p. 16 | Qualifications for Mission Service

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 10, 1916

Qualifications for Mission Service

By FREDERICK GRIGGS

IN a recent letter from Elder W. H. Anderson, of the Pemba Mission, Northwestern Rhodesia, South Africa, he outlined in a terse way some of the characteristics which should distinguish a missionary. They are as follows:—

“1. He must be an optimist. He must never get blue, no matter what happens.

“2. He must have adaptability in order to fit in and not be rubbing the fur the wrong way all the time.

“3. He must learn to love the country where he is; he must be able to see good in different ways of doing things, and not try to ‘Americanize’ everything. I notice from the newspaper reports that sometimes they do things wrong even in America.

“4. He must be a teacher,—one who will not teach over the heads of the pupils. He ought to be a good church-school teacher.

“5. He must be strong in government,—one who can take a school and make it go.

“6. He must be straight on denominational organization.

“7. He should come to the mission field as a learner, and not as a teacher. Let him spend his first three years learning, and then if he has anything to teach, let him start in.

“8. He must be a linguist. Clothe an unknown thing in an unknown tongue, and you must not blame the native if he does not understand your message. In the early church every man heard the truth in the tongue in which he was born.

“9. Of course he must be a straight Seventh-day Adventist who takes God at his word, and believes in the speedy triumph of the message, and knows the power of God to convert souls, and can get right down close to the lowest and do personal work for them. He must be strong as a personal worker.

“10. If, in addition to the above, he is a farmer, gardener, cattle rancher, horticulturist, poultry fancier, nurse, carpenter, bricklayer, shoe cobbler, and has a good supply of common sense; a constitution of iron, nerves of steel; can work and yet not overwork; can rest but not get lazy,—these are qualities which will help him considerably in his work.

“11. He must learn to see things by faith and not be fanatical; one who has learned to live by faith will still want his regular meals every day.

“12. He must be a man who realizes that we are still in a world of sin, sorrow, and degradation; and he must not be an idealist who lives and works as if we had no more of the world’s diseases to cope with.”

In this list of qualifications is set before the young people in our schools and before our teachers an ideal of character and ability that is well worth study. These items deserve careful study by every individual, whether he is preparing for mission fields or not. It is for the realization of these ideals in their students that our schools labor, and they cannot be held too continually before the students, nor impressed too deeply upon their hearts and minds. Seventh-day Adventist young men and women must be the sturdiest, sincerest, and most vigorous of all young men and women in the world, for to none is committed a more strenuous work than to them. Our schools seek to give an all-round world view of the gospel work, and a broad, comprehensive sympathy with the needs of mankind, physical and mental as well as spiritual, and a thorough equipment to minister to these needs. They teach that we are debtors to all men of every nation and every clime.

These schools will open in a few weeks, and the parents of our young people and the young people themselves are or should be giving careful thought to this next school year. Every young person connected, directly or indirectly, with our churches, whose circumstances do not absolutely forbid, should be in attendance at one of our schools where the ideals already set forth are the motive underlying all work. Our Fireside Correspondence School is open to all who cannot attend a residence school. Work in this school can be carried on in the home under any circumstances; so there

can be no substantial excuse for one of our young people in health and strength not pursuing studies that will enable him to realize these elements of character, — elements demanded by the hour in which we live. FREDERICK GRIGGS.