Describes the severe persecution faced by believers in Angola, likening their experience to that of the early Christian church in Smyrna. It details the destruction of missionary homes and hospitals, the torture and killing of elders, and the broader context of civil war fueled by communist-backed guerrilla groups and the Portuguese government's resistance to independence. Despite the immense suffering and the "caught between two fires" situation for Christians, the message highlights the resilience of the Angolan church, with assemblies continuing to function and African believers self-supporting various ministries like schools and medical work. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the faithfulness of these believers amidst extreme hardship and calls for prayer and support for them.
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thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and he shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. I am not going to speak at any length about this passage of Scripture, but just my way of introduction of what we want to talk about tonight. That is the condition of the believers in Angola. They are passing through a Smyrna experience at the present time. Very, very many have lost their lives.
And I'll have to be very careful what I say tonight. I don't think it would be right and proper to go into some of the vivid, lurid details of what has happened. over there, and I'm certainly going to refrain from doing that. But I never realized when we moved over to Angola last year just what we were going to encounter. On the one hand, we had a very, very encouraging experience. But on the other hand, there were some things very, very sad. Most of the missionaries' homes had been completely looted and destroyed. Two of the hospitals in the country had also been completely destroyed.
That very great work that had been built up by Dr. Beard over a period of thirty-five years, the hospital today is occupied by troops, and all the equipment, valuable equipment in the hospital has been carried off, and also all the furniture and all the equipment in the missionary's homes at Beaumont has been carried away. Exactly the same thing at Monte Esperanza. There again we had Dr. Woodward from Toronto, Ross Woodward, did a fine work there along with Charlie Shorten and also some ladies carrying on the work there at Monte Esperanza.
Now exactly the same thing has happened there. Most of the elders have been tortured and killed. The assembly is still functioning. But as far as the hospital is concerned, it has been completely destroyed and is occupied today by Portuguese troops. Now these are things that just break our hearts. I don't think I should go into detail about it. I'll show some pictures tonight of some of the men that have lost their lives. These are pictures I've introduced, pictures that we took some little time ago of those that have been executed. I want to introduce these as we go along. But the majority of the pictures that we have taken tonight, ninety-nine percent of the pictures that we want to show tonight were taken last year when we were over there between July and September.
Well, possibly some may say tonight, just what is going on? What is behind this thing? Well, now, I just want to just, in one or two or three minutes, just to give a little background to the pictures. I don't think we can understand the condition of things in Angola the day without getting a clear idea of what is going on in the country. In nineteen sixty one the Congo became independent. We were in the country at the time. As a matter of fact we were in Elizabethville and made two trips across the Katanga area in the Congo at that time in nineteen sixty one. Some little time later Zambia became independent.
It was formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. And then Angola, that is in the center of these two areas. Our northern border is what was called the Belgian Congo. And our eastern border is what we'd call Northern Rhodesia. Now, these two large areas of Central Africa today are completely independent with an African government. Now, there were repercussions from this. And the Africans in Angola... hearing of what has happened in the Congo and also what has happened in Zambia, they too started to agitate for independence. They formed guerrilla bands, men that had fled from Angola on account of persecution, on account of difficult, in the north.
Around Leopoldville, they formed camps. And they were provided with arms and ammunition by communistic countries, Czechoslovakia, and Russia in the north. And these men started infiltrating down into the country and burning down Portuguese installations on attacking the Portuguese at their forts and their centers in the northern part of Angola. Well, the same has happened on the east. And in Zambia today, there are camps where guerrillas are being trained by Chinese. Now, that is rather remarkable thing. The Chinese have a foothold today in East Africa and have penetrated into Zambia on these men that are attacking Angola.
Coming down into the country at my time are being not only financed and equipped and trained by Chinese. And so these two communistic nations, Russian in the north, around the old capital of Leopoville, and around Lusaka, the old capital of Zambia, these men from these areas are infiltrating at night into the country and attacking the Portuguese. Now conditions today in Angola are very comparable to what you find in Vietnam. And just as the Viet Cong have been operating against American forces in Vietnam, these African guerrillas have been operating against the Portuguese in Angola.
Now the Portuguese are determined that never under any circumstance will they ever give independence to the African. I'm not going to talk politics tonight. I could occupy all my time and speak about the political side of the picture. I don't think that would be profitable at all. But let us get it clearly in our mind that what is going on in Angola today, something that has been completely suppressed in the world press under the mass media... In Angola today, there is a civil war, and the Africans have risen against the Portuguese government, and within this last ten years, at a very conservative estimate, about fifty thousand Africans have been killed, and very, very many others have been put in prison, including many of our dear brethren.
Now, someone might say, are the Christians involved in this struggle? Let me say this, that by and large they are not. They have kept completely out of the political situation and tried to carry on their work, and they have not been involved in this fighting against the Portuguese. But this is what happens. These guerrillas come in at night. They come to a little African village where there's a group of believers, and they demand food and shelter. Now, these Africans are their own people. They speak their language. Sometimes they're relatives. and they demand food and shelter. Now, if that is denied, if they refuse to give it to them, they burn the place down, and the men are usually taken out and shot.
But if they do give it to them, and you know, Africans are very hospitable people, and they hate to deny hospitality to anybody, particularly their own people. But if they help them in any way, inside of a day or two, Portuguese jeeps, military forces will come in and if they have found that they have helped these guerrillas in any way at all, the leaders of the village are taken out without trial, put up against a tree and shot. Now in this way our believers over there in Angola, although they're not involved in the political situation they have been caught between two fires. On the one hand, African guerrillas and on the other hand, Portuguese troops.
And in this way, very, very many of our dear brethren have lost their lives. Now, this is the background to the situation. For this reason, the Portuguese have been refusing visas to missionaries to go back to Angola. In nineteen sixty-one, we had quite a large number of men and women who had spent many years in Angola. But since that time, within this last ten years, Most of these missionaries, for one reason or another, have had to leave the country. And when they asked for a visa to go back, they were refused. I personally made three different applications to go back to Angola.
All three were refused. But last June, I had a telephone message from the Portuguese Council in New York City saying that they had granted us a visa of sixty days to go back to Angola. I was overjoyed. They know our record. We have spent nearly forty years in the country. And all that time they have a complete record of all our activities and what we have been doing during those years. We have never been involved in political trouble or subversive activity of any kind against the Portuguese government. We have been completely loyal to the government and we have fulfilled our law as being guests in a foreign country.
So they granted us a visa of sixty days to go back. And in going back, there were certain areas that we weren't allowed to enter. Now, along the border, those who may be interested in Albert Horton, and his wife, and their daughter, and two young ladies that are working there with them from England, Olive Courtney, and a sister called Lloyd, who are working there, we weren't allowed to go into that area. It's just a military camp. And the Portuguese are patrolling the border all the time. And for that reason, we weren't allowed to go into that area.
And then again, when we attempted to go to Boma, where Dr. Beer was working, again, the Portuguese official said, you can't go there. And again, I can't go into detail for the reason for this. But military operations were going on, and therefore they refused his permission to go in there. And then again we wanted to go down to Lumburgus Five. We were married there in Chalkwiland forty-three years ago, and all the believers there, we have known for forty-five years, and I did want to go down there and have some meetings with him. But again a military officer armed to the teeth, a bandolier around his waist carrying a machine gun, and another bandolier over his breast and a revolver and a machine gun, he came along and he said, you simply cannot go down there.
He said, a jeep has just been blown up. The road is mine. And I said, the remains of the jeep are hanging in the branches of a tree. And people have been killed. He said, you mustn't go there. We had to be very careful of our camera. On the pictures that I have here tonight, I have confined them almost entirely to the work and to the believers. Military operations, we had to deliberately avoid taking pictures of that. I have one or two pictures of the armored cars that escorted us. When we were in Choquiland, I had to keep my camera onto the dashboard of the car and then just snap a picture or two and then hide it again. But we had to be very careful of what we said, where we went, and what we did.
But our object there was to try to be of some little encouragement and comfort to the believers at the coast and then in B.A. among the Umbunda-speaking people, and then among the Chokwe tribe in the center of Angola. So with this little background, we'll just go ahead and show the pictures. We left New York in July of last year.
Yes, thank you. We left New York in July of last year. On taking a jet airplane, we went across the Atlantic and we landed in Lisbon in Portugal. We spent a day there. The brother whose picture we see here, his name is Jose Freire. I spent a year in Portugal in nineteen twenty three and Jose and I were very warm friends at that time. He's an evangelist. He has seen a good work done in Portugal and he offered to meet us at the plane. He said, if you see someone waving a Bible, he said, you know who it is.
And when we arrived at the airport in Lisbon in July last year, Jose, he was there at the airport waving his Bible. Although it was forty three years since we had been there. We had no difficulty in recognizing him at all. He entertained us the day that we were there in Lisbon. Now, this is the oldest assembly in the city of Lisbon. It's called Amarairis. Again, one would love to talk a little bit about the work in Portugal, but we have to refrain. But we went to this place where we used to have Bible readings years and years ago. The assembly at Amarairis in the city of Lisbon in Portugal. Now, this is a picture of some of the workers in Portugal.
You may recognize some that are there. On the left, on the extreme left, is Eric Barker. He's the son of the well-known evangelist, H.P. Barker, a man that served the Lord for a lifetime. Eric and I spent six months together in the study of the Portuguese language in nineteen twenty-three. During the last war, there was a terrible tragedy happening. Harry sent his wife and six children to England when the German armies were coming down over the Lowcountry and thinking that he would get them out of trouble, get them into a position of safety. He sent them over to England. On the way, the ship was torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay and there were no survivors.
And at one blow, he lost his wife and all his family, six children. The brother next to him is Viriatus Obrow. and his wife. And then in the center of the picture is Arnold Dooland and his wife, Mrs. Engelby at the back of the picture, and then a young Englishman, Ronald Moulton. And then on the right of the picture is our brother who carries on a broadcasting work, that is Alf Poland, coming from Marion Hall in Dublin in Ireland, carrying on the broadcasting work in Portugal. We have had a delightful time with all of these dear friends in Portugal and a very good work has been done there in the Gospel and in the building up of assembly.
Now leaving Lisbon at midnight the same day that we arrived there and flying through the night at nine o'clock in the morning we arrived at Luanda. Now this is the capital of Angola. It's the oldest occupied place in West Africa. The Portuguese have been here for more than four hundred and fifty years. It is the capital of the country. It was from Luanda that many of the slaves were shipped up over the centuries. The old slave compounds, you can still see that are means of them in Luanda. But at the present time it has become quite a modern city. You see some of the high-rise apartments and office buildings in the city.
Now during the past year a new assembly has been formed in Luanda and I want to pay a little tribute here to our dear brother Clifford Beggs. He went out there, granted a visa a little over a year ago. He had formerly been in Angola but he was granted a permanent visa and he settled in Luanda. And during the past five months an assembly has been formed and been built up here in Luanda. Now, while we were there, there was a baptism in the sea on the large day that we were there. I had some meetings with the Portuguese believers. And when it came to the large day, five were baptized in the sea. Just before the baptism, we had this little meeting onto the trees beside the shore.
That's my hat hanging on the tree. Now, this is the baptism of the city of Luanda in the background. The brother who's being baptized here, his name is Silva. He was a high official in the Portuguese government, was remarkably saved, but he wanted to be baptized. They sent along a press photographer, you see him here standing in the water, taking a picture. They also sent a man along with a tape recorder, but all they heard was the gospel, on the little word explaining what baptism meant. In the afternoon we had a breaking of bread meeting. And this dear brother, Silva, he had never been at a meeting of that kind.
And as he sat there that afternoon, with his heart overflowing with praise and worship to God, he just got up and he said, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen. And, you know, it was done so movingly that I think nearly everybody there broke into tears at the way he did it. It was just his heart overflowing and worship and praise and thanksgiving to God for what the Lord has done for us. Now, I know the brother who was saved in Luanda during the past year through the ministry of our brother Clifford Bags with this man on the left. His name is Kostak, and he has given a plot of ground beside the airport in Luanda to put up a chapel, to put up a building.
The piece of ground is valued at ten thousand dollars. He has only been a Christian for five months. And yet he gave this piece of ground that was, it's evaluated at ten thousand dollars for putting up the building. On the Sunday afternoon we went out to this place to see the ground. And Brother Costa here, he brought some of his friends with him and he handed it over to Clifford for the putting up of a chapel there in Luanda for the assembly. Now in Luanda going to the British consulate you would see this plant. This plank was erected in nineteen fifty four in memory of David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, who stayed in Luanda in eighteen fifty four.
One of David Livingstone's great trans-African journeys terminated in Luanda. He stayed in the British Consulate here in eighteen fifty four and they put up this plank to his memory. Coming down the coast from Luanda, there's a place called Benguela. It too was the terminus of the old slave routes from the far interior. And there's a little company of Portuguese believers here, meeting in a home. We spent the night with them. And the night we were there, we had a very delightful time with these Portuguese believers singing hymns and reading the scriptures in their Portuguese language.
They too have a piece of ground. And in a short time they hoped to put up a chapel for the proclamation of the gospel there in Benguela on the West African coast. Now the Christians around New York provided the funds to buy an English Land Rover. It's an English Jeep. The only sister today from the assembly in Angola is a young woman called Betty Beatty. Her father and mother live at Zephyr Springs down in Florida. And the result is that Betty has been left there alone.
When we arrived, we found that the Jeep was held up in customs since May. We went down to Lubito and with a little bit of negotiation with the Portuguese officials, we were able to get it cleared and released. And so we had the Jeep to drive up country. in a place where the early missionaries used to walk, I suppose it took them at least three months walking from the coast up over the mountains. Today there's an asphalt road, very different from what it was in the early days, and we were able to drive up country in the Jeep that had been sent out to Betty Beatty. When we were going along we found this trailer truck upended at the roadside.
It was transporting flour down to the coast. And the trailer, it was pulling two trailers, and one of them had turned upside down and spilled the flour all over the road. And we just snapped the picture when we were passing there. This again is the other trailer that remained upright on the bags of flour lying in the ditch at the roadside. This was the day that we arrived at Chalanda and handed over the Jeep to Betty. And she's just putting her hand on and she was so delighted and so pleased when we got there and handed the Jeep over to her. And this was the meeting of Elizabeth, my wife, with Betty.
You know, I can't tell you the emotional feelings that we had seeing these God's dear servants in Angola. And to meet them once again, it gives us a tremendous amount of joy. This is the little guest house there, Achalonda. And many, many times we slept here. Mr. Fred Stanley Arnett. When he came out in eighteen eighty-nine after his first furlough, he founded the work, along with Mr. Charles Swan, Achalonda. And this is the guest house. It's covered with grass, a grass roof, built of sun-dried brick and a dirt floor.
And underneath that rubber tree in the background, was a place where many, many slaves coming from the far interior and being taken down to Benguela and underneath that tree, very many of them were redeemed by the early missionaries and taken out of the slave caravans and remained there at Chelanda. Now, the early missionaries planted eucalyptus trees. These trees were planted at Chelanda by Mr. Charles Swan. And today they have developed into tremendous trees. that form a kind of an avenue on the way into the mission station there at Chelanda. While we were there, we were entertained royally by African Christians.
The man here on the left with a white hair, his name is Veloso, is one of the elders in the assembly at Chelanda. He has nine children and he invited us out for a meal and we had a delightful time with these African believers. All of them that we have known for many, many years. Going out to Velosa's home, there was no road. And you have to cross a river on this bridge. You couldn't possibly take an automobile on even the Jeep that we have brought up from the coast. You couldn't possibly take the Jeep out of this place so we had a walk. These are the elders of the assembly at Chalanda.
Now, all of these men, again, are dear friends. I could spend a long time tonight in describing each one, their character and the kind of work in which they've been engaged. We can't take time to do that tonight. But we thank God for men that have been raised up gifted servants of God in this part of the country that are maintaining the work, carrying on the work today and spreading the gospel among their own people, carrying on the medical work, carrying on the school work, carrying on boarding schools and domestic schools for girls on every phase of the work today is still going on in the hands of African brethren and all on a completely self-supporting basis.
This was an old lady at Chalanda. We have known her for many, many years. Her name is Namathéo. She was a slave. and in the early days she was redeemed by Mr. Edward Sanders from Liverpool in England. And she's now coming near the end of the journey. She must be about ninety years of age. But as a little girl and as a slave and a slave caravan going down to the cross with slave shackles on their feet at night and around their neck in the daytime, she was redeemed by those early missionaries, heard the gospel, saved, baptized, And it's been in the assembly there for more than fifty years.
Now Matteo. This young man and his wife is in charge of the schoolwork at Cholanda. They have about eight hundred children in the central school. It actually is a normal school. In the area there must be more than fifty different schools that are carried on by African school teachers. All the schoolwork is done in the Portuguese language. We're not allowed to use the native vernacular in school, but it must be done in Portuguese and nothing else. This man is highly qualified. He has his diplomas in the Portuguese language and is actually in charge of the schoolwork in this whole area.
He gets not a penny of pay from the Portuguese government. He's paid by the fees that the African children pay for to come to school. And he and the other teachers, again, are paid by their own people. And the school work there is completely self-supporting in this way. It doesn't depend on the outside at all for a penny to maintain this work. We thank God for this man. His name is Amadeo. He could easily get three times what he's getting in working in the schools there at Cholande. He could get three times the pay working for the Portuguese government. but he prefers to stay there and carry on the work and carry on the school.
Now, about forty miles from Chilanda is Kapango, and it was at this place that we spent the last twenty years of our service in Angola. Kapango was founded by Mr. Fred Lane in nineteen o five, and the work has been going on continuously from that time up until now. Coming into the station here, again, there's an avenue of eucalyptus trees that were planted by Mr. Lane in those early days. Now, this is Walter Gammon's house. Walter was one of our fellow workers there at Capango. It was a very nice house, built of sun-dried brick with a tile roof.
But when we went there, there wasn't a stick of furniture of any kind in the place. Not a pot or a pan or a stove. or anything at all to carry on housekeeping. We scrounged around and we were able to get a few things together and my wife and I stayed here while we were having meetings at Capango among our African brethren. Now this is the chapel at Capango. When we left in nineteen sixty one we have a large building there with a grass roof and again a dirt floor and it seated about a thousand people. Well, now, when we left, that was what we left there.
But in the meantime, the African believers, they have put up this very lovely building. It has a stone foundation. It's made of burn brick and cement with a tile roof and glass windows. And when we arrived there, when I saw the building, I was so surprised. And I said to the brethren, I said, who built this? Oh, they said, we did. Now I said, I want to ask you a question. I don't want you to think that I'm curious. But I said, I would just like to know, is the place paid for? And they smiled and they said, oh, Gannett, it said, you needn't have one little bit of worry. Every penny has been paid by ourselves. The building was built by themselves, and it is paid for.
And this is the building in which they meet today there at Kapango. It again seats a little over a thousand people. And every day when we were there, the place was filled. As a matter of fact, on the Lord's day, we had about twelve hundred people in this place for the meeting. These are the elders of the assembly at Capangal. Now again, each one of these men has a very interesting story we can't talk about tonight. The man on the left, his name is Chimo, is a tabernacle expert. You know, if we were here tonight, and got up and spoke on the incense altar or on the brazen altar or on the veil or some of these other things connected with tabernacle teaching, you would be surprised.
He really is a tabernacle expert. He doesn't know word of English. His language is Pumbundo. He also speaks the Portuguese language. But we do thank God for these brethren. Say it many, many years ago, they've been taught the word of God and they have turned into evangelists and pastors and teachers. gifts from the risen head, and they are the men who are carrying on the work today in our assemblies over there in Angola. Now, these are four generations of believers. The man on the right, the old gentleman, his name is Sanji. He was converted around about eighteen ninety through a lady, one of the early missionaries, Jeannie Gilchrist.
His name is Sanji. And again, a man with a very interesting history. He was one of the first converts of the missionaries that went out to Africa in eighteen eighty nine and to the end of his life he went home to be with the Lord a little while ago but to the end of his life maintained a good testimony on both taught and preached the gospel then his daughter her son and his son all of them in assembly fellowship today four generations now this is the school at Capango. And again, this building was put up by the African believers themselves. Again, a stone foundation, burn brick, tile roof, and everything paid for by the African built by themselves and paid for by themselves.
This young man and the wife, he carries on the schoolwork at Capango. Amadell, the man that I previously showed at Chalonda, he was in charge there. And Julio here is in charge of the schoolwork at Capango. Capango. He was sentenced to be shot. I'm not going to again go into details about his history, but through the friendliness of a Portuguese official that knew that the young man was innocent of any crime, he wasn't executed. But he was interrogated. And he was beaten with a hippo-hide whip on his back left in ribbons, trying to force or to extract a confession from him that he had been engaged in some sort of activity and when they saw that there was no confession forthcoming they let him go he came back and after he recovered he today he's in charge of the school there at Capango this is his wife preparing the evening meal this is a well-known thing to anyone who's visited Africa pounding meals pounding the corn sifting it turning it into cornmeal mash and with some relish to go along with it, it forms their staple diet.
This is Julia's wife preparing their evening meal. Now, there was a baptism at Capango of the young man who's being baptized is in charge of the medical work. His name is Satumbu. Many years ago, he was trained by Dr. Beard. Today he's carrying on the medical work at Capango. The Lord has prospered him there. And again, for the sake of our time, we can't go into detail about his career and how the Lord has blessed the work that he's doing there. This is the dispensary where he carries on his medical work. Actually, the projection of the picture doesn't give a good idea of its size, but there are a number of beds in there.
He has been trained to do minor operations. He extracts teeth, and all the minor troubles that overtake an African... he's able to take care of it. Major surgery, of course, has to be taken to a doctor. I had some meetings there at Capango. Meetings twice a day, one at ten o'clock in the morning and another one at three o'clock in the afternoon. And this was a young man who came to every meeting. His legs had been paralyzed by polio. But he came in this little cart, this little carriage, and came to every meeting with his Bible in his lap and sat there while the Word of God... was being expounded every morning and every evening in his lovely Umbunda language.
This is rather a sad picture. His name is Zuzi. When we arrived there at Kapanga, we heard something of what had been happening over in the Sangho country, a place where we had spent sixteen years pioneering the work. Just to put it in a nutshell, at the commencement of the troubles, there were eight of the elders, outstanding men, of the Sangu tribe were taken up by Portuguese military forces to a fort. There they were interrogated. There there were torture. And then they were shot. And while the shots were ringing out and each man was being shot through the back of the neck with a revolver, Zuzi was standing watching what was going on.
And when it came his turn, he lifted his head and he started to sing. On the hymn he sang was, Be not dismayed, whatever but tide, God will take care of you. Under his sheltering wings abide, God will take care of you. On the officer in charge of the farming party, he came over to him. He said, What are you singing about? Well, he said, I've just seen Kacenze, and my other friends would go into the presence of the Lord. And he said, I thought it would be a good thing when my turn came, that I would go into the presence of the Lord with a song of praise on my lips. The officer was rather amazed. He says, what's your name? He said, my name is Zuzi. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, and he wrote his name on a leaf of paper from his wallet, and he sent him back to the administration, to the local administrative officer.
He said, let this fellow go. He said, he's a real man. Now, when Zuzi heard that we were there, he came to Capango, and when he saw me, he just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. Oh, I said, I thought I'd never see you again on this side of heaven. But we did see him, and what a joy it was to sit down and try to comfort both him and those belonging to him. His wife and children are now at Capango, and we have been in contact with them. These are two survivors of the work at Mont-Isparenza. I've already mentioned the name of Dr. Ross Woodward, Charlie Shorten, and Vivian Booker, and if I forget any names, please excuse me.
I'm trusting to my memory. But these were the workers at Monte Esperanza. After the missionaries had a leave, the hospital was occupied, completely looted and destroyed by troops. And all the elders there were taken off to a local administration and torture. As a result of that torture, many of them died. But these are two survivors. and they came back to tell us in some detail of what had happened at Monte Esperanza and also how the work of God had not been shattered or destroyed, how it is still going on. It was a joy to see them. We gave them some books, sent them back again to Monte Esperanza and tried to encourage them in every possible way.
There was a school there beside Kapango and the teacher he sent along to say he would appreciate it if we came along. and had some meetings with a children. He provided a truck. And so we went up there and this was the little welcoming party when we got there. And we went to their little school and had a meeting with them. Now, leaving BA among the Umbunda speaking people, we took a journey three hundred miles further into the interior to Choquiland. And the center of Choquiland is a place called Luzo. It's a Portuguese center, and today it is the center of military operations.
Now, Clifford Beggs, years ago, was responsible for putting up this building. It's the chapel of the Portuguese Assembly in Luzo, and I have the very great privilege and joy of having some meetings here. It's the place where the Portuguese believers meet in Luzo, in Choquiland. Now, at the back of the chapel there are some rooms, an apartment for Elizabeth Davis, the young woman on the left, where she lives. She's an English girl. Her father and mother are missionaries in Spain. And Elizabeth came out to Chalkwe Land some years ago to do the schoolwork. And she's a missionary there in the front.
The Broadway is at Wyden. Dark intermediaries there at Luzon. picked us up and took us over to Bula in Chokwe land where I had some meetings in the Chokwe language. Since we were there, of course, Emma, his wife, has been taken home to with the Lord. We never realized while we were there that Emma was coming to the end of her journey, the end of her service down here. But George anyway came over to Luzo and picked us up and took us over to Bula where he was living. This is the Portuguese hotel in Luzer, where we stayed while we were waiting for transport. And when we arrived at Bula, these were some of the women that came out to welcome us when we arrived there.
Now, this is George Wiseman on Emma, his wife. Emma, after serving the Lord for many years on Gola, while we were there, she was gradually getting weaker and weaker. When we arrived there, she weighed ninety-five pounds. When we left, after ten days, she weighed ninety pounds. And after we left, she went on to eighty-five pounds. And George decided to take her down to Salisbury in Rhodesia for medical treatment. Just as soon as they arrived, Emma, after a prayer meeting, came home from the meeting, sat down on a chair, took off her hat, and put her head down and passed into the presence of the Lord.
You know, when you think of some of these dear friends that we have known all these years in one way just breaks her heart but on the other hand we thank God faithful lives dedicated to the Lord's service right there now the two ladies on the left are still a few left they are the only ladies along with Elizabeth Davis at Luzo in Chokwe land a day Inabel on the left is a superintendent of nurses a very capable able person and the lady in the center is from Sherbrooke and Quebec. Her name is Marjorie Beckwith. And they are left now alone in Bula and Choquay land.
These were some people at the meeting in the afternoon. We had two weeks a day, too, at Bula in the Choquay language. We've had some of the areas around, had a baptism, and also had meetings in the villages surrounding this area. This was one of the little art schools connected with the work there at Bule and Wound out there and had a meeting. These were people that were present at the meeting. It was in this area where guerrillas were operating. There was four lookout points surrounding this village and the stockade in the centre where there were a number of white men armed to the teeth in the centre of this village. But at least the loudest, together the people together and have a meeting.
From here down to Luma Kasai was a journey of about forty miles. And it was there that we wanted to go to see the Christians, but we were not allowed. On account of the road being mine, on a jeep being blown up. George was building a house for the two ladies there at Bula while we were there. And the stove was outside. And this is a native boy. He's listing corn on the top of the stove. This is the hospital. at Bula and it's Ina Bell who carries on the work here. We'd love to talk more in detail about this but we just for fair. Every morning people that come for medicine have a little meeting with them.
There George is standing in his overalls on the veranda having a little meeting with those that have come for medicine. Now we had a baptism while we were there in Jopoulain and a large company of people came together. We had to get permission from the Portuguese authorities, the military forces that were operating in this area. While we were there, they were coming back from military operations along this road. Men with their faces blackened, wearing battle dress. But in many cases, they didn't interfere with us. I had quite a long conversation with the Portuguese commandant. He was quite friendly, and we were able to explain to him what it was all about. This again is the people that were gathered at the baptism there in the Dala River, beside Bula.
There's a lovely falls in the river just below the place where we had the baptism. And the military officer in charge allowed me to take a picture of the fall. One or two pictures here of the villages just gives an idea of the kind of life the people live and the huts in which they live. Just covered with grass, the mandioc there drying on the roof. the fire outside in which they do their cooking, and then inside these mutton-wattled huts, just a piece of bark or a grass mat stretched on the floor, and it's there that they spend the night. That's again as many of the villages around this area. If you get sick, no hospital bed, you just lie beside the fire with a stool under your head and get your wife to conquer.
There are some of the people that gathered round when we were went to some of these villages. Now, when we were going back again from Bula down to Luzia, we had traveled by military escort. There was an armored car ahead, another one in the center of the convoy, and another one behind. And I had to be very careful in taking these pictures. I suppose if these men had seen me with the camera in my hand, I probably would have destroyed the film. But in any case, I was able to get two or three pictures of these men out on military operation. They actually conducted this in convoy from Bula down to Luzo. At night time we could hear grenades going off and shooting.
George Wiseman in this house, he had the windows boarded up. And when firing was going on at night, when we got up in the morning, I said, George, what's going here? And with a twinkle in his eye, he said, well, he said, maybe they're shooting at pigeons. Or he says, maybe it's hard practice, anything but. Every once in a while we would stop at the roadside and the man would out and examine the road on either side for ambushes. This was the armored car going ahead and then we were in the car here that you see in the immediate foreground. Now getting down into Luzo again, the A bus there that had come up from the coast bringing passengers.
This is quite an innovation, something that we weren't used to at all. A bus with a trailer behind to carry baggage. I took a few pictures in the native market there, little stalls for the sale, African furials, and little articles that they use in their daily life. Some of the food that they have for sale in the market. these red fruits roll underneath the ground and they use them for relish along with their mush. Dried bananas and dried fish. This is a scene that's well known to anyone who visited any of these African markets in the center of the country. Now from Luz, we came back to B on a train and again each carried a train was occupied and guarded by armed men.
Again, I avoided taking their picture. Ahead on the railway, the pilot car, an armoured car with military personnel, examining the track as we went along. They would only travel in daylight. It would be too dangerous to travel at night, and therefore at night we stopped and slept on the train guarded by the troops. While we were there, Robert Taylor from Edmonton, in Alberta. He came out too. He also got a sixty-day visa on the little day that Robert was leaving. He was there in a month ahead of us. We were there a month after Robert left on this day that Robert was leaving. We had a very delightful month with Robert Taylor and then of course Betty Beatty in Henry.
This was the day that Robert left to go back to Canada. We went up through Chittau. in BA and we had a conference the last weekend we were there and at the conference we had one thousand two hundred and nineteen people in the afternoon meeting these were the elders of the assembly there at Chittau now just immediately prior to this there had been a massacre in this part of the country four hundred people had massacred and some of the survivors they came under that conference and I can't just I can't tell you how we felt as they describe some of the things that have happened.
I get to see these dear people sitting onto the ministry of the Word of God. We try to comfort them and help them in every possible way. This is the meeting room at Chittau, again seating about eight hundred people. This is Robert Taylor's house when we got to Chittau, again completely looted and destroyed, not an article of furniture of any kind inside. We again, we foraged around, were able to get a table and some chairs and a few cooking pots and a few articles of furniture. But we were able to live there and cook our own meals. We were entertained by the Africans as well and they brought us all kinds of food, presence of food while we were there.
But this is Robert's house, as we found it when we went back. This is Robert trying to clean up the place a bit, trying to scrub the table. before we spread out our first meal on. And there, he's cleaning out the well. Of course, it's been stopped up in the meantime, and he was cleaning it out. And it's from this well that we got our water when we were there. These are some of the meetings that we had, elders around, and Robert Taylor opening up the work. Again, one of the meetings there at the conference at Chittau, underneath the trees. The ladies were very anxious to sing.
They had a little choir and some of the elder women they sang some lovely hymns in their Umbunda language. The Umbunda speaking people are beautiful singers and these elderly women they got up and sang for us. This again is one of the elders demonstrating to the people how the missionaries wore and how they how they were dressed when the first missionaries came. It was fifty years since Mr. Ed Bodley had started the work at Bula, not Bula, at Chittau. And this elder was describing to the people what the missionaries found when they arrived there at the beginning. Now, these are the survivors of the massacre at Chittau.
There are no young men left in the part of the country, nothing but older men, and the children and women, all the younger men were lined up and they had to dig their own graves. And after they had dug a fence, they were machine gunned and then they brought in a bulldozer and they were buried. These were the survivors from that matter. It took place last year. Now, these are men from the Songo country and many of these men too lost their lives. I'm not going to hurry your feelings by going in detail about it. But there's just two brethren here I want to point out.
The one that's sitting at the bottom of the picture, this brother here with his hat on his knee, his name is Samalanga. Samalanga was the first man in the Sangho country to go out and take the gospel to his own people after the work had been established. He too was arrested. taken up to the fort, examined, tortured, and then shot. And after he was shot, they say he didn't die immediately. And his wife, on those that were present, they told us that they actually buried him before he was dead. This other brother here with a handkerchief in his pocket, Cassendi, he was executed in that massacre that was described in connection with Zuzi.
Cassendi spoke eight languages. He was a man who was an expert both in Chokwe, Ombundo, Songo, Portuguese, and when we did our first translation work in the Songo language, Kosenze was the helper that sat beside me day after day and helped me to learn the language and also to do the first translation work in Songo. And that was the way his life ended. He left a wife and eight children over there in the Songo country. His wife is still there today and his children too. but his life taken at that time. Now the woman here holding the baby is Samanga's wife and the girl inside my wife here is his daughter.
And then the woman on the left, she is a cousin of Samanga. These people we have known for many, many years that described in detail some of the awful things that happen within the past few years to some of the African believers. This again is a picture of Casense, the man who was shot there at Navagaya, executed by Portuguese military forces. This again was a meeting at Chital, that conference, that weekend we were there. There was a place where I spent eighteen months when I first arrived in Africa in nineteen twenty-four. and I went back after all these years and found the assemblies still functioning.
This was the delegation that came out to meet us when we arrived there, the men on the one side and the women on the other. And they stood there and sang, give us a wonderful welcome when we got there, went inside and spent the afternoon with them and had a military meeting. And what a joy it was after more than forty years to be among these dear people. This old horse, was the house to which Mr. Fred Stanley Arnett came in eighteen eighty six when he was brought out country by a Portuguese trader called Silva Porto. Today it's a museum and in it are all the relics of Silvordo and those early men that lived in this part of the country in those early days.
Silva Porto, that Portuguese explorer, the man who introduced Mr. Fred Arnett to Angola He killed himself on this spot. There was a revolt in those days among the Afghans. He thought he was going to be killed. And he spread eleven kegs of gunpowder on the ground. Put a Portuguese flag on top. Lay down on top of that. And then struck a match and dropped the match into the keg of gunpowder and blew himself up into the air. Killed himself. On the Portuguese, they made this little memorial for Silver Porto on the spot where he died. This is the end of the prayers, and I want to thank you for coming here tonight, looking at these pictures, and I do hope that what we have been saying may give at least some desire to pray for these dear people.
We are going through all kinds of difficulties today, but it was a tremendous privilege to be with them and to minister the word, find a comfort on how these dear people in this difficult situation today. I'm sure we're all very grateful to our Father Mr.
Wilson for what we have seen and heard. As he said, the things that are happening out there are not written in these papers. There's much persecution, death and sorrow, and we've got some little insight into it tonight. It'll help us to pray more intelligence to these people. I hope you'll all come and join us down the lounge. So we just commit us to the Lord for the night. Lord, we thank you for another meeting. We thank you for what we have seen and heard tonight. We thank you for the faithfulness of thy people. These native people who have trusted thee and were standing for thee amid such terrible persecution that we can't understand.
I pray thou be near them and pleasant just now, Lord. And now we commit us to thee as we separate. We thank you for another wonderful day. Thank you for standing by us through the day, the graveside, and through all the details. And we commit us to thee for our night, giving thee our thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.