DURING the visit of Elder W. A. Spicer to the West Indies, as a representative of the Mission Board, early in 1903, two conferences were organized,—the Jamaica Conference, in the island of Jamaica, and the East Caribbean Conference, comprising the circle of islands that fringe the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea, from St. Thomas in the north to and including the Guianas in the mainland of South America. These two conferences have a combined membership of a little over two thousand, and encouraging progress has been made during the first year of their organization. It is safe to say that this has marked the beginning of an era in the history of our work in the West Indies that will stand out prominently from any view-point of the future.
KINGSTON, JAMAICA
One of the great plans laid in those conferences, destined, under God, to accomplish a wonderful work, was the inauguration of the seed-sowing campaign, the central figure of which was to be a monthly missionary journal to be called The Caribbean Watchman. We are glad to report that this plan has passed from the book of resolutions into the book of acts.
The growing number of loyal believers in the advent message throughout the West Indies, the great number of souls still unwarned here, and fields unentered, the condition of the finances of the Mission Board, with great unentered fields like China pressing heavily upon them, in comparison with which the population of our field seemed so small, all tended to make the undertaking of such a campaign an absolute necessity. Taking the one hundred and twenty-sixth Psalm as an inspired prediction concerning the closing work of the gospel message, we stepped out in faith, believing that the Spirit of the Lord would make the remnant church a body of seed sowers, scattering everywhere the precious seed baskets.
It seemed a great undertaking. The conferences had only just come into existence. The members of the churches were all poor. The question of finances with them was not a very promising one. There was not one cent in sight that the proposed paper could lean on for support. Almost every denomination in the field had tried to print a paper, and had either miserably failed or were dragging out a most precarious existence. Our papers from England and America were so far away and so expensive that many of our attempts toward the introduction of current literature had failed. Everything seemed against us, except the crying need of just such a campaign. So we cried to the Lord, and he whose ear is ever open to hear the cry of need arising in Jesus' name, from his children, did not fail us in our extremity.
The territory of the Caribbean Watchman has gone beyond the border of these two conferences, reaching Central America on the west, thus encircling the entire Caribbean Sea, and extending to Bermuda to the north, where three hundred copies have been sold each month. The time consumed in getting cuts and other necessaries, delayed the production of the first number until June, 1903. Thus the May number, just issued, closes the first year of our work.
At the conference held in Trinidad in January, 1903, most of the workers considered two thousand copies quite sufficient to start with, and the most sanguine expectation of many was that we should reach four or five thousand monthly. But in June we had heard from many of the fields, and three thousand copies were issued. They were quickly taken up and all sold. So hearty was the response from our loyal people, that by the third issue the paper reached a circulation of seven thousand copies, which it has maintained until the close of its first year; and with the June number, 1904, it starts in its second year with nine thousand copies, and the ambition14to reach a stable circulation of at least ten thousand copies before the year ends.
To those who do not understand the scattered situation of our field, the poor facilities of communication, the poverty of the inhabitants, the awful work of West Indian hurricanes (one the worst known for years struck us the very next month after the birth of the Watchman), this may not seem to be much of a record, and it is not what it should be, yet taking into consideration the many difficulties met, we recognize the overruling hand of the Master, thank God, and take courage.
Benefits Derived
In the first place, God has a message for the West Indies, which is present truth, and the Watchman has tried to grasp the opportunities presented by the turning wheel of providence, and give the meaning to the people. Some precious souls have already been reported to this office who have accepted the message through reading the Watchman. Another benefit we have realized is that much prejudice that existed through malicious misrepresentations and misunderstandings of this people and their work, is being melted away as the people learn what we really believe. Again, we have found a large army of hungry souls who have testified again and again that these truths are just what they have been hungry for, for years. The paper has also proved an excellent means of introducing our conference laborers to the people, and has largely increased the circle of our acquaintances and friends. And last, but not least, we are glad to report that it has been of untold benefit to our own churches and companies of believers in that it has furnished them with a medium within the reach of their purses, filled with present truth, and has given them a key to the homes of their neighbors, thus making them channels through which the living water is flowing out to others, saving them from the stagnation that was threatening them.
Our Health Journal
We have associated with the sale of the Watchman the sale of the English Good Health, because we know that the light flashing from our health journals is needed just now by the people. We are using the English Good Health, as we can sell it for three cents a copy, the same as the Watchman, and also because so many of the West India colonies are decidedly English in sentiment.
During the year seventy-eight thousand copies of the Watchman have been sold, and during the past six months about eight thousand copies of Good Health. There are practically none of these papers at the office, and as far as we can learn, but very few in the hands of the agents. Our subscription list is very small, so that almost this entire number of papers has been sold from door to door by the church-members.
Trinidad, with a church membership of about three hundred, has sold about twenty thousand; Barbados, with only about one hundred members, about fifteen thousand; and Antigua, with only about fifty members, four thousand. Those fields nearest the office of publication have done the best this year, but we hope during the coming year to do more thorough work in the more distant fields. We expect to give special attention to the canal strip on the Isthmus of Panama.
We wish to put on record our gratitude for the noble way in which so many of our brethren and sisters have responded to the call of the hour. This work has been carried forward in self-sacrifice and self-denial. Our agents have braved the scoffs of the enemy, and the fierce heat of the tropic sun. And the best of all is, a goodly number are enlisting for life service. One of our young men in Trinidad is selling two hundred of each issue, and in Barbados we have several agents who sell from seventy-five to one hundred, as also in all the fields a large number who dispose of fifty, and a still larger number who sell twenty-five of each issue.
I am sure that our dear brethren and sisters in America, who have given so much for the advancement of the work in the West Indies, would feel amply repaid could they but see the army of workers now rallying to the call, and preparing not only to carry on the work within their own borders, but also casting anxious eyes toward Africa, the native land of many, with an increasing burden to help in the bearing of the advent message to the Dark Continent.
We are planning advance moves for the year to come. It is proposed to issue a large number of small tracts and leaflets to be used by our Watchman agents in this seed-sowing campaign. It is hoped that active, live tract and missionary societies will be organized during the coming year in every company of believers, and that they will not be satisfied with mailing a few papers or writing a few letters, but that every society will be a hive of seed sowers, from which the members will issue as busy as bees, visiting from house to house in their own neighborhoods, with hands filled with the precious seed baskets.
During the past year an outside printer has printed the Caribbean Watchman, and while the work has been done as well and as satisfactorily as could be expected, yet there is much that we can not control as we would like, and the paper has not been up to the standard that would please us best. The printing and material cost us about six hundred dollars for the year, but the money has all come in, and there are no debts. If we had the means to buy the outfit of type and office accessories sufficient to set the type and make up the forms in our office, only sending it out to get the presswork done, we could do much better work. Then some of our needy young people could find employment in the message. We do not wish to divert means from more pressing needs, but only to state the facts, and leave it with the Lord to impress hearts.
Brethren and sisters pray for the success of the seed-sowing campaign in the West Indies.
