Africa
Inland Mission [1920]
Aba,
Congo Belge,
[“Via
Khartoum - Sudan.” crossed out.]
Dear
Friends:-
A
report of your offering to the Mission has been sent me from
the Home
Office and I have a great desire not only to thank you warmly
in
behalf of the Mission and the people we are seeking to
evangelize,
but to put you in closer touch with the actual conditions on
the
field.
Have
you seen the little map which they recently sent out from the
Home
Office, 356 Bridge Street, Brooklyn? It gives I think a
clearer idea
of our field than anything previously issued by the Mission,
though
the work moves with such rapid strides that it is almost
impossible
to send home a map and have it made before advanced steps have
been
taken and marked changes made.
With
the rapid growth of the work and the increasing number of
contributors who are making possible our pushing on into the
darkness
it becomes more difficult to get any direct personal
communication to
you and one of our difficult problems here is to know just how
much
our friends at home know about the field and what information
will be
fresh and new to them.
Will
you write me at Aba any questions you would like to have
answered.
To
some it will be a marked surprise if a statement made by one
of the
best informed missionaries on the continent working in another
society far down the Congo is true. He said in a recent issue
of the
Congo Mission News that our Mission “has more missionaries and
more
stations than any other Protestant Society in Congo Belge.”
I
was myself much surprised at this. Our twenty stations in more
than
twenty tribes touch such a little corner of the vast need that
it did
not seem possible that we had outstripped in numbers and
extent of
our work the older societies which have been working here many
years.
The
enormous difficulties incident to the translation of these
different
languages and getting out school-books, hymn-books, portions
of
Scripture, etc, into the hands of the people will I am sure
enlist
your continued prayer.
[pg.
2] Then too it will be remembered that Belgium is strongly
pro-Catholic and that the attitude of most of the R. C.
priests on
the field is not that of kindly co-operation or even of
tolerance,
but in most cases is of the intensely bitter opposition which
marks
Roman work in Central and South America.
The
laws of the country, however, are eminently fair and just and
when
administered by unprejudiced officers protect us somewhat from
this
opposition.
The
natives are, however, in every district in which we work
taught by
their spiritual leaders that we are the people who killed the
Lord
Jesus and that if they have anything to do with us in any way
they
will burn in the endless fire.
For
this reason we all need special prayer that such difficulties
may not
irritate or hinder us from manifesting the spirit of Christ.
We
need vast patience and a clearer realization that only as we
manifest
the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ shall we be able to
overcome
these things and teach the people the realities of the life
that is
“hid with Christ in God.”
One
of our stations in Tanganyika Territory has over forty native
helpers. These men are going, some of them 150 miles afield in
their
teaching and preaching work and bringing back their enquirers
and
converts for recognition and baptism.
The
large number of native helpers now engaged in the work at many
of our
stations is one of the most interesting developments of our
work and
needs much prayer, not only for its direction but for the
proper
training and developing of these native leaders.
Wishing
for you God’s richest blessings, I am
Yours
faithfully,
Charles
E. Hurlburt.
Postal
Address:
Charles E. Hurlburt
Aba
Via Khartoum &
Rejaf,
Sudan
[written in:] “We have no
more valued workers than your daughter.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
[Separate
info. page]
AFRICA
INLAND MISSION
Tribes
Size(a)
Mission
Stations
Missionaries(b)
N.E.&T(c)
Native
(d) Christians
Akamba
222,000
6
20
28
118
Kikuyu
75,000*
4
18
46
167
Masai
50,000
1
2
2
4
Il
Uasin Gishu
12,000
1
2
1
10
Lumbwa
35,000
1
2
1
8
Nandi
32,000
2
2
3
Kamasai
30,000
2
2
Il
Geyo
10,000
1
Luo
40,000
1
3
50
73
Wanyamwezi
300,000
3
11
54
304
Dalur
200,000?
5
14
20
28
Lendu
100,000?
2
6
Bahuma
1
2
Babira
150,000
1
2
Lugbara
75,000
3
13
10
Logo
35,000
2
7
Logo
)
1
2
Mundu
5,000
)
1
3
Kakwa 15,000 )
2
Bangala
500
)
1
Azande
90,000
3
10
13
16
Momvu
15,000 )
Mangutu
5,000
)
1
4
Mara
5,000 )
Dongo
6,000 )
(a) Includes men, women and
children, but the numbers are in most cases only estimates, it
being
impossible to know the exact number.
(b)
Number actually at work May 1st,
1920.
(c) Native Evangelists
and
Teachers.
(d) Baptized
Communicants.
* Number in the
territory
occupied by A.I.M.
|