Anderson, Sarah Kroeker (1882-1969)

Mennonite Weekly Review: 1956 Sep 13 p. 11

Birth date: 1882

text of article:

Portrait of a Missionary

By Mrs. Henry A. Toews, Inman, Kan.

(Editor's Note: Interesting glimpses into the life and work of a pioneer missionary to Africa under the Congo Inland mission are given in this "portrait" by Mrs. Henry A. Toews, who with her late husband also served in the Congo for many years.)

SARAH Kroeker was tall and dark haired with well built shoulders. As one looked at her one got the impression that she could "take it" even though she was a woman. Her friendliness was perhaps her most noticeable feature, but it was her generosity that won her way into the hearts of folk. Her influence was felt on three continents — America, her home, Africa, her field of service and Europe, for Sweden was her adopted home.

It was in 1912 that she left the shores of her homeland as a trained nurse to go to London to study tropical diseases. From there she went to the Congo to Work under the newly founded Congo Inland Mission. Her first love was for the children of Congo who touched the hem of her skirt as she walked in the Congo villages. She also hoped to help the mothers of Congo for which work she was particularly trained.

●                    ●                   ● The Lost Shoes

IN CONGO she lived in a mud and stick hut like the Africans did. She was expecting a few things of beauty to adorn her hut after her boxes came from Montgomery Ward, but her boxes were a long time coming, and then some of the very necessary items had disappeared. They had been raided and her shoes were missing.

Shoes are a very important item of apparal [sic] since the ground is infested with parasites. Neither do shoes have a long life in the tropics. Like the shoes of the children of Israel in their wanderings in the wilderness, they seem to have a very short life span due to the warm, sandy soil upon which one walks. It would take over a year before another order could be sent out. . . .

●                    ●                   ● A Proposal of Marriage

SARAH had not been in the Congo very long, and had not yet mastered the native language, when a caller came to the veranda. He wished to inquire of Mrs. Haigh, the senior missionary, concerning the new-comer.

"Is the lady unmarried?" asked the Chief.

"That's right — she is not married," said Mrs. Haigh, suspecting the purpose of the Chief.

"What would it take to betrothe a woman like that?" asked the Chief.

"Well, you know she is a trained nurse, and can take care of sick folk, so she is very valuable," laughingly answered the senior lady. "It would take many head of cattle — say a dozen or so."

The chief jingled his hippo-tooth necklace and drew his shirred grass skirt around him tighter and then strutted back to the village.

Some time later, that same Chief returned, wearing a vest and a pair of trousers. A retinue of cattle was following together with their caretakers. He had come to press the matter of the unattached lady.

"Here are the cattle and I have changed my appearance to be acceptable to the young lady," said the Chief.

Mrs. Haigh hastily explained the state of affairs to Sarah, who graciously but firmly declined the marriage offer.

●                    ●                   ● Illness and Death

BEING a trained nurse, she was expected to take care of missionaries who were ill as well as Africans. Rev. Stevenson, who had come about the time the Haighs had come, was ill with T. B. His wife and children had stayed in Canada, and expected to follow him later after he had established himself. The Haighs also assisted in caring for Rev. Stevenson, but since Sarah was the nurse the responsibility rested on her shoulders.

After some weeks of very severe illness Rev. Stevenson died. That was in 1912 and in order to have a coffin the missionaries made one from Montgomery Ward boxes, and buried the first white person to die on the C. I. M. field.

PIONEERING ON FOREIGN FIELD — Rev. and Mrs. Oscar Anderson, now living in retirement in Sweden, were pioneer missionaries in the Belgian Congo, Africa. Mrs. Anderson is the former Sarah Kroeker, R.N., of the Bethel Mennonite church of Inman, Kan.

Saved from the Forest

ONR time when she was on the veranda of her hut, she notice a young father coming toward her with an infant in his arms. He was all out of breath and his voice showed signs of fear.

"Will you hide my little one?" he gasped. "It's mother died in the village and the village folk thrust me out saying, 'The accursed child has killed its mother and it will continue to curse us, so take it to the forest — hasten before sun down.' I ran through the forest — once I just about put it down, but it clung to me with the little life that it still has in its body. Just hide it so the village folk will never find out. If it lives, you can have it."

"I will take the child — and I will give it milk — you see it is almost starved," said Sarah. "I'll feed it with a medicine dropper."

The African looked relieved and said, "Tuasakidila" (thank-you). Then he disappeared beyond the edge of the forest.

"Oh, I did not ask his name." she said to herself. "If he lives he will be mine, and I will give him a name."

Then the little thing whimpered — it seemed too weak to cry, but it might live after it had taken a few drops of milk. She would name him Moses, she thought, for he had been spared the death of the cruel forest, which had been ordered by the Chief and the elders of the village. She would have the privilege of training him in the ways of God.

"Mama" - "Mamma" chattered the parrot perched on the edge of the grass roof of her hut. Sarah threw him a few palm nuts and then continued her ministry to the sick infant. The parrot chewed the orange-red nuts with relish and dropped the strawy substance to the ground.

"How soon would Moses say 'Mama, Mamma,'" she asked herself. "I shall not always hide him, but when he is well and strong I shall take him to the village to break down the barrier that exists between me and the village mothers."

●                    ●                   ● Rev. Anderson of Sweden

TO HELP Sarah over her shoe palaver, by common consent she inherited Rev. Stevenson's shoes. She was quite tall so she did not find them too terribly large.

She happened to be wearing these mannish shoes when a steamer arrived at the port of Joko on the Kasai River. There came new recruits for the work and one of the group was Rev. Oscar Anderson directly from Sweden. Rev. Anderson later said that it was love at first sight when he saw Sarah Kroeker, even though she was wearing those mannish shoes, and though their conversation was very limited, since he was Swedish and she was American.

They were married at Luebo Station of the Presbyterian Mission. The famous Dr. Stixrod was their best man. At the termination of their first term they went to Sweden for their furlough. After having mastered the Tshiluba language in Africa and having acquainted herself with a sprinkling of French, it was now imperative to get a good knowledge of Swedish.

While the Andersons were in Sweden in 1917, the World War broke out and they were detained there. During that time Sarah joined the church of her husband, namely Swedish Baptist.

●                    ●                   ● Fruitful Ministry

WHEN they returned to Congo for a second term they went out under the Swedish Baptist Mission. They started the station of Bendala on the Congo River and then went to the interior and started four other stations. Rev. Anderson translated the Scriptures and carried on school work, while Sarah cared for the sick. Literally hundreds of African mothers were helped by her medical aid. She and her husband had also studied tropical diseases in Belgium, so they were able to give medical aid of a wide range. On Sundays they would take turns preaching, Sarah often giving the message from the Word of God.

The time came that she was to have her own child and she and Oscar made plans to go to Luebo, so that she could have medical care at the hands of a doctor. But she never had the joy of coddling her own infant for it was born dead. Its grave is under the palms at Luebo.

Another time when she was expecting a child she went to Leopoldville, Congo, in order to have the best care that Congo could afford. This time it was twins — but they were born prematurely and did not live.

●                    ●                   ● An Orphanage at Home

HER little African Moses had grown to be quite a big boy. Since she seemingly could not have children of her own she gave herself devotedly to African mothers and babies. When the African mothers died, there was always the problem of what to do with the children, and she solved the problem by setting up an orphanage in her home. She no longer lived in a little hut, but lived in a comfortable brick home which Oscar had built.

There were rooms for the orphans and the older ones helped to care for the younger ones. There were large verandas where the wee tots could play. There were banana plantations and corn patches where the older ones could work. At times the food consisted of porridge made from oatmeal tins sent from America, and other times it was African mush made from cassava roots. The older children went to school on the mission compound.

At the time of her retirement in 1947 she had 18 orphans for whom she had card in her own home. She ahd spent 35 years in service in the Congo. She and her husband have now retired in Sweden.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 Jul 3 p. 3

Pioneer Missionary To Congo Dies in Upsala [sic Uppsala], Sweden

Dallas, Ore. — Word was received here that Mrs. Sarah Kroeker Anderson, one of the pioneer missionaries to the Congo under the Congo Inland Mission, died June 18 in Upsala [sic Uppsala], Sweden after being hospitalized four days. She reached the age of 87.

She leaves her husband, Dr. Oskar Andrson, the first medical doctor to serve on the C.I.M. field.

Other survivors include two brothers, Peter F. and Martin F. Kroeker, both of Dallas, many other relatives in the United States, and a host of friends in Sweden and Africa.

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MLA Personal Photos Collection

Biographical note:
Henderson, Nebraska
Daughter of Bernhard and Katharina (ott) Kroeker
Married Oskar Andersson 1915 September 14, Lueba Station, Lusambo, Congo
Swedish Baptist missionary nurse -- Congo, Africa

Bethel alumni note:

Photo holdings:
See Oskar Andersson for photos with husband and others

Sources:
Melvin Loewen's CIM thesis p. 421
Twenty-five years in Congo, p. 96
Grandma database Profile #279558, DOD 1968 June 18
Find a Grave DOD 1969 (photo of grave stone shared with Oskar Andersson)
MWR 07/03/69, DOD 1969 June 18