BEAUTIFUL BARBERTON

Barberton is a "picture postcard" town nestled in a valley at the foot of a mountain range. Its climate is so mild that one approaches through orange groves that border the road. There are two ways to enter. If you are following the Mozambique road, a right fork will lead to a very long and steep downgrade winding to the valley below while the other approach is far less exciting as it comes along the valley. Both have their own attractions. The high road also leads to the Kruger National Game Park, while the lower road passes a magnificent hot springs with its cottages and travel trailer park.

Barberton was the site of gold mines which you can still explore in the foot hills of the mountain. These led to it becoming the first town in South Africa to establish a Stock Exchange, probably trading mostly in gold mine stocks.

My first visit there was to attend a church conference, and incidentally my last was also for another many years later. On the first visit we stayed in small rondavels at the edge of town. We were fascinated by the very high cable way that had been built to carry ore from far up in the mountains of Swaziland across the border to the railway depot just down the street from where we were. These containers carried perhaps a pickup truck load of ore at a time and operated most of the time with the exception of the week ends. Africans often rode the last containers with the ore in to the town to be with their families for the week end. The story is told of one man who waited too long and the container he rode in, stopped hundreds of feet up in the air. He was stranded there for the entire week end, then of course, had to go straight back to the mine where he worked.

Because of the strong up drafts there, Barberton has become very popular with the hang glider fraternity and it is an unusual day if there are not several gliders circling high in the sky. Because of this, the city has opened a second, much larger, camp and cottage site on the other side of the town.

The African people of Barberton are Swazis, and speak a language very similar to Zulu. We always particularly enjoyed visiting them. Two of their ministers had been men who first learned of the New Testament church through our Bible Correspondence lessons. I was surprised on one early visit to hear Simon Mtshayisa introduce me as a preacher with a very powerful voice. I knew that I am rather soft spoken, but he was referring to the fact that he first learned of me through our Correspondence Bible lessons when I was still living at Windhoek in Namibia. Once when I found myself perhaps fifty miles from Barberton and the local minister did not show up to lead me to the place of meeting, another missionary who was with me phoned Simon. Services had already started there, but without hesitation, Simon said, "Come here. We will just sing and preach till you get here." We had a glorious day with these fine people! Sadly, after several years, I was called to preach Simon's funeral. He had a long and successful ministry at Barberton, and I had lost a dear friend.

Following the example of the apostle Paul's trade as a tent-maker, Simon had a professional sewing machine and largely supported his family with it. He also planted a thriving vegetable garden and fruit trees, where ever he served the Lord. More than once Simon had to enlarge the building in which the church there met and worshipped.

Several of the elders of that church worked as warders in the near by State Prison. Our Bible Lessons were very popular in that prison as in several others, but in this one there were elders to encourage and teach the convicts. Most of these men were long-term prisoners. Other prisons that welcomed the lessons were the one in Pretoria, the national capitol, one in Boputatswana, and another in Robertson. These had an exceptionally large enrollments, while many others had fewer.