Some Pressing Needs in the Philippine Islands
By A. G. DANIELLS
OUR brethren in the Philippines have had a truly remarkable experience in the production and circulation of our denominational literature. With but little previous experience in such work, and with very inadequate facilities, they have printed twenty different publications, and have developed a good, successful company of canvassers and periodical workers. This literature consists of tracts on twelve or fifteen subjects, a monthly magazine having a sale of 3,000 copies of each edition, and books ranging from 200 to 500 pages printed in editions of from 3,000 to 5,000 copies in four different languages. The writing and the translating required in the preparation of copy have been a heavy burden on our small staff of workers in the Philippines; but the printing and the binding have been even more perplexing and wearing. The only building they have had for the printing office is twenty-one by twenty-four feet, previously used for a horse barn. The sides and roof are covered with corrugated iron, making it a veritable sweat box during the hot season. Their printing outfit consists of a job press, a paper cutter, a small stitcher, and a limited quantity of poor type. The folding and the binding are done under the mission home. As they are able to print but two pages at a time, and as they have so much to print, the little job press is kept running from 5:30 A. M. until 9 or 10 P. M. every day except Sabbath. During 1914 they printed and bound nearly 3,000,000 pages of literature. The training and directing of the canvassers and periodical workers fall upon Brother Lanier, who has the management of the printing, binding, and shipping of the literature. The responsibility of preparing all the matter for printing falls upon Brother Finster, the superintendent of the entire field. As we looked this work over, we marveled how these brethren could accomplish so much. We could hardly see how our young men and women who do the work in the printing office and bindery could, with such poor facilities, turn out so much good-appearing literature. Our hearts were made to rejoice because we had such patient, painstaking, hard-working people in the field. But we decided that this situation must not be allowed to continue. A suitable building and an adequate printing equipment should be provided for this work. Our brethren here have passed the experimental stage in this line of endeavor. They have a band of twenty successful workers who have demonstrated that the sale of our literature can be made self-supporting. They have shown that the people will buy our books and papers. The sales of our literature in these islands increased from $1,161.59 in 1913 to $3,200 in 1914. Some of the young men sell one hundred dollars’ worth of books a week. This work is built on a substantial foundation, and we believe it will stand. We have no competition in selling literature here. No other denomination in the Philippines is doing this kind of work. We have scores of active young people who will engage in canvassing as soon as we can provide the literature and give them the training. The canvassers we now have at work can dispose of all the literature that can be produced with the facilities we now have. After studying the whole question, the brethren united in requesting an appropriation of $10,000 for establishing a suitable printing plant in the Philippine Islands. This action brought great joy to the hearts of our brethren in that mission field. We shall all be happier still when we learn that the money has been provided. Pressing needs of this kind inevitably accompany the successful prosecution of our work in mission fields. We must expect them when we enter a new field, and gladly and promptly meet them when they come. Another insistent demand in the Philippines is for a school in which to give our young people the education and training they must have to become efficient workers in our cause. The Lord has blessed us with a large number of bright, active young people in this mission field who are anxious to work for him. One third of the two hundred members present at the Sabbath morning meeting in Manila were young people ranging from twelve to twenty-five years of age. Many of these are fired with the desire to have some part in this closing work, and they give promise of being as successful as those who are now working. A good school is as great a necessity in the Philippines as in any other country, and from indications it seems to us the benefits of such a school will be as great10there as anywhere else. From all that we saw, we felt it our duty to urge that the money be secured for the establishment of a training school for the Philippines. In making these requests for means to establish a printing office and a school in the Philippines, we did so with the realization that this would call for larger donations from our people in the homeland. We gave this fact very careful consideration. We knew that the work being carried on throughout the field at the present time requires all that is provided in the fifteen-cent-a-week plan. This caused us to hesitate for some time, but we felt that it was a question as to whether we should ask for more means in order to go forward with the opening and advancing providences of God, or stand by and see the work of God thus hindered and delayed for fear of making a request for more. We believed that if our people could see and know all that we were facing, they would, with one united voice, declare that these institutions must be provided for the work in the Philippines, even if every dollar required to do so would have to be raised in addition to the regular fund provided for the mission fields. There are 8,000,000 people in these islands who, by recent changes in their country, are coming from great darkness into light. Years ago we sent missionaries to them to lead them to the light of the gospel as it shines upon us. They have prayed and worked with great earnestness for souls. God has answered their prayers. Now there are four hundred of them rejoicing in this light, and others are coming into it at the rate of two hundred or more a year. This message brings such joy to the hearts of these new believers that they want all their people in the islands to hear it. But, as in other parts of the world, the message can be given there only by the living messengers and the printed messengers. As everywhere else, the living messengers must be educated and trained in order rightly and efficiently to give the message. And, too, the printed messengers must be produced by the press. This requires the same kind of educational and printing equipments that are required in other countries. These must be provided for the Philippines now, or the work there will be seriously crippled and delayed. Viewed from the standpoint of faith and courage in the living God, it seems that the position of Seventh-day Adventists regarding foreign missions should be to bring their offerings up to the actual, pressing demands of the advancing work, instead of cutting the calls for help down to a specified amount provided for by previous arrangements of the Mission Board. It is a pitiful thing to missionaries who have been praying and toiling in a field for years to have their requests for additional funds to meet the new demands created by the success God has given them in their work cut out by the Mission Board. And it is just as painful to the members of the board to cut them out; but the board can appropriate only what it has: it cannot borrow money for foreign mission work. When the demands of the mission fields reach the full amount of funds provided for those fields by the board, there is but one of two things to do,—cut out all requests for new needs that spring up, or ask for more money. Believing and teaching what we do, there is but one consistent thing for us to do as the legitimate pressing demands come to us from a growing work in the mission fields, and that is to bring our gifts up to the demands. We cannot trim our requests for help down to a definite sum of money which it has been agreed to raise for mission fields, without delaying the work of God. This is the deep conviction of our workers in the mission fields upon whose hearts these needs press so hard. If they had the money these new needs call for, they would give it without hesitation; and our brethren in the homeland would do the same if they could see the situation as the missionaries see it. Here is an incident that shows how these new calls for help grip the missionary in his field. On our arrival at Manila, our Filipino brethren and sisters gave us a welcome in a tent in which they were conducting a series of meetings. The exercises consisted of singing hymns in their vernacular, and presenting to us appeals in behalf of their people. These appeals were made separately by five young men and one very old man. Emilio Manalaysay, one of our most earnest, faithful evangelists and translators, said:— I represent the Tagalog people living in the central and southern part of the island of Luzon. My people number about 1,500,000. Being in closest touch with Manila, the capital, they have been enlightened and influenced more than any of the other people of the Philippines by recent changes in the islands. Our work in the Philippines began among the Tagalog people. We now have three churches with a membership of three hundred, and four companies of about one hundred believers awaiting baptism. My earnest request is for a school in which to prepare the scores of our young people who have a great desire to give their lives to this work. I address you in behalf of the Ilocano people, who live in the northwestern part of the island of Luzon. They number about 850,000 souls. They are very industrious, and come behind none in intellectual attainments. We have opened up one mission among this tribe. Elder Roy Hay is in Vigan, and has been studying the language for one year. My people are in great darkness, and I long to have the third angel’s message made known to them. I desire to be released from work among the Tagalog people, and be sent to labor for my people, the Ilocanos. I am the only Sabbath keeper among the 160,000 Cagayan people. None of them know that Jesus is soon coming, and they are not prepared to meet him. My request is that I may be sent with some foreign worker to give this message to my people. The Visayan people, whom I represent, live in the southern islands of the group, and outnumber all the other tribes. They number 3,222,000 souls. We have started work in two of the largest islands of the Visayans, and the prospect is very bright for many souls being won for the Master. I am the only Sabbath keeper of the Bicol people. There are less than 570,000 of them, but they must hear this message. I am canvassing for our Tagalog literature. My request is that you will soon provide literature in the language of my people, that I may take the message to them. I represent the Pampangan people. They live just north of the Tagalog people; but thus far no one has been there to tell them of the soon coming of Jesus. I am now seventy-three years of age, yet I am very busy selling our Tagalog books. I request you to print books in the language of the Pampangan people, and I will take the message to them. Men and women possessing the earnestness, intelligence, and consecration manifested by these believers are a great asset to our cause in the Philippines. Given good training and leadership, they will be a great help in quickly proclaiming the message for this time to all the people in these islands. The advancement made in our work in this field during 1914 shows what we may look for in the future if we make the use we should of the help the Lord is bringing to us. Last year our church membership in the Philippines was doubled, growing from two to four hundred; the tithes increased from $657 to $1,453, the offerings from $75 to $189, and the book sales rose from $1,161 to $3,200. Everything gives promise of similar growth during the present year. It was with deep regret that I was obliged to leave the Philippines without visiting Brother and Sister Adams, Dr. and Mrs. Fattebert, and Brother and Sister Hay at their mission stations. I learned that Elder Adams had organized a church at Iloilo, where he has been laboring the past year. I had the privilege of meeting these fellow workers at the Shanghai general meeting. We have reason to be deeply grateful11to our Heavenly Father for the work he is doing in the Philippines. Let us keep step with the onward march of the cause in that field.