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Click to view map Coordinates: | This mission church, together with a number of other buildings, stands among trees, indigenous syringas and exotic oaks, with Mary Moffat's garden beside the furrow of fast-flowing water from the Eye, a perennial and reliable spring in a rocky outcrop, producing between 18- to 20-million litres of fresh water daily in an otherwise arid region. It is the source of a river which the Bushmen/San—the first settlers there, named "Kuruan"—from which the town derives its name. After an abortive attempt by the London Missionary Society at establishing a mission among the Batlhaping tribe who controlled that area in 1801 by Jan Kok and William Edwards, this endeavour was abandoned by Edwards after the murder of Kok. Robert Moffat took control that the mission station in 1821. Moffat, pointing out to Chief Mothibi the possibility of irrigating the river valley. However it was not until 1824 that the missionaries initiated the scheme at a point some 4 kilometres from the Eye on land granted by the tribal Chief and where the mission was set up anew. It is where the church stands today. Near the Eye Moffat and his compatriot, Hamilton, built a dam, labouring on the project themselves. From there they dug a furrow, 2 metres wide, which they lined with clay to lead the water 4 kilometres to the area selected for cultivation. The results of the work—which took almost two years—are to be seen today, as is Moffat's house, the oldest building north of the Orange/Gariep River. A school was also built. In July 1829 the first six Batswana clansmen offered themselves for baptism. Three of the converts volunteered to build a school at the mission and to pay for it themselves. Encouraged by such developments, Moffat and his fellow missionaries began building a church. The building is large by rural standards. Moffat designed it to seat 800 congregants at a time when he had only nine converts! Moffat described it as a simple structure "without steeple or gallery", as it is today. Construction took many years. The thick stone walls stood roofless for seven years before timber sufficiently large and stout was located for the making of the necessary beams. Hugh Millen, a Scots stonemason, died while scouring the countryside for timber. The wood came by oxwagon from Marico in the Transvaal, 350 kilometres away. The church remains as Moffat wished it to be: plain and simple. There is no ceiling to the high thatched roof and the exposed supporting beams create the character of the interior. The earthen floor is smeared with dung, while near the stone font and pulpit platform the floor is paved with slate. The white-painted wooden windows have small panes. Alongside the lectern is a wrought-iron candle-holder to which is chained an old-fashioned hourglass, to time the preacher's sermon. This historic building, once a National Monument is now a Provincial Heritage Resource. (Extracted and re-composed from Oxley 1992:49-51) Books that reference Moffat Mission Church
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