THE CALL TO AFRICA
THE DARK CONTINENT
I had been in New Zealand two years and four months, and when I returned to the United States, I had no car and no money. It was far too expensive to bring my car back with me, especially since it had so many miles on it, so I donated it to Brother Rudolf.
But, praise God, He always provides, and Brother Dale Davis' group, which had been helping finance my ministry, had held aside some of the money for me to use when I returned. So, that money served as a down payment on a 1968 Volkswagon. Once again, I was off to minster wherever the Father sent me.
While I was traveling, the Inner Voice began to to speak to me about going across the waters to a dark continent. I could not believe it. Surely, He didn't mean the Congo. I had been praying fervently about going back to New Zealand. However, God soon began to confirm through others that I was to go to Africa.
One day, I was in the home of a dear Indian brother, and he was just walking back and forth, and I knew he wanted to tell me something. Sometimes you just have to help them a little bit to speak out, so I said, "Brother, is there something you want to tell me.?"
He said, "Yes. When I got up this morning, it seemed to me that the Lord was speaking to me to tell you that you are going to go across the waters to a dark continent."
Well, I began to cry, because I knew that this was confirmation. I've learned through the years not to move until I have that inner witness, and that good feeling of peace.
At the time this confirmation came, I was living with Sister Rhoda Geeson in Morango Valley. She had invited me to come and live with her after her dear husband, William, had gone to his reward. She and her children were so loving; they made me feel like one of the family.
One morning as I was waking up, I heard the word, "Ghana", and I knew that must be a place in Africa. When I got up, Rhoda and I looked in an old atlas trying to find Ghana, but we couldn't locate it anywhere. Then a neighbor lady came over and we told her what we were doing. She said, "A lot of those old names have been changed since the African people have been getting their freedom and forming their own governments. I have the National Geographic Magazine and there is a new map of Africa in there." So, she ran home and came back with that map, and we looked, and sure enough, we found Ghana. It's on the west coast of Africa. Originally it was called the Ivory Coast. I now had my confirmation that God was truly speaking to me.
Well, I didn't have any contact over there, so I was just waiting and the next day, I received a magazine called The Harvest Messenger, published by Douglas and Nellie Wilson who were very dear friends of mine. The article gave a short resume of some of their work and listed different states and countries where the magazine was being sent. In the list was the name Ghana. Then, I remembered how the Wilsons had gone to Africa and established a work there.
So, I wrote to them and soon received a letter back saying that they had written to Reverend Chris Diaba and his wife, Julianna, who were in charge of the work in Ghana. And they said that I would be getting a letter from them.
In about a month or so, I got a letter from Reverend Diaba and Reverend T. C. Asuma who were in charge, saaying that they really wanted me to come and minsiter in their missions. They had sixty-two missions operating under the name of the New Covenant Mission, Incorporated.
While I was preparing to go to Ghana, I came in contact with the Pittsburgh Bible Institute located in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. They had a large work in the Congo and had accumulated a district of over two thousand villages where there were a great number of converts.
GHANA
Finally, in 1971, the way was made for me to go to Africa. I had a glorious reception in Ghana. The peopole were so loving and concerned for me, because I was alone, and I was the only white person among them. As the natives took charge of their own government, all the foreigners had to leave; only the native born were permitted to remain. To be the only white person there came as a shock to me. I thought there would be at least a few whites, but there wasn't one.
Any apprehension I may have had soon was overcome by their loving care of me. They watched that I didn't drink the wrong water or eat the wrong food; they treated me as though I was very, very precious. And that is the way I felt about them.
Before I went to Africa, I began asking the Lord, "What do yo want me to do in Africa?" And the Lord made it clear to me that I was to go and brinig forth the message of God's love, mercy, and grace unto all. Furthermore, I had come into the revelation that the Christ was being formed in me. So, that was the message that the Lord gave me and I ministered it everywhere.
Traveling to the different mission, I saw how eager the little children were to learn. They all wanted to be educated, but all couldn't leave home to go to school. So, the children who had been in school two or three years sat on the ground and wrote the numbers and the alphabet in the dirt to teach the other children how to read and write and do numbers.
THE CONGO
Then I journeyed on to the Congo by jet by way of Kinchasha, the capital of the Congo. At one time it was called Leopold. From Kinchasha I took a smaller plane inland to Kindu where I was met my Sister Helen Hoffman who had been a missionary in that area for about fifty years. We travelled by Land Rover a hundred and fifty miles to the Shabunda Mission Station. This is a large compound run at that time by Marion Hutchenson, Helen Hoffman, and Grace Hunt.
Grace had been born in Africa. Her father and mother were one of the first pioneer missionaries to the Congo. She was like a native. And Helen had been there so many years that she was like a native also. Marion Hutchenson had been sent out by the Pittsburgh Bible Institute to be one of the teachers because this compound had a school as well as a church. Iin addition, they had built some nice apartments for the missionaries. It was really a lovely mission station.
TRAVELLING BY SAFARI
They knew that I wasn't going to stay there, so they had arranged to have a missionary safari for me. Grace was to go with me as my interpreter. In addition to her, there was a driver who also served as a mechanic and another native, a dwarf, who could cook, set up bedding and do laundry.
We traveled over three thousand kilometers, going from village to village. Of course, we couldn't stop at all the villages, but we would send the news ahead telling them which village we would be in, so they could be a little prepared for us. The way they would relay the message was by drums. Of course, all the villages in between could hear that drum message, too. So as we travelled, we had to stop at every village along the way, because the people would stand out in the road and wouldn't let us get through until we would get out of the van and sing a song or two and have prayer. And all the children would gather around and push forward to be right up close to me. They always wanted to touch me, especially my gray hair. It was just wonderful how those dear people received me.
The very first night we arrived at this Congo village where they had an arbor, and they had gathered flowers and put them around the doorway as a sign of welcome.
We were very close to the Equator where there is no twilight and no dawn, so everything has to be done before the sun goes down because it gets pitch black very quickly. At six o'clock in the evening, the sun set and it was dark, and at six o'clock in the morning the sun was up, and it was instantly bright.
The first night, we had our supper, and our beds had been put up in our little native thatched roof home. We had one window that had a shutter, and that shutter would block out all the light. It was really dark in there. I was glad we brought flashlights. Well, I bedded down on my cot, and there was mosquito netting all around me which I had tucked under me. But sometime during the night, something crawled on the top of the blanket; I could feel these little feet like something running. Oh, did it scare me! I sat right up, and I almost screamed. Chills charged up and down my spine. I frantically groped for my flashlight, but by the time I found it, whatever it was was gone. Then I noticed that there was a little hole in the netting where it could come through. It was probably either a little mouse or a rat. After that, I just lay there and shook all over. Finally, in order to calm myself, I started to sing a chorus about Jesus. I began the song in English, but then I put Congalese words to it.
The next morning in the service, I taught the people the little song in Congolese. Well, they picked that chorus up right away, and just about every village I would go to would already know it. That's how quickly that word would spread.
LIFE WITH THE AFRICAN PEOPLE
When I think back on those things I went through, it was just amazing. The roads through the jungle were so bad that the natives would reach our destination on foot before we could get there by vehicle. They would just outrun the van. I guess we couldn't average any more than ten miles in an hour. It was just one bump after another, and we would have to cross theses little rivers. There would be logs stretched across the water for each wheel to go over. You could see the water underneath the van and on each side of it. I was frightened at first, but they said, "Oh, its all right. It's all right, Sister Van. Our driver knows, he's done it a lot and he knows." Then we came to a place where the log was broken and we couldn't go across, so they chopped down a tree to make another log.
Furthermore, these natives were so kind, they always wanted to give me something. They would give me a gourd or a banana or anything they had. One time a little widow lady gave me an egg wrapped up in a leaf, tied up with a reed. I didn't want to accept it, because she probably didn't have an egg more than once a month. But Grace said, "Oh, you have to accept it. That's how you bless them. You're depriving them of a blessing if you don't take it.' So I had to learn to accept whatever they gave me graciously, knowing that God would give it back to them again in full measure, heaped up and running over. That's what the Bible says, "Give, and it shll be given to you again." So, I learned how to receive.
AFRICAN CUSTOMS
I found life in Africa to be very diffenent from what I had been used to. At six o'clock in the the morning a bell would ring, and the people in the village would have a prayer meeting.
Then the women and children would work all day cultivating vegetables and harvesting rice while the men went out to chop wood and prepare the ground. The men brought the wood home right before dark, just in time to build a fire to cook the one and only meal of the day. These dear people lived the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread..." Since there was no refrigeration or way of preserving food, they had to live one day at a time.
All the villages were very clean and neat. They were swept three or four times a day, because chickens and goats ran loose there.
Outside the village compound, there was an enclosed area used for bathing. There was a basin of soapy water to sponge off with and basin of clear water with which to rinse. That was the "shower". The "restroom" was a hole enclosed by bamboo on three sides.
The native men and women only had two garments - one for work and one for sleep. Since they had no way to sew or pin these strips of fabric, they simply wrapped them around their bodies and tucked the end in.
Because of the austerity of their lifestyle any kind of diversion such as a visiting missionary became a cause for a celebration, and people would be so eager to gather to hear the Word. Sometimes over a thousand people would stuff themselves into the building. Since it was impossible to count heads in the meeting, the natives each brought a leaf that was collected at the door, then the leaves were counted.
However, in spite of the meager way of life, these native villagers seemed to be very happy and contented. Not one ever asked me for anything. All they wanted to do was to see and hear and learn.
THE PEOPLE LEARN "CHRIST IN YOU"
One of the very exciting things that happened concerned a girl named Helena. One day, Grace came to me and said, "Dora, Helena want to ask you a question."
The first question she asked through Grace interpreting to me was, "Are you teaching Christ is living in you?"
And I said, "Yes".
Then, she asked, "Are you teaching that Christ is living in me?"
So I answered, "Yes".
She said, "Are you teaching that you are going to be in the image of Christ, to be like Him?"
And I answered, "Yes".
Then she looked me right in the eye, right up close, and said, "Are you teaching that I am going to look like Christ.?" She was having an awful struggle with this, because she was black and I'm white!
Then without batting an eye, I heard coming out of my mouth, "The color of the flower pot does not determine the color of the flower. The color is determined by the seed. You've been impregnated by the seed of Christ, and I've been impregnated by the seed of Christ, So you're going to look like that seed, and I'm going to look like that seed."
Well, she got excited and began to shout! Then she grabbed the loud speaker that was hooked up to a generator and she began to minister in the Congalese language. The people streamed back into the building, and the Spirit fell as Helena preached to them that Christ was in them. He came into them like a seed, and they were all going to look like that seed. And since Christ was in them, they also could do the works that we missionaries were doing. They could have healings and pray for the sick and minister the word. They would no longer have to be dependent on the missionaries, but they themselves could rise up and minister to their people. It was a mighty move of God upon these people!
Finally, the time arrived for me to leave Africa. I wanted to go back by way of Holland, because I hadn't been there since my childhood. However, I was unable to make definite arrangements with my cousin, Pete Kooy, to pick me up in Holland, because I had to wait for space available on a plane to take me to Kinchasha where I could get a jet out of Africa.
As I boarded the jet in Kinchasha, I had mixed emotions; sorrow to have to leave this dear people I had come to love in Africa, yet waves of electric excitement over finally going back to Holland.
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