Central America by E. L. Cardey

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 2, 1908

Central America

By E. L. Cardey

BONACCA, BAY ISLANDS.—This summer I have been trying to push the work forward in the English-speaking part of this field. The Lord is surely blessing the effort in a marked way. I have just finished a two-weeks' meeting in this part of the island (Bonacca), and the results are good. Fifteen went forward in baptism yesterday, while several others have begun to keep the Sabbath, and I trust will go forward in that rite later. For a while it seemed as if this whole place would accept the truth; but I was taken down with the fever in the midst of the meetings, and in the meantime bitter opposition set in. Some who have begun to keep the Sabbath do so under great trial and opposition; yet the Lord has greatly blessed these meetings, and many backsliders have been reclaimed to the truth. Thus this church, which has been quite dead, starts out anew again. I have baptized, in all, forty-nine here this summer. Thus you see the work in this field is going forward. These, remember, are not backsliders, for out of all this number not one had ever been baptized before; they are new to the truth. The harvest is ripe in these islands, and I am just gathering the fruits of other men's labor in seed sowing.

We are trying to raise money to buy tents to hold a camp-meeting in this field next spring. At one meeting here the other evening we raised, with the blackboard

plan, two hundred dollars; and the next day that amount was paid in, and twenty-five dollars more. Thus we are looking forward to a good camp-meeting next spring, when some of the General Conference brethren will visit us.

I go from here to the north side of this island, where already a good interest awaits me. I trust the Lord will bless this effort also. I find that I am not fever proof, but believe that with God's help I can control it so that it will not get the best of me. It indeed is a great trial for me to carry on the work here with my family so far away, and only those who are called to pass through the experience can rightly appreciate it. Yet I am thankful for hardships, for my Master had more than I can ever have. And the thought that the work is almost finished buoys one up in trial. Pray for the work here, that it may go forward. E. L. CARDEY.