Home Missionary Work in the Regions Beyond
By E. M. GRAHAM
ENCOURAGING letters are coming from different countries, telling of the advance of the home missionary movement among the members of our churches. In all parts of the world those who love the Lord are responding to his call to share in finishing the work. Elder Detamore writes as follows:— “I feel confident that this missionary movement is just the thing to get our work going in a new way, for when all our members are awake, they can do more in some ways than our ministers can. They cannot all preach and give Bible readings, but they can have an influence which often goes farther than argument to convince persons of the truth. They can give out reading matter, and invite their friends to the meetings, and also put them in touch with those who are prepared to instruct them in the doctrines. “In various parts of the field interests are springing up as a result of the reading of our publications. Not long ago a woman up the east coast of the peninsula wrote to a brother here in Singapore: ‘I am writing to ask you if you will kindly let me know what are the things one ought to do in order to become an Adventist.’ This woman has been reading the Signs of the Times for quite a while. She and her husband are beginning to keep the Sabbath. “Another letter from the same place came about the same time, this one from a man who has read our publications. He says: ‘Terrible and astonishing things are being enacted in Europe and Asia at this present time, owing to this great war. I and a few friends here, Christians and Hindus, having read some of your publications, will be very much obliged to you if you will please forward at your earliest convenience tracts on subjects relating to this period of events now passing on this earth of ours. We are also willing to buy Adventist publications. We should like to know if we can get a copy of your tract “The Eastern Question.”’ “Here is a very interesting letter from a native in Amboina, between the Celebes and New Guinea. He has never seen a Seventh-day Adventist, but has read some of our literature, and for more than a year has been sending for books and tracts and has been selling them. He has even sent them to his friends in New Guinea and other places, asking them to help sell them. I quote a few statements from his letter:— “Indeed the signs are fulfilling every day. Does the war still rage? Indeed he is a very sad plague. . . . You remember me about the subject of the Sabbath question. Herewith I give to your notice that since two months every Sabbath day in the afternoon I have kept in my house the Bible reading in Malay, which you have sent to me. I am glad indeed to see some people accept the important message about the second coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. We hope the Lord will bless me in this good work. I beg to remit herewith the sum of twenty guilders. This is the value of the books. Please acknowledge receipt. I hope I shall send you more afterwards, when the men will send the money from Aru Island and New Guinea.’ “These are a few of the calls which are coming, and we have no one to send to teach these people the full truth. We are greatly in need of more workers. Every laborer is loaded to the full capacity. “Our people are taking hold of the missionary work with commendable zeal, and we hope to keep them aroused all the while. We ordered quite a good supply of the Ingathering REVIEW, but it has not yet reached us. Our people in Java have received theirs, but we do not seem to get ours. I hope the papers will not be held up. Everything has to pass through the censorship, and some papers are kept out. In Java the work has started well, in spite of the hard times there. One sister has given out 93 REVIEWS, and has received about $60 gold for them.” Sister Tunheim writes from Java:— “I have got about half our church members doing some missionary work. I wish that you could see the big report each Sabbath that we write on the blackboard, of all the tracts and papers that they have sold or lent. They have averaged more than 300 tracts and papers sold each week of late, besides subscriptions, readings, and visits. On Saturday night after the Sabbath we spend about two hours with these workers to help them get a training for the work. Half of this time we spend in teaching them how to canvass, and the other half in how to give Bible studies. They are all taking a great deal of interest in this work, and I believe that we shall have some good workers here after a while.” South American Union Conference
A letter from Sister L. P. de Everist contains the following:— “We have felt the effect of the war very much down here. Even before the outbreak of the war we were already in the throes of a great crisis, and its effects have been felt considerably more since the war; but notwithstanding it all, the work has gone on rapidly, and there has been a great awakening among our people. The Argentine Conference held its annual camp meeting last month, and every one present said he had never witnessed such a spirit of consecration on the part of those attending, and such a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. “Our people in general have shown great interest and enthusiasm in the sale of the War number which was issued early in September. Since then another was issued for October, and now a third is being prepared for January. This is got out by our Spanish missionary paper El Atalaya (the Watchman). “So far very little has been done in pushing this paper, as you may know when I tell you that the monthly circulation is never more than 5,000. But by a little effort we were able to dispose of over 35,000 copies of the first War number, and we hope that for the third number we shall pass that figure. However, we do not wish to rest satisfied with this; our aim is to bring the regular monthly circulation up to 50,000 if possible. “When the first War number came out, we closed the printing office and the general office for one day, and the workers, twelve in number, went out for a general campaign. Some were out the whole day, others only half, but we all sold over 700 papers. It was the first time I had done any work of that kind. Starting out was very hard, but I afterwards enjoyed the work thoroughly, and in two hours had sold the thirty numbers that I had taken, and had to borrow some from my companion. Since then I have been out several times, always with good success. “The Camarero sanitarium and academy took 10,000 between them, and I believe were very successful in their sales. “A brother heard of a country auction, went out with 114 copies of the special number, sold them all within an hour, and could have sold two or three21times that many if he had had them with him. “A camp meeting was held in Rosario, an important city of Argentina. This city was well canvassed with Nos. 1 and 2 of the War special by those who attended the workers’ meeting. During camp meeting Dr. Habenicht received a letter from a prominent family in this city requesting information about the sanitarium, as they had seen it advertised in the War number of the Atalaya. So we see how ways are opened by different means for the people to get the message, for everybody in the sanitarium is a wide-awake missionary, especially since the home missionary work was started in the church there.” Brother Paul Hennig writes:— “You ask about our special literature on the war question. We have put out our third edition of the Alvorada, our first War special. It has been selling very rapidly. It is a twenty-four-page magazine with twenty-five striking illustrations, and sells for about six cents a copy. Now we are preparing the second number of this magazine. Our lay members went to work with it. “In the city of Sao Paulo, where we are now living, we have organized a Portuguese and German church for missionary work. All seemed to take hold of the work with interest.” These experiences are encouraging, for they show that the efforts to save souls are increasing. The more work we all do now, the sooner we shall reach our eternal home.