The Second Annual Convention of Self-Supporting Missionaries by Bessie M. DeGraw

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1909

The Second Annual Convention of Self-Supporting Missionaries

By Bessie M. DeGraw

Have you been reading of the opportunities offered by the South to those who desire to spread the message of salvation? Has the spirit of the Master been leading you to look for your place in the work?

If so, you will have more than a passing interest in such a meeting as this convention of self-supporting missionaries. The meeting is held for two purposes: one, to bring together those engaged in this kind of work in the South, that by studying together they may plan for broadening and strengthening the work; and the other is to afford opportunity to those whom God is calling into this work to see just what he would have them do.

The convention last year was a source of strength to the work. A number of brethren from the North, the East, and the West attended. Since that time several school centers have been started. Brother Pflugradt and his company of teachers from Wisconsin have started a training-school at Doswell, Va. They are well located to prepare workers for a needy field.

A godly minister brought his family all the way from the Pacific Coast because he heard the South's call for schools. His sons are preparing to help him teach, and in a few months he expects to have a rural school started on a farm in Tennessee.

Prof. A. W. Spaulding, whose heart has turned back to the South ever since his work here seven years ago, is now opening up a work in North Carolina.

Two young men, students of the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute, have recently located a school in northern Alabama. Recently a rap at my door brought me face to face with another brother from the Pacific Coast. He, too, has heard the call, “Come South,” and is seeking a suitable location for starting a school.

When Sister White addressed the students of the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute, she said, “There is a wide field before us in the establishment of family mission schools.” Evidently God is speaking these words to all the North, and some, hearing, heed.

This second annual convention of self-supporting missionaries is for such people as these. You are cordially invited to attend.

The meeting opens Friday, August 27, and continues until August 30. It is held on the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute farm at Madison, Tenn. For special information, address E. A. Sutherland, Madison, Tenn. BESSIE M. DEGRAW.