Page 203 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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1902
During my absence Missionary Meyer from Berseba visited Bethanie, as did Br. Schepmann. Kaptein Jakobus had ensured that order was kept, but unfortunately Petrus Sepeng, the head teacher, had transgressed twice and had to be dismissed. I
took over all the work again. My dear father and I had worked together in love and peace for 20 years from 1880 until 1900 and when he died in 1900 I reported to Superintendent Yordt and fully entered the association again with my congregation. The exceptional status came to an end.
When I had asked father to change this or that so and so, he always responded friendly that he would like it to stay as it is for as long as he lived and I fell silent. When I took up work on my own in 1902, I immediately changed two things:
1) During father’s times the girls had to visit the children’s school until they got married and in this way new children, seven years of age, always joined but only the big, confirmed boys left the school, causing the school to be overfilled. In this way father may have had the virgins under control and at the time they did not work. I immediately cleaned out the schools of all confirmed girls and made place for small 7-year-old children.
2) Father had an annual meeting for the congregation that was attended by all men and young boys and where there
were endless unpleasant events. I put an end to these meetings with the full consent of Chief Jakobus and we asked every village and every tribe to elect two men as representatives that, together