Missionary Correspondence by B. P. Foote

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 6, 1916

Missionary Correspondence

By B. P. Foote

There are wonderful possibilities in missionary correspondence. Let us compare the mail facilities with those of years ago: then it cost 8 cents to send a letter of one sheet 40 miles, 20 cents was required to carry a letter of the same size 500 miles, and 25 cents for more than 500 miles. The cost for sending a two-sheet letter was twice as much, three sheets three times as much, and so on.

Now a two-cent stamp will take a one-ounce letter to any nook or corner of the United States, Canada, or Mexico; across the continent and across the Atlantic to England, or across the Pacific to Shanghai.

Less than twenty years ago the first rural mail route was started from Clarksville, Ark. Now there are said to be 43,000 carriers, covering about one million miles a day.

What do these things mean? Is not this a part of the fulfilment of the prophecy that in the last days knowledge should be increased, and many should run to and fro? Are we making the use of these wonderful facilities that we should?

Business houses are far ahead of us in this matter. One firm is reported, on good authority, to have sold $50,000,000 worth of goods in one year by mail orders alone.

Something has been done in missionary correspondence, but the work has barely been touched in comparison with the possibilities in this work.

Some Results of Missionary Correspondence

1. The first four Sabbath keepers in Russia received the Sabbath truth through a tract sent from Kansas. That indicates that it is a good plan to inclose a tract with every letter. Tracts can give the message in languages that we cannot speak or write and have not time to learn.

2. One invalid lady is said to have raised up several churches by correspondence, and her work was as valuable as that of a minister.

3. A man who works in the Review and Herald office says he is able to count more than one hundred persons who are keeping the Sabbath as the result of missionary letters he has written.

4. Just recently a government employee, a lawyer, came to the Pacific Press and bought three or four of our books. In talking with him, it was learned that he had been receiving missionary letters from a man in Takoma Park. The lawyer seemed fully convinced of the truth, and said he expected to become a Sabbath keeper as soon as he could get his affairs in proper shape.

5. A single tract sent from the United States to Lower Burma is said to have resulted in bringing 1,500 people to Christianity.

Advantages in Missionary Correspondence

These are some of the advantages in missionary correspondence over other lines of missionary work:—

1. Distance makes little or no difference.

2. It is inexpensive, requiring little time and no travel.

3. Bad weather seldom hinders it to any extent, except to make the mail go a little slower. You can sit by your own stove and do missionary work by correspondence when it would be very uncomfortable walking or riding outside.

4. Letters may be written at odd moments, and may be planned almost entirely while engaged in regular work.

5. Letters will be read by people who will not listen to you. And the letter may have a good effect, even if you never receive an answer.

6. If your letter is answered and questions are asked, you can take all the time you need to look up the correct answers. This is a good thing for some of us.

7. It is a line of self-supporting missionary work in which every one can engage. There is no excuse for any one who can read and write. Think what might be accomplished in one year if every member of every church would write only one letter a week!

How to Write Missionary Letters

I cannot tell you just how you should write your letters, but a few general principles may help.

What is a missionary letter? It is not necessarily a letter written to some one you have never seen, or to some one who is not a Sabbath keeper. The best kind of missionary letter sometimes is one written to a discouraged friend or relative.

No harm is likely to result from a letter full of sympathy and encouragement. Remember it is easier to love people into the truth than it is to argue them into it. Avoid arguments.

The first letter is very important. It should be so worded that the recipient will feel it either a privilege or a duty to answer.

Say “you” oftener than “I.” Business houses make a great deal of this principle, and it is worthy of careful thought. This is tact.

Do not say that you cannot write letters. There is a saying among shorthand writers, especially reporters, who of course dare not ask the speaker to slow down, that it is easier to read a poorly written outline than it is to read a blank space. Now, I believe it is easier for the Lord to bless a poorly written letter than it is for him to bless an absolutely perfect letter that you are planning to write sometime but never get done. It is all right to think before you write, and I hope you will think, and think, and THINK; but please do not think too long without acting. Action that is sixty per cent perfect is worth far more than mere theory that is one hundred per cent perfect.

Doubtless many of you are mailing papers to individuals. Be sure that a good letter is sent to every one to whom a paper is sent. It will increase the value of the paper a great deal.

In all up-to-date business colleges and in the commercial departments in our own schools, classes in business correspondence are conducted. Why should there not be in every one of our churches a missionary correspondence class, with some experienced person as leader? This class or band should meet once a week and take up actual work, asking questions and making suggestions as they go along. One letter a week could be written in this way, and it would not only be a blessing to the one receiving it, but, as in the case of other kinds of missionary work, an even greater blessing might come to the writer himself. We really help ourselves most when we are trying most to help others.

Now, how many can think of at least one person to whom he can write a missionary letter? B. P. FOOTE.