India and Its Needs by J. L. SHAW

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Dec 15, 1904

India and Its Needs

By J. L. SHAW

J. L. SHAW

We often wish that our people in the home land could be here in India to see the needs of this field. There is not an hour but the needs are appealing to us, and it is the constant study of the workers here to know how, with our small force and limited means, to accomplish the great work which lies before us. We are constantly reminded that it is “not by might or by power,” but by the Spirit of God. The different lines along which we are working are the educational work, the medical work, the distribution of literature, and house canvassing throughout India, Burma, and Ceylon.

The Canvassing Work

Our force of canvassers is very small. At the present time there are five who are giving their whole time to this work. These five workers have a definite plan laid out for their work throughout the year, and they cover, as far as possible, English-speaking territory in India, Burma, and Ceylon. As soon as their year’s work is finished, they begin the same tour again, going over the territory which they have already canvassed. For instance, Miss Orr and Miss Jewett are laboring in Southern India and Ceylon, retracing the steps they took one year ago. They find that not only the homes that received them last year, but many more, are ready to welcome them. They work Southern India, coming up on the west side, taking in Bombay. During their canvassing tour they travel many hundred miles, visiting large cities, small villages, and isolated families. These sisters do not have the home comforts that many workers enjoy, and many times they are obliged to sleep in railway stations on hard benches, and suffer the inconvenience of a hot tropical summer as they canvass from house to house; but the Lord has strengthened them for this work, and they are in better health than when they began work. They have known what real home comforts are, and what it is to enjoy social life, but they have found true happiness and untold

pleasure in the work to which they feel the Lord has called them.

While these two sisters are in the south, Brother and Sister James are in the northwestern provinces of India, visiting some of the hill stations, and helping Brother Johnstone, who is leaving his government work, to get started in the canvassing work. Brother and Sister James have been here with us in India over a year, and their entire time has been spent in house-to-house canvassing. The Lord has given them many rich experiences, and they have been enabled to carry the truth to many homes.

Brother Watson, who accepted the truth in India about four years ago, has been blessed in selling our literature here in Calcutta, and of late he has received much encouragement by the disposal of our periodicals and tracts in streets and public places. I will quote a little from his report in the last Eastern Tidings:—

“The Spirit of the Lord encouraged me to take up the tract work three or four weeks ago. Truly the experiences are exhilarating. Hundreds of these little messages have been disposed of from week to week, while traveling on the tram car of the city, chiefly on the way to and from my canvassing center, which is now in the heart of the northern portion of Calcutta, the great native residential quarter. As I sit among my dear native brethren, the leaflets are taken out of my pockets, where they are always stored for use, and with a smile, and a word in their own tongue, one is handed to each who is within reach.

“These are willingly accepted, and, as a rule, eagerly read. In two or three instances I have seen some, on alighting from a car, and while awaiting transhipment by another, become so engrossed in reading precious truth as to almost miss their cars. Brethren, the Lord gives courage to his servants. At least two or three have testified that the words they have read have been sweet to their souls.”

These five laborers are giving their entire time to this work. Our other workers are spending as much of their time as possible in distributing and selling our literature. But how many more workers are needed in this work! Where are we to look for recruits? We have at the present time some right here in this field who might be educated to do this work if they had workers of experience to go with them for a time. Are there not those in America who would be willing to come here, even as self-supporting missionaries?

One of our workers who came from Iowa as a self-supporting laborer has had all that she could do, and at the present time is calling loudly for help. Her work has taken her to the best homes in India, and so anxious is she for help that she is laying by a little sum toward helping workers from America. Another, who has been here in India for some years and is connected with our Karmatar school, feels the needs among the native people. In a recent letter she offered one hundred dollars from her salary toward the expenses of a worker from home. I mention these facts that all may see how those who are on the ground and see the needs feel regarding the lack of help.

Educational Work

We have two native schools here in India, Karmatar is the training center for our native work. It was a great disappointment to lose the help of Brother and Sister Burgess in this work. Sister Burgess had succeeded in making the language her own, and they both had hoped to give their life to this work, but ill health made it necessary for Brother Burgess to seek a more invigorating climate. It is at such times as these, brethren and sisters, when our workers are taken away, and we know not where to turn for help, that our Heavenly Father makes manifest his saving and guiding power. At this time a gentleman who has been a teacher in one of the leading schools here, and who has been studying the truth for the last two years, and understands the language and the people, desires to unite with us, and give his life to the training of young people here in India.

The other native school, at Simultala for the Santal boys, is conducted by Brother Barlow. He has, in all, fifteen bright students. I visited this school, and baptized three of the students, one of whom had been recently converted from heathenism. It was very encouraging to see the interest these young men take in learning to read the Word of God, and it was touching to see the sacrifice they make to get a little education. Brother Barlow connects industrial work with the school, and is seeking to encourage the people to work more with the soil, and the Lord is blessing his efforts. As these young men learn to read, using the Bible as their text-book, they will receive the gospel of Christ, and, as they return to their villages, they can teach their own people what they have learned.

In Ceylon Brother Armstrong is just opening the work, and reports encouraging experiences, several, one a young schoolmaster, having decided to observe the Sabbath. This is a very important center, and we need Bible workers at this very time to help in the work there. It is a source of encouragement to be able to have one minister to enter even one of these large cities, but there are many important centers that should be entered at this very time. There will never be a more favorable time to work here than now, but where are we to look for help?

Medical Work

In our medical work the Lord has helped over many difficult places, and, by his help, our sanitarium work will be enabled to extend its borders, and will soon be in its new premises, where there will be comfortable and pleasant accommodation for about twenty in-patients, besides good treatment rooms for other patients, and also healthful rooms for the nurses and workers, which is no small matter of consideration. Just at present, with the change of location, there is considerable expense involved, but the workers are heart and soul in the work, and some of them have placed their own salaries back into the institution to help in the present financial strain. Dr. Ingersoll and his wife, with the staff of trained nurses, has organized a training class, which is in successful operation. At present five young people have dedicated their lives to this work, and are giving valuable help to the institution.

There is no place in the world where medical missionaries are needed more than in India. Wherever we turn, we are met by those who are suffering physically. Wherever we go, we see wretchedness and misery; and the maimed and the blind, and even the poor lepers, are continually appealing to us. Brethren and sisters, picture this great field of India, covering one fifteenth of the area of the habitable globe, and having a population equaling one fifteenth of the world’s inhabitants. Take the entire population of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Turkey, and Russia, and you have the population of India. Think of this multitude of people, a company so great that, if joined hand to hand, we are told it would reach three times around the earth! And then picture our little band of workers here, and ask God what part you have to act in carrying present truth to this people.

In all our union conferences in America there are brethren and sisters who have helped young men and women to an education in our schools. I know in my own school experience how I was enabled to finish the college course through the kind assistance of dear Brother Vile, of Iowa. I have many times thanked the Lord for the material help, and may the Lord indeed reward him for his labor of love. There are, scattered as workers throughout America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and the islands of the sea, many young people as a result of the self-sacrifice of our brethren and sisters; their salvation and the salvation of those who will be won through them will be due to the efforts made by the brethren who have worked faithfully on their farms and at their trades and thus been enabled to assist them. Eternity alone will reveal the good of their self-sacrificing efforts. Are there not some of our brethren and sisters in the home land who can not come to India, but who would like a representative here? The harvest truly is ripe in India, the fields are ready for the sickle, but there are so few to gather the harvest!