Newsletters from a Salvation Army woman officer in Southern Rhodesia -- ( 1) 1955-56
EXCERPTS FROM NEWSLETTERS TO HER FRIENDS 1955-1991
by GWENYTH (STARBUCK) ANDERSON
Edited by Allan H. Anderson
Note: Salvation Army Captains Gwen and Keith
Anderson and their children Allan (4) and Carol (1) arrived at Howard
Institute, their first appointment, in January 1954, as Training Officers for
the Officer Training College there. Howard is around 80 km from present-day
Harare, then known as Salisbury. Southern Rhodesia is today’s Zimbabwe.
All paragraphs are as
they appear, and missing sentences and paragraphs are indicated with ellipses.
Any explanatory insertions by me are in italics.
The Howard Institute
P.O. Glendale
S. RHODESIA
29th May, 1955.
We owe so many letters and life is such a rush over here
that I am having to send a duplicated one so that you can know what we are doing
out here. Life on this place is certainly not a life of ease, but it is a grand
life.
We had an unusually heavy rainy season, and travelling was
very bad, many times we were stuck on the road, and on one occasion had to wade
through a swollen river, the water coming to our waists. Now we are in the
midst of our dry season, and everywhere is getting dusty and brown. At least it
is a change from mud, mud, mud!
Allan has started lessons with the Correspondence School
this year, and I have to do two hours with him each morning. He is doing quite
well really, at least other people say he is, although his Mother expects
perfection, and he gets into trouble when he does not achieve it. Carol has
developed into a proper little girl, and is no longer a baby. She is talking
very well now, and speaks whole long sentences quite distinctly.
I am doing all the Secretarial and postal work of the
Institute, and there has certainly been an increase in the work in that
direction this year. I usually teach Allan from 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. then go
over to the office from 9.45 a.m. to lunch time. The Corps Cadets [young people being trained as lay leaders] this
year are bringing me much joy, we have over 60 of them, most of them being
teachers in training or nurses, or Standard 6. It is really grand to see the
way they respond.
We have 11 married Cadets [Officer Candidates] in Training this year, and they are doing very
well. The highlight for us all at the T.C. [Training
College] has been the 10 day campaign, from which we have just recently
returned. Officer friends on this place kindly looked after Allan and Carol for
me so that I could go with Keith and the Cadets, and we truly had a most
wonderful time. We went into the Urungwe district … There were over 500 adult
seekers, about 250 new cases of conversion, and over and over again we saw
heathen coming to the Lord for the first time. … at Charles Clack, many new
people came to the Lord, and after the afternoon meeting we had a public
burning of witchcraft charms surrendered by 7 converts. Two of these women were
“possessed” by evil spirits and were taken hold of when the things were being
burned, and the Cadets held them down and prayed and struggled with them for a long
time, both gaining the victory. … I wish you could have witnessed some of those
night scenes as the Prayer Meeting commenced in the firelight, when many came
to the Lord for the first time, and many became “possessed by evil spirits” and
lay on the ground under this power. This “evil spirit” possession is very real
out here, and having witnessed and taken part myself in this struggle with
these people, I feel convinced that it is a thing of the Devil which takes hold
of the minds of these poor darkened people … the shrieks of torment coming from
them are terrible to hear, counteracted by the praying and singing of the
Cadets, then the peace and calm when they believe that God’s power has removed
the evil spirit from them, is really wonderful to behold. …
… In our village we gathered all the women into, a little
round place with no windows, only a small opening for the door, and you have to
stoop down to get inside, and there I sat on a bamboo mat on the floor with
these women, and after the Cadet and his wife had spoken to them I spoke to
them in halting Cizezuru [a Shona
dialect] about Jesus. Oh, the thrill of being able to speak a little in
their own language to them…
The last weekend was spent in Sinoia [now Chinhoyi, the place of their second appointment, 1956-59), where most of the work was done in the location, very different from the villages, but her again there were many seekers. … I could go on telling you wonderful stories of the things that happened but my space has gone, but I thank God for the privilege of taking the gospel to the heathen and seeing them come to God. [END]
****
Note: “Reserve” refers to what used to be called the “Native Reserves” later called “Tribal Trust Lands” by the colonial government at the time. “Corps” refers to a local church in the Salvation Army.
Box 33,
SINOIA, S. RHODESIA.
3rd June, 1956.
I am sorry that I have been so long in sending you the usual
newsletter but this year has been so busy. You will see from the above address
that we have moved from Howard. We came to Sinoia on 1st May, and
now have charge of the Lomagundi Division. We were very sorry to leave the
Howard Institute, as we had a very happy stay there, and I was sorry to leave
my Corps Cadets particularly. However we had to be good Soldiers and go when
told to do so. There is a tremendous challenge in this district and we feel so
inadequate to meet the need.
We had a good finish up at Howard. … we had 115 Corps Cadets
in the Howard Brigade this year, all very keen and all doing lessons, a good
percentage of them teachers in training and nurses. A number of these Corps
Cadets have offered for Officership and one feels that there is more hope for the
African people through these educated consecrated young people than through
anything else.
We are finding life at Sinoia very different from life at
Howard. Sinoia is a nice little town with quite a large white population. It
has only one main street of shops, but a very nice hospital and an open air
swimming pool, which is only a few yards up the road from us, to the delight of
our two youngsters, also a good school. Allan started at the school here last
week, and is very happy and seems to be doing well. Out here they go to school
from 8 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. each day. Allan will not have to go to Boarding
School, at least for Junior School. It means of course, that I am somewhat
handicapped from getting out into the Division with my husband, as he has to be
out for long periods, and I cannot leave Allan who comes home mid-day. I feel
very bad about that as I feel the women in the Reserve need the D.O. [Divisional Officer]‘s wife, but I shall
just go when I can, during the school holidays. I feel that perhaps my chief
work at the moment is in training my children, for I did rather neglect them at
Howard doing a fulltime job.
…
Our next weekend we spent at Zimbara, a Corps where a couple
of our last year’s Cadets are stationed, and doing a grand job. … We are the
only Mission in that Reserve and there are hundreds and hundreds of people
there. It is right in the wilds, some parts thick forest, and the very night we
were sleeping there they killed 5 elephants just across the hill from us. The
road to reach the Corps is terrible and one has to go at a snail’s pace to get
there at all. We got stuck in two rivers on the way. I led a Home League Meeting
[Women’s Association] on the Saturday
afternoon whilst Keith went to one of the outposts [preaching point] where he had hundreds attending. That night we slept
in a school room, no door or window, just open spaces for doors and windows,
hence no privacy whatsoever. The children slept on a mattress in the back of
the truck and thought it was good fun. On Sunday morning we had a 2 mile march
through the forest to the Open Air [outdoor
service] in the Headman’s village … Carol was carried on the back of one of
the African girls, but Allan marched holding the hand of the African Lieut. of whom
he is very fond.
…
Last Sunday we were in Salisbury
where we went to meet my Mother [Colonel
Lily Starbuck] who arrived that day. It was a real thrill to see her again
and is bringing us all great joy to have her with us until the end of January.
My husband went off on trek last Monday and will not be back until Tuesday of
this week. This is the part I do not like. … I cannot go with him as Allan has
to be at school. … [END]
Box 33,
SINOIA.
10 November 1956.
It hardly seems possible that it is time to send out my
Christmas letters again, but the last day for posting to the U.K. is next week.
I find myself pretty fully occupied these days, with one thing or another. I
try to do as much of the office work for Keith as I can, as he is away most of
the time in the Division. He is home for one or two days then off for eight or
ten days, and it is like that all the time. Our rains have arrived this week,
and it is so refreshing after the heat of last month.
Life has been more hectic than usual for us because we are
having to supervise the Urungwe District as well as our own while their D.O. is
on Homeland Furlough. That area is a great challenge because many hundreds of
Africans are being moved into that Reserve from the Zambezi Valley because of
the big Kariba Gorge scheme. [Italian
engineers were building what was the largest human-made reservoir/ dam in
Africa, now Lake Kariba between Zimbabwe and Zambia]. …
…
…
…
We had a marvellous holiday in August at the Victoria Falls
as we particularly wanted Mother to see the Falls. The Falls are really
magnificent and an awe-inspiring sight. We stayed in the Rest Camp on the
Northern Rhodesia [Zambia] side. This
camp is right by the Zambezi, quite near to the Falls, with every convenience
even Vi-spring mattresses on the beds! There are outside fireplaces to cook
your food, as well as separate bathrooms with hot and cold water, and flush
latrines. It was great fun camping, and of course was much more within the
means of S.A. Officers than anywhere else. We also went to the Wankie (Hwange)
Game Reserve and were most fortunate in seeing almost every kind of game, two
magnificent lions within 20 yds. of us (I have discovered how to keep our two
youngsters quiet for 20 minutes – produce two full sized lions at close
proximity – for neither Allan nor Carol uttered a sound as these two lions sat
and looked at us for 20 minutes). We also saw 3 lionesses, as well as herds of
elephants, giraffes, zebra, warthogs also every kind of buck from the small
graceful impala to the mighty wildebeest. The most terrifying experiences [sic.] was when a herd of buffalo of
between 200 and 300 charged across the road in front of us, then stopped and
faced us, one old bull who seemed to be the leader in front, and we were not
sure whether the whole lot were going to charge us at any moment. …
…
I have started a Sunday School on Sunday mornings with the
white children here who do not attend the Anglican Church or Dutch Reformed
Church. Allan’s Headmaster has very kindly allowed me to use the Prep. Room in
the Boys’ Hostel, and we have over 50 children there every Sunday. I also take
the same group for Scripture during on Thursday during school time. They are
very keen and I feel it is something I can do for the Lord during term time
when I must be home to look after Allan.
Allan and Carol are both well, although they have both had
Scarlet Fever recently. They spend a good deal of their time in the Open Air
Swimming Baths just up the road from us. Allan can swim a little, and Carol can
almost, and it is good for them, and they can’t get into much mischief while
they are there. Allan is very happy at school. He is a prolific reader and
reads book after book in a very short time far in advance of his 7 years. It is
quite a job to keep up with his demand for books. His teacher [Miss Frances McConaughey from Northern
Ireland, later Mrs Gresty] told me that the Inspector dropped on Allan to
read when he inspected their class, and he read perfectly for him, not knowing
of course who he was. The Inspector then thought the whole class could read
well, but the teacher told me she was glad the Inspector dropped on Allan as
some of them are awful readers. It is a good job he did not look at his
Arithmetic book or it would have been a different story!
It has been lovely having Mother
with us, and she will be leaving here on January 22nd. to go to
Johannesburg for a few days before sailing back home. We are so glad she has
been able to come and see us here and now has some idea of the African work. [END]
****
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