A Field of Opportunity at Home by Steen Rasmussen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1916

A Field of Opportunity at Home

By Steen Rasmussen

THE immigration problem is one of vital interest to the American people. While in the presidential chair, Mr. Roosevelt once made the statement that he considered it, with the possible exception of that of the conservation of the natural resources of the country, our most important problem.

If the immigration problem is of so vital interest and importance to the nation, it ought to be of no less interest and importance to every true Christian, and in a special sense should it appeal to every sincere Adventist believer. Gigantic efforts are being put forth by the government to mold and shape these incoming millions into good and useful citizens. Numberless societies and organizations, of a political, social, moral, or religious character, have been created with a view of bettering the conditions, usefulness, and environments of the immigrant. Neither money nor effort is spared in solving this tremendous problem which confronts us on every hand.

In the course of time, this question has taken on an even more perplexing aspect. The immigrants of the earlier day came primarily with the purpose of becoming permanent dwellers, and being for the greater part agriculturists in their home country, they generally settled in rural districts and became farmers; but circumstances have so changed that the recent immigrants follow to a great extent a very different course, and instead of settling in the country, flock to the cities and other industrial centers, with the result that these have become overcrowded with humanity. Lured either by wages or some other bright prospect, these newcomers have entered upon occupations for which they are in most cases ill adapted.

A few figures will be of general interest. During the decade 1905-14, a procession of over ten million people has been marching into our country. This is more than a million each year. While the immigrants a quarter to half a century ago came mostly from Northern and Western Europe, we now find that the great majority of the immigrants of the last ten years or more have come from Southern and Eastern Europe. With their limited education, a great percentage of them being illiterate, and their many superstitious ideas, they naturally present a far more difficult problem than do the people who come from the well-educated and Protestant countries of Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia, etc.

By looking over the annual reports of compiled by the Commissioner General of Immigration, we are almost staggered to find that nearly one half of these 10,000,000 people who came during the period already mentioned, have been the residents of but two countries, namely, Italy and Russia. From Russia alone (this includes Poland) came 2,015,000. This vast number of people from one country would outnumber the population of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana combined, or equal that of Petrograd, the capital of Russia. The Italians numbered 2,311,000, or nearly as many as the total population of the State of California. Similar conditions apply to other nationalities, such as the Hungarians, Austrians, and Balkans.

What Has Been Done?

Some one will very likely raise the question, What has been done for these people by this denomination, and what are we doing for them at the present time? We have believers among nineteen different nationalities, and some work is being carried on among fifteen of these. There are today in the United States and Canada 280 foreign churches, with a total membership of 10,600. Should we, however, exclude the Germans and the Scandinavians from this list, these figures would be reduced to nineteen churches and a membership of 765. That is to say, among more than twenty million people of foreign birth or parentage, we have not yet reached a membership of one thousand.

Naturally the next question to present itself is, What can we do to remedy this appalling situation? These people certainly need the gospel of salvation just as much as the foreigner abroad, and it is a recognized fact by nearly all religious organizations that the foreigner here is more easily reached than the foreigner at home.

We shall briefly point out a few rays of light that are beginning to penetrate this terrible darkness. At the time of the fall council of 1915 a very important action was taken by the General and North American Division Conferences in regard to foreign literature. It was unanimously recommended that steps be taken, as soon as demands should warrant, to issue regular periodicals in the Russian, Serbian, Hungarian, Polish, Bohemian, Italian, French, Yiddish, Bulgarian, and other languages. A substantial beginning has already been made, as eight-page monthly papers, containing Sabbath school lessons, have been started in the Russian, Italian, Bohemian, Serbian, and Roumanian tongues; also thirty-two-page magazines appear regularly every quarter in the Italian and Bohemian; and these will be followed by others.

During the year 1915, our 160 foreign workers reported 1,025 new members, with sixteen new churches organized. One of these is an Icelandic church, at Winnipeg, Canada. The membership of our Italian church in Chicago has been increased to forty. Other churches, such as the Bohemian-Slavic in New Jersey, the Russian in North Dakota, the Roumanian in Ohio, the Serbian-Roumanian in Canada and in Missouri, have also made some encouraging progress. Our work among the Jews has also met with good success.

Another important step in the advancement of our foreign work at home is the establishing of the International Branch of the Pacific Press Publishing Association near Chicago, Ill. It is our belief that this removal will mark an important epoch in the rapid extension of the message to all these nationalities in this country.

Individual Effort

However, these periodicals mentioned cannot circulate themselves. Their circulation depends upon the effort and interest of somebody. While, of course, our foreign believers will do all in their power to circulate these truth-filled papers among those speaking their respective languages, we believe that every true Christian man or woman, whether foreign or native, should be an active home foreign missionary. Do not think that your duties are done when you have attended a missionary meeting, made your offering to the regular mission funds, or perhaps offered a prayer for the missionaries. This in itself is good, but there is another thing which is of greater importance, and that is that you yourself be a home foreign missionary.

To illustrate, we shall briefly mention the experience of a Christian woman in one of our large cities. She felt that she ought to do something to improve the religious condition of the foreign people in her neighborhood. She was as busy as other women, with her home and her children, but she managed to give a little time to this service. She began visiting the foreign districts of the city, and first selected the Italian. On her visits she took with her some small delicacies, flowers, etc., for sick mothers and children, and she also secured work for some of the unemployed men. Gradually she won the confidence and love of these people whose language she could not speak.

Having no religious books, tracts, or papers in the Italian language, she always took with her some Bibles and Testaments in the tongue of the people, and distributed them as she had opportunity. She always had a smile and a word of cheer for each. She also secured some young women helpers in her own church, who were glad to assist her in her work of visiting, and finally she got her pastor deeply interested. By his aid and the help of an Italian teacher she soon managed to open a Sabbath school for children, and in less than a year a prosperous mission was in operation. It grew rapidly, and is today a gospel center in an Italian colony.

This is one Christian woman's work for alien women, in the form of personal missionary effort. This same work is possible not to one only, but to hundreds and thousands of men and women in our churches throughout the land. The home is the point of approach, and a Christian man or woman has the key to unlock the door.

Will not some one who reads these lines, and who feels a burden for the salvation of these “strangers within our gates,” follow this noble woman's example, and be an ambassador for Christ?

STEEN RASMUSSEN.