Our Mission Experience

When Deb was about seven months old we decided to go and visit Brother and Sister Will Short, who were visiting from Namwianga Mission, in Northern Rhodesia. They were in Bulawayo visiting their daughter Beth and her husband Henry Ewing and their family who were working with our Queens Park Congregation.  Mel and I were interested in trying out as being missionaries. He assured us that they would very much appreciate our working there. He informed us that there was even a small vacant house, which was already furnished with all the necessary items. It was, in fact, the same house Rona had when she worked there before she left to go to ACC. We were thrilled and started making arrangements immediately. Mel had to work his notice with the Railways, and then we were on our way in our little Ford car. After an uneventful drive to our destination we settled into our new home. The house was small comprised of a small living room, a small bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.  Our toilet was about a hundred yards from the house and was the usual pit type, surrounded by a seven-foot wall and an entry hidden by an "L" shaped wall. The seat was wooden with a hole carved out of the middle. On each side of the seat was a small space—about a foot wide—A rather convenient place for a snake to curl up in for a nap. (More about that later)
   Mel taught a Bible class two or three days a week, and the rest of his time was spent in the print-shop, Bro. Short ran this to print information about the missions for sending out to interested people or churches elsewhere, and also a periodical called Rays of Light. Since we were not receiving much pay Mel would reserve our petrol (gasoline) for long distances, and rode his bicycle to and from the print-shop which was about a mile from our house. In the house next door to us lived a young Canadian  couple. Now for the "Snake" story. I was in the toilet when I glanced down to the little space beside the toilet-seat, and there was a small snake. Without even finishing what I was doing I fled pulling my pants up as I ran, and trickling all the way. Mel was at the print shop so I ran next door to ask Alan Bell to go and kill it for me. Edna, his wife stood, hands on her hips, asked rather abruptly, "And what is wrong with Your husband?" I said, "He is at the printshop with his bike and would not have time to get here quickly enough." Anyway, Alan killed it and put it in a bottle of spirits and it (the bottle) stood in our kitchen for a while. The snake turned out to be a very mildly venomous snake. The upshot of this was that it became the joke of the week, especially the part about my trickling all the way home.