p. 17 | British Columbia by O. E. Davis

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 25, 1902

British Columbia

By O. E. Davis

I ARRIVED IN VANCOUVER, June 13, 1902, just in time to attend a general meeting for the purpose of considering plans for the summer's work. Prior to this time the province of British Columbia had been set apart as a missionary field, with Brother J. L. Wilson as superintendent.

The British Columbia Tract Society was organized at this meeting. As the laborers went into the field there were only two licensed ministers, and two or three Bible workers. There were only two tent companies, one of which Brother Wilson and I joined. Our tent was pitched at Ladner, on the Fraser River, in the fertile valley of Delta. The people with whom we labored were mostly of English descent, firmly rooted in the idea that Sunday is the Sabbath, and satisfied with their church. But at the close of these efforts, as the workers came together and gave in their reports, we found that several souls had started in the straight and narrow path that leads to life everlasting, and many more are earnestly considering the principles that have been set before them. Only eternity can tell what the harvest will be.

September 11 the workers assembled at Vancouver to attend the first camp meeting held in this province, and to organize the British Columbia Conference. While the camp meeting was very small compared with some of our Eastern meetings, yet the amount of work done at this meeting was wonderful; not because man did anything, but because the people yielded to the Spirit of God, and came forward with a hearty response when money was called for to carry on the work in the closing scenes of the third angel's message.

Since June 1 the British Columbia Conference and the British Columbia Tract Society have been organized, two large tents have been purchased, a suite of bath rooms has been equipped in Vancouver, and a large tract of land has been secured near New Westminster for an industrial school, many incidental expenses have been met, and the work moves forward with no debts trailing in the rear. At the close of the meeting the workers were assigned their various fields of labor, and soon took their departure for the same; mine being that of Port Simpson, an Indian town, nearly seven hundred miles north of Vancouver. This is certainly one of the tribes of the world to whom the gospel must be preached. Many of these people are quite clever and industrious. The work for the Indian and the Eskimo has scarcely been touched. As the angel of mercy is

soon to take its flight from this earth never to return, is it not high time that we give these people more of our time and assistance, that they too may join in the victor's song? Who will say, "Here am I; send me"?

O. E. DAVIS.