Village Where Gribble Began Mission Receives Well
Posted by Terry White on October 28, 2009
Jim Hocking, director of ICDI, sends along the following article and photos of a well just drilled in the village where Grace Brethren African missions began in the 1920s.
This mission station on the hill behind the village of Bassai, Central African Republic, was established by James Gribble back in 1921. He started the work in Central Africa there which has now grown to a huge church and many many believers. Since that time a dispensary was started and then later a church built down in the village off the hill.
The first church building was built up near the mission station. As more and more people came for different reasons the town of Bassai has grown. Now the dispensary is run by another French NGO but is still there and functioning. There is also a government school there.
The Brethren church there, built from bricks from the earlier church up on the hill, is still standing and used every Sunday.
This year ICDI partnered with LWI to drill a well there and place a vergnet pump in the town of Bassai. This is a very good opportunity for us to be able to minister to a village where there have been no missionaries for many, many years.
This is also the location of a fort built high on a granite mountain about a 1.5 hour walk from Bassai. When slave traders would come to this part of the country the people would flee there in order to be safe. The biggest problem for them was surviving till the traders left. They had caves where they kept food stores but they did not have water on the mountain. This meant they had to either sneak down at night to get water or go without.
This fort was built out of rocks stacked on top of each other which could be used if the slave traders tried to climb the very steep mountain to get to the villagers hiding there. There were two main entrances which were walled up and then one very dangerous secret passage down the back of the mountain. Villagers can take anyone who would like on a hike out there. It is much easier to see in the dry season than in the rainy season.
Filed Under: Uncategorized