Below is a post from my brother, Rich. He has been going through letters that our parents wrote home from the mission field and gathering information of the amazing life they have led. I find it astounding to hear of the experiences they had.
(Excerpt from letter from Jembo Mission, Northern Rhodesia 24 January, 1949)
Between Christmas and New Years, Brother Gray and I went on a short trip to
the valley. I had promised the people at Jumbo that I would visit them with the new
missionary way back in May before the Grays had gotten here and I had not been able
to keep my promise to them. So since it was dry weather, we went and had a good trip.
We went on bicycles and by foot, it seemed mostly by foot. The hills are not any smaller
than the last time that I tried that escarpment only then I had nothing to push. We left
here in the morning with our bicycles loaded, with two of our workers with us. We
reached our destination, Jumbo, about 5:30 and 24 miles later.
The last ten miles consisted of getting off and pushing up and down hills too bad
to ride. We have some pictures of the trip that ought to show the ruggedness of the
path. We made it all right but were quite tired and very thirsty. We had boiled water
once on the way but our water bags were empty when we reached there. We had taken
camp cots with us and we set them up in the school house as soon as we arrived. It
was very hot there and it seemed that we wouldn't get to sleep when we finally turned
in. We had a service with the people in the school yard. The only light that we had was
the light of a wood fire. It was so warm that you didn't want to have the fire too large. We
could see the forms of the people gathered around but could not distinguish them very
well. We had a good service and many prayed at the close.
The next day we pushed on to Kayuni which proved to be 13 miles by my
cyclometer. That trip was about as hard as the one on the previous day because we
were tired. The first five miles were terrific passing through river beds that were very
steep and big rocks on the banks. I had such a load on my bicycle that I couldn't lift it to
carry but had to push only. At the end of the five miles the water bags were empty and
we stopped to boil water. The last part was not so bad and we finally reached our
destination. We had a service with the people that night and went to bed thankfully. We
pitched our cots and nets out under the trees so that we could get what breeze there
was. That evening we made arrangements with two school boys from Jembo that were
on vacation, to carry our beds and blankets for us back to Jumbo and then later back to
the Mission. That was a big help for then the bicycles were light enough to carry over
the bad places.
In the morning we went on to the hot springs. Brother Gray had not seen them
before and we all wanted to take a bath. On the way we passed a small village where
some women were wailing. We stopped and enquired what was the matter. A small
baby had died the day before and they had buried it and were wailing over the grave.
We called the people together and I talked to them for a few minutes about how the little
one had gone to be with Jesus and that they should get prepared to go to heaven also.
We prayed with them and went on our way.
We had to walk downstream quite a ways to get to where the water was cool
enough for us to bathe. Where the water comes out of the hill side, it is nearly to the
boiling point. I ate some corn that was cooked in the water the last time that I was there.
After we had had our fill of seeing that phenomenon of nature, we returned to Kayuni.
We ate a little and began our journey back to Jumbo. It was not as bad this time since
we had less of a load to push. That evening we had another service with the people but
the wind blew so that it was hard to make yourself heard and we closed rather soon. We
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made arrangements to have four boys help carry our things up the escarpment for us.
So we (Brother Gray and I) were relieved of our bicycles and loads and we walked up in
comparative ease. At the top of the hill, about 14 miles from the Mission, we took the
bicycles again and rode on in. We were pretty tired when we got back but had had a
good trip. We had travelled altogether about 90 miles.
John Blann
(My notes: This is an amazing story to show the lengths that John Blann would go to in
order to reach out to the local people there. By today’s standards, it is hard to conceive
that amount of miles spent traveling around on a bicycle just to get from one place to
another. There are many stories of doing a 50 mile bicycle ride in one day just to go out
to preach or to check up on a mission station.)
(Excerpt from the 31 January 1949 letter written by John Blann to Brother Flexon
requesting support for opening a new mission station in a region that had previously not
been reached by the gospel.)
I have made seven trips to the Valley area in the past nine months. I am
more convinced of the need and the opportunity that is there. Along the river itself, there
is a very large concentration of population. We have eight schools open in the valley
and three that we have permission for but are unable to get teachers to go and teach. If
we had teachers we easily could open up another half dozen stations in as many
months. On one of my last trips there, a village asked me for a teacher. There are four
villages in that locality that have no one to teach or to preach to them. That is only an
isolated case too. The difficulty in getting teachers to go there is that the people on the
plateau regard the valley nearly as bad and as far away from their way of living as the
people in America do Africa. First there are practically no roads. The track that we have
used is in its infancy and has been used only by jeeps thus far. Secondly there are no
stores to buy the necessities of life such as salt, food, clothing, soap, etc. During the
heavy rains there is no way to get out at present. They have diseases there that are not
prevalent on the plateau. There are crocodiles in the river where the people draw water.
It is a starvation area because the people do not know proper ways to take care of the
ground and grow enough food. All these things go through the teacher’s minds when
they are asked to go to the valley to help those people.
All of our teachers are first generation Christians and are just a few steps
away from heathenism. I don't know that we can blame them too much when some
Christians in America will hardly turn over their hand towards the fulfillment of the Great
Commission. However these things do exist and must be overcome. The only ways they
will be overcome is by example. We must have a sub-station there where a missionary
stays. There must be a dispensary attached. Roads must be opened up for easy
transportation of essentials. The people must be taught better methods of agriculture so
they will not have a famine yearly. If this is done then I believe that it will be easier to get
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teachers to go and work there. Also the expanding of the work there will raise up
Christian workers from the Valley people themselves. It will take time for they are living
in great spiritual darkness. The last trip that I made in the valley, one of our workers was
talking to a man about going to heaven. His answer was that he was too old to repent.
The work there in the valley is real pioneer work such as there is in few parts of Africa
today. We need a missionary there if we are really going to do anything for those
people. The number of people that there are in that area under our work is as great as
the number that are in the area in the plateau, I believe. There is room for a complete
mission field in the valley that would take all the time of a couple and a nurse easily right
now, and room for expansion in the coming years when the country is opened up more
in a material way. What can we do with it? I have already in a previous letter offered my
services in that field if someone could be sent to relieve me at Jembo. One hardly dares
to not obey the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples "Lift up your eyes and look on
the fields". There just is not enough time and strength to do what needs to be done.
I think that I have finished my epistle for this time. Please do not think that
what I have said is in anyway demanding. It is only that as I see the possibilities of
advancement, it is my heart's desire to see the work of God go forward.
I can testify that I love the Lord with all my heart and find much joy in being
able to serve Him in Africa. My constant prayer is that He will help me to be more for
Him.
Yours in His service
H. John Blann
(My notes: It is that very area that John and Eva Blann spent during the next eight
years. There are many stories of going into villages that had never heard the Good
News and how that ultimately ended up touching the lives of thousands for the good.
They reached out to the people in a unique way; preaching the gospel, developing
schools for the local people, trained native pastors to continue the work, helped
establish medical clinics and hospitals, and established many churches in the area.
The resourcefulness of this couple to minister to the needs of the people there has been
an amazing story to read.)
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