soon as he had the assurance that his sins were forgiven he said, “Here am I; send me.” He was a changed man. He was willing to go. Likewise a missionary must be a converted man before he can go anywhere carrying the message of God. It would be hard to send a man who was not willing to go.

These seem to me to be the general qualifications of the missionary: General good health, a good lot of common sense, to have a message—and be full of it, and to be a converted man. But there are special conditions found on each field that the one sent should be fitted to meet or prepared to endure. Now I know that I am not specially qualified to tell you what should be required of one going to any other country than Africa, but I do want to tell you some stories about Africa so that you can see what is required there.

First, let me tell you about the health conditions under which we live in Rhodesia. A few’ years ago a committee of investigation sent out from England to tour the colonies of Africa wrote in their report that Northern Rhodesia was not a fit climate for European settlement, that it should be treated as purely a black man’s country. The government, until quite recently, retired all of its servants after twenty years active service. This has increased now so that they retire the men only after age sixty. This shows that either the climate is getting better or that medical science has improved and is better able to advise and treat folk in these outlying places. The railway company pays employes ordered to this northern colony an increase in salary to compensate for the climatic change Their time in this territory also counts as time and a half on retirement. In this climate one must not dare to go about with bared head during the hours from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or thereabouts, even when the temperature of the air is below body heat, nor when it is cloudy is he excused from this law.

Swimming is a dangerous sport. Yes, there is the crocodile, but there is also an animal that would be a little difficult to see with the naked eye, the larva of winch getting on the skin of the swimmer, goes by way of the blood stream to the liver to get its full growth, then migrates to some other part of the body where it lives on the blood of its host. The mosquito has to be fenced out of the house. Very fine mosquito gauze is used for nets which are put down around the beds before sundown each evening. Quinine is taken daily as a prophylactic against malaria. The quinine bottle is put on the table at supper. The quinine course comes last. Every bit of drinking water must be boiled. I remember having drunk unboiled water but twice in the. ten years I was on the field. This is one place where some of the common sense required of a missionary coming in, is taking care of his health. Brother Sherriff told me when I first landed in Africa that if I hoped to stay long in that country I would have to watch my health. A good bed to sleep in, and plenty of good food, he said, were required. But a person must have sense enough to listen to the medical men, even if they are not Americans.

Then another special thing of importance required of the worker to Africa is that of building. When Brother Ray Lawyer and I went near'y sixty miles out from the railway line into the bush to build up a mission station, neither of us knew much about building, yet we had to mould and burn nearly one hundred thousand bricks and get them into a half dosen buildings. We had to learn to use hammer and saw, plumb and level, trowel and straight-edge. Building a corner both plumb and square takes a bit of doing. To make a chimney that will keep the clouds out of the house is still beyond the limit of my ability.

Doors, windows, roofing, lumber, cement, lime, and hardware had to be ordered from a town four hundred miles away and carted out to Kabanga from the railway station. Altogether we have, two dwellings, a school house, a hospital, a shop, and a number of small houses in which school boys live. In building these, Lawyer, Short, Brown and I have each had a part. In places where Christ has not gone, people of Christian lands are surprised to find almost total ignoiance of the laws of hygiene and sanitation, and to find very sick folk without any care at all. So the missionary has to be able to care for the sick. The native village consists, first of all, of a cattle corral, about which the people build their huts and out of which come numberless flie^ and June bugs. The native hut has a wall of small poles set vertically m a circular trench and plastered on the inside with mud. There are no windows. The diameter is about ten feet in length. The smoke finds its way out through the thatched roof somehow. Goats and calves are kept in or near the house. Chickens roost under the eaves. Dead people are buried just outside their own doors. The village has a very peculiar, unpleasant smell. So the newcomer finds himself a practicing physician in short or' der. Malaria, scurvy, itch, sore eyes, dysentery, typhoid fever, yaws, syphilis, infected wounds, tropical ulcers, bites of snakes, lions, leopards, dogs and crocodiles; broken bones and dislocations; burns, poisons, gun-shot wounds, leprosy, obstetrical cases, and a number of other diseases, injuries and conditions must be cared for by him or they have no care at all.

Then there is the shop which every mission must have so as to repair the old plows, fix the handles and sharpen the shears, patch the mould board and straighten the standards. We mend the guns and old bicycles, and sometimes shorten a wagon tire or put in new felloes and spokes in the wheel. We count the forge a very useful tool to be employed in making contacts with the people.

Brother Garret, the last missionary to be sent to Africa, went out to that country seven years ago. There are a total of six missionary families in Africa. There are a number of counties perhaps in Texas that have not heard a gospel sermon. But there are sixteen hundred congregations of Christians in Texas. Africa is three times larger than the United States. No new workers have been added to our few on the field in the past seven years. We can not hope to evangelise Africa with American preachers. The work must be done by the native Christians. But these are very ignorant. Even the most sealous are full of superstition. They can not read. So we have a school, the main purpose of which is to develop Christian workers. The school course covers a period of six years: two years in the native language, and four in English, giving the student about the same amount of work as would be required in our American schools to reach Seventh Grade. A few day-students attend, but we desire that all who come board on the place. The reason for this is to keep them away from the temptations of village life until they are firmly grounded in the faith. Every night in the village the drums are beating, the dance is in progress. And African dances are not nice. Then out at the side of a cluster of huts sit a group of men drinking beer and smoking hemp. There is apt to be a wailing for some dead person in which the boy is tempted to join. Every morning the mother requires that her son pour out water on either side of the door to the ancestors of her family and of his father’s family. We want to keep the tender shoot from the scorching sun until it is strong. On each of our three missions we have from forty to sixty boarders in school.

Now perhaps you are thinking of the great cost of such a school. The expense of feeding the lot averages $11.00 per month. They have the same kind of food that they would get in the villages, except more of it. Thick cornmeal mush dipped in a kind of gravy made from meat, peanuts, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, beans, greens, or some other kind of vegetable. Two pounds of cornmeal is the daily ration. It does not require that we have a lot of silverware and table linens, for the boys sit around a common dish in groups as they please, and, taking the bread in then hands dip it as deeply as they wish into the gravy bowl. This is not free to the school boys by any means. They work four and one-half hours per day for their board and schooling. Two native teachers cost $14,00 per month. The bell, a large gas cylinder, is beaten at sun-up and the school day begins. At the sound of the bell all of the school boys run to the school grounds where they are given about twenty minutes of settingup exercises, a native teacher doing a very good imitation of a drill sergeant. Then they go into the school house for chapel service. Songs are sung; there is a reading and a prayer; then the missionary makes a short talk. After this they go to their classes: Bible, arithmetic, reading, writing, singing, history, geography, hygiene and sanitation. animal husbandry, agriculture, these last four having only one period each per week. At 1:30 p.m. the bell rings again, calling the boys to work after an hour of rest at noon Carrying water for the house and for the gardens during the dry season, carrying poles from the veldt and cutting them into stove wood, hoeing in che fields, making roads, sweeping buildings and grounds, making bricks, repairing houses, working in the shop, burning charcoal for the forge, and herding the cattle, are some of the things chat are done by the boys to repay the mission for food and fees.

We try to keep these boys for the full course, after which they are fairly well equipped to go out preaching and in many other wavs be a real help to the community from which they have comp. But many do not wait to “graduate” before going out with the gospel. Every Lord’s Day morning we have boys coming in pairs asking permission to go to this village, or that to preach. They get nothing for this work. One boy went home after only nine months of school, and, after three months at home came back asking Brother Brown and me to go to his village and preach the next Sunday afternoon. After the meeting, thirteen, I think it was, stood up and said that they wanted to be Christians. There is now a church of more than thirty members in that village. Another of our boys was too dull to be a good student. After about three years in school he went home, and we were glad he was gone for it was a burden to try to tell him anything about his lessons. Within three months he was back with a request that we write to the Boma asking permission for a meeting-house to be built in the village. When I asked him how many Christians were in the village he said that there were three, but that seventeen others wished to be baptised. We sent a native preacher there and he found that twenty-one, who knew the truth, wanted to become Chrisians. One boy came from far down in the Zambesi valley to school, but he wanted to study nothing but the Bible. After studying a few months he returned home to an almost inaccessible place for white men; then every few months thereafter he would bring some, of his fellow villagers to be taught more and to be baptised. When they came they brought a few pence with which to buy flour and wine for the communion Siachibu went home during one vacation. Then, two weeks before the close of the next term, his mother and three sisters came to the mission, having walked eighty miles to get there, asking, LAre these things true that our brother has been telling us re' garding the Kingdom of God?” and wanting to be taught more. We had special meetings for these and baptised them and two more before the close of school. I could tell you numbers of experiences that the workers have had, but these are enough to show you what the school means to the Cause in Africa.

During the three months when school is out of session the missionary visits the village churches and out-schools. He preaches every night, all day long he sits talking to old men, dressing sore toes and the like, having post-mortems over the carcass of an old plow’ or bicycle.
Back on the mission again the white man becomes adviser in cases of law, writes letters for the people, sends their tax money into the collector for them, and does any other thing that will promote good will and gain the confidence of the folk about him. The native church is allowed to carry on its own affairs under the guidance of the European This is a good exercise, looking forward to the time when the nauve church will be able to stand alone. The church at Kabanga finding that it had ten shillings in the treasury wished to use it to send an evangelist to the mountain people. There was a preacher, named Lesero, living in Munyama s village. This man wore a long gown-like shirt, that was white in its earlier days, walked solemnly, and could make the woods ring with his loud voice as he cried, “Lino nda lumba kuli Le^a, tatesu uli mujulu, ku jana chindi sunu kukambauka makami mupia mubotu." He was willing to go out for a month for the ten shillings, but it was thought best to ask his home congregation what they thought of his going. The answer was “No!”
“Why?” we asked.
“Because he quarrels with his wife.”
I wonder how many of us that would disqualify.

Now it is easily see that the worker to Africa is going to be more able to understand the nature of the native, his troubles and problems, and how to reach him with the gospel, if he can speak his language. None of the languages is so difficult but that a young person can learn it in a year, that is, he. can converse and preach in it by that time, but a person past thirty, unless he be especially gifted as a linguist, will not be able to speak without an interpreter. An Adventist preacher in Nyassaland was once talking to a crowd of native folk of Moses and the giving of the law. He said, “And after this he took scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and the people.” The interpreter said, in the native language of
course, “I don’t know what he said; if you are interested you will have to ask him.” Of course the preacher heard the noise and supposed that what he said had been repeated. And this is by no means an isolated case.

Now let us see how far down the road we have got. A missionary to Africa must be a converted man, must have a message, must be willing to go. He ought to be not over thirty, a practical man, pa' tient, apt to teach, kind, honest, apt to learn the language, and, let me add, not a user of tobacco.
Several people have said to me that they would like to know how to become a missionary. Now how would one become a missionary?

Let us assume that the leaders of the church, elders, deacons, preachers, teachers, are awake to the duties and responsibilities that they have and are teaching the young folk the word of God, pointing out His love, for a lost and dying world, and encouraging them to preach the gospel to the whole creation, and that these young people are studying and working with all their might at the things their hands find to do. Then one morning an elder announces that word has come of need for workers in some mission point; the next day is to be set aside as a day for fasting and prayer; volunteers are to be asked for that field. Do you suppose that there would be a group of candidates to select from ,to send out? Or do you suppose that on the next day these leaders of the church would have to go away, shaking their heads, wondering why the young folk would not respond?

No! We have assumed too much! It is not done that way. There has not a missionary gone to the field but has had to beg the churches to send him, or else someone has done the begging for him. Then when he gets to the field he has to keep a continual fire of “pep letters” coming back home lest he and his work be forgotten. When he comes home he has to beg folks to let him tell them of the condition he has found and under which he has to do his work, and of the joys, sorrows, victories, and failures that have been his. (Thank God, that there are a goodly number of mission-minded churches.)

No! It took a scattering abroad of the self-feeding Jerusalem church to get the Word of Life to Judea and Samaria. It took a direct operation of the Holy Spirit to get the gentile church at Antioch to separate Barnabas and Saul and send them out.

Long ago the Lord spoke to the prophet Jonah:.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
But Jonah did not have a mind to do God s bidding. He hated the commandment of the Lord and was running away from it. He went down to Joppa and while walking along the waterfront slipped into a ticket office and paid cash for a passage to Tarshish. Then going around to the dock he went quickly on board and as soon as the purser had taken his ticket he went below and finding a good place, rolled up in his blanket and went to sleep. 
But when the ship had got clear of the land God sent a great storm upon the sea. The ship was about to capsize; it was being twisted this way and that. The captain saw that unless something was done quickly it would be broken to pieces. So he ordered first one thing then another to be cast into the sea. Finally the sails themselves were thrown overboard and the masts were hewn down. The freight had long before this been thrown out. Then going below to see how the hull was making it, through having a lighter load, the master of the ship came across Jonah sleeping away in his blanket. Perhaps he gave him a rough kick in the ribs, for sea captains have never had a reputation for gentleness; then said:
“What is the matter with you anyway, Sleepyhead? Do you not know that we are in a great storm and the ship is breaking to pieces? Get up and call on your God, perhaps God will think of us that we perish not.”
So Jonah went up on deck and found the sailors rowing desperately, praying aloud as they labored trying to keep the ship’s head into the seas. No hope! Yet Jonah did not pray, for he was deliberately running away from the commandment of the Lord and was not repenting, no, not yet.
The seamen then decided to draw straws to see for whose fault this great disaster was upon them. Jonah got the shortest straw, so they began to question him?
“What’s your business? Where do you come from? Who are your people? What causes all of this trouble?”
Jonah said, “I am a Hebrew: I fear Jehovah who made the land and the sea.”
Then the men were much afraid and said to him:
“What did you do?” for he had told them that he was running away from Jehovah. “What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us?”
“Throw me overboard,” said Jonah. (“I’ll die before I obey God.”) Yet the sailors, not wishing to kill Jonah, tried hard to get to safety, but when they saw that all other hope had failed, they threw Jonah into the sea, asking God to forgive them for there was no other way. Immediately the sea was calm.

God had prepared a great fish to take care of Jonah. He does not say of what species it was. Maybe it was specially made; maybe it was a now extinct kind, maybe it was a whale. It makes no difference with God. Jonah went down to the bottom of the sea, with the undersea mountains all about him, and with the sea weed in the fish’s stomach about his head. After three days of this Jonah repented and God caused the fish to vomit him up on the beach.

Then Jehovah spoke again to Jonah, and said: “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh and began to deliver his message: “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”
The people hearing, repented in sackcloth and ashes and were saved.

O church of God, awaken! The British government found itself charged with the welfare of millions of blacks and did not shirk its responsibilities. The governor set about placing commissioners within easy reach of the people. The commissioners chose native runners to carry the word of the government to the people. These officers are faithful to their charge. The church was born “sent. Before the day of Pentecost the Lord gave the commandment “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Again Jesus says, “If ye love me ye will keep my commandments.”

Let the church send out willing men and women, Christians, with the message of life. Let it select those who have a fair share of common sense. Thank you.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Give a brief account of the civilizing work of the British in Northern Rhodesia.
2. Describe the “Boma and the messenger service.
3. What should be the geneial characteristics of the. missionary?
4. Describe climactic and health conditions in Africa.
5. What are the difficulties in the way of erecting buildings?
6. Why should the missionary know something of sanitation and medicine?
7. Describe the schools in South Africa. Why are they needed?
8. Describe the work of the students.
9. Describe the teaching and preaching work of the natives.
10. Why should the worker know the language of the natives?
11. How does one become a missionary?