Experiences in Burma

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 9, 1911

Experiences in Burma

At the last General Conference, Brother H. H. Votaw related the following experiences:—

“I must tell you a little experience we had. We had been in Rangoon only about two weeks when Brother and Sister Hansen came to Burma from India. We felt that the place where we were residing was not healthful, so we moved to a suburb. This left us with no place for holding public meetings. We learned that a hall then occupied by the English Baptists would be vacant. We went to see the landlord, and he said he had received no notice to the effect that it would be vacant. Brother Hansen had a card with him, in the corner of which was printed, ‘The International Tract Society.’ This was left with the gentleman. He did not say we could call again, nor did he give us any encouragement.

“After two months, one day, as I was going to the city, I felt very much impressed (and I am not often given to strong impressions) that we should give attention to this matter again. I was so new to the field and so inexperienced in the work that I just raised my heart to the Lord, and said, ‘If this impression is from you, please allow me to meet Brother Hansen in the city.’ One might wander a long time in a city with a quarter of a million inhabitants without finding the person one desired to see. After walking about two blocks farther, I met Brother and Sister Hansen, standing on a street corner. When I spoke to them about it, they said, ‘We have been thinking much the same thing.’ We hurried over and asked the use of a telephone. The landlord mentioned above, in answering, said, ‘I can’t let you have it. Some man from a tract society has been here.’ Then we went to him and learned that he had refused six different applicants for the hall, although he had lost the card with Brother Hansen’s name on it.

“You will meet men everywhere who have been in India, and they tell you that there is not an honest native in India. Can I believe that?—No, I can not. If there is only one man in India like this one referred to, he is worth working for.

“An illustration comes to mind: When I was a child, a family lived in the community one member of which was subject to epilepsy. When seized with a convulsion, this young woman would fall, often doing herself severe injury. There was a younger girl, who, whenever she saw her sister’s face beginning to blanch, would run to her, and throw her arms around her. During the paroxysm, the older girl would keep her feet going upon the little child’s feet, but the latter never let her sister fall, although it was all she could do to hold her up. I

thought, brethren, with India and its needs before us, we ought to hold it up. We can not afford to let India fall, even though we have to suffer in giving the warning. We must give it. May God help us to do so.”