The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

27. Sandy Bay and Wasla, 1898

27 SandyBay and Wasla, 1898 Letter from Brother Colditz, November 18, 1898, Periodical Accounts Relating to Foreign Missions of the Church of the United Brethren 4, no. 37 (1899): 22–27. This letter updates the Sandy Bay activities described in no. 26. Colditz describes the love feast at the dedication of the new church. Attended by missionaries, their spouses, and their children from the surrounding stations, the love feast was a celebration, but it also served to consolidate Moravian authority at the new station. Colditz states that seven hundred people appeared, suggesting that all of Sandy Bay attended along with many visitors from nearby communities such as Dakura and Awastara and those along the lower Wangki River. The main portion of the letter, however, deals with a trip Colditz took to the new Wasla station along the Wangki River. Colditz describes Wasla as a village “set on a hill” whose light shines like a beacon into the surrounding heathen darkness. Sukia and Catholic priest shenanigans are predictably described in detail. Back at Sandy Bay, Colditz narrates the “great law” being decided at Uskira, one of the Sandy Bay hamlets near the sea. Here, dysentery had taken the lives of seven villagers, and local headmen called in a sukia from Bihmuna to extricate the suspected poison. The sukia finds some bottles which Colditz takes, presumably to show that they are harmless and that he too can master nefarious liquids. He ends with the same sort of lighthouse metaphor used at Wasla, that although Uskira is three-quarters of an hour from Sandy Bay, the new and venerable church of the latter is still visible from the former. 304 | Sandy Bay and Wasla The following letter from Sandy Bay, written by Brother Colditz , the missionary in charge, and dated November 18, 1898, will be read with interest. It contains an account, not only of the opening of the new church at that station, but also of a missionary trip to Wasla, and of some of the heathenish beliefs and customs of the people among whom he and his colleagues labour. We congratulate Brother Colditz on the successful completion of his building effort, and wish him the Lord’s constant and rich blessing on his further labours of love among the inhabitants of Sandy May and its surrounding villages! Opening of the New Church Brother Colditz writes:1—Only a few days ago I received your kind letter of September 24, for which accept many thanks. My dear wife and I were overjoyed to hear that £20 had come in for our church. We beg to express hearty thanks to the kind donors. May the Lord reward them! Now I am able to tell of the solemn dedication of our beautiful new church, on October 19. This was a memorable day in my life, and one which we shall never forget. The following brethren were present at the dedication :—Brother Reichel from Yulu, Brother Carlsson from Twappi, and Brother and Sister Kern from Dakura, with three children and their teacher, Miss Smith. Our house was filled with welcome guests, and we spent happy and profitable days together. For two days before the dedication our yard presented a busy scene. Over five hundred Lovefeast buns were baked, ten pounds of coffee were parched, and a small ox was killed. Everyone in Sandy Bay was, of course, looking forward with pleasure to the Lovefeast. At 10 a.m. on October 19 the congregation assembled once more in the school-house, to take leave of the old place of meeting. I addressed them on the words “Ebenezer—Hitherto hath the Lord helped Us” (1 Samuel 7:12). Then the large congregation proceeded to the new building, which with its white walls looked so inviting in the bright sunshine. Brother Kern gave out a suitable hymn, and when this had been sung he opened the church in the name of the Triune God. We entered with joyful and grateful hearts. It took quite a quarter of an hour to get all the people seated. Brother Kern played the harmonium, and Sandy Bay and Wasla | 305 Brother Reichel opened the service with a hymn, the Litany, and the reading of Solomon’s dedicatory prayer. Then I ascended the pulpit, and preached the consecration sermon, on Luke 14:17: “Come; for all things are ready.” The spacious church was closely packed, and it was a great pleasure...