Newsletters from a Salvation Army woman officer in Zambia (7) 1971-73

After returning from six months’ “Homeland Furlough” in 1970 and a short return to Bulawayo, my parents were promoted to Brigadiers and appointed Officers Commanding, Zambia Command, based in Lusaka, the capital city. They were there for just over two years (1971-73), after which their last appointment was in South Africa. After three years working in the Magistrates’ Courts and becoming a public prosecutor in 1970, I moved to Vereeniging in South Africa to attend a small Pentecostal Bible College in March 1971. Carol had begun nursing training in Salisbury, but withdrew and would pick it up again in Canada after she moved there with her husband and daughter in 1980. After a few years in Canada, they moved to the United States and live on the south-western coast of Florida.

P.O. Box RW 193
Ridgeway, Lusaka.
Zambia.

June 1971.

This is the first opportunity I have had of writing to our friends since we arrived in Zambia, as we have been kept very busy. We had a long wait before we could get visas to enter Zambia and were beginning to wonder if we would ever get in, but knew that if the Lord wanted us here we would get in eventually. We arrived here at last on March 25th, and that first weekend had our official welcome at Chikankata Hospital and Secondary School. This is a splendid centre of S.A. activity, and there is an excellent team of officers and lay staff from all parts of the world. …

We are soldiers at the Lusaka City Corps which is a fine example of a multiracial corps, English speaking. …

We spent Easter weekend on the Copperbelt right up in the north near the Congo border, and it was a joy to meet the Salvationists up there. … On Easter Sunday morning we had a sunrise service in the marketplace in Ndola.

…

Keith and I have just returned from a 9-day trek in the Gwembe Valley, where we had a wonderful time. Since our schools down there were taken over by the Government, there has been little Army work done there, and we only have 2 officers for 9 centres. We had a wonderful reception wherever we went, and the people are hungry for the Gospel. … The people told us that they thought the Salvation Army had forgotten them, and wanted us to send them leaders, but we just haven’t got them. … During the daytime we visited in the villages and fields. I was unable to hold any Home League meetings as the women were living in the fields, guarding their crops from elephants, but we visited them in their fields and villages, and each night had a village meeting round a huge log fire with crowds attending. … We thank God that over 200 adults, including a number of headmen, and over 500 Y.P. sought the Lord during our trek in the Valley. We are so grateful to the Lord, and felt all the battling with terrible roads, getting stuck at a river, sleeping in classrooms, getting covered in dust, was all so worth while to win these people to the Lord. …

We are overjoyed that there is a prospect of opening our Training College in September this year… and we hope to have four couple in the first session. We are desperately in need of Officers, as none have been trained in Zambia since Independence [in 1964]. Will you join with us in praying that the right young people will come forward.

Allan is very happily settled in Bible College in South Africa, and Carol is working in Salisbury, and living in a bachelor flat. We are hoping she will be able to come and visit us for the Rhodes and Founders holiday weekend. 

P.O. Box RW 193
Ridgeway
LUSAKA.

November 1971

It hardly seems possible that Christmas is almost on us again and I must send greetings to our many friends. We have had a very full and interesting time since I last wrote and we thank God for the strength He has given to us to keep up the pace. We have now visited every part of our work in Zambia and have a better idea of the position, the needs and problems to be faced. We have had some wonderful experience as we have travelled round the country in some of the remote country areas, and the evening village meetings with crowds of men, women and children gathering round huge log fires coming to the Lord. …

… On another occasion we found that all the women had gone to a certain village for the initiation ceremony of a teenage girl, so I could not have the Home League at the usual place, so went to this village. The girl was due to come out from the hut that day having been confined there for several weeks, and all the women were dancing the traditional dance for such an occasion, stripped to the waist and with grass skirts. I joined the dancing women and waited until they had finished the dance, then asked them to come and listen for a short while, which they did, also many of the men. They were preparing the feast and beer, tremendously big pots of African beer, and a huge pot from which they pulled out 24 cooked chickens! …I asked permission of the Father to enter the hut to see the girl, which was gladly given. I found the girl wrapped in a blanket and with four teenage girls … ready to bring her out with dancing at the appropriate time. I spoke to her about the Lord… not only she but her four companions said they wanted to be Christians, so I had the joy of leading these five teenagers to the Lord. …

The highlight of the year has been the opening of the Zambian Training College, and we now have two fine married couples in training. A third couple was accepted but he went and got himself another wife just before the session started, so their case had to be dropped. This is a real problem in Zambia… drunkenness is the curse of this country and Government officials are constantly appealing for people not to get drunk, as the accident rate is enormously high. …

…

…

…

Keith and the General Secretary will shortly be going to Nairobi for the Africa Zonal Conference with the Chief of the Staff. He is happy to visit the place again where he first felt the Lord leading him into the Army when he was in the forces there [during World War 2]. Allan writes very happily from the Bible College. Carol is in Salisbury [Harare] working in the Accounts Office of Lever Bros. She was able to spend a holiday weekend with us and it was lovely to have her with us again.

We need the prayers of our friends so much. …

We pray that Christmas may be full of the joy and peace of Bethlehem, and the New Year full of rich blessing.

P.O. Box RW 193,
Ridgeway,
LUSAKA. ZAMBIA.

November 1972.

We have had a very busy and eventful year, but very happy in the opportunities of service for the Lord. The first term of the year we had the two children of Captain Hetherington of Chikankata, living with us, as when they got back to the Boarding School they found that the food in the hostel had been changed to Zambian diet – thick porridge etc. With a boy and girl in the house again it took me back a few years. … Education for our overseas children is becoming an increasing problem.

We have had much joy in going on trek with the District Officers who are in the first year in that position, and the joy of seeing men, women, boys and girls seeking the Lord cannot be surpassed. Some of the roads on which we travel have to be seen to be believed….

It has been a great joy to visit Government Boarding (Secondary) Schools once each term and to witness the enthusiastic way these young folk are taking hold of Christianity. …

…

During the week I do full-time at C.H.Q. as Secretary to the General Secretary, and the work has certainly increased this year. I also take classes at the Training College where we have two second year couples and three first year couples. They are so badly needed as we are so short of Zambian officers. I also act as Secretary of several Boards so that keeps me busy. We have commenced a monthly meeting with the nurses who are working in Lusaka and it has been good to link them up. My husband [now 55 years old] took part in a 30 mile walk from Lusaka to Kafue to raise money, and in spite of skinned feet and dehydrated body he finished the course, and we have been grateful for those who have sponsored him

We do pray that this Christmas may be full of the peace of the Lord.

This was the last newsletter written from Zambia.

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