The third annual session of the East Caribbean Conference was held in Georgetown, British Guiana, South America, July 19-26. This conference covers such an extent of territory, and is so cut up by the great salt sea, that it is impossible for all the churches to send delegates to the annual sessions. We, therefore, have to hold our sessions in the leading cities, and transact our conference business largely with the local believers and conference laborers.
At the present time there are six American missionaries and ten native laborers on the conference pay-roll. Several canvassers are also doing faithful work. Elders Haysmer and Babcock were withdrawn from our field at the last General Conference, and we missed them from our counsels and in laying our plans for the coming year. It seemed impossible for us to meet the demands of the situation with our present force.
GEORGETOWN CHURCH AND MISSION HOUSE
The reports of the laborers from the different fields were full of courage and hope, and all spoke of progress. One hundred and fifteen were baptized during the year. Thirty-six Sabbath-schools were reported, with a membership of over nine hundred. The Arima, Trinidad, church was voted into the conference organization. Not only was this church organized during the year, by Elder W. A. Sweany and his wife, but a church building was also erected and dedicated.
Elder Sweany brought a good report of the work there. It is difficult for those in temperate climes to realize the almost absolute necessity of a meeting-house of some kind in connection with our churches and companies in the tropics. We can scarcely obtain any halls, schoolhouses are unavailable, ordinary houses are usually either too small and of a temporary character, or are so expensive as to be beyond our reach. The consequence is, our people are usually left without any suitable place of meetings until something can be erected. As wages are very low, and our people as a rule are poor, the building of a meeting-house is a great proposition for them. The usual cost is not more than four or five hundred dollars, yet but few of our companies can raise more than half that amount. How necessary it is for some one to step in and lift a little with these companies, so that the work may be made permanent, and not ravel out. There are many of our people in the North who could cut down a little in their expenses, dispense with extra trimmings, or buy less expensive furniture, and donate to the church-building fund for the mission fields, and thus assist the overburdened toilers in the pioneer fields, give stability to the work, and at the last have a share in the sheaves brought in at the harvest home.
We now have twenty-one churches and meeting-houses in our conference, and six more are needed at once. Who will help us to lift the burden?
The report of the publishing work was truly encouraging. We are still issuing seven thousand copies a month of the Caribbean Watchman, and our people are selling them from door to door. We have also issued five thousand copies of The Family Bible Teacher, as well as other tracts and conference printing work. Our new outfit, consisting of a small job-press and the necessary type, borders, and other accessories, costing eight hundred and fifty dollars, has been purchased, and only a little more than one hundred dollars remains to be raised. One of the most enthusiastic and encouraging meetings of the conference was the one in which the matter of raising this money was considered. One after another came forward and laid down his offering on the table, until almost all present had given, several giving all they had with them. We now need a cylinder press, and hope that the Lord will open the way soon that this addition to our outfit may be secured.
Plans were laid which will set our young people to studying, a regular course of study being provided which will partly fill the need of a training-school. We are literally empty handed, as far as facilities are concerned, and our hundreds of young people without any educational privileges whatever appeal to this denomination. We are confident that the problem of carrying this last message to tropical Africa will be solved in the West Indies. Other denominations have learned this; why should we not work to this end?
There are good openings for the medical missionary work. We appeal to our medical workers to consider the calls coming from the West Indies. We trust that a start will be made in the medical work ere another year rolls round.
The conference business was transacted with unanimity and dispatch, not a discordant note being sounded during the entire session. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, D. E. Wellman; Vice-President, W. G. Kneeland; Secretary and Treasurer, Geo. F. Enoch; Sabbath-school Secretary, Mrs. D. E. Wellman; Secretary of Young People's work, S. A. Wellman; Editor Caribbean Watchman, Geo. F. Enoch; Associate Editor, S. A. Wellman; Editorial Contributor, W. G. Kneeland.
A special evangelistic effort was made in the city during the conference. A tent was pitched on the Bourda Green, and large, interested audiences listened to the presentation of the message from night to night. The Lord blessed the speakers, and the word was preached with freedom and power.
One sad feature that emphasizes one of the difficulties of our field and climate, was the sickness of several of the laborers. Elder W. A. Sweany had a most serious attack of malarial fever, from which he has not yet recovered. The workers in the tropics, facing an overwhelming amount of work, surrounded by peculiar and trying conditions, need the prayers of God's people.
It was decided at this conference to issue a monthly conference paper to be called the East Caribbean Gleaner; subscription price, twenty-five cents a year. Why are there not hundreds of our people in other lands who will be glad to subscribe for the Caribbean Watchman and the East Caribbean Gleaner? The two will come to you for an entire year for only seventy-five cents. You will help the cause in a needy field, and get in return value received. Send subscriptions to S. A. Wellman, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, by post-office order.
The workers returned to their fields full of zeal and courage for the year to come.
