In Brazil

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 23, 1901

W. H. Thurston: For the last seven years I have been laboring in South America. Of course any country where the work has not been started, may be called a neglected field; but South America is so called from a spiritual standpoint, in view of the fact that while there are two hundred and sixty-five missionary societies operating in the world, only sixteen have attempted anything in this land.

Brazil is the country in South America to which I wish to call attention to-day. Brazil occupies nearly half the continent of South America. It is divided into twenty states, and is called the Republic of the United States of Brazil. It claims the largest number of navigable rivers of any country in the world, has nearly four thousand miles coastline, and an area of three million five hundred thousand square miles. Brazil is nearly as large as the United States, and has a population of sixteen million.

We have not thought to ask any great things for Brazil at this Conference, but we have a few requests to make. Realizing the great work yet to be done in preaching this gospel of the kingdom in all Brazil, as well as elsewhere, it has been our hope and prayer that this Conference will result in a great impetus to the missionary spirit and zeal of every one of us as well as of all our churches, and that we may move on with greater earnestness and rapidity to all the world.

The laborers in Brazil send greetings to all

assembled, and each one is praying for the success of this Conference, and that all may have the fullness of power, standing where God would have us, and that more laborers may be called to the great work abroad.

We are carrying on evangelical work, medical missionary work, and religious liberty work as fast as we can, but we have no organizations for those branches. Every one of our laborers is an evangelist; every one a medical missionary; every one a religious liberty man, and every one is a Sabbath-school worker. We all work together. We all labor together, one man in Christ. We have no difficulty whatever. It is a blessing to see all this work prospering, growing, and moving with rapidity.

We have, as I have stated, fifteen churches and ten companies; and wherever we have organized churches, we have begun from the first to educate them to be missionary workers—to go out into the field, to sell books, distribute tracts and papers and periodicals, and spread abroad the light they have received. I am glad to say that there is this desire among all the churches, and that every little while there comes a call for a minister, where the people have become interested through our reading-matter, and want a minister to come and baptize. Perhaps the call comes from another district, five or ten miles from any settlement or church of our people; and is for some one to come and organize them into a church so that they can be counted in with us, organize with us, and then go to work systematically.

Just before I came away, a call came for a minister to go to one of our churches where there was a great interest among the Germans and the Brazilians. They wanted a minister who could speak both German and Brazilian, so he could labor for both peoples. Several were awaiting baptism. This work is reaching out everywhere.

We design our school to be a mission school, a self-supporting school, to train and educate laborers for the great harvest-field in Brazil. And I do not doubt that we shall be able to spare some from there to at least one other country. Portugal has the language we have in Brazil, and we have thought that we could train laborers in this school in Brazil to open up the work in Portugal. I do not know whether any of you have ever thought of that or not. But the thought has come to us that it might be a good plan if Brazil could raise up laborers to carry the truth to Portugal.

While our boat was lying at Lisbon, I looked over that great city, the place where one of the signs of the second coming of Christ was fulfilled, and realized that there is not a voice in that city to sound the Third Angel's Message. If we can raise up laborers in Brazil, and train them, to go to Portugal to start the work there, we shall be only too glad. And at the present time it seems to me that it is the will of God that this should be done.