SUDAN UNITED MISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17324, 25 May 1918, Page 12

SUDAN UNITED MISSION

There was a good attendance at the Y.M.C.A. Board Room lust evening to hear an illustrated lecture by Miss Boiiiwell, on the Sudan United Mission. Mr Drew, secretary of the local Young Men's Christian Association, presided. The lecturer prefaced her general description of the mission work in the Sudan with some remarks concerning the urgent necessity for bridging the Sudan from Khartoum to Melut, if the inroads of the Moslems was to bo checked. There were no missionaries for 420 miles south of Khartoum, while in the whole Sudan south of Khartoum there were only six Protestant mission stationl. Yet the Southern Sudan was the nearest heathen field to Christian Europe, Khartoum being only nine days' journey from London. As yet the Dinkas inland from Melut knew little of the Islam doctrine, while those further north wore rapidly accepting it; but it was absolutely certain that the whole of the northern section of the Dinka tribe would shortly become Moslem unless an adequate number of missionaries were immediately placed in their field. The Sudan United Mission should have at least six missionaries among these people as soon as possible, after which it might be able to extend its work to other neighbouring tribes equally threatened by Islam. Miss Boniwell has just completed a campaign for funds in the North Island, where 6he succeeded in raising £600 for this mission work, and she states that she hoped to achieve a similar success in the south. In the course of her lecture she showed a_ number of interesting lantern slides, depicting the customs of the natives among whom the missionaries in the Sudan were working. .