As it’s St Fillan’s 900th anniversary I’m looking at Rev. Rutherford’s children’s address, where he talks about the history of the church, there is none for 7th May 1967, so here is part of a letter from the missionary partner from the January 1953 magazine.
Read the full letter here.
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION,
TUMUTUMU, P.O. KARATINA,
KENYA COLONY,
16th November 1952.
DEAR MR RUTHERFORD
…We want to try and give you some impression of how the present trouble has affected us and the work of the Mission.
Before the emergency was declared the police were responsible for our protection, but they were woefully weak to deal with all the calls on their time and services.
There had been persistent rumours that the Mau Mau were to attack Tumutuma Mission Station. They called it Jerusalem and said it was the headquarters of the opposition to them in this district. The police gave us two armed African constables to patrol the Station and sent constant night patrols around the immediate area. We asked for volunteers from the senior boys of the boarding school to sleep two each in the servant quarters of the European Missionaries’ houses so that we had someone to give the alarm or to defend the houses if needed. An alarm was to be given by the ringing of the Station bell, and would be answered by about 80 boys armed with large knives (called pangas) and sticks….
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
J WILKINSON