A New Group of Mission Fields
By N. Z. TOWN
At the recent autumn council of the General Conference, A. J. Haysmer presented a request from the Central American Conference and the Guatemala Mission, which include the republics of Guatemala, British and Spanish Honduras, and Salvador, that they be separated from the West Indian Union Conference and placed under the direct supervision of the General Conference. This request was made principally because there is a much more direct and quicker communication between these fields and the States than with the West Indian Union headquarters. After considering this question the General Conference Council took the following action:— “Voted, That we concur in the suggestion from the West Indian Union, and grant the request of the Central American Conference and the Guatemala and Salvador Missions, taking these fields under the direct supervision of the General Conference until some plan of organization of the Northern Gulf Spanish fields may be perfected.” By a former recommendation of the General Conference Committee the islands of Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Porto Rico also came under the direct administration of the General Conference. This separation was accepted by the West Indian Union Committee at its last meeting in May; and these detached fields, together with Mexico, are now grouped together as follows:— Mexico ........................ 15,063,207
Guatemala ..................... 1,992,000
Honduras ...................... 745,136
Salvador ...................... 1,710,000
Cuba .......................... 2,150,112
Haiti ......................... 2,500,000
Santo Domingo ................. 610,000
Porto Rico .................... 1,118,012
Total ........................ 25,888,467 At the end of 1913 these fields had a total of 876 Sabbath keepers, divided among the fields as follows:— Mexican Mission ................ 285
Guatemala Mission ............... 18
Central American Conference ..... 147
Cuban Mission ................... 113
Haitian Mission ................ 275
Porto Rican Mission ............. 38 The total tithe paid during 1913 amounted to $7,411, and the total literature sales during the year to $19,800. There are in these fields nine ordained ministers, six licentiates, eighteen licensed missionaries, and twenty-three colporteurs, making a total of fifty-six laborers. We are hoping that the uniting of these fields will result in a more rapid progress of the message among the 25,000,000 people within their borders. As Spanish is the language used in all this group except in Haiti, special efforts will be made to reach those of this tongue, both with our literature and through more direct evangelistic efforts. If the following quotations from Frederick Palmer’s book entitled “Central America and Its Problems,” published in 1910, are true, the needs of these fields should appeal strongly to our young people who are preparing for work in mission fields. Mr. Palmer says:— “Why do so many missionaries go to Japan, China, India, Turkey, and Korea, and so few to Central America? They are as inconspicuous in the country between the Guatemalan border and Panama as they are conspicuous elsewhere. “Mention Central America to the missionary in Mexico and he looks blank. You almost expect him to ask where Central America is. It seems a wilderness to the missionary, and the absence of missionaries in numbers is deplorable. . . . For every one in Japan, that learned progress for itself, and in China, that is learning for itself, there ought to be a hundred in this field at our door, that cannot learn for itself. . . . “Of late the American Bible Society has shown some interest. In 1908 its colporteurs distributed 2,425 Bibles in Central America and Panama, exclusive of Nicaragua, from which they were barred by Zelaya. On the Nicaraguan coast the German Moravians combined evangelization and rubber trading in such a way that Zelaya allowed them to remain. . . . “In Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua the priesthood has fallen into the lowest state of any countries in Christendom not in the Caribbean region. It has neither political power nor religious power of any account. All the glowing reports of progress which are sent to the United States indicate a desire to be in style. When the dictator tells you that school attendance is compulsory, he is being polite. “Meanwhile, the missionaries look past the fields thick with ignorance and unbelief [where at least 80 per cent are unable to read a line of print], to China and India and Africa, where the missionary teaches everything from hygiene to morals—everything that Central America lacks.” We believe that the harvest is ripe among these people. In Mexico, Cuba, and Porto Rico our colporteurs have found very fruitful fields for our literature. Some of the best records ever made by any of our colporteurs have been made in these fields. We believe that the same experiences await the colporteurs who are willing to enter the unworked fields of Central America. We shall be glad to correspond with any of our young people who feel drawn toward this neglected portion of our great world field.