An Afternoon in the Corn Fields

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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THIS afternoon I paid a visit to the corn fields a good distance from here, hoping to reach the women at work there. When the children saw me coming, they came in bands shouting "Ondona woza"―she is coming―and ran to meet me.
After the usual salute, I sat down on an old tree, and after having a hymn with them, I got them to repeat John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16), in Umbundu, until the head woman called them off to their work. I went with them and helped a little. They soon had their baskets filled with corn, and many of them heaped up sticks on the top for their fires. Then they raised their baskets to their heads, which is the native mode of carrying, and we all started for home, they singing the song usually sung as they carry home the corn. I am not so well acquainted with their language as to know its meaning, but their sweet voices sounding through the great still wood were very pretty. O that these woods but re-echoed with the name of Jesus, sung by lips and hearts of sinners cleansed in His precious blood, and able to call Him "My Savior." Reader, do you know Him? Can you sing and say, "Jesus is mine.”