Moffat Mission, Kuruman, South Africa September 25, 1998 Dear Friends: Greetings from Moffat Mission. I want to describe our setting. Moffat Mission is located 5km.(3.5miles) from the town of Kuruman. It is a piece of land 13 hectares in area (it used to be bigger). It was settled by London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries Robert Hamilton and Robert Moffat in about 1816. A number of other missionaries, including David Livingstone lived at Moffat Mission at various times. Robert Moffat and his wife Mary developed the station during their 50 years here. The Moffat homestead, the Hamilton homestead and the church that Moffat and Hamilton built are proclaimed national historical buildings. These and certain other buildings have been restored and are now a museum. An old wagon shed is the reception area for visitors and a bookshop. Moffat's homestead has several interesting displays in it. The stone church that Moffat built is magnificent in its simplicity & size. It's traditional dung & earth floor is renewed 3 times a year. The printing press upon which the first Setswana Bible was printed is housed in an rebuilt school house. The cemetery has interesting - and sad - old gravestones. I am particularly sad when I read of the many children that died in infancy. There are also some recent graves of friends and colleagues. Two LMS missionaries we knew, Humphrey Thompson and Joseph Wing are buried here. The "Historic Precinct" takes up about one fifth of the mission land. Our house is in the historic area - but is not open to visitors. It is called Hamilton House, because it was constructed by and for LMS artisan missionary, Robert Hamilton - with a little help from his colleague, Robert Moffat in l828. It was used as a missionary residence. When the mission school was closed during the apartheid years, the house was abandoned for a time and fell into disrepair. It was restored in 1986 and declared an historic monument. It is a lovely house with thick stone walls and a thatched roof. We have quite good-sized yard and a fine fence. An important feature and a part of the Moffat Mission is The Furrow which brings water from a spring in the city of Kuruman, called The Eye. It gushes forth more than a million gallons of beautiful, clean water a day. The early missionaries didn't settle right beside The Eye - because it was swampy there (and because other people were already using it?!) but they dug a 3.5mile long furrow to bring water from The Eye to the Mission. They lined it with clay and planted pomegranate trees along it. It is still possible to walk in parts of the original furrow just in front of our house. Today, water from the Eye goes through a cement furrow constructed in the 1920's. The municipality administers the water and furrows on each side of the valley and the Mission has rights to water two days a week. Above the historical precinct on the hillside is the Maphakele Conference Center is named for the first Motswana ordained to the ministry, Lekalake Maphakele. This is a facility that is frequently used by church, NGO, and community groups for meetings. There is overnight accommodation for 35 people. Lawrence has had meetings of intern ministers and a course for lay ministers at the Centre. Nearby the Conference Centre is the Mission house which is occupied by the Rev. Steve de Gruchy and his family. Steve is Director of the Moffat Mission with overall responsibility for the museum, conference center, building program, community outreach, and theological education. The house is enormous, the sort of mission house that probably started off a reasonable size with verandas all around. Then somebody decided to enclose the verandas and later still more were added. The house is surrounded by enormous eucalyptus and syringa trees. In addition to the Historic Precinct, the Mission House AND the Conference Center - there is an area of woods and pasture land where Robert Moffat used to have field crops, wheat and maize. There is a new building project underway near the conference center. Three buildings are being erected: a library, an office block and community resource center. Moffat Mission was an LMS mission station and has been staffed by LMS missionaries or South Africans (mainly Batswana). However, American Board Mission missionaries stayed here briefly in 18?? and were aided by Robert Moffat. The first ABM effort in southern Africa had two branches, one coastal and the other interior. The three families aiming to establish a mission in the interior came here to Kuruman. We are reminded day by day, mainly of LMS work but we also feel historical ties to our early colleagues who sought to work North East of here and were prevented from doing so by war. When the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa was formed in 1968, it brought together the churches founded through the work of the London Missionary Society and those founded through the work of the American Board Mission. It seems good to have links to both of those historical streams in the UCCSA. The Kuruman Moffat Mission is a beautiful, interesting, and lively place to be. Thank you for your interest and concern. Love, Carol Return to index page