Namaqualand Mission

The Namaqualand Mission is said to have begun on 23 October 1816, the day when Jantjie Wildshutt and his elders invited the Rev Barnabas Shaw and his wife, Jane, to accompany them to the home of their Namaqua tribe, “Neiemies” or “Place of Gathering”, to become their missionaries. Realising their need for a teacher who could tell them about the “Great One in the Sky,” they met Shaw near Cape Town who accepted their invitation. Neiemies later became Lilyfountain.
Shaw arrived in Cape Town earlier that year and was denied permission to preach by the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset. The London Missionary Society missionary Schmelen, told him of the need for missionaries in the interior, thus whilst looking for a place to set up a mission station, he met Wildshutt. Upon arrival at Lilyfountain, Shaw recorded: “We took up our abode in a hut belonging to one of the natives which had neither chimney, not even a door, and all in all, was of small dimension”.
The Namaqua people were hunters and lived a communal nomadic life. Shaw taught them agricultural skills and also started a school. In 1817, about 50 people where learning to read, and amongst Shaw’s early helpers where members of the Links family. In 1826 the first proper school was erected. Education has always been a priority at Lilyfountain, and in 1970 a Hostel was built. Today the school caters for learners from Grade 1 to Grade 8.
The Lilyfountain Mission was the first indigenous Methodist Society in South Africa. Shaw taught the people Methodist discipline and doctrines, and witnessed with the plough and spade as well as with his preaching, prayer and reading of scripture. One of Shaw’s achievements was to transform a nomadic farming community into an educated settled agricultural community with a permanent place of abode. Although they farmed cattle, sheep and goats, Shaw taught crop farming and horticulture.
Spiritually the Namaqualand Mission has come a long way. In 1817 Shaw had ten converts. By 1833 there were 120 full members and in 1835 they started to contribute financially to the Mission. By 1850 the membership had grown to 163 and today there’s almost 5 000 members.
Shaw’s contextual and caring ministry begun in 1816 which included a respect for Namaqua culture of never “eating, drinking or smoking alone” continues to this day.

The Namaqualand Mission is said to have begun on 23 October 1816, the day when Jantjie Wildshutt and his elders invited the Rev Barnabas Shaw and his wife, Jane, to accompany them to the home of their Namaqua tribe, “Neiemies” or “Place of Gathering”, to become their missionaries. Realising their need for a teacher who could tell them about the “Great One in the Sky,” they met Shaw near Cape Town who accepted their invitation. Neiemies later became Lilyfountain.
Shaw arrived in Cape Town earlier that year and was denied permission to preach by the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset. The London Missionary Society missionary Schmelen, told him of the need for missionaries in the interior, thus whilst looking for a place to set up a mission station, he met Wildshutt. Upon arrival at Lilyfountain, Shaw recorded: “We took up our abode in a hut belonging to one of the natives which had neither chimney, not even a door, and all in all, was of small dimension”.
The Namaqua people were hunters and lived a communal nomadic life. Shaw taught them agricultural skills and also started a school. In 1817, about 50 people where learning to read, and amongst Shaw’s early helpers where members of the Links family. In 1826 the first proper school was erected. Education has always been a priority at Lilyfountain, and in 1970 a Hostel was built. Today the school caters for learners from Grade 1 to Grade 8.
The Lilyfountain Mission was the first indigenous Methodist Society in South Africa. Shaw taught the people Methodist discipline and doctrines, and witnessed with the plough and spade as well as with his preaching, prayer and reading of scripture. One of Shaw’s achievements was to transform a nomadic farming community into an educated settled agricultural community with a permanent place of abode. Although they farmed cattle, sheep and goats, Shaw taught crop farming and horticulture.
Spiritually the Namaqualand Mission has come a long way. In 1817 Shaw had ten converts. By 1833 there were 120 full members and in 1835 they started to contribute financially to the Mission. By 1850 the membership had grown to 163 and today there’s almost 5 000 members.
Shaw’s contextual and caring ministry begun in 1816 which included a respect for Namaqua culture of never “eating, drinking or smoking alone” continues to this day.

BETHELS KLIP

BETHEL'S KLIP - "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I will be in the midst of them" (Pg68) Barnabas Shaw, Memorials of South Africa Bethel's Klip is the site where the Rev. Barnabas Shaw first preached the Gospel to the Namaqua peoples some 198 years ago on Sunday, 12 September 1819 near the base of the Kamiesberg escarpment at a small village/community near giant granitic boulders lying in a valley. I quote from Rev. Barnabas Shaw book, “Memorials of South Africa” the following he said about this place: “A short distance from the kraal stands an amazing rock: its length is nearly two hundred feet, its breadth forty or fifty, and its height sixty or seventy. In former ages this has been a solid stone; but by the mouldering hand of time, or some convulsive shake of the earth, it has been separated into three almost equal parts. Everything seemed to invite us to worship and adore. The grand luminary of the world beginning his mighty career in the heavens, pointed out Jesus as “a Light to lighten the Gentiles” - the immense mountains by which we are surrounded, shewed us the power of God – the decayed and tumbling rocks on every side, seemed to remind us that no earthly thing can withstand the wastes of all-consuming time, the cows, sheep, and goats grazing around, brought primitive times to our recollection, and encouraged us to believe in the God of Abraham.” (Pg88) I quote further from his book: “On saying to the chief, that the Lord provided us with a place of worship, without labour of ours, he answered “Yes, and it is good to sit under its shadow”. On explaining to him the meaning of the word Bethel, he said that the rock should henceforth bear that name”. (P89) Bethel (Ugaritic: bt il, meaning "House of El" or "House of God" (Wikipedia)

LINK TO PDF COPY OF BARNABAS SHAW'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

MEMORIALS OF SOUTH AFRICA - BARNABAS SHAW (BOOK)

Click on above link to download a copy of Barnabas Shaw's book Memorials of South Africa.

JACOB LINKS

Jacob Links is remembered as one of the first Christian martyrs in South Africa. He was also the first indigenous convert and church leader to write to the Board of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in London. He wrote in Dutch and told them about the Namaqua mission of which he was a part.

He was born in about 1799, one of the sons of Keudo Links, a man of influence in his Namaqua tribe. Among his brothers and sisters were Peter, Jan, Timotheus, Gert and Martha. In 1816 the Rev. Barnabas Shaw, a missionary of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, came to live among the Namaqua people. Shaw had been invited by a group of Namaquas who met him as he traveled north from Cape Town. He settled in Little Namaqualand at what became Lilyfountain Mission. The Links family moved to live at the mission too. Jacob was about seventeen years old when he arrived at Lilyfountain.

In 1819 he wrote to the Board of the Mission in London. The letter was published in the 'Notices' ~ the letters from missionaries which reported on their work. The secretary noted that the letter was written in Dutch in 'a very good hand' (Notices 1820, 264). Links told them that he had first heard of the Gospel from converts of the Rev. Albrecht. He listened; but did not understand. Then he thought that by eating the leaves of a Dutch prayer book belonging to his mother he might be able to have the new religion. He tried getting on to the roof of the house to pray, thinking that God would surely hear him there, but to no avail. He then heard that he must give 'his cause to Jesus', which he did. But then he was persecuted by both 'black and white'. The farmers resented the teaching given by the missionaries. People told him he was mad and his mother cried over him. Then the captain of the clan and four men went to find a teacher. They returned with Barnabas Shaw and his wife, Jane.

Links said that he now 'found that Christ is the way and the sinner's friend'. Whereas before the people had lived in fear of the farmers who threatened them with death if they became Christians, Lilyfountain became a center for missionary work, both by Shaw and the Namaquas themselves. Jacob Links became a teacher, interpreter and evangelist. Many of the rest of the family also became Christians.

Shaw taught Links and others how to read. He had no school books but used Dutch religious tracts, of which he had a plentiful supply. Jacob's new-found skill was put to the test when he accompanied Shaw to the farm of a Dutch farmer. At first the farmer mocked the Namaquas, but Links and his brother Jan told the farmer about the book of life and that Christ had said that people must be born again. The farmer realized that the Links brothers could both read and write better than he could (Shaw 1970, 81).

On one occasion Links offered to travel into the interior as a missionary. He was away for several weeks preaching to the people he met. In 1822 Links was accepted as a 'native assistant missionary'. He accompanied the missionary James Archbell on a journey into Greater Namaqualand. He also accompanied Archbell to Cape Town and then sailed up the coast with him to Walvish (sic) Bay. When Archbell was sent to the Bechuanas, Links returned to Lilyfountain.

At the end of 1824 the Rev. William Threlfall visited Lilyfountain. He had been ill for some time and had come to recuperate. On 2 January 1825 Shaw held a 'love feast' or communion service. At the service a man named Johannes Jager from the Karee country, a barren land between Garies and Van Rhynsdorp, told how he had heard the Gospel from a Namaqua woman called Delia. A week later permission came from the governor for Shaw and the mission to own the land on which Lilyfountain was built. Barnabas and Jane Shaw took advantage of Threlfall's presence and spent some time in Cape Town. Jager remained at the mission, still hoping for a missionary for his clan.

Shaw, Threlfall and Links had often spoken of traveling to the Fish River to see if the people there still wanted a teacher. Because of Threlfall's frequent illness, Links had chosen a friend who would go with them and remain until a missionary could be found. This was Johannes Jager. In the end it was Threlfall, Links and Jager that embarked on the fateful trip. The first letter from the group, which was first read to the wives of Jacob and Johannes and then to the rest of the people at Lilyfountain, brought good news. The expedition was going well and they had found a guide, Tsaumaap, to take then further.

On 16 October Shaw received a message from Brother Wimmer of Steinkopf saying that he had heard that the party had been murdered. The same report was again brought to the mission a few weeks later, but it was only in March 1826 that the Rev. Schmelen of the London Missionary Society was able to confirm what had happened. Their new guide, a man called Nauwghaap, had stoned them to death for their cattle and few possessions. He was caught still wearing Threlfall's clothes (Birtwhistle 1966, 137).

Although Links, with his potential, was gone, his family did not leave the Christian faith and continued as leaders in the Methodist Church in Lilyfountain.
J. A. Millard

Our witness in Somerset West marks over 180 years this year! 

Since at an early period of the Wesleyan Mission to the Cape of Good Hope occasional visits were made by the
Missionaries to the district of Hottentots-Holland, and meetings were held, first in a cottage and afterwards in a schoolroom; but it was not till 1834, when the time for emancipating the slaves was approaching, that steps were taken to secure a permanent footing among the people of that neighbourhood

On the morning of Saturday 21st June of that year Barnabas Shaw rode over from Cape Town to Somerset before breakfast; and in the course of the day effected the purchase of a house and premises with a parcel of ground, in the lower part of the village being aided in the accomplishment of this by the benevolence of the late Mrs. Brackenbury.n the morn

On the premises stood a large building, which had been used as a wine store, which was soon fitted up in September that year and was formally opened for the public worship of God. Soon after a resident minister was appointed and when classes were formed, a school was established. Two ministers labored here namely the Rev. James Gray and Edward Edwards, until in 1844 Rev. Barnabas Shaw, who had returned to South Africa to finish his course of Missionary labor took up the reins.

Mr. Shaw, now beginning to feel the weight of years and effects of his former toils; but; nevertheless, entered with spirit into the work at Somerset, laying out the Mission Ground in allotments for the people and aiding them in the erection of their houses whilst at the same time preaching the Gospel. The following year Mr. Edwards joined him again and the work extended in various directions. In 1847 the chapel became to small and it was enlarged to accommodate about 500 people.

By 1851 the school had grown to 130 scholars and the church continued to grow. In 1860 the old chapel again became to small and since it could not be enlarged a New Chapel was built. Despite several obstacles including skilled labour and the comparative poverty of the people, the project to build was undertaken in faith prosecuted with energy and zeal and the effort crowned with success and the Chapel which stands at present was formally opened on the 29th August 1861. Since 1861, then, the Methodist Witness has continued to grow under the Helderberg Mountains.

The local school continues to grow under the name Methodist Primary even though we now only offer Spiritual Direction, and have no governing responsibility. The mission grounds continue to house some 40 families who despite the Group Areas Act were never removed from the Centre of town. This major feat was accomplished through the untiring efforts of the first African Coloured Minister appointed in the 1960’s, the Rev. Joe Fourie.

We have been served by many fine Ministers over the years, who have each made their mark in Methodism, such as Rev.’s Thomas Achilles, Roy van der Merwe, David Prins, and past-Bishop of the Cape District Andrew Hefkie. We have recently been blessed by some of the newer Generation of Ministers, such as Delme Linscott, James Headbush, and most recently the current Bishop of the Cape District Michel Hansrod..

EXTRACTED FROM CHURCH ST HISTORY, METHODIST CHURCH