Report of College View (Neb.) Missionary Society for 1902
By M. I. Reeder
At our business meeting last January it was announced that our missionary society was dead. It had literally wasted away. For months the meetings had been poorly attended, and for two months discontinued altogether. The society had died insolvent, leaving a debt of $85.13. Taking the status of the society meetings as an index to the missionary spirit among us, it was unanimously voted to attempt nothing in the way of public meetings, at the church, at least for a time. But having no missionary meetings to attend, and no missionary work to do, we had a little more time for thought,—perhaps for prayer, which, as the sequel will show, was not unimproved. At our next officers’ meeting it was decided to subscribe for fifty copies of The Signs of the Times, with which to begin work. This was done, and one sister took charge of the mailing, inviting her immediate neighbors to assist in wrapping and addressing the papers, the corresponding being done, for the most part, by those furnishing the names. Then Professor Fulton, principal of the Argentina school, and one of our Union College boys, wrote to Brother and Sister Westphal of the needs of their school. As Brother and Sister Westphal had spent several years in that country, the letter touched a very responsive chord in their hearts. Small donations of money from the brethren began to come in, and the sisters began to sort their “quilt pieces” and “rug rags” and look over their dishes, but in each instance found that a little of this color was lacking, or more of that texture was needed, or perhaps a piece of the set of dishes selected was gone, but another sister had a broken set just like hers, and erelong the whole village was busy making up deficiencies. In most of the districts the sisters met in small groups each week, sometimes as many as twenty-five of them at one place, and busily manufactured into quilts, rugs, curtains, etc., the materials collected, until two good-sized boxes were well filled. Eighteen sheets and as many pillowcases, towels and tea-towels, twenty-four quilts, twelve rugs, five pillows, five tablecloths, two bedspreads, dishes, pictures, mottoes, and many other smaller but not less useful articles found a place in these boxes. Thirty-eight dollars was also contributed. The Mission Board kindly forwarded the goods for us, and the appreciative letters received from Argentina gave a new zest to our work for the future. A two-hundred-pound box of clothing and bedding was sent to the Life Boat Mission, and a sixty-pound box to private treatment rooms in the South. Two brethren gave forty dollars to assist the work in the South and toward a tent for Brother Boettcher’s use in Germany. Twenty of our number have each pledged ten cents a month for a year to advance the Woman’s Work in India, and one sister gives two per cent of her earnings for the same purpose; thus far her donations have been $9.70. The Young People’s Society has two branch Sabbath schools in the city, with a fair attendance and good interest. They are distributing thirty packages of tracts each week. They have obtained seventy-nine subscriptions for The Life Boat in the village. These papers are gathered up from month to month, and used in their prison work. This part of their work is not so well systematized as they hope to have it soon. Last quarter we subscribed for fifty copies of The Signs, fifty of the Hausfreund, and twenty of our Swedish paper. Ten copies of the German paper go to South America, the German brethren making special donations for this, as do the young people for their work. We now have a missionary meeting each Tuesday afternoon at the church. While some wrap and address the papers, others mend old garments or make new ones to be distributed wherever most needed. Through the summer we closed our meetings with a study of the Forward Movement lessons, conducted by one of the sanitarium physicians. We are now beginning the field studies as found in the REVIEW. Our fall campaign began with a box of bedding to the new treatment rooms at Wichita, Kan., a box of secondhand clothing to the Life Boat Mission, and a box of literature for a needy field in the West. This last was collected principally by the children, who take quite an interest in this kind of work. During the month of October came added incentives to work, and our Dorcas society has received liberal donations of vegetables, fruits (fresh, dried, and canned), grains, groceries, etc., together with $8.81, to be used where needed most. We have made eight comforters and many other articles of bedding, besides doing considerable repairing. We now have five comforters ready to tie, and material nearly ready for several yards of carpet and rugs. We are preparing a box for the Huntsville school, in which we shall place some of these articles. One of our sisters, while visiting in Dakota this summer, spoke of the work we are doing. As a result we have received many donations for our work, and others in our own State have caught the same spirit from hearing some of the appreciative letters we have received, and ask to be allowed to place their offerings with ours as we send them out. Our church has not neglected the work with “Christ’s Object Lessons,” though we are not yet ready to sing the jubilee. Most of our resident members have disposed of their quota, or at least paid for the books, and we are by no means discouraged as to the ultimate results. During this time our debt has steadily decreased until little more than a tenth of it remains unpaid, and we confidently expect to have a small amount to our account at the beginning of the new year. And so while planning to make the most of what comes to us, and to keep our fingers busy with their homely craft, our hearts are reverently lifted in the prayer,— Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear,
And souls to love, and minds to understand,
And steadfast faces toward the holy land,
And confidence of hope, and filial fear,
And citizenship where thy saints appear. Mrs. M. I. REEDER,
Librarian.