Medical Missionary Work Among the Porto Ricans
By Clarence E. Moon
It has now been five months since we landed on this beautiful little island and began the study of the Spanish language. These months have been full of interesting experiences for newcomers in a foreign country. As most of our time and attention were given to the language, we did very little medical work, but spent some time in visiting and holding cottage meetings. Many came to us for dental work, and this helped us to get acquainted with them and to win their confidence. These people are whole-hearted, and one grows to love them as he gets accustomed to their ways of thinking, and enters into their joys and cares and becomes one of them. It seemed to us at first that we never should be able to understand the Spanish language; but little by little our ears became accustomed to the sound, and we could catch a familiar word now and then, until now it seems quite plain. We made our home in Santurce during our first months of language study. We were fortunate in having a nice six-room cottage in a pretty part of the city. We took a special interest in our little church there and became much impressed with the devotion and self-sacrifice of its members. Most of them are very poor people, the larger share being women whose only income is from washing and ironing, but they raised in cash and pledges $450 for a new church building. If some of our people in the States could but visit these poor people in their homes, and see their poverty, they would wonder how it could be possible for a church with such a small membership to raise so much money. Most of our members are better equipped than the majority of the people, but we do not find their homes bedecked with costly furniture or rugs. Everything is very simple. A folding canvas cot to sleep on, a charcoal stove for cooking purposes, and a small table are about all the furniture they have. Some of our wealthier members in the States could do no better than to invest their money in mission fields. I have talked with some of our people who have said that they were holding their money until the Lord tells them to sell their property and give; but could they hear the cry that is ascending to God day and night from thousands of souls out in the dark fields, going down to eternal death without hope and without God in the world, they would surely say that it is time now to give their means. Now is the harvest time. Soon it will be said, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” I was holding a cottage meeting the other day, and one of the women present said: “And will God destroy us because we never knew about him? We have had no one to teach us.” She said it so earnestly, with tears in her eyes, leaning forward in her eagerness to catch every word. I thought to myself, If our people only knew of the poor souls who are perishing without a knowledge of their Saviour, it would stir them to still greater endeavor. Our work for the past month has been here at Moca, in the hills of Porto Rico. We have been kept busy assisting in the meetings conducted by Brother William Steele—visiting and doing medical work. People call for us by day and by night for treatment and medical advice. Mrs. Moon was called out one night to treat a woman living on the mountain side. She rode horseback over a narrow trail made doubly dangerous by recent rains, and had scarcely returned home and got in bed when we were called out for the rest of the night on another case. There are great possibilities for the medical work, but our main issue is the gospel; so we improve every opportunity to teach the Bible, and at present many in this vicinity are calling for meetings to be held in their homes. Our meetings have been well attended from the first. Our hall will seat about one hundred, and has been well filled every night, besides many people standing in the streets and at the windows and doors. Last evening a call was made for those to arise who would keep God’s commandments and honor the day set apart by Jehovah for rest. There were fifty or sixty who stood up. It was a blessed occasion to see so many stand for Jesus, when we realize that it means perhaps their very bread should they keep the Sabbath. But in the face of all difficulties, we find that there are those who will be faithful to God, walking in all his commandments. May the day soon come when the faithful of all the nations will be called out. “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”