Mission Bases

I listened to a missionary last night (pictured). Serving in remote regions of Africa, he said that a priority for new missionaries is to get a solid house built -- which may take up to a year. Having lived in the mission myself as a boy, most of the islands we visited did not have a solid house built -- I think seven out of ten. Nor did we build them. The three islands that did have a solid house built served as bases or retreats -- not that these houses offered many luxuries. OBSERVATION: Some missionaries stuck to the base houses, while my parents often lived among the people. Some thirty years later, one of the elders (Otiuea) told me that this was the first reason they were respected and remembered where other missionaries' names had been forgotten.