Under the Southern Cross: Or, a Woman's Life Work for Africa

Front Cover
Cosimo, Inc., Dec 1, 2005 - Travel - 464 pages
The special work to which I had been appointed at Fair View was the school work; although my instructions given by Superintendent Roberts on the eve of my departure for Africa gave full liberty to evangelize as well as to teach. My manual read something like this: "Do not be satisfied to be merely a school teacher. Be an evangelist. Go out to the kraals, preaching as you go. Make the salvation of souls your one and only business." -from "Chapter XIII: My School" The missionary work of Westerners in Africa is long and storied-here's another tale of the long-term attempts to convert a continent. Privately published, this is one woman's account of her Christian work in Zulu country, from her childhood-she was born in 1863-on farms in Iowa and Kansas, where she had a youthful brush with death that led to her conversion to an active Christianity, to her return home after long years doing the Lord's work. The time in between is fraught with culture shock: her difficulties in learning the Zulu language, her disdain for Zulu tradition and mythology, even a particular scorn for the food she found unpalatable. Stolid and unbending, this is a curious document of a less enlightened time, a firsthand look at the mindset of a bygone time.

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I Childhood
15
Religious Experience
20
Preparation
25
Getting at My Life Work
30
The Voyage and Landing
39
First Experience
53
Our African Neighbors
64
NatalThe Land
79
Spying Out the Land and Settling
271
Again at Work
280
Progressing Slowly
288
Itinerating
294
A Study of Inhambane Natives
300
A Further Study of Inhambane Natives
316
Day by Day
325
Life and Death
337

HistoricalChalka
89
Customs Superstitions and Beliefs
99
Pouring on Cold Water
123
Varied Experiences
132
My School
149
Two Weddings
168
Our Work at Bethany
176
Incidentals
186
Further Developments
199
A Zulu Wedding
217
Summary of One Years Work at Bethany
229
Clouds and Sunshine
241
CHAPTER PAGE XXI A Trip to Zululand
250
Strange Providences
264
Resignation
348
In the Highways and Hedges
353
Thinning Out the Ranks
370
Looking Toward Home
377
My Final Tour
385
Man Proposes God Disposes
397
Sweeping Through the Gates
401
Farewell to Inhambane
408
Retrospective and Prospective
413
Haviland Memorial Mission
425
Readjustment
433
Olivet Mission
446
Copyright

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