Central America by H. C. Goodrich

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 29, 1906

Central America

By H. C. Goodrich

BELIZE, BRITISH HONDURAS.—Mr. Allen writes of some interested ones: A man (not a Spaniard) about twenty miles down the coast from La Ceiba has taken hold of the truth, and has sent for the REVIEW. Another, a Spaniard, living nine miles the other way, has begun the observance of the Sabbath. A woman who bought some books one week began to keep the Sabbath the next week.

We are so separated by water that it is very hard for one person to do all that ought to be done. There is no regular sail route, but by way of the United States. And besides, last year and this there has been a rigid quarantine on, for fear of yellow fever, so that I have not had any opportunity to go from place to place, as I ought to.

I feel that any minister or worker who comes to this country should expect to spend a part of his time in learning the Spanish language. I have hoped that some one would be raised up from among our young people to go to the Spanish people, but as yet we have seen none. We all know that the Spanish people, raised as they are in the darkness of Catholicism, and having lost confidence, in some measure, in their religious leaders, will be a hard people for whom to work. Yet I think we can never expect a more favorable time to labor for them than now. We have hardly touched Spanish Honduras yet, and there is not a soul in Guatemala or San Salvador to lift up the voice of warning. There are many fields, I know, but this one is in need of help.

I hope this trying time of quarantine will close with the present season. The Bay Islands have a new governor, and I have written him for special permission to come to the islands, and thus I can reach La Ceiba also.

We are all well, and of good courage. Our street meetings seem to have a growing interest; yet how it will be when we come to present testing truths, I can not tell. H. C. GOODRICH.