Three weeks later C.T. was on the move again. It was time for a wedding, and so they made their way to Niangara, where the new Belgian district commissioner and the district judge lived. Count de Grunne, the old district commissioner who had been so helpful to C.T. when he first arrived in the region, had died of blackwater fever several months before.
Edith’s arrival in Niangara caused quite a stir, because she and the other two women in the group were the only white women in the Congo. The Belgian government had not permitted any other women, including the wives of their officials, to travel to the country. The government maintained that the Congo was not civilized enough for women.
Because of this, Edith and Alfred’s wedding was the first white wedding to be held in the heart of the Congo. Two days after Christmas 1916, the wedding took place in two stages. The first stage was a church service held in the little mission station built by C.T. and Alfred and previously named Buckingham Palace. Stepping inside the mud building brought back many memories to C.T. The locals, both Christians and non-Christians, crowded in to watch the spectacle. About halfway through the service, an overloaded bench snapped in half, and thirty Africans fell to the floor. Once it was established that no one was hurt, the service continued. Later that day, ten Belgian officials gathered with the missionaries to witness the district commissioner carry out the legal ceremony. The officials were all arrayed in their white dress uniforms, replete with medals, for the historic occasion. Tea and wedding cake followed.
Alfred and Edith honeymooned on a nearby island while C.T. returned to Nala, now the headquarters of the mission. The locals there soon dubbed C.T. Bwana Mukubwa—Great White Chief.
Chapter 14
God Is to Be Found in Nala
In front of C.T. stood eighty-one Africans, all waiting to be baptized. C.T. had spoken to each one personally, listening to his or her testimony and questioning his or her understanding of the Bible. Some candidates were old, others young. Many were humble jungle dwellers, while three of them were important chiefs. This made C.T. very happy. C.T. believed that their willingness to be baptized at the same time spoke volumes about their understanding of being brothers and sisters in Christ. He was satisfied that they all understood the step they were taking. Now, as hymn after hymn was sung, each candidate waded into a pool in the river and was baptized. It reminded C.T. of the time twelve years before when he had baptized all four of his daughters in India.
Within a week of being baptized, several people told C.T. that they were now ready to go out and preach the gospel to their tribes and even to tribes farther away. C.T. was delighted and called a meeting for all those who felt led to become missionaries. About twenty people, their faces shining, showed up for the meeting. Sambo, the first convert at Nala, was among their number.
This was more than C.T. had hoped for, and he became very excited about the amount of work that so many on-fire Christians could accomplish. Soon the details were worked out. Each native missionary would be paid three francs and be expected to stay away for three months. The money would be enough to cover the cost of food if the missionary was careful. Each man or woman would travel light, carrying a grass mat for a bed and a second one for a blanket. Each would also take with him or her a jungle knife and an enamel cup.
A month later C.T. gathered the twenty new missionaries together under a mango tree. This was their last meeting, and C.T. had some advice for them. He wiped his brow and began.
“This is my final advice to you, so listen carefully. One. If you don’t desire to meet the devil during the day, meet Jesus before dawn. Two. If you don’t want the devil to hit you, hit him first and with all your might so that he may be too crippled to hit back. ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the devil fears and hates. Three. If you don’t want to fall, walk, and walk straight and fast. Four. Three of the devil’s dogs with which he hunts us are a swelled head, laziness, and cupidity. Now, I want to pray for you all, as you know I will continue to do each day you are gone.”
After the prayer several of the missionaries rushed up to C.T. One of them asked, “How long are we to stay out in the jungle?”
“If you are tired, return at the end of one month. If you are not, return at the end of two, and if you can stick it out for three, well done!” C.T. replied.
“Oh, no!” one man exclaimed. “I won’t be back for a year.”
“Then I’m not coming back for eighteen months,” a second man responded.
C.T. smiled at their enthusiasm. He visited as many of the native missionaries as he could during the following weeks, and he marveled at the sacrifices they were making and the results they were reaping. He seldom stopped to think that they were merely following his example.
Sambo, who encountered a lot of opposition from a local chief, reported to C.T., “There is nothing outside that can take away the joy inside.”
On April 14, 1917, C.T. sat down at his folding table and began to write.
The work here is a marvel, quite beyond my conception; the finger of God is writ all over it. We arrived here two strangers three and a half years ago, the natives sunk in sin unprintable, the medium of communications to be learned, yet there are just upon 100 baptized converts. Many Chiefs are beginning to build schools and other houses at their centers, that we may go and instruct their people. Everywhere we have an open door for ourselves and our native Christians.
As the native missionaries returned to Nala, many of them put their entire three months’ pay back into the offering. They had not spent a penny of it. Their stories inspired many others, and by August fifty more people wanted to be baptized, and many of them wanted to go out as missionaries as well. C.T., Alfred, and the others all labored to prepare them for the task.
As the church grew, people begged to be taught how to read the Bible, and two schools, one for boys and one for girls, were started.
By May 1918, one year later, people were streaming into Nala from the outlying villages. Amazingly, as word spread, some came from even farther afield. A group of four men walked for twenty days to get to Nala. When they arrived, they told C.T., “We have come because all the world knows that the knowledge of God is to be found in Nala.”
Baptisms were now being held every Sunday, and chiefs came to Nala in person to ask for missionaries to come to their villages. Some of them announced that they had already built a chapel and a mission house for their missionary!
The following month C.T. went on one of his bicycle tours, which took him to the village of Deti in Ituri province. C.T. explained the gospel to the chief and his head wife. The chief’s wife understood it instantly and became very excited. “I always said there should be a god like that!” she exclaimed.
Soon the chief had heard enough to offer C.T. a plot of land if someone would come and teach his village. C.T. decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up, and so when he returned to Nala, he dispatched the Ellises, a married couple, to set up a mission station in Deti.
Six months later C.T. returned to Deti to see the progress the Ellises had made. What he saw astonished him. One of the first converts was a blind man named Ndabani. When Ndabani was a teenager, someone had rubbed hot peppers in his eyes to prevent him from ever becoming chief. Now he was a chief among the growing number of Christians in Deti.
On Sunday morning C.T. watched as people began to arrive soon after dawn for the weekly worship service. By the time the service began, the meetinghouse was so tightly packed that C.T. had difficulty weaving his way through the crowd to get to the pulpit.
From the pulpit C.T. preached a sermon that was translated into the local Kingwana language. Even though an interpreter had to be used, the local people sat in rapt silence, their eyes fastened on C.T. At the end of the meeting, C.T. prayed that the Deti church would soon be sending out missionaries of its own.
From Deti C.T. hurried back to Nala. A special event was about to take place. C.T.’s daughter Edith was about to give birth—to the first white child born in the Congo. C.T. arrived in Nala just in time for his granddaughter Susan’s arrival. Soon after, a special prayer meeting was held to thank God for the safe delivery of the child.
Prayer meetings were also held for other reasons. One of the most frequent reasons was the need for staff for the school. Since none of the adults in the village had ever been to school themselves, they could not read or write and so could not be trained as schoolteachers. And because of the war in Europe, no new missionary recruits had arrived in over a year and a half.
Sometimes workers appeared from the most unlikely places. One day a man, his wife, and a porter arrived at Nala. The man introduced himself as Gamutu from the Asande tribe. He got straight to the point. “Bwana,” he said to C.T., “I have walked two hundred miles to come and hear about God. I was in my village when a man came through and told us that at Nala you taught about God. I have always wanted to know about God, so my wife and I packed up at once, and here we are. When is the first lesson?”
C.T. laughed with joy at Gamutu’s enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before his laughter turned to deep admiration as he became aware of Gamutu’s natural leadership ability and his quick mind. Within a year Gamutu had risen to the position of head of the boys’ school.
It was a good thing that the native people were taking on positions of responsibility in the church and the school, because the time had come for Alfred and Edith to take a furlough. Alfred had been living in the Congo for five years by now, and it was time for a break. C.T. hoped that while Alfred was away in England, he would stir up interest in the work in the Congo and bring back a fresh group of recruits with him.
On the morning that Alfred, Edith, and baby Susan were due to leave, a huge meeting was held in the church. Hundreds of people came to say good-bye to them. C.T. spoke briefly at the service.
“Alfred has been to me as a loyal son and heart companion,” he began. “None but God can ever know the deep and spiritual communion, for no words can describe it. To Alfred’s nursing and care, under God, I certainly owe my life.”
When C.T. finished speaking, Alfred asked for him to lay hands on his head and offer a last prayer.
C.T. walked over to Alfred and said, “I will pray only if you do as I ask you. Stand on your chair.”
Obediently, but a little bewildered, Alfred climbed up onto his chair. Then C.T. stooped down and laid his hands on Alfred’s feet. Tears fell freely as he prayed that God would keep Alfred, Edith, and Susan safe and bring them home to Nala.
C.T. was surprised how lonely he felt without Alfred by his side, but good news soon cheered him up. The Great War was finally over, and Priscilla wrote, promising to send more missionaries by early 1920. Among the new missionaries who arrived was C.T.’s daughter Pauline and her husband, Norman Grubb.
It was as if a fresh wind were blowing in England, and Priscilla’s letters were filled with optimism and hope. Gilbert Barclay, Dorothy’s husband, was now chairman of the board of the Heart of Africa Mission. C.T. was delighted, especially because Gilbert had the same vision to see H.A.M. expanded around the world. In keeping with this goal, Gilbert lobbied to have H.A.M.’s name changed to Worldwide Evangelism Crusade, or WEC for short.
Letters followed, detailing plans for making WEC an international organization. The organization purchased the house at number 19 Highland Road to serve as an overflow for the missionary guests who now streamed through the Studd house. Then, later in 1920 Priscilla and Alfred went on a tour of the United States to recruit missionaries and rally financial support for the work in the Congo and the new work in the Amazon Basin in South America that WEC planned to start.
