A School for Volunteers for Foreign Mission Fields
By A. G. Daniells
FROM this week's instalment of the report of the Gland council, our people will learn of a very important decision reached by the General Conference Committee with reference to providing and maintaining a school especially designed for giving instruction to volunteers for foreign mission fields. At this council the committee was brought face to face probably as never before with the meaning of the responsibility resting upon us as a people to give the third angel's message to all the world in this generation. There seemed to come to us a new and fuller realization of the vastness of the great fields to be worked, and what it will require adequately to give this message to their teeming millions. We were brought to this realization by a new combination of circumstances, facts, and influences. We were then in the heart of Europe, with its dense population extending hundreds of miles in all directions. On our way to the council some had visited the British, Scandinavian, and German Union Conferences, and others had visited Africa, Japan, Korea, China, India, and the Latin Union field. In these visits we had studied the conditions and needs of these fields, and had reached a definite understanding with the laborers who are located6in them as to what help should, without fail, be sent into those fields at once. When we came together in council, all these demands were presented, with clear, definite, and convincing reasons. The very least that it was felt would meet the present, pressing requirements of all these fields was so great that it fairly staggered us. And yet this was a mere trifle compared with what will be required to finish this work. The efforts of our missionaries now at work in all parts of the world to advance the cause are continually creating new openings for service, and this leads them to call for more laborers and means from the home land. As the field of our operations enlarges, and these calls multiply, it becomes more and more difficult to find suitable persons to send abroad. As we stood face to face with the situation as it presented itself at the Gland council, we were perplexed and troubled beyond expression. But while wrestling with this great problem, light came to us, which we believe will help to solve it. We became fully convinced that the time had come for us to set on foot a larger, more systematic, and better organized movement for selecting and preparing workers to send into the foreign fields. We have thousands of young men and women in our cause. Hundreds of them have finished their regular school work. They love this message, and would like to devote their lives to its proclamation. But they do not know just where to go nor what to do. Many, possessing splendid talents for service, would gladly go to foreign fields, but they realize that they are hardly prepared, and know not how to get just the preparation they need. And as time passes, they gradually drift into various kinds of employment, and are lost sight of in the masses. To meet this whole situation, the General Conference Committee decided that we must now establish a foreign mission training-school, for the one great purpose of giving suitable instruction to volunteers for mission fields. And they recommended the trustees of the Washington Training College to turn that institution into such a school. This has been agreed to by the trustees, and the necessary changes in the plans and courses of study are now being made. What will be known as the Washington Foreign Mission College will open this fall. A prospectus is being prepared, and will be sent free to all who will write for it. Prof. Homer R. Salisbury has been engaged to take charge of this school. He has just arrived in Washington from England, where he has had charge of our school work during the last six years. We now want to hear from hundreds of our young people who would like to volunteer for mission fields. In writing, give full particulars of age, nationality, educational acquirements, choice of field, financial condition, etc. We would also like references to conference officers and ministers. All correspondence should be addressed to Prof. H. R. Salisbury, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. Much more will be said regarding this school in succeeding numbers of the REVIEW. We shall be glad to hear from our conference officers, ministers, and brethren generally as to how they look upon this move. The General Conference Committee feel that this was one of the most important decisions of the Gland council. The proposal has been placed fully before Sister White, and she gives it most hearty approval as being in harmony with the real purpose for which a school was to be established at our headquarters. We solicit the prayers and co-operation of all our people in behalf of this movement.