Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-08-30
AFRICAN CHURCH ON WHEELS
(To Be Continued).

AFRICAN CHURCH ON WHEELS.
Missionaries Following the Cape te
Cairo Road.
The great distances between the
South African townships, in which
whites and blacks live side by side. has
suggested novel and practical mission
which takes the form of railway car
riages, capable Of being hitched at a
moments notice to passenger or freight
trains between Cape Town and the
Zambesi.
Between the townships English set
tiers are scattered in this way. Every
five miles or so along the line there
may be a cottage occupied by a white
plate layer and his family, with close
by a half dozen native huts filled to
overlooking. Near the stations or sid
ings, every twenty miles, two or three
white families are found, while rail-
way camps or villages stand from sew
enty to a hundred miles apart. Here
the drivers, guards and other en-
ployees have their homes.
Then there are any number of lonely
farms, stores, inns and police camps
All of these are utterly beyond the or
binary ministrations of the church, and
the Cape to Cairo railway Is always
opening up new centres. In spite OF
free passage granted by the Cape gov
ernment railways to spiritual pioneers
Il was found hopeless to deal with the
mixed population of English, Dutch and
natives scattered along 1000 miles OF
line.
For three years the Rev Douglas FL
lison, who with the Rev. p. B. Simeon
was the first in his vast field, traversed
his parish once every three months
by goods train, by railway trolley or on
foot. He visited the lonely CANCERS In
the stations, the railway camps and
villages baptizing and teaching chill
dren. celebrating weddings, burying the
dead and holding services in waiting
rooms or even freight sheds.
At last the Cape government gave
Mr.. Ellison a coach, and later on the
Bishop OF Grahamstown lent a small
cottage to serve as a mission house
Just after the war Mr.. Ellison was in
vited by the bishops Of Pretoria and
Mashonaland to extend operations into
their diocese, and now there is Sec
ond railway coach whirling through
the Transvaal and third in Rhodesia
These missions on Wheels" are serv-
ed by nine English pastors, deacon
three or four laymen. five native cate
chists and two women.
The railway coaches, without which
this work would be impossible, form
small peripatetic homes on wheels, and
one of them-"No. 404"-is known
throughout nearly one-half Of the DARK
Continent. 1t contains state draw
ing room and bed room IN one, an en-
trance hall, a sitting room and bed
room for the native catechists, kitch-
en-, bathroom and store room. This
sounds very opulent, indeed, until one
realizes that all these apartments are
contained within length Of twenty
feet! No wonder Mr.. Batty. working
| in Natal. says he found it difficult tc
get a Sunday school Of fourteen chill
dren into the state drawing room
and that he was almost tempted to pu
the little ones in the luggage racks.
A small Zulu boy travels with eacf
son the offices of cook, housemaid, but
Ter and valet. These homes on wheel:
sound very interesting. yet travelling
over immense distances day and nigh
| IS ineXpresSibly wearisOme, so hot ant
cramped are the coaches.
1t is hoped to extend the work pro
portionately with the new railway con
struction, of which no less than 2,OO'
miles is projected for the next few
years. This will take these churcf
homes on wheels away up into the
Great Lakes of central Africa, and II
| due time they will doubtless reacf
Khartum itself. Each coach has it
| own crew, who fare forth on the ole
gospel principle, two by two on bea
Of a thousand miles.
They move quietly along, establish
ing friendly relations with the railway
side populations, and watching no
only new railway developments, bu
also opportunities Of organizing mor
permanent and settled ministrations
The coaches are loaded with Literature
of various kinds, old magazines ant
weekly papers being much appreciated
by the isolated people, and also in tn
camps of the South African constab
ulary, which are often near the rail
way.
One can well imagine how warml,
"OId 404" must be welcomed, as sh
trundles up to some remote siding: AM
ir this welcome is often enough tn
nucleus of a church. The first meeting
may be under the dazzling skies of Ar
rica. Then comes some old goods shed
decently garnished and decorated wit
flowers. The next stage is an humbl
enough little chapel, and later on come
a regular church-which in one classi
instance was built of nothing NOR
substantial than brown felt.
Indeed at Kilplaat at this momen
may be seen quite a handsome littl
church constructed entirely of wir
wove felt and a few laths.