Work for the Colored People of Virginia
By I. E. Kimball
SINCE my last report, I have labored in the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, and Hampton. During twelve weeks at Portsmouth, while I was laboring diligently with my hands each day in printing, I also held evening meetings with the churches in Norfolk and Portsmouth, with good results. Quite a number acknowledged the Sabbath and the truths applicable to our times, and the church, which had languished under church trials, was resuscitated. It was practically newly organized, and its membership more than doubled. New life and zeal have been inspired, and new courage animates the church as the result of these meetings. My wife returned from Vermont to accompany me to Newport News and Hampton, where we have put forth our winter’s effort. This has been the best of all my experiences in the third angel’s message. Not being driven to overwork, my health has improved, and I have felt more bodily vigor than since I was seventeen, when I received the message at the first. My wife and I called it the most happy of all our missionary experiences. I preached in nearly all the churches of the city, as I had also done a year before, and the influence of those meetings was excellent, as was testified by the deep solemnity which pervaded hearts when Christ was lifted up before them, accompanied by tears and confessions. In ten of the principal cities of the Atlantic coast where I have thus labored, preaching in many of the leading churches, all doors remain open to me, and urgent calls come to repeat my efforts among them. We have this winter sold a larger amount of reading matter than ever before—about two thousand books and booklets. We have also distributed the Signs of the Times, and nearly two thousand penny tracts, which I have given away at the services. We have also given away a large number of books. I held quarterly meetings with the three churches of Norfolk and Newport News, which were seasons of refreshing. We organized the colored church of Newport News the night before Brother J. H. Strickland departed for Jamaica (W. I.), where he is now laboring. He had expended much faithful labor on this company, and wished to see them organized before his departure. Two of these brethren had stood stiffly for the truth for years—the one at Hampton, the other at Newport News. These brethren now stand as elder and deacon in the church. I met with this company usually three times in the week while I was there. Two were baptized by the elder. In the ten cities where I have labored, there has been no worker for the colored people except my wife and myself. The third angel’s message is something entirely new to them. Almost all the colored people of these cities have never heard of such a people as Seventh-day Adventists. Our brethren, many of them, sit quietly in their homes, and try to enjoy their own ceiled houses while God’s house lies unbuilt. They quiet their consciences, thinking some one will doubtless do the work some day, and many are ready to complain that what is being done is not being done right. There must be hundreds of workers for the colored people before we can see the fullness of the loud cry going to them. To this end I have had it in mind for more than two years to raise up workers with all possible dispatch, and I have sought to prepare workers among the colored people themselves, a necessity which is becoming more and more apparent. I have arranged for this season to take six or eight workers with me to Vermont, to work on my father’s farm sufficiently to meet expenses while studying. We now have our school organized, and every one is enjoying it. We have six with us, and others may come later. They are matured men and women, some of them elders and deacons of our churches. Some have known something of the truth for many years. I have been preaching to all of them for more than a year, and during the summer I shall aim to systematize the truth in their minds, so they may be able to give Bible readings and become spiritual helpers. I intend to return with them in the fall, to establish permanent work in one or more of these cities. We are now taking the forenoons for study, and the afternoons for work. We have Bible studies, also language, physiology, and Testimony studies at present. History is quite fully taken up in connection with our study of prophecy. We intend to continue these studies until November. I find myself able to do heavy work on the farm, and am glad to be able to set the example of diligence. Most of these brethren must be self-supporting in their missionary undertakings. They need your prayers, and we all need your sympathy. Give us at least your moral support, while we seek to do what we can.