8/10/2019 Nicholson Alvin Vernita 1956 SAfrica

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Soi i th f r i ca

^ P o r t

ShopiyfeoneLS

October 1956

iOien we

a rri v e d in

Africa

in 0ec6mber o f

1953 on e

o f our g r e a te st

desires was to learn one of the native languages. But i t was

no t

u n t i l

Augat of 1955 that we found a

retired Swedish

Zulu Blissionary who

would

tea ch u s. e had been studying on

ou r own

and getting

help

in corrections

from Snooh Zobolo e have found

that i t

has taken us a long

time to get

a hold on the language while trying to leam and carry on the work at

the

same

time.

However

since

January of

this

year

we have been

teaching

ou r lessons a t the Hative Sunday School in Zulu. I do no t need an i n t e r

preter now when carrying on an ordinary conversation e are looking

forward to the day when we ca n teach and preach without full written

lessons. Even the fact that we have been w il li ng t o learn

t h e i r language

and ca n

now

ta lk

with

than

when we meet them has been a g r e a t

help in

th e w o r l o

Each year we spend much time

in

traveling and

visiting

the churches

Since each man

usually

has

several

stations they a ll cone tegether in one

place

when

I have

made

arrangonents with the Minister

to

come

to

hi s

area.

If

X spend two days

w it h t ha n

I

generally

preach

either

three

or four times and the interpreter a t

least

two This past year there have

been few problems to

settle

so t l a t most of the d scussions^when we have

no t been in

the

services have been either i n the scriptures or

in

things

tha t w ill aid them in doing their work

In

the past

year

I have visited

30 of

th e ministers

and

their

congregations Some of them I have been

wi th

seve ra l t ime s

This year

in

the building program we have built th e church at

Klersdorp At tWs present time

we

are busy on the minister s

hone

at

Klerksdorp This

will

be the first such home

that

we have

built.

Because

there

is such a

shortage

of homes for

the

Native

people

the

location Superintendent

made

us proaise

that

we

would

build a

hmae

there

in th e new location as soon as the church was bAilt before he would

give

the minister pennission to live there.

e

have on hand now .ne drawing

for the

church at Middleburg Cape

Cod willing

we should

like

to oegin

shortly after the beginning of the new jfear

e

are waiting now for the

xown Council there to approve the blue prints. Also

we

have redrawn

the

plans for the partly finished building at East London.

This

work shall

also

be ccmpleted early in the next year we have other applications

which have been made saae of these we should be r ec ei vi ng o ef a- e

too

long

They

are only

now

being held up awaiting the approval of the

Native Department. For all these we are

going

to need help especially

since there

has been a very bad famine

in

many of

t he native

areas and

they

shall

not be able

to

carry as

much

of the load as they did

last

year

There has been a change in th e

laws

on the Reserves i n regard to

c h u r c h s i t e s The o ld law

s t a t ed

tha t a l l

churches m us t

be f ive

m i l e s

from every other church. The new la w

s ta te s th at

the

church

seeking

a s i t e must have 100 members over

th e

age o f 15 year s who a re r e sid en t

w i t h i n

a

ten

m i l e r a d i u s . This h as

opened to

us many

a r e a s

tha t have

been closed to ou r having

church

b u i l d i n g s .

T h e

o r a n c e

was i

8/10/2019 Nicholson Alvin Vernita 1956 SAfrica

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1956 Gonferencd was he ld from th e l8 t o f March

t o

th e th

of April a t

the

War Ifsmorial Hall

in

Lamontville Location

in

Ourbano

This

Conference was

very

well

attended

cmd was a

great

inspir tion

to

the

brethren One of

the high

l ights of the meeting was a

specia l

program which the

African

Brethren had prepared

for

the

leaving

of

the Randalls for

the i r

furlough

a t home. Max Was

presented

with a

book

of

l e t te rs which

had

been

wri t ten

by the

Afr ican Minis ters

Also

they had

invited

two of the local Choirs

to

sing for

the

occasion

The

1957

Conference sha l l be meeting a t

CraAff

Reinet frms the

16th to

the

30th of January. The theme

for

th is meeting i s ^Christ

the Answer . Messages shall be

brought

by

four of the Missionaries

and

by six of the

African Ministers

From the 1st of January unti l

the

middle of October, 869 baptisms

have been reported by the

native

men. The church at Mo 2 Location in

Himberley

is

the only church which has a

baptistty.

Most of the rest

follow

the

plan

of the whole group going, singing,

to

the river. There

af ter

one or

several speak, exhorting those

who

a re p re sent ,

one

of the

elders

does

the

baptising. After

this

service

is

finished

some

one

will

again speak to

them

especially urging any

who

not have accepted

Chr i s t t o do so

0^ tp.s ye^,.w^l8fart^

nearest our The aii^Adance