Your ShelfYour Projects

The Asiatic Field

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 18, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 9.

Read the full edition

The Asiatic Field

By R. C. PORTER

R. C. PORTER
The reports from all parts of the Asiatic Division are very encouraging. Six new provinces have been entered during the past year, and the increase in membership is good. The reports from all divisions of the field are full of items of interest and progress. I shall mention a few general features of the work.
Our literature sales in all divisions have been unusually good. The average circulation of the Chinese Signs of the Times has been steadily increasing. Three general agents, contributed by Australia have arrived. Brother Blunden makes his headquarters at Shanghai, Brother Mountain at Canton, and Brother Stacy at Tokio, Japan. They have taken up the study of the language in their work.
Our church school and young people’s work has made a good advance. The Sabbath schools have been gradually shaping into line with the regular policy of our organized plans throughout the general field. Our pioneer, neostyle News Letter, has developed into a printed monthly paper, the Asiatic Division News Letter, through which to report the progress of the work.
Most of our foreign workers are now provided with comfortable houses. This is a great relief, as their former tenements were native, and so unsanitary as to be practically death traps. Plans are now being laid to build houses for the new workers as soon as possible. No more important investment has been made in the Orient than the money expended in erecting houses for our faithful missionaries at the front.
An effort made with the Harvest Ingathering REVIEW has brought in contributions ranging from a few dimes to $5, $10, and $25 (Mexican).
Our operating policy has unified the work throughout the division, and the Asiatic Division treasurer has been relieved of much detail work, so that he can spend more time in the field.
The native work has become better organized, and schools for the training of workers are developing a good class of trained workers for the field. The heroic work of our faithful native missionaries can never be fully written. They trudge along on foot through cold and heat unobserved, carrying heavy loads of literature, while pioneering in unentered fields under circumstances that require the greatest faith.
One Buddhist priest who accepted the faith, turned over to us his heathen gods, saying he had no further need of them. He has since entered the canvassing field, and is doing very efficient work in the sale of literature.
SIX IN REAR, COLPORTEURS; THIRD FROM LEFT IN CHARGE OF BOOK WORK No. 7 has charge of office; No. 9 of treatment rooms; Nos. 1 and 2, Brother and Sister Gulbrandson, now in Canada; Nos. 3 and 4, Brother and Sister O. J. Olsen, in charge of Iceland Mission.
SIX IN REAR, COLPORTEURS; THIRD FROM LEFT IN CHARGE OF BOOK WORK No. 7 has charge of office; No. 9 of treatment rooms; Nos. 1 and 2, Brother and Sister Gulbrandson, now in Canada; Nos. 3 and 4, Brother and Sister O. J. Olsen, in charge of Iceland Mission.
A minister who accepted the truth by reading during the year, loaded a wheelbarrow with literature, and wheeled it five hundred miles under the heat of a tropical sun to distribute it in a territory where the message had never been given.
A man in the Celebes Islands who became interested through reading, although he has not accepted the truth, began canvassing for our books. He has ordered several shipments, which he has sold in that field where the truth has never been heralded, and faithfully returned the money to the office to pay for them.
These are only samples of many instances of devotion to the work on the part of the native people who are willing to sacrifice in order to give it to their people.
When we think of two families going to Manchuria to open work among eleven million people, and two families just entering Szechuan Province to open work in the great west China field, with eighty-eight millions looking to them for light, we realize the need of more trained workers to meet the calls from these great fields.
The General Conference has allowed our entire budget for 1915 except a small amount for buildings. We consider this allowance very liberal during these times of financial stress, and our workers will plan to use the means placed in their hands as a sacred trust which is to be invested in the best possible way to bring a harvest of souls in return.
All signs declare that the coming of Christ is at hand. The Turks have entered the great war roll in Europe, and this war will doubtless drive them on to the last stage in their history before the close of probation. Time is short, but the outlook for the speedy finishing of the work is most promising.