Peyton Adams Eubank
Missionary - Africa 1882 - 1892

Memories of a Missionary Tour of Duty in Africa: 1882 - 1892
by Laura Boardman Houchens Eubank
Wife of Rev. Peyton Adams Eubank
Missionaries To Nigeria 1882
Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, Richmond, VA.

We took Up The Work

We took up the work as veil as we could with our limited equipment and knowledge of the language. Our teacher continued with the little school and with his aid we held Sunday Services, visited from house to house and talked to the people in their own houses and were always cordially received. We also went into the public markets where the people were always to be found and held services. Usually we would begin with a song which always drew a crowd. Then my husband would preach while the teacher would interpret his message to the people. They always received us kindly and listened respectfully. But it was only a seed sowing. For the time, we saw little results. Their response usually was that their children might accept our religion but they were too old.. As a matter of fact, our converts were mostly children trained in our school.

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Sometimes the people would come to our church. Many times they would come to visit us in our homes and were very friendly. They were not antagonistic nor were they enthusiastic about our teaching.

Sometimes on Sunday morning, we would go from house to house asking the children to go with us to Sunday School. They would follow us moat cheerfully and we might arrive with quite a crowd who would follow us in, sit down, and look around with curiosity to see what it was like. Then suddenly a native procession would pass with their drums, tom-toms, and noise, which always accompanied a native procession. Then our little followers would jump up and run out, taking most of our crowd with them. It was slow and discouraging and the results, were not always hopeful but in the later years as we had reports of the growing work, the increased number of conversions, the larger number of children, some of which had become self-supporting, we were led to hope that our seed, had not been in vain.

 


August 2000 - Notes - WRE Jr.

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