The Russian Union Committee Meeting
By Guy Dail
The third annual session of the Russian Union Committee was held in Riga, March 3-8. In attendance were Brethren L. R. Conradi, J. T. Boettcher, G. Perk, H. Hartkop, J. Sprohge, K. A. Reifschneider, D. Isaak, J. F. Ginter (formerly known as Hinter), H. J. Loebsack, O. Wildgrube, T. Perk, P. Brandt, and the undersigned.
Owing to the attitude of the government toward “sects,” it has been impossible for us to hold our local conferences in the various fields. Because of a series of lectures the president of the union was conducting in this city,—where about fifty have been added to our numbers by vote and baptism during 1910,—he was able to meet with only the Baltic Conference Committee for their annual audit. For these two reasons, the other conferences and mission fields referred to this session of the union committee their auditing for121910, the granting of credentials and licenses, and the selection of officers for the current year, as well as the arrangement of such other matters as are usually considered at a local conference. These things, in addition to that which might be spoken of as strictly within the province of the union administration in such unions as deal only with organized conferences, have kept the brethren fully occupied from eight o’clock in the morning until late at night. The reports and statistics show that God is at work for his little flock in this great empire. If one were to judge from the manner in which our opponents are bestirring themselves to give publicity to, and to cast reflections upon, the third angel’s message, he would conclude that many of them attach as great importance to our work as do we ourselves. Long articles frequently appear against us in the periodicals of the land. Three of our workers are under police surveillance; one has just been tried, and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, or to fifty rubles’ fine, for having baptized and united in marriage a person who had not formally severed her connection with the orthodox church; and one worker is still in prison. In spite of this, 731 new members were received last year, at the close of which there were 3,952 adherents to the third angel’s message in the three conferences and six mission fields of the union, against a membership of 3,668 twelve months earlier. There has been a good growth in tithes, the report showing a total tithe of $21,242 for 1910—$5,625 more than for 1909. The offerings were $5,417, which is an increase of $1,873 over those for the previous year. It must not be forgotten that these gains have been made, partially at least, in localities where there has been a failure in the harvests, but where the brethren have revealed their love for the work by faithfulness in giving to God his own. The Riga Publishing House, a branch of the International Tract Society in Hamburg, shows a gain of about $1,400 for the year; whereas in 1909 it had a small deficit. In eighteen days one sister sold $125 worth of publications, and found thirty persons deeply interested in the truth. She goes into a settlement, holds a meeting in which she presents the importance of getting ready to meet Jesus, and tells the people she has literature that will be helpful to them in preparing for this solemn event. She then canvasses the place. First in the order of business was the auditing of the accounts of the workers in Russia, Siberia, and Russian Central Asia. There were only about fifty of these, as the accounts of the twelve workers of the Baltic Conference had already been audited. There was a deficit of 11,066 rubles, which was made up by appropriations from the General Conference. The Baltic Conference, which had closed with a surplus, made a donation of 1,000 rubles to the Russian Union from its tithe. We think $5,721.25 a moderate appropriation for this immense field, with its one hundred fifty-seven million people, and over sixty nationalities. At its September session, the European Division of the General Conference Committee recommended that Asiatic Russia be separated from European Russia, the former to be called the Siberian Union Conference. The Russian Union Committee indorsed this plan; and beginning with Jan. 1, 1911, the Siberian Union Conference began its separate existence, with Elder G. Perk as superintendent. It contains the following local fields:— 1. The Volga field, composed of the Don territory, and the governments of Astrakhan, Saratof, and Simbirsk. Brother G. Perk is also in local charge of this mission, with his headquarters at Saratof. Its population is over nine million, and it has not quite three hundred members. 2. The Ural field is made up of Samara, Orenburg, Ufa, Kazan, Viatka, Perm, and that part of Uralsk lying west of the Ural River. Elder F. Ginter is superintendent, and will reside at or near Samara. There are nearly eighteen million people in this district, and over two hundred church-members. In this field, as well as in the Volga territory, there are a number of German settlements. 3. The West Siberian field includes that part of Uralsk east of the Ural River, Turgai, Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Tomsk, Tobolsk, and Semirechensk. Its population is over eight million; its membership, about two hundred. Elder H. K. Loebsack is in charge of this part of the Siberian Union. 4. The Central Asiatic field is right in the heart of Asia, and it has over seven million inhabitants, many of whom are Mohammedans. Elder J. Ebel, whose family has recently had a very hard fight with the smallpox, is superintendent, and lives at Tashkent, a city that covers a space nearly as large as Paris, and the “roofs of whose houses are covered with a layer of earth laid out in flower-beds.” The territory composing this mission is made up of Ferghana, Samarkand, Syr-Daria, the Transcaspian District, Khiva, and Bokhara. We have here a membership of about one hundred. 5. The last of the Siberian Union fields is the one extending to the Pacific Ocean, the East Siberian Mission,—with about two million eight hundred thousand inhabitants. It includes Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Transbaikalia, Yakutsk, Amur, and the coast district. Elder E. Gnaedjin, a native Russian, has been chosen to look after this territory. He has already done good work in Harbin, Manchuria, where we have a Russian church of about twenty-five members. Two of our brethren were taken off by the plague, which has recently raged in that region. To provide greater financial strength to the Russian Union Conference, Riga has been separated from the Baltic Conference, and made a union district. This city, with its suburbs, has a population of about five hundred thousand, the most of whom are Germans; there are also a large number of Lettonians, and many Russians and Esthonians. Here we have a German church of ninety-five members, and an Esthonian church of 186 members, both of which use the same place of meeting. This they are able to do by holding their services at different hours. At best, however, our quarters are greatly crowded; for there is a good interest to hear the message in this place. It is only a question of a short time until better accommodations must be provided for our work here, and money is being gradually secured for this purpose. There are many encouraging openings for our medical missionary nurses who have been trained at Friedensau, Germany. For the present, it seems wise to continue the education of our Russian workers at the Friedensau Industrial School, as heretofore. The dearth of laborers for these great fields is heartrending; and to be present in the Russian Union Committee, and witness the urgency with which these presidents and mission superintendents call for laborers, leaves such an impression on one’s mind that he will not forget it in many a day. These men grasp for workers as a drowning man grasps at a straw. It has become more and more important that we get Russian-born workers, owing to the attitude of the government toward foreign workers. While there are many things that cause us a great deal of trouble in these large fields, we feel that there is much for which we should praise God, and that there are abundant reasons why our dear brethren of the Russian Union Conference should have the courage and hope and good cheer that they manifest. These workers desire that God’s people in all parts of the world will remember them at the throne of grace in a special manner, asking for continued success to crown the efforts of his children in this great land.