As his name would suggest, brother Geldenhuys was a Coloured man. he had both white and African ancestors. His complexion and features were more white than African. For a number of years he had the largest circuit in the country with many members, but it was an African circuit and the home church was in the African township across the road from his home in the Coloured township.
Robert had many problems in his ministry, I vividly remember one occasion when several of the missionaries including myself were called to try to straighten things out. I was very impressed by the fact that virtually every man present arrived carrying a sturdy “Knob Kerrie.“ That is a walking stick, made of hard wood and sporting a large knob as a handle, It is actually a weapon thinly disguised as a walking stick. Tensions were so tense, at that time, that there had been threats to stone Robert if he came to that side of the road, and the Township superintendent had told him to please stay away.
I don’t even remember just what the problem was all about, but into this tense atmosphere, the women added their threats. With a lot of flouncing about and shaking of their skirts they placed a "hex" on the church and of course on Robert in particular. They were firm believers in witchcraft and hexes, reinforced by stones if necessary. I don’t recall that anything very good came of that particular meeting. We had to leave with the problems still there. Being the new missionary, I was not asked, but I think a prayer meeting, introduced with Scriptures, would have been far more appropriate and would have given time for tempers to cool somewhat. For a time, the building was padlocked and stood unused, while Robert stayed away.
On another occasion, years later, I was called to come, and they still had problems. I traveled by train that time, and things really seemed to work out better for a while at least. I remember that I stayed at a local hotel, and took my meals with the Geldenhuys’ family, and then took the train back home again. When I boarded the train in the middle of the night there was a problem of finding a men’s compartment and a man and his girlfriend were separated so that I could have a bed in a men‘s compartment. They were not at all happy, but she was sleeping in a men’s compartment and the ticket collector moved her next door to a women’s compartment with no hesitation, and a lecture. All main-line trains in South Africa had compartments with seats that are converted to bunks at night. They usually had either two or four bunks when they were set up. The porter usually made those changes while the occupant was in the dining car eating the evening meal. Meals served in the dining car were very elegantly served.
Brother Geldenhuys had a real talent for using all kinds of folk tales in his sermons. He was an excellent preacher and I really looked forward to hearing his sermons. The African people love that sort of thing so he was a popular speaker. It was not his sermons that caused him problems. There was an interesting time when Mrs Randall in speaking of baptism in her lesson for the women, emphasized that it is a burial and one has to die to sin, be buried and covered over, “burying your sins.” The women converted that basic message to a song and sang it for a long time afterwards, demonstrating it with digging and burying actions to illustrate.
When brother Geldenhuys died years later, I went to his funeral. I was not the major speaker, but both Nick and I were asked to help as two of the six to carry the casket into the church from the hearse. I really felt honored as I don’t recall ever, having seen any missionary being asked to do that at any other time. Robert and I had been friends for many years.
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