M I S S I O N S continued
Secret Ritual Filmed
The Message Into Type • Missionary Bill Deans (B iola 1927-
T his four-picture sequence shows an ancient African ritual seldom seen by outsiders. The ritual in volves a blood offering for the cur ing of the sick and is so secret that missionaries who had labored in this area of East Africa for 20 years had never witnessed it. Dr. Louis T. Talbot (see cover; page 17) for some unexplained rea son was permitted to witness this ritual and to actually photograph the entire procedure. The Talbot party even had a tape recorder along for the full sound effects. These stills are from the motion picture of this mys terious ritual. The film is being edit ed by the B io l a Film Department and will be available for nation-wide
showing in the near future. Talbot reports an interesting after- math to the ritual. Missionary Dick Dilworth (B io l a ’ 3 8 ) , who acted as interpreter for the Talbot party, at the close of the ritual seized the ram’s head and holding it aloft did a little grass-roots sermonizing. From He brews 9:12 he quoted: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” The en tire group of natives, including the witch doctor, silently drank in every word and when the white men left the ritual area the natives still ap peared spellbound by the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
28) offers a good example of what can be done by c o n s e c r a - ted printers in m ission lands. With his presses located at Ny-
angkunde station in the Belgian Congo he reports the printing and circulation of four weekly or month ly publications with a paid subscrip tion list of more than 17,000 in the Congo and elsewhere. Three of these publications are small newspapers in inter-tribal language. This Christian literature ministry is interdenomina tional and supplies materials for numerous evangelical missionary so cieties. Miss Ellen Vigeon (B io la 1941), is an assistant to Bill Deans in his printing ministry; at Nyang- kunde. Miss Vigeon operates the lith ographing and vari-type machines, handles the wholesale and retail book sales and is in charge of the shipping. This is another example of how the women are doing men’s jobs on the mission field. • There is an urgent need for help ers at Nyangkunde with mechanical or editorial ability. • African Challenge, a publication of the Sudan Interior Mission, has dur ing its brief existence since 1951, be come the most widely circulated newspaper in Africa. Until now Af rican Challenge has been printed only in the English language at Lagos, Nigeria. Because of the limited fa cilities in Nigeria, the July issue was printed in England and the number of copies in the English increased from 70,000 to 115,000. An edition is also now being printed in the Yoruba language. There are more than 3,000,000 Africans who use the Yoruba language. This will soon be followed by another edition in the Hausa language. • The full time of two missionaries is now being used to follow up the inquiries of African readers. An aver age of 60 professions of faith are the result of this follow-up program. Hundreds of letters are received monthly from the readers of African Challenge. • Well over 1,000 of the inquirers have been enrolled in the corre spondence course introduced and di rected by B io l a graduate A1 Classen.
SBK !- A ram's head is offered to the devil in sacrifice for the healing of a sick child.
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Ram is eaten; later witch doctor prays to ancestors believed to live in grass huts.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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