Report of the Southwestern Union Conference
By N. P. NELSON
THE Southwestern Union Conference is composed of the following States and Territories: Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, and has an area of 382,089 square miles, and a population of 5,360,274, of which about 900,000 are colored. There are also hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who speak the Spanish language. This union conference has a membership of 3,333, and a ministerial force of fifty-five, of which number three are colored. The most of this force of workers have been engaged in new fields, as the policy has been to push the work into new territory, where the message for this time has not been given. Good results have followed, and twenty-two churches and companies have been raised up, and thirteen church buildings have been erected; two of these are for the colored people, one in Arkansas and one in Texas. Our academy, located at Keene, Tex., is under the management of the union conference. The last two years have been very encouraging and prosperous. During the year which has just closed the school has had an enrolment of one hundred and sixteen, with a corps of seven teachers. A vigorous effort has been put forth to pay off all the indebtedness of the institution, so that it may be better able to carry out the purpose for which it was established. Oklahoma has done nobly, and has now paid up her apportionment in full. Arkansas and Texas are doing their utmost to meet their obligations, and are hopeful that they also will soon be free from debt. Vigorous efforts have been put forth the last two years to make the academy true to its name—“Industrial Academy.” The industrial department work has been revived, and good work is being done in the different industries carried on by the school. The tract societies have, the last two years, sold books to the amount of $40,798.78, but we expect to do more in the future, as the canvassing work is reviving in all the three conferences, and the prospects are very promising. Organized efforts are being put forth to place a strong canvassing force in the field for our large denominational books. Several young ladies who have taken up the sale of the Watchman and The Signs of the Times in our large cities and towns have been very successful. Others are preparing to engage in this work. Last December a branch publishing house of Nashville, Tenn., was established in Fort Worth, which will be a great help in supplying our local societies with books promptly. Our local tract societies have been doing well the last two years. The Texas Tract Society was heavily involved in debt about two years ago, but at the present time it does not owe the publishing houses a cent, having paid them up in full. The Arkansas Tract Society has an old debt of about seven thousand dollars, but has, during the last two years, been able to settle for all books it has ordered, and also to pay for the stock of books on hand. This is indeed encouraging for Arkansas. Another encouraging feature of our work is the success attending our union conference paper. When this union conference was organized, it was thought that one good-sized paper could better occupy and represent the field than three small ones. The three State papers were merged into one union conference organ. Its pages are filled each week with reports and articles from the workers, and it has seven hundred regular subscribers who watch eagerly for it. Except the first year, it has never been a great financial burden. During 1903 it lacked only fifty-four dollars of being self-supporting, and for 1904 it lacked only $14.75. There are two sanitariums located in this union conference,—one in Little Rock, Ark., and the other in Keene, Tex. They are doing good work, and are in a prosperous condition. Treatment rooms are being fitted up in several of the large cities. The mission work among the colored people has received special attention the last two years, and the prospects are very encouraging for a good work to be done for that people. We have several efficient colored workers who are pushing the evangelical work among their own race. Two large preaching tents, one for Arkansas and one for Texas, have been ordered for use among the colored people, and will be in the field this summer. It is hoped that these tents can be kept in the field every summer. They have been purchased by the union conference for the colored work, and will be used only by them. An industrial school is being established in Arkansas. Forty acres of land has been purchased, and a small building erected; but more facilities must be provided as finances will permit. We must educate the colored people so that they will be able to labor intelligently for their own race. We have a large population of Mexicans in Texas. We have been able to do but little for this people as we have no efficient workers who can speak the10Spanish language. Then again, our resources are so limited that had we had the workers, we could not have supported them. But we hope and pray that the way will yet be opened up so that we shall be able to do progressive work among this people. We believe that this people also ought to hear the last message of mercy to a fallen world. When the Southwestern Union Conference was first organized, it was well able to carry forward its missionary work for the colored people and the Mexicans within her border, and also to help some outside of her own territory, but when it was reorganized in 1902, and the strong conferences of Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri were taken away and added to Nebraska and Iowa, we were left very weak financially. At the time of the reorganization it was understood that we should receive assistance, as the principal sources of financial help had been taken away from us. We have received some help, for which we are very thankful, as without it little could have been done. But no regular income or resource has been provided. Some arrangements should be made at this conference to aid the Southwestern Union until its own resources will be sufficient to enable it to do the work which the Lord in his providence wants done. Our people are quite faithful in paying their tithe. The amount per capita is about eight dollars, an increase of about one dollar over last year. Texas is supporting a minister in Arkansas, while the Oklahoma Conference has appropriated $1,699.60 to fields outside of her own territory. Experience has taught that a wise and economical use of the tithe gives encouragement to our brethren to be faithful in paying in their tithes and offerings. There is nothing that encourages our people more than to know that aggressive work is being done in new fields, and that souls are being brought into the truth. Another matter that should come before this General Conference is that of the Southern Union Conference’s ceding the conference of Louisiana to the Southwestern Union. Geographically it belongs to the Southwestern Union Conference, and also naturally. Louisiana sends her young people to our academy; she has splendid railroad connections with Texas, and would naturally get her supplies of books from the Nashville branch publishing house at Fort Worth, Tex. Our plan in the Southwestern Union Conference for the promulgation of the everlasting gospel in the future is to push out into new fields with tent companies, and to locate more Bible workers in the large cities. We have found the efforts of the Bible workers productive of good results. Plans and arrangements have also been made to push the sale of our books and papers, and quite an army is at present engaged in this important work. We realize to some extent that the field is ripe for the reapers, and that while the work meets with more or less opposition, the faithful workers will reap in due time if they faint not. There are precious souls who are longing for the glorious truths of the third angel’s message. The Lord has gone before us, and we are of good courage. The work is the Lord’s, and he is at the helm, guiding and directing in the great work of saving souls for whom he shed his life-blood. He has promised to be with us always, and with him as our helper and strength, we will press on till the work is finished and the victory won, and our blessed Lord comes to take us to our Eden home. Yes, then we will lay the burden down, and evermore be at rest in the kingdom of our God.