College of Medical Evangelists and the Thanksgiving Ingathering
By J. A. Burden
Last year the Loma Linda students gathered $413.84 with the twelve hundred copies of the Missions REVIEW distributed. This year we hardly expected to do so well, as a number of the students were young and inexperienced. The students laid aside their studies and engaged heartily in distributing the REVIEW and soliciting funds. They, with a few others, received, altogether, $405.23 for foreign missions, with the fifteen hundred papers circulated. They all had excellent experiences. One young lady who engaged in the work for the first time, called at a house where a man was painting. As she presented the paper, he turned her away very coolly; so she passed on and started to enter the next house. He called to her, saying that it was of no use to go in there, as that was his home, and there was no one but his wife inside, and she would not be interested in the paper. The young lady turned to go away, but something impelled her to go back. As she rapped at the door and entered, a little babe in its mother's arms went into a spasm. The mother was frightened, and knew not what to do, as the child seemed to be dying. The nurse noticed a boiler of water on the stove, and she asked the lady to bring her a wash-tub, and soon she had the baby in a hot bath, which brought it to life again. Meantime, the lady had called her husband, and as they watched the nurse apparently bring the baby back to life, they were overjoyed and filled with gratitude, and were ready to listen to her story of the need of foreign missions. They now gladly took the paper and gave her a donation. A brother who was working in a business district, called at a department store. The manager told him he had no interest in missions or in religion, and did not believe in the Bible. He said he had often asked ministers questions concerning these things which they could not answer. Our worker inquired what the questions were, promising to answer them if he could. Then followed a long discussion of all the topics of present truth, which lasted over an hour. All the clerks and the customers stood by listening while the proprietor of the store and the student canvassed the entire third angel's message. It made a deep impression, and resulted in quite a large contribution to missions. Last fall a young girl who lived near Los Angeles, applied for admittance to our nurses' course. She was not an Adventist, nor was she a professed Christian, but she said she had a longing for better things, and felt that she would find them at Loma Linda. We hesitated to take her, but finally granted her the privilege on probation. When the time came for the missionary campaign, and the call was made for volunteers, she offered herself for the work. A number advised us not to let her go, fearing she was not qualified and would be discouraged; but each time a call was made for volunteers, she responded. Finally we made up our minds to let her try it. As she had little knowledge of the truth and of our work, of course she was ill prepared to present the matter intelligently to the public. At the first house where she called, as she knocked at the door, she noticed on the wall the text, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.' When she attempted to present the paper to the people, they rudely turned her down, but the text wrote itself on her memory, and as she walked to the next house, an appreciation of the great sacrifice God had made to save men, loomed up before her, and the conviction of his love settled down upon her heart. This gave her a canvass to present to the people at the next house, which had a wonderful effect. As she repeated the simple words, 'If God so loved us that he gave his Son, the best gift that heaven had, we ought to be willing to sacrifice a little that the heathen might learn of his love,' her own heart was touched, and it is needless to say she reached the hearts of the people with her simple story as she passed from house to house, gathering funds at each place for the needy fields, doing even better than all the workers who went out with her to show her how to do the work. That evening when the workers met to relate the experiences of the day, for the first time this girl attempted to speak for the Lord. As she arose, she said in simple words, 'I think I did more to-day than any of you, for I had one convert. When I went out, I did not know the Lord, but I know him now.' The simple story of her work and the new experience she had gained, had a wonderful influence on the meeting. The students felt that the three days given to missionary work had been well spent, and really felt sorry when the time came for the work to close, but they returned to their studies with renewed vigor. During the ingathering and the two weeks that followed, the third-year nurses' class, a few medical students, and two of the physicians were out in evangelistic medical work in the cities and villages of the Valley. As they ministered to the physical needs of the people, and taught them how to regain health, doors were thrown wide open to them. The longer they worked, the more they found to do. Especially was this true in the city of Pasadena. When the time came for these workers to return home, the interest was so great that the church appealed to us to send another company of workers, as they could not bear to see the good work stop. Our need is more consecrated workers to meet the constant calls. If we had two more evangelistic physicians, and about a dozen well-trained nurses, it would keep them all busy to respond to the openings for ministering to the people and their needs. As the students called on the people, they invited them to visit the sanitarium, and each Sunday since, the dining-room has been crowded with visitors. Last Sunday the mayor of Los Angeles, with a number of others, took dinner with us at Loma Linda. He was delighted with the place, and especially with the spirit he found. He19remarked that it was such a rest to come to this Christian home, away from the graft of city public life. At present we have about fifty patients. At five o'clock each afternoon in the parlor we have a Bible reading for the patients, and are taking them through the doctrinal features of our faith, as well as other important subjects. Just now Elder R. S. Owen is conducting a verse-by-verse study of the book of Revelation, and the patients are intensely interested. Three have recently begun the observance of the Sabbath, and others say the truth looks very clear. We are having the most ideal sanitarium work at Loma Linda of anything I have ever seen in all my sanitarium experience. We attribute it quite largely to the combined influence of the school and the sanitarium, which keeps up a healthy spiritual atmosphere in the hearts of the workers. A number of the patients attend the Bible class in the school. On December 9 the College of Medical Evangelists was chartered, and the work of the school is proceeding nicely. Students who are graduated will now have the opportunity of being recognized by the State, and the privilege of practising the sanitarium healing art the same as physicians of other schools. Since the Loma Linda school opened, ten workers have gone to foreign fields,—four to South America, four to China, one to India, one to Japan—and another starts for India the first of the year. The calendar for the medical school is now ready to send out. Those desiring information concerning this school, should address the dean, Dr. G. K. Abbott, Loma Linda, Cal.