Happenings at the Summer Assembly
By M. Bessie De Graw
By dint of hard labor, a portion of the grove on the Emmanuel Missionary College farm at Berrien Springs, Mich., was cleared of underbrush and several years’ accumulation of leaves, and two long rows of tents were pitched for the students of the Summer Assembly. It required close planning, and a concentration of the entire force of student laborers on the Manual Arts Building, the basement of which serves as a dining room for the summer, to get this in readiness for the opening of school; but it was done, and to-day over one hundred and fifty persons are served at each meal. This includes summer-school students, and the young men who are working on the farm and buildings to meet the expense of the next school year. It is a most interesting class of young people that one faces in the assembly. Many of those in attendance have been teachers in the public schools, and have for the first time fully surrendered to the Lord their ability to teach, with a desire henceforth to have a part in the training of that great army of missionaries for whom the world is now waiting. Others have been teaching church schools; and truly there is nothing which develops greater faith, or a more courageous spirit in young men and women than to espouse the cause of Christian education. Work and recreation alternate in this outdoor life of the summer-school students. The daily program is as follows:— Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:30
Domestic duties . . . . . . . . . . . . 8:00-9:00
Class recitation . . . . . . . . . . . . 9:30-12:30
Dinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:30
Manual labor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:30-4:30
Study period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:30-7:00
Chapel service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:30
Lectures and general exercises . . . . . 8:00-8:45
Retire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9:30 The class work is dispensed with on Sunday, and in its place all students attend the class exercise, or round-table discussion. The topic last Sunday was Industrial Training for Church Schools. Professor Washburn, of Bethel Industrial Academy, Bethel, Wis., addressed the students three evenings, presenting to them the movement on foot by the State of Wisconsin to introduce agricultural training into the public schools, and the opportunity before the Seventh-day Adventist denomination to take the lead in this phase of education. He also related his personal experience in the school at Bethel. There is a deep interest on the part of students to combine mental and physical training in the church school, and the subject will be continued. Elder William Covert, who has been on the grounds since the opening of the term, and who is looked upon as the father of the church-school teachers, gave a ringing testimony in favor of industrial training for children and youth. Every day the interest increases. There is no question in the minds of those in attendance that God is leading; Christian education is life, and those called to a part in it rejoice in a light which brings life and health.