From Just Over the Border
By William A. Spicer
There has not as yet been time to hear from the over-sea mission fields since the week of prayer. We know, however, that believers abroad have been praying for special blessings upon the churches in this land, and will rejoice to hear of the blessings experienced. We never before received correspondence that seemed so full of the joyousness of giving for missions as that which is coming in. We have a few messages from regions just beyond our own border, and feel sure that our readers will be interested in several extracts from these. A sister writes from New Brunswick:— I feel I must write a few lines to cheer your hearts by letting you know that, although I am only a lone Sabbath-keeper, and a poor woman, yet God has graciously visited me during this week of prayer. My heart has sometimes been so filled that I have had to leave my work and go away to Jesus alone. I see as never before a meaning in the text, “Having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” Just at present I can not send an offering, but have laid several matters before God and my loving Saviour, and expect they will open up a way for me to send to the fund several dollars soon. When my husband, not yet a Christian, came home at the end of the week’s work, I told him what God had done for me. He immediately said, “When we sell the colt, you may have twenty dollars for the work.” I am asking Jesus to send a purchaser. He knows all about the work, and he knows how I wish it were hundreds, and he can add his multiplying grace to it, which will be best of all. Forgive me for taking your time, but I wanted you to know more was coming. My mother is also planning to send an offering soon. It is a simple letter, such as many a soul might write, longing for ability to do more for the cause of God. But such a message does cheer the hearts of our workers in the mission fields. Not all the statistics of this denomination’s wealth, showing what might be possible in mission finance, could give the confidence and courage to our workers that comes with the knowledge that in all lands there are loving souls, who, out of limited resources, are planning and praying and seeking God for ways to help in sounding this message to the ends of the earth. The Spirit is laying the burden of prayer for a finished work upon hearts. It is the burden of the last harvest hour, and the time has come to plan for finishing the work of witnessing. Before we had time to reply to this letter, there came another, bringing to the mission treasury a hundred-dollar gift from the mother, representing much sacrifice, five dollars from the sister who had written, and one from a business man who incidentally learned that a Christmas gift was being made to the cause of missions. Bermuda lies about three days’ sail off our Atlantic coast. Writing the second day of the prayer season, Sister J. A. Morrow says:— Last evening a sister sixty-seven years of age, who was baptized last month, came home with us from meeting. Before retiring she handed me an envelope, saying, “Here is my annual offering.” I asked her how much it contained, expecting, of course, it was only a few shillings. She answered, “Five pounds” [$25]. Noticing the surprised expression on my countenance, she said, “Sister Morrow, it is not mine; it is the Lord’s.” Twice during the month she had given small offerings, five and six shillings, to the mission. She is a poor woman, and makes a living by selling fruit. Each month she sells fifty copies of the Caribbean Watchman. We thank God for this soul, and believe she is one of the Lord’s jewels. We are planning to enter every home in this island with the message, and confidently expect to see the Lord raise up a good, strong company that will be ready to meet Jesus when he comes. One other word, from Mexico, where the year has brought most cheering progress. New courage fills the hearts of workers there, and we see evidence of a stirring of a new life in that Catholic field. Elder G. M. Brown writes that he spent the first part of the week of prayer in Guadalajara, with the medical mission workers. He writes:— We had a good time, I assure you. Wednesday eve, which was the last meeting I attended there, we had a consecration service, and every person present took part. We had a good meeting here in Mexico City also. Our offering was about sixty-eight dollars, Mexican, I think. It is only a word from the threshold of the regions beyond. But it is a message of good cheer and courage, which we are sure to hear echoed from all the wide world round. It is a grand time in which to be alive, with heart and soul in God’s work. W. A. S.