Abroad With a Medical-Evangelistic Wagon by W. S. Hyatt

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 3, 1910

Abroad With a Medical-Evangelistic Wagon

By W. S. Hyatt

Two or three generations of the Kafir people of the colonies have grown up more or less under the influence of the gospel. Two classes have developed,—those who entered the schools and accepted Christianity; and those who rejected all, declaring that education and Christianity spoil the natives. The latter have sunk deeper and deeper into superstition.

From our Maranatha Industrial Mission, in eastern Cape Colony, we have gone out among the Kafir villages with an ox-cart, holding evangelistic services, and ministering to the physical needs of the people.

The medical missionary work drew large numbers of people to the wagon, seeking help. Men, women, and children came from far and near with all manner of ailments. Having but a limited knowledge of diseases, we were often at our wits' end to know what to do for them; but we did what we could, trusting that Christ's blessing, physically and spiritually, would follow the work done in his name. The results were surprising to us, a few fomentations often accomplishing more than we would usually expect from weeks of treatment.

Our method of work was quite new to the natives, as they had never before seen white men going about among them and freely assisting them. When a white man came into a native village, they often suspected that he was there for no good purpose, and the children would hide away; but not so when the "little wagon" came.

At one place a man came seeking help for his little daughter. We gave her a few treatments, seeking God's blessing upon them, and he did not disappoint us. One day the father came to me; and said: "Missionary, we have heard about the love of God; but this is the first time we ever saw it."

W. S. HYATT.

Maranatha Mission, South Africa.