p. 13 | Report of First Session of the Inca Union Mission

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1915

Report of First Session of the Inca Union Mission

By E. L. MAXWELL

E. L. MAXWELL

The first session of the Inca Union Mission was held in Lima, Peru, April 15-25, 1915. Delegates were present from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. Elder J. W. Westphal, president of the South American Union Conference, was present from the beginning, and his discourses were very helpful.

The meetings were held in the chapel of the Lima church, and the attendance was good at all times. Reports were rendered from all parts of the field and from nearly all the workers. These showed a substantial growth and a spirit of earnest work and cooperation.

There are in the union mission five churches,—one in Ecuador, three in Peru, one in the Lake Titicaca Indian Mission; and there are some members in Bolivia. The membership of the Sabbath schools has grown till it is now more than eight hundred.

Twenty-two foreign workers, including missionaries' wives, and fourteen native workers, have labored during 1914 in the whole field. The result in baptized believers has been, in the Lake Titicaca Indian Mission 122, in the Peruvian Mission 6, in Ecuador 2.

On the afternoon of the final Sabbath of the session, eleven members were added to the Peruvian Mission by baptism. A reporter of one of the principal dailies of the capital attended this service, and nearly a full-page report of it appeared in the paper the following morning. This report, though written in a somewhat light vein and containing some mistakes, served to bring the Adventist name and work prominently before the reading public.

The most promising field in this union mission is among the Indians. Here God has given results far beyond our expectations, and still we hear good words from them. Many are awaiting baptism. Calls reach us for teachers, students beg for school privileges, village councils offer us rooms and facilities for teaching and preaching. But what can we do without men and means?

In the central part of Peru another great interest exists. Hundreds come to the services and call loudly for a mission station and its corps of workers. It is true that in some places fanaticism reigns. Only a few days before the meetings began, our Brethren Salazar and Llano, who were canvassing and preaching in Laraos, were attacked by a mob led by a priest. Their meeting place was surrounded. The two colporteurs succeeded in getting to a place of safety, and the following day reached the railroad and came to the city. Though the workers may have to suffer, the word is preached. And it must continue to be preached.

But we need your prayers, brethren, and we trust that we may be able to present you with a substantial answer to them in the souls saved from this field when Jesus comes.