“HASN’T GOD BEEN GOOD”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30642, 7 January 1965, Page 1

“HASN’T GOD BEEN GOOD”

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Jan. 6. Miss Patricia Holdaway, the Auckland nursing missionary saved within minutes of death by mercenaries in the Congo, went to the bedside of her mother, ill in Middlemore Hospital this afternoon. Neither could speak for a few minutes. Mrs Holdaway was overcome as she embraced her daughter.

Then she said: “Hasn't God been good.” Since hearing of her daughter’s rescue—she was told by her husband on SaturdayMrs Holdaway, who was in fragile health after falling and breaking a hip, has improved every day. Both she and her husband are still showing signs of strain and Miss Holdaway said after stepping from the aircraft at Whenuapai this morning that false reports of her death had caused unnecessary distress to her family. Miss Holdaway flew back to New Zealand through Johannesburg and Sydney to a 6 a.m. welcome by 150 relatives and friends who sang the Doxology—“ Praise God from Whom all blessings flow” —as she emerged from the Customs lounge. At 2 a.m. she had telephoned her father from Sydney.

Later in the morning Missj Holdaway said she did not know whether she would go

back to the Congo. “If outside countries continue to support the rebels there will -be a lot more bloodshed,” she said. Shadowed by fatigue and with the lines of strain still apparent, Miss Holdaway told of a series of terrifying experiences through which she came physically unhurt, except for bad bruising caused by a rebel beating her up with fists and sticks. Miss Holdaway said she would always remember the bravery of the mercenaries. “They were grand, and it encouraged them no end to be able to rescue so many English-speaking people,” she said.

“They told us that if they had had their way, they would have got to Europeans in all the other places much more speedily.” But it was the fact that Englishmen were among the mercenaries that contributed to the beating Miss Holdaway endured. “We told them we were English, not American, and they said: ‘Vou are all the same now’,” she said. “The odd rebel showed gratitude to the missionaries. Some of them who had known us still called us ‘Mumma.’ They couldn’t- pronounce our names. I was ‘Mama Pata.’ “Some of them were forced into it through fear of the Simbas. Some asked me to pray for them. “They were very short of food and we shared our bag of fried beans with them. “We knew that the majority of them had gone into it in ignorance. “Sixty-year-old Mrs Daisy

Kingdom from Jamaica, was given a terrific crash over the head with a rifle butt. I thought she was going to keel over. “She had blood pouring from her head when a young rebel, about 18 or 19. whom sh: had taught at school, came and stood in front of her.

“Although it was dangerous for him to say so, he said, ‘Oh my mother. What have they done to you. You such good person. You done nothing bad.’ “All the time,” said Miss

Holdaway, “I had assurance that God had His own way of delivering us, and it was just at the time when Miss Stebbing and probably the rest of us were to be killed that the mercenaries arrived.” The future of missionary work in the Congo was in the balance, said Miss Holdaway. She now had no plans for the future, but she would be needed to nurse her mother back to health. The picture shows Miss Holdaway with her mother.