Page 137 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1880
In 1879 father had made it possible to buy a Cape cart, but I started my sermons to heathens in the villages of Makolokoe, Kipton, Marukane and others by horse and I attended to these villages for nine years by horse until the ice was broken and more and more of the people became Christians and could build me a fairly large church in Makolokoe, the centre. In Makolokoe I preached under a big Maroela tree every time, in Kipton under a big fig tree (a wild one that had grown out of a crevice in the rocks) and in Marukane I always stood under a peach tree.
My first sermon in Bethanie: During the first five months
I did not yet dare preach because of the language. Then in November Father suddenly fell ill in the night before Sunday so that he could impossibly hold the service and told me that
I had to take over the service and the sermon. I postponed the service until lunchtime and prepared. It was the gospel of the coming of our Lord and the last judgment: for I was hungry, and you gave me food etc. This was not that difficult in terms of language and I managed.
Mission Director Theodor Harms had given me ten wind instruments for Bethanie as a gift in order to start a brass band in Bethanie. The box with these instruments got lost and only arrived months later. I then started practising very diligently and formed a band that grew and grew so that in 1914 I had almost 50 well drilled players with drums and pipes and flags and everybody in uniform, as can be seen