Report From Elder J. N. Loughborough by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 8, 1909

Report From Elder J. N. Loughborough

By John Norton Loughborough

It is several months since I reported through the REVIEW. As I receive letters from persons writing to my home address in America, requesting an answer by return mail, and as it may be a surprise that the answer is delayed eight or ten weeks, if for no other reason it may be proper that I report at this date, and also speak of the plans for the summer. First, I will state that my time from Aug. 10, 1908, to March 26, 1909, was spent in the schools, sanitariums, and in general and other meetings in New Zealand and in the six different conferences of Australia and Tasmania.

March 26 I took ship at Melbourne for South Africa, via Hobart, Tasmania. After a pleasant voyage of 6,367 miles, I landed at Durban, South Africa, and was met by Brother R. C. Porter. Since that date I have held meetings at Berea and Bellair, suburbs of Durban; at Pietermaritzburg; at Wilzehoek and Heisterbach (the churches in the last two places are Dutch, and are situated fifteen and thirty miles respectively from the railroad, over the veld, or prairie); and

lastly, I spent a week at Johannesburg, in the Transvaal Colony. In all these meetings, and especially with those young in the faith, there has been great interest in listening to the rehearsal of the evident dealings of the Lord in the rise and progress of the great second advent movement. Our last two meetings at Johannesburg were held in the first Seventh-day Adventist meeting-house erected in the Transvaal.

During the first thirty days spent in Africa I attended forty-four meetings, and in forty of these I preached. I am now in Kimberley, in the immediate suburbs of which is the largest diamond mine in the world. After leaving this place in company with Brother E. R. Williams, I plan to visit different companies down to Port Elizabeth. June 12 we are to sail from there to Cape Town, two hundred miles distant. I expect to labor about a month with companies at and near the Cape. I am already booked to sail July 19 to London, England, on the steamer 'Goorkha,' of the Union Castle line, and to spend the summer at points in Europe, as Brother L. R. Conradi shall arrange.

Since leaving Healdsburg, Cal., July 13, 1908, I have traveled by sea 20,374 miles, and by land 7,857, a total of 28,231 miles. In all this journeying, some of it through rough seas, I have not had even a symptom of sea-sickness. I am in better health than when I left America, notwithstanding I have attended three hundred seventy meetings, in which I have preached two hundred twelve times. I have been most kindly and tenderly cared for by our dear brethren and sisters. The Lord has most wonderfully sustained and strengthened me, “this worthless worm” of the dust. Especially is this evident when I think that for the six months previous to starting on this journey, I had been able to hold only one meeting.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.