Medical Missionary Council

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 21, 1907

Medical Missionary Council

For several years the advisability of holding a meeting in the Pacific Union Conference, where the physicians, nurses, managers, and boards of directors of our medical institutions could meet in council to study the special needs of the work to which they had consecrated their lives, had received more or less consideration. The growth of the medical institutions in this territory, both in size and in numbers, has emphasized the necessity of such a meeting. As the importance of the medical work as a leading factor in carrying the gospel of salvation to the millions still in darkness was grasped, the needs of a general council became more apparent.

In the spring of the present year the Southern California Conference began to open the way for such a desirable gathering by offering to furnish entertainment for all delegates who would attend such a convention. At first it was thought that the meeting would be held during the summer months, but when it was found that this would not meet the conveniences of all who were interested in such a convention, the date October 27-31 was decided upon. Accordingly, plans began to be made, and physicians, managers, and directors were asked to write papers for the consideration of the delegates who would come. To these plans there was a hearty response, but as the date of the meeting began to draw near, the work at some of our medical institutions began to assume such proportions that it seemed it would be impossible for any to come from the largest institutions on the Coast.

It was decided to hold this meeting at the Loma Linda Sanitarium, and a more ideal location could not have been found for the convenience of the council and the entertainment of the delegates. This institution is situated in the country, on beautiful grounds with commodious buildings for the reception of visitors, and with an assembly hall apart from the main sanitarium buildings, in which could be held the meetings of the convention without annoyance to any one, and, besides, at this place there is a class of sixty or more young people who are striving earnestly for an education that will enable them to do efficient medical missionary work. It was only at such a quiet, convenient place as this that such a company of delegates could put in at least nine hours a day in the devotional and business meetings of the council.

The subjects that were discussed were not so much those that pertain to medical science and the rational methods in the treatment of the diseases of mankind, as those questions that have to do with the giving of the whole gospel to the world in this generation, and how the facilities of these large medical institutions may be used in training medical missionaries who can go forth with minds trained in methods of using God's great principles of healing that have been entrusted to this denomination, and with hearts filled and overflowing with the love that Jesus Christ manifested to this sinful world. As these important themes were considered, the lines that have been supposed to exist between the man who was trained as a physician and the worker who has spent his life as a minister of the gospel, became obliterated. All were as deeply interested in the medical as in the evangelical, and vice versa. In fact, it was one band of workers studying God's great commission to go into all the earth with his life-giving message.

The following is a list of the brethren and sisters in attendance at this council:—

Physicians: A. M. Gardner, J. R. Leadsworth, S. A. Lockwood, E. L. Paulding, Ida S. Herr, Julia A. White, B. E. Fulmer, Cora M. Richard-Abbott, R. S. Cummings, W. L. Gardner, Geo. K. Abbott, Lillis Wood-Starr, F. F. Abbott, Sophia Johnson-Judson, M. M. Kay, Howard F. Rand, W. A. Ruble, J. Franc Haight, J. E. Froom, F. S. Whitelock, M. E. Eastman.

Osteopaths: Helena I. Gilbert, R. W. Miller, Louise V. Wurtz.

Nurses: Winifred W. Frederick, Emma W. Irvin, Grace H. Jennings, Mabel Parks, Anna L. Hansen, I. R. Hall, Mrs. I. R. Hall, Lesli Ackerman, Ellen Cornish, Pearl Shetler, Nora Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Anna Erskine, Nina L. Lawry, Mrs. E. F. Drummond, Helen L. Henton, Leonora Lacey, E. C. Silsbee, Edna Kilbourn, Mrs. Matilda J. Soderberg, Effie Cornish, Dollie Olman, Agnes Thompson, Clyde Lowry, Adelaide M. Case, Rosa B. Smith.

Ministers: H. W. Cottrell, W. M. Healey, W. C. White, J. H. Behrens, A. G. Daniels, Mrs. E. G. White, G. A. Irwin, F. I. Richardson, H. G. Lucas, J. A. Burden, E. S. Ballenger.

Students: Ethelwyn Hibbard, C. E. LaPointe, O. H. Polzin, Olive Abbott, Edith Yost, Chas. W. Harrison, John W. Blackwell, Mrs. H. W. Pollock, E. C. Davey, Albert C. Fawkes.

Others in Attendance: Geo. McCready Price, Mrs. John S. Calkins, Mrs. J. Gotzian, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Coombs, Mrs. B. E. Fulmer, M. A. Carlock, W. H. Gilmore, Mrs. Mary Nichol, Mrs. M. Caro, J. A. Starr, Mrs. M. E. Sternberg, Mrs. Luther Warren, Mrs. A. J. Proctor, O. F. Olsen, D. A. Robinson, C. C. Crisler, Mrs. H. C. Stevens, Nellie J. Rice, O. J. Fisher, C. W. Bremmer, J. J. Ireland, Ella E. Olsen, Mrs. C. A. Rice, Mrs. Dora Fisher, Augusta S. DeAngeles, W. E. Ross, H. E. Colby, H. C. Stevens, E. Campbell, W. A. R.