p. 782 | The Message Among Foreigners in North America

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 14, 1913

The Message Among Foreigners in North America

By Ole Andres Olsen

FROM time to time the attention of the readers of the REVIEW has been called to the large percentage of foreigners among us. The annual influx of immigrants to the United States alone has been averaging one million and more a year. Then add to this the hundreds of thousands that come to Canada, and enormous figures are presented.

Speaking of the United States alone, one writer has made the following statement: “If you were to divide these people into groups and put them into cities by themselves, you could have an Italian city as large as Minneapolis, containing 220,000 inhabitants; an Austro-Hungarian city the size of Detroit, 270,000; a Jewish city as large as Providence, R. I., with 180,000; and you would have one hundred cities of from 2,000 to 20,000 without an English-speaking person in them.”

If this were only for one or two years it would be considerable, but this rate of influx has now continued for more than ten years, and there is no evidence of any abatement. Thus we have right here in North America a foreign mission field not second to any in the world; and a very unique and peculiar situation it is, for instead of one foreign tongue or nationality to deal with, we have them all. In an ordinary little camp-meeting, such as the recent one held at Bulyea, Saskatchewan, Canada, the message was preached in more than half a dozen languages. This is indeed a unique situation.

But this is just as it should be, and comes as a fulfilment of the Saviour’s declaration that this gospel of the kingdom should be preached in all the world as a witness to all its people.

This home foreign mission field is one of special interest. While we rejoice over the progress the gospel is making in foreign lands, we are glad to report some progress also among the foreigners in the home land. A beginning, though as yet small, has been made among a few of the many nationalities here.

During April this year we had the pleasure of ordaining the first Hungarian minister in this country, Brother John Sivak, of New York. Recently at the camp-meeting at Bismarck, N. Dak., the writer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the ordination of S. G. Burley and J. A. Litwinenco, two Russian brethren, the first of this nationality to be ordained in this country; and later at the Saskatchewan, Canada, camp-meeting, he participated in the ordination of Brother Milan Ostoics, a Servian, the first of this nationality to be ordained to preach the closing message to the world. Thus during the present year four brethren of three different nationalities have been ordained to the gospel ministry in this closing work. This indeed is a source of much encouragement, and marks a decided advance in the work of the message among these people.

But after all, this is only a small beginning after so many years. We ought to have had scores of laborers in not only half a dozen or so of the different tongues, but in all the sixty and more languages that are spoken by these nationalities. It is time that a more decided and earnest effort was made to extend the message among the foreigners of North America. They are not only as eligible to the gospel as are Americans, but also as ready to respond to the call when it comes to them in a language they can understand.

May we be fully awakened to the importance and the needs of this home mission field among the many foreign nationalities, while conditions are as favorable as they now are. O. A. OLSEN.