GUADALAJARA, MEXICO by J. A. Leland

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1902

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO.

By J. A. Leland

The week of prayer was a blessed occasion to the little church here in Guadalajara. It was a season of refreshing to many. The spirit of courage and consecration has come in. There are some of our brethren scattered through the republic, and already six of these have united with the church here. Last Sabbath five persons were baptized in the Baptist chapel. All were Mexicans. Seven will unite with the church next Sabbath, making a total of thirteen added to the church during the last two months.

Nearly every Sabbath some one attends the meeting as the result of the mission work here. Every day I go from one department to another, reading the Bible, and speaking to the people about the Lord. Some are eager to hear; others do not care to hear anything not sanctioned by the Church. Of course all profess to be Catholics. One poor man has renounced Catholicism, and is walking in the light as far as he has seen it.

Yesterday Dr. Erkenbeck and I had a little time to devote to selling papers. We took forty-eight and some handbills of the mission, and in one hour all the papers were sold. We are sure something can be done if we take up this work by faith. We need some one to devote his whole time to this work. May the Lord raise up laborers in His vineyard. There are calls coming in from outside towns, but as yet we cannot answer them. The field is white. I hope the one thousand laborers will present themselves soon. They are needed.

We are of good courage, but it seems that the priests have recently made a determined effort against us. One of the priests told the doctor's girl, who was formerly a Catholic, that all persons who walked on the sidewalk in front of our house were accursed. And now many people go into the middle of the street when going by our place, and return to the walk as soon as they pass the house. As he left her, seeing she was firm in her faith, he said, “Go on; you are a brute with the rest of them.”

We need a variety of books in Spanish, many of them in cheap form for the poorer classes.

J. A. LELAND.