India by Louise M. Sholz

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 17, 1910

India

By Louise M. Sholz

I AM out in the bungalow with Miss Della Burroway at Karmatar, and enjoy my work very much. It is a little different from that at Mussoorie, where I had the patients come to the dispensary. Here I have to go out, sometimes at night, to see them. It is more difficult. As there are many things to look after, we ladies often have to do things that are generally done by men. And it is wonderful how the Lord helps us.

Miss Burroway has a cart and two little ponies. I also have a cart. The mission gave us one hundred rubles to buy a horse for my work. So we two went out on the three-o'clock morning train, to Asansal, with a neighbor boy, to buy a horse. We asked God to direct in this, as we really did not feel fitted for the undertaking. When we reached the place, we found that the horse we wanted had been sold, and so we took another train to another place. Here we had a pick among four horses. Two were not good, and two were young, not broken, and for these latter they asked us four hundred and five hundred rubles. But for one, a four-year-old, they came down in price to one hundred sixty-five rubles. We bought him, and everybody says it was a good bargain. We had him out the other day, the first time he had had a harness on, and put him to our cart. Two men held him by the head while Miss Burroway and I got into the cart. I held the lines, and he started nicely, and we both felt so thankful. Yes, we know God has been helping us. He is even interested in getting a good horse for us.

Before we got the animal, we had broken the shafts of the cart, and had to get wood from another place to fix them. We also have to look after the carpenter work, and I am painting the two carts.

God is blessing me in getting the Bengali language. I am convinced that I am where he wants me to be, but I make it a practise to pray before beginning my study. I have a teacher who knows no English. It is a little difficult at first, but I get the proper pronunciation.

Last night I had a rather inconvenient experience while out with our two ponies. We had to cross a little lake, and one of them would not go through the water, at first. Just as he got in, he fell. The man who goes with us can not hear or speak. So I got out, went into the water, and unharnessed both horses, and we succeeded in getting through; but I was wet, and covered with mud.

To-day we are going on a large cart to see an aged Mohammedan woman, to whom we have given seven treatments for lumbago. Before coming to us, her back had been burned with a hot iron, to cure it. When we arrived at her home the first time, the room was filled with natives. I suppose nearly the whole village was present while we treated the woman. How thankful those people are! I only wish I could impress upon them that it is not I who heals them, but God, through me. I can see how he gives his healing power, as I am called many times to severe cases, and without a doctor.

Only the other day a man came who had fallen and cut his leg almost halfway through. We had to put him under chloroform. He was a very strong man, and we did not have enough chloroform, so I tied him on the table, and two men and three girls held him. He had had enough of the anesthetic so he did not realize what we did. I had to put in about twenty stitches. The man is getting along well, and the wound is healing. In this place I must do, many times, what a doctor has to do, as there is no one else to do it. I leave the results with Him who is able to heal, and who says, “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

LOUISE M. SHOLZ.