The Missions

WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN MISSION

Stations: Location and Special Work of Missionaries

BAILUNDU. - Wesley M. Stover, D.D., ordained: In charge of the station. Mrs. Bertha D. Stover: Woman's work. William C. Bell, ordained: General missionary work. Mrs. Lena H. Bell: Work for girls. Miss Helen H. Stover: General work for women. Mrs. Marion M. Webster: Woman's work.

KAMUNDONGO.

- William H. Sanders, ordained: General missionary work. Mrs. Sarah B. Sanders. Henry S. Hollenbeck, M.D.: Medical work. Miss Nellie J. Arnott, Miss Sarah Stimpson: Educational work for girls and women.

CHISAMBA.

Walter T. Currie, D.D., ordained: In charge of the general work of the station. Mrs. Amy J. Currie: Woman's work. William Cammack, M.D.: Medical work. Mrs Sarah L. Cammack, M.D.: Medical work for women. Miss

Diadem Bell: Work for girls and women.

OCHILESO. Thomas W. Woodside, ordained: In charge of general work of the station, secretary of the mission. Mrs. Emma D. Woodside: Woman's work. Miss Emma C. Redick: Work for girls and women. Miss Janette E. Miller.

CHIYAKA (Sachikela). — Merlin Ennis, ordained: In charge of general work. Mrs. Elizabeth R. Ennis: Work for girls and women.

On furlough: Henry A. Neipp, ordained: Mrs. Frederica L. Neipp, Miss Elizabeth B. Campbell, Miss Helen J. Melville, Miss Margaret W. Melville.

Five stations; 22 outstations; 7 ordained missionaries; 2 physicians; 8 wives, one of whom is a physician; 10 single women; total missionary force, 27. Twentythree native preachers; 16 Bible women; 4 organized churches; 625 communicants, 101 added the past year; 2,075 Sabbath-school pupils; 32 schools, with over 4,176 pupils; native contributions, $1,340.

The important event in the mission during the year has been the consent of the Portuguese government to Dr. Stover's return to the mission and to his station, after nearly two years of absence, under a decree of expulsion from the local governor. It was evident that there were no substantiated charges against Dr. Stover; only the prejudice that arises from the presence of a missionary among traders whose chief income is derived from the sale of intoxicating liquors and from the slave trade. There was evidently a purpose on the part of the local officials to exclude missionaries from the territory in order that their nefarious business might not be under observation by unsympathetic foreigners.

Mr. and Mrs. Neipp, the Misses Melville, and Miss Campbell have come home for regular furlough. Miss Bell has gone back to the mission, after a furlough at home. Miss Janette E. Miller has gone out under appointment.

The Story of the Mission

Under the impulse of the large Otis legacy in 1879, the American Board commissioned Dr. John O. Means to investigate the situation in Africa, with a view to opening a new mission in that continent. Upon the report of Dr. Means a mission was established on the Western side of Africa in the province of Angola, in the district of Bihé. This section is about 200 miles from the coast, and is a plateau at an elevation of about 5,000 feet above sea level. The mission was opened in 1880 with a station at Bailundu, the missionary party having landed at Benguella on November 10. Four years later another station was opened at Kamundongo, and a third at Chisamba, in 1888.

In a fit of passion on the part of the native king, Kwikwi, the missionaries were suddenly driven from their posts, and the mission was for a time practically broken up. But work was soon reestablished and the reduction of the native language to writing was undertaken. The first church was formed in Bailundu, in 1887, and the second in Kamundongo two years later. Perhaps the most marked progress was at Chisamba, where the people received the gospel gladly. The chief himself, who lived but a few miles from Chisamba, and who was at first strongly opposed to the teaching of the missionary, gradually came under the power of the gospel, put away all but one of his ten wives, subjected himself to the bitterest persecution, even to a long imprisonment, and became a bright and shining Christian light in that dark part of the continent.

Since the opening of the West Central African Mission the American Board has sent 55 missionaries to that field, 21 of whom were ordained, and 5 physicians.