THE LIFE OF RICHARD WILLIAM MUELLER, JR.
(Continued)

Dad’s Autobiography – Chapter 18 – In Book, Page 39

Fourth Tour, Toward Self-Support, Mom and Uncle Art Come to Zambia, Gift of a Child, Mom’s Birthday in Kafue Game Park, Deb and Dick in Switzerland, Customs Scare, Instruction Courses, Dick and Tim Exuberant, Dick’s Motorcycle Accident, Elephant Encounter, Deb, Dick, and Tim Leave Africa

OUR FOURTH TOUR – 1969 – 1972

There is not an awful lot that I can add to the work which we did in Zambia after our return. We went on doing the work which we had been sent to do – to establish an indigenous church in Africa. The Lutheran Church of Central Africa was becoming more and more self-governing. Africans were being elected to positions of authority. In the congregations under my care, the lay-workers in them, and the men who had become evangelists were taking over more and more the leadership of their fields of labor. I was striving with the wisdom God had given me to bring my African co-workers to self-government.

I was also trying – through my African co-workers – to lead the congregations which I had been asked to supervise to self-support. I knew that this facet of an indigenous church would not be realized very soon. The income of villagers was meager, to say the least. Cold, hard cash was almost non existent in the bush. Nonetheless, we did all we could do to bring about this part of an indigenous church as well. The monies which were received were placed into a congregation’s treasury – and kept by it. I wanted the members – and my African co-workers – to know that it was their responsibility to support the Lord’s work which was being done among them. They should not always look to the church in America for help.

I went so far as to leave the elements – the bread and the wine – for the Lord’s Supper with the shepherds of the congregations. It was another way, I thought, of leading the congregations to self-support. They were already paying for most, if not all of the bread and wine. However, there was a little glitch in this plan. In one congregation, the children of the shepherd found the wine, helped themselves to some of it – and then replaced what they had imbibed with water. They learned the wine and water do not mix easily. Their indiscretion was noticed almost immediately – and the shepherd applied immediate discipline.

After we had been back on the mission field in Zambia for a year, our two oldest children came for their summer vacation. That was in 1970. They came with my mother and my uncle Art. My Dad had died – and my uncle’s wife had died. Dad and mom had been given money by St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jefferson, Wisconsin, for a trip to Africa. It was an appreciation gift. Because my uncle, a brother of my mother, was alone, too, they decided to come together – and bring our children with them. On their way to Zambia they stopped in Greece – and traveled to Corinth. It is a place to which Irene and I wish we could have gone – so we are thrilled that Debbie and Dick got to go there in our place.

You can only imagine the reunion we had. Tears of joy flowed. Hugs and kisses were in abundance. As soon as our exuberance diminished a bit, we began to make plans for my Mom and uncle. We took them to as many places in and outside of Lusaka that we possibly could. We took them to villages, to market places, and, of course, to Worship Services. One of those Worship Services was special. We were served bread and delicious tea. I relished the tea. The water usually came from a nearby river. It was boiled in a five gallon kerosene can. Tea, sugar, and canned milk were added. Irene and I loved it. However, my mother was not thrilled at the prospect of bush tea. She had brought a thermos with her own hot drink.

We tried to warn my Mom and uncle of things they should watch out for. However, there was one thing I did not warn them against – and it happened. We were visiting a village. A mother with a small child came up to us. My uncle took it – and admiringly said, “She is so cute. I think I will take her with me.” At that the woman said, “Take her.” Yes, she was willing to give up her child because she knew that, if she was taken to America, she would have a life and an education that she would never have in Africa.

My Mom celebrated a birthday while she was with us. We surprised her by giving her and my uncle a trip to the Kafue Game Park in Zambia. It was a trip that they never forgot. On the day of her birthday, they fell asleep listening to lions roaring, hippos grunting – and other noises never heard before.

Soon it was time for my Mom and uncle to journey back to the States. We saw them off with sorrow in our hearts, but were filled with joy to have Deb and Dick stay with us for a few more weeks. That joy came to an end all too soon. Before we knew it, it was time for them to return to the United States. On the way back, we had them stop in Switzerland where they did things we have never done. They traveled to the top of the Jungfrau, took a dogsled ride, and ate fondue. And they spent all of the money we had given them – money that was to be used by them after their return to Wisconsin – and at their schools at Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, and Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin.

If I remember correctly, it was on their trip to Africa that they brought along some ‘Ham’ radio equipment for me. It was extra baggage, but they had no trouble getting it through customs anywhere. Neither did I on another trip. I carried it through customs in London. No one bothered to look at it – which scared me. I could have been taken for some kind of subversive. All the while we were in London I thought about it. I wondered how I was going to get it out of the country. I should not have been concerned. When we got to customs, my radio equipment was completely overlooked. Did I breathe a sigh of relief!

In a way, this next year on the mission field flew by. There seemed to be so much work to do – and so little time in which to do it. As I have said before, we were trying to do everything we possibly could to establish an indigenous church in Africa. We were training men to be leaders in the congregations. We were encouraging them to lead their members to thinking of supporting the Lord’s work among them. To bring that to pass, we were preparing courses of instruction for the accomplishment of that goal. We had already prepared Bible Instruction Courses to bring our contacts to a desire for Holy Baptism. Courses to bring people to a knowledge of Holy Scripture which would enable them to receive the Lord’s Supper had also been prepared. A course of instruction for elders in the church was being contemplated. It was our desire to lead the African church to self-support, self-government, and self-propagation.

In another way, this next year dragged by. We missed Deb and Dick tremendously. Their brothers and sisters did, too. However, the year did pass – and it came to end with a bang – literally. Soon, very soon after the plane carrying them landed in Lusaka, we took them home. Irene had prepared an afternoon tea for them – and their friends. Dick and Tim – in sheer joy of the homecoming – wrestled mightily on the living room floor. Suddenly, the tea table – with tea pot and tea cups – flew into the air. We all held our breath thinking that we would be picking up pieces of everything. To our utter surprise, that did not take place. The tea pot, the tea cups, and the tea table survived without a scratch. So did our oldest boys.

We had planned to take our children on a vacation to Rhodwin’s Resort on the Copperbelt. It is a place where vacationers can go swimming and boating without fear of contracting bilharzia. That illness comes from an insect which lays its eggs in water which can enter the intestinal tract of a human. However, that plan changed in the blink of an eye. It changed because of a motorcycle accident.

There was a pastoral conference at the church next to our home in Lusaka. The men were in the church – and their wives were on the patio of our home. Our son, Dick, decided to show off for a daughter of one of the missionaries. He sped up and down the street past our house. Out of sight of our patio, he failed to turn a corner – and landed in a deep rocky ditch. Irene heard about it when another child came running to tell her that Dick had an accident. When she got to the corner, Dick was sitting in the middle of the road. Even though he was covered with blood, he told Irene, “Mom, I’m fine.” He wasn’t – but he was very much alive. He could have died there. Our son, Tim, thought he had. He saw the accident.

Irene called me – and off to the hospital we sped. In a very short time, Dick had won the race for the most stitches. He had them up and down his leg – with instructions not to get his bandages wet. There went our vacation to Rhodwin’s Resort. In a way, this turned out to be a blessing, too. We now went to the Victoria Falls, where our children saw elephants closer than they had ever seen them before.

We were driving along the Zambezi River near the Victoria Falls. Across the river, we saw a small herd of elephants. As we watched, we saw one elephant enter the water. We realized that they were about to swim across to where we were. We drove ahead to a place where we thought they would come out of the water. We stopped just beyond that point – and are we glad we did. When the lead elephant reached the shore, he was behind us in less time than it takes to tell. Irene saw his huge head come up out of the water and up the bank of the river. She shouted, “go-go” — and I did “go-go”. Elephants can really move.

They are also big – as our children found out. He came so close to the back of our car that all they saw was gray. They will never forget the scene. And I will never forget it either. Irene and I saw something no one else saw. There was a vehicle behind us. The elephant came up between us. The Indian man (from India) in the car behind us had gotten out of his vehicle – with his young child. When he saw the elephant, he picked up his child – and literally threw him through one of the windows of his car. He was scared – as he should have been. The elephant, however, took a look at us, turned and looked at him, and then ambled off into the bush. It was but one more incident – in a long line of incidents – in which our Lord protected us. He still had need for us here on earth – the need for us to proclaim His Word in a land that was not our native land.

The summer (winter in Zambia) was over all too quickly. At the end of August it was time for Deb and Dick to return to Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, and Northwestern Preparatory School in Watertown, Wisconsin. But this time they did not go alone. Their brother, Tim, would go with them. He had reached the age where he would begin his high school years at the same school that his brother attended, Northwestern College and Preparatory School in Watertown, Wisconsin.