MISSIONARY TO LEPERS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29557, 5 July 1961, Page 2

MISSIONARY TO LEPERS

American Woman Served In Congo A recent visitor to Auck- : land, Mrs J. L. Kellersberger, ; spent many years doing lep- ' rosy mission work in the Congo with her husband, the ■ Rev. Dr. E. R. Kellersberger. Mrs Kellersberger said recently she had been brought up in comfort and security on an Alabama cotton plantation. where her family had been slave owners. After marriage she had accompanied her husband to Central Africa, where missionary work was then in the pioneer stage. On her first day she had seen 60 persons with leprosy, many diseased to advanced stages. Some had walked 100 miles on ulcerated feet for treatment. From the beginning, work among the lepers had met with fear and superstition, she said. When a suitable site for a leprosium had been found, the natives had said the trees should not be cut down because they were "spirit trees,” and anyone who touched them was sure

to die. Mr and Mrs Kellersberger left the Congo for New York when Dr. Kellersberger was appointed general secretary to the American Leprosy Missions, the American branch of the Mission to Lepers.