p. 10 | General Conference Committee Actions

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 11, 1911

General Conference Committee Actions

By William Ambrose Spicer

Distribution of Laborers

The ministerial institute in Philadelphia brought together several members of the General Conference Committee not usually within call for regular committee meetings. Advantage was taken of this to consider a number of items relating to the distribution of laborers. Not all of these recommendations can as yet be reported, but those given in the following list will be of interest to our readers. Elders W. B. White, Allen Moon, and B. G. Wilkinson met with the committee members located at the General Conference office in meetings both at Philadelphia and in Washington.

Recommendations were made as follows:—

Elder J. W. Hofstra, recently returned from the East Indies on account of illness, to the New Jersey Conference.

Elder R. H. Martin, of the Greater

New York Conference, to the Chesapeake Conference.

That the East Michigan Conference be invited to release Elder E. K. Slade, to take the presidency of the Ohio Conference.

That the Ohio Conference be requested to release Elder H. H. Burkholder, to take the presidency of the East Michigan Conference.

That the committee concur in the request of the West Pennsylvania Conference, that Elder W. A. Westworth, recently returned from China, be invited to take the presidency of that conference.

Brother F. E. Gibson, of Ohio, to the West Virginia Conference, the Ohio Conference in this case volunteering to pay the salary for a year, to aid a neighboring conference.

Elder H. J. Farman, of Vermont, to Jamaica, West Indies.

That the Atlantic Union be requested to release Elder S. B. Horton, to act as assistant secretary in the General Conference Religious Liberty Department, the former assistant secretary of this department, C. M. Snow, having been called to devote all his time to editorial work.

That Dr. C. H. Hayton, graduating this spring from the George Washington University, engage in medical work in India, after qualifying in Great Britain.

That the Mexican Mission be requested to release John L. Brown, of Mexico, if satisfactory arrangements can be made, to engage in book work in Spain.

Foreign Mission Seminary Students

The lack of mission funds, as all know, has compelled the Mission Board to hold back nearly all the candidates for foreign fields for the present. During the Philadelphia institute, attention was given to the assignment of those under provisional appointment to foreign fields; so that while waiting for mission funds to increase, their services may count at needy points in the home field. Assignments were made as follows:—

Miss Rachel Jones, of Kansas, to engage in the Bible work in the Northern New England Conference.

Miss Mildred Smith, of Michigan, to the District of Columbia Conference as a Bible worker.

Miss Gertrude Johnston, of California, to engage in the Bible work in Virginia.

Miss Belva Vance, of Indiana, to the Virginia Conference as a Bible worker.

Miss Cassie Wilson, of Michigan, to engage in the Bible work in Baltimore.

Miss Mary C. Kent, of Indiana, to engage in the Bible work in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

Miss Viola Joplin, of Oklahoma, to engage in the canvassing work in the East, with a view to taking another year's work in the Seminary.

Miss Janet Morris, of Pennsylvania, to engage in the Bible work in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

Miss Leona Tuley, of Nebraska, to engage in Bible work in the Chesapeake Conference.

C. P. Lillie and wife, of Massachusetts, to go to China in the autumn, in the meantime to engage in tent work in the Virginia Conference.

H. G. Bayley and wife, of Michigan, to engage in evangelistic work in the District of Columbia Conference.

E. Beuchel and wife, of Michigan, to engage in evangelistic work in the Indiana Conference.

L. Bowen and wife, of New York, to assist during the summer on the Foreign Mission Seminary farm.

F. Hermann Piotrowski and wife, of New York, to Europe at the call of the European Division, with a view to making the Levant their field of labor.

George Sandborn, of Michigan, to Mexico, to engage in work with Spanish literature during the summer.

R. B. Stauffer and wife, of Kansas, to Argentina, he to engage in book work, Mrs. Stauffer to work as nurse.

A. L. Shidler and wife, of Kansas, to engage in the book work on the Mexican border, with a view to working later in Mexico or other Spanish fields.

Aside from these students under provisional appointment, others are working toward the mission fields. There is a sturdy band of workers waiting only the word to go forward, and the mission fields of Asia, Africa, South America, and other parts are anxiously waiting for the word to come that the increasing gifts for missions will enable the help erelong to be sent forward. This year, however, the Mission Board is compelled to hold practically quiet, save as here and there a worker can be placed in foreign lands without materially increasing the burden of the mission treasury.

The hearts of the brethren gathered at the Philadelphia ministerial institute were stirred by the calls that came in for help from India, China, and other parts. Looking at their own work, the representatives of these populous conferences along the Atlantic seaboard were distressed at their poverty of means and men. But, looking out on yet more destitute fields, these brethren felt a longing desire to supply workers and means by which to enter doors of wide access manifestly held open by the special providence of God.

The work of this message is now so widely spread out through the earth that the Lord's people must pray and give week by week in order to hold what has been gained, and to enable the fields to add each year just a little to their staff in order to cope with the growing work.

W. A. SPICER, Secretary.