Our Mission School in Friedensau, Germany
By Otto Lupke
On Nov. 21, 1906, we could celebrate the seventh anniversary of the opening of our mission school in Friedensau. When we consider the conditions under which the work was started, the rooms and appliances at our disposal at that time, and the limited number of students and teachers, we must admit that the beginning was small indeed. And when we can say to-day that the inauspicious beginning made at that time has developed into a stately structure, it gives us only the more cause to praise the Lord for what we have experienced of his goodness. “Glory to God in the highest.” Far from the educational centers of our great cities, in an old water-mill, with the most modest equipments, scarcely equal to those of a common country school, the work was started with one teacher and seven pupils. Such a beginning could indeed be considered small, especially in contrast with the task which was set before this undertaking. All southwestern Europe, Austria-Hungary, the German empire with its colonies, and western Asia, with a total population of over two hundred and fifty million, were waiting for missionaries which this school was to furnish. In, the year 1900 the building of a sanitarium was begun. This was dedicated in July, 1901. It was a help to the school, for the physician who came to connect with the medical work took charge of the scientific department of the school, and inaugurated a course for the education of medical missionaries. The good patronage of the sanitarium furnished practical work for the nurses as early as the summer of 1901, and in the following winter medical missionary work was opened up in the large cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau, etc. The gospel of health, finding its way from the quiet school out into a tumultuous world, opened the way for the message of the Great Physician and Friend of mankind, and our nurses were able to show themselves real disciples of Jesus, acquainted with his work. Assistance also came from the fields that were waiting for help. Through the sale of our German “Christ’s Object Lessons,” and direct financial aid from our Hamburg Publishing House, abundant funds were collected for the enlargement of the school, and in the autumn of the year 1902, the south wing of our present main building, containing class and living-rooms, was completed. The attendance increased with the increased facilities, or, more properly, the increase in the attendance had made an enlargement absolutely necessary. The addition of two new teachers to our faculty at this time placed us in a position to meet the needs of the Russian field by offering instruction in that language. In November, 1904, the present main building, with the chapel, was completed, and since that time the number of students in attendance has increased to one hundred and thirty, and the number of teachers to ten. The total number of workers that have been sent out by the school is one hundred and twenty, about one half26of whom are nurses. Some of these are in German East Africa, others are in Jerusalem, Constantinople, northern and southern Russia, and in all parts of German-speaking Europe. We may truly say, Thus far the Lord has helped, and we are of good courage, knowing that he will still help. The good work which has been done in sending out workers has increased the interest in the school, and applications for admission are continually being made and accepted. Although we rejoice over the progress which the work has made, we have no thought that we have reached completion or perfection. When we now look back upon the past, it is with no feeling of self-satisfaction, but in order to discover if the modest, unobtrusive spirit of self-denial in which the work was started has remained with us. Material outward growth, accompanied by the loss of the true spirit of Christ, would give no cause for rejoicing, but for reconversion and reconsecration. We have adopted for our school the well-known aim suggested by the approaching advent of our Lord—“The advent message to all the world in this generation.” But if this is to be accomplished, it will require more than human efforts. To us must be spoken the words once said to the impotent man, “Rise . . . and walk.” Then must be spoken, as in the beginning, the great creative word, “Let there be.” And we are joyful that we can already experience some of the power of that word, and with perfect confidence we shall continue our work until that great and rapidly approaching hour shall come, when the Master shall say at the completion of the message, “It is finished!” That will also be the closing cry of our school work on this earth.