The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 189

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

189

LS — eee nnn

congregation as men who were willing to begin as
learners in this “new kind of a school,” though they
had but recently given their hearts to Christ and
bent their minds to the discipline of book-lore. As
they stood there in their simple native dress, one
instinctively thought of Peter, James, and John,
and certainly in two of these men there was much
to suggest the Peter and the John of Christ’s inner
circle. John’s real name was Bekale, and as Bekale
he ministers to-day to a large company of humble
followers of the Lord Jesus.

«While not up to human standards in education

sufficient for ordination, yet Bekale has shown by .

his life that he is appointed of God to preach and to
minister in Christ’s name. It is not easy for a man
past thirty, skilled only in the activities of the forest
and the simple village life, to follow in the intri-
cacies of the multiplication table or the Bulu lan-
guage, as it is written and spelled. Much Bekale
prayed over his studies, even soliciting the prayers
of his missionary friends, that he might have help
with the “work of numbers.” He spent the greater
part of two days alone in the far corners of his big
church, much in prayer, before setting out on the
fifty-mile journey to the coast, where was
to question him on his attainments in the study of
the Bible.

“Prayer has characterized all the affairs of his
life. When he brought home his hard-won bride,
wrested, according to all the requirements of the
black man’s custom, from a crusty old heathen
owner, it was fitting to his mind that he should
bring her straight to the house of God. And al-
though there was not a minister at the station, not
a white man to be had, he invited the two women-
folks there to follow the gleam of the lantern and
join a small, but sympathetic group which he led
in a short prayer service by way of celebrating his
marriage.

“At breakfast next morning, while we were still
thinking about the quaintness of it all, one came
running to say: “The child of Abwon has died. Yes,
she liyes just across the river. Yes, I am able to
show you the path. Shall we go at once?”

“Qnce inside the little hut of mourning, there
on a bit of a box, with the sad-eyed mother and rela-
tives grouped about him, drinking in Christ’s words
of comfort, sat Bekale, just as he was the night be-
fore, only that the tone of joy and gladness was
softened and suited to the sadness of the occasion.
Such he is to-day — always serving, always sympa-
thetic, always unselfish, a true, sweet disciple of
Christ. ;

“Himself converted through the influence of
Bian (for years an elder in the church), he has been
the means of bringing to Christ his own brothers,
one now an elder, another an evangelist; a sister,
who is serving efficiently as matron in our Girls’
School; scores of relatives; and hundreds of other
Ngumba, Bulu, and Myele. He is much alive to the
needs of his people, and specially active in getting
sick people into the hands of the missionary doctor,
even though they have to be carried by hammock as
much as twenty-five miles. Often he pays for the
treatment of such if they cannot afford it them-
selves, as he also gives small amounts to destitute
Christian women who otherwise would have nothing
to put in their envelopes on collection Sundays.

“When the missionary doctor was called to
America and there seemed little chance of his re-
turn, Bekale’s faith led him to write: “I am praying
always for your return. Suddenly you will see
a path and you will return. I shall be faithful in
prayer.” And suddenly a way did appear for the
return of the doctor.

“Bekale’s home life is consistent with his pro-
fession and needs no other proof than the trans-
formation of his wife, Luanga, since their marriage,
her well-behaved conduct, her thought and her ser-
vice for her friends and family. Hannah, about ten
years of age, is now in the Girls’ School, able to read
in the Gospels, to pray, to work in the garden, or to
wash her hands and sit down to sew a fine seam.
Jacobus is younger and still at home with his
parents.

“Once, in referring to her former temper and
African manner of loud speaking, Luanga replied,
‘Yes, Bekale and I have prayed a good deal about
my mouth, So it is in little things as well as great,
in physical as well as spiritual things, Bekale is dis-
tinctly a man of prayer and, being a man of prayer,
is of course a man of power.”

How wonderfully can God make manifest His
power in those whom we might reject as being un-
worthy of considering as of much value in building
His kingdom! SBekale, though weak according to
human standards of strength, becomes a chosen ves-
sel in God’s hands. Just as a master potter takes
common clay and shapes it into a beautiful orna-
ment, just as a sculptor takes a rough piece of
marble and transforms it into a priceless work of
art, so God can take a poor, ignorant Bekale and
make of him the means of saving many precious
souls. Indeed, God’s strength is made mighty in
the weak and lowly. F.J.L.