Items from the Regions Beyond.
By A. J. B.
The Pacific Union Conference has taken the Hawaiian Island Mission field as a part of its work. This Conference has also added Alaska as another mission field. Other Union Conferences are reaching out to help in the fields just beyond their borders. The Northwestern Union Conference desires to aid in the great Northwest of Canada, and the Southwestern Union Conference takes a special interest in the Mexican field. Since the General Conference, workers have been going to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the islands. The message begets the spirit of devotion in the hearts of those who receive it in distant lands. Many instances might be reported, but here is one paragraph from a letter which Brother Ellery Robinson writes from India, which may serve as an illustration: — “Brother Watson, our new Sabbath-keeper, called yesterday, and paid me five hundred and ninety-four rupees (about two hundred dollars) tithe, which was one tenth of all the property he owns, as near as he could estimate it. He had already paid me a tithe on his last month’s wages, the last month that he worked, for he lost his position in the firm in which he worked, owing to his refusal to work on the Sabbath.” Another brother, who received the truth in the Himalaya Mountains of Upper India, and who has long been paying a tithe monthly, has had some property turned over to him, on which he pays about two hundred dollars tithe. After a tent-meeting at Grove Town, on the south side of the island of Jamaica, twenty were baptized. Ten of these had been keeping the Sabbath before the meetings. At the time of writing, ten more were awaiting baptism, making in all a company of thirty. They were already planning to build a church. This means much more in Jamaica than in the States, where all the material is prepared to one’s hands. There the stone for the foundation and walls must be carried through the bush on the heads of those who are willing to help. The lime must be burned. The sills and all the framework must be felled with an ax, hewed with an adz, and then carried out of the woods and mountains to the road, where it can be conveyed to the place of building. The shingles must be split and dressed by hand, and the boards sawed out of the logs with a large handsaw. Added to this is the still greater difficulty of securing means to pay the few dollars that are required for the work. The wages of laborers scarcely reach twenty-four cents a day, and money is scarce. Notwithstanding this, the company was of good courage, and had already gathered most of the material for their building. From India the encouraging message comes that a lady who was formerly an independent missionary has accepted the truth. She is a consecrated woman, and as a governess for European and native families, has opportunity to carry the message where she probably could not carry it were she a regular laborer in the employ of our mission. Two families at Mussoorie, a mountain resort in the northwest province of India, are living the truth. They meet on Sabbath for Bible study. In Jerusalem, Palestine, the treatment-rooms are doing much to acquaint the people with the health principles, thus creating an interest. Although there has been an attempt to stop their work, the Pasha of Jerusalem has permitted it to continue. Their patients number from six to sixteen daily. One of the students in the school at Honolulu, Hawaii, was baptized a few weeks ago, notwithstanding the strong opposition of his father.509 A Sabbath-school of more than twenty children has been organized in Mexico, as a result of the day-school. Many of the little ones are members of families that would not have permitted their children to attend services where the Bible was taught, before our day-school was conducted there. In Basutoland, South Africa, meetings are being conducted on Sabbath and Sunday, with eighteen or twenty regular attendants. On Sunday often as many as one hundred are present. At the time of the report, several had visited the mission, men who desired Bible instruction on points of present truth. A young man who had been a teacher in a primary school, gave up his work, that he might become a laborer in the closing message. A note has been received from the son of a South African village chief who, having heard of our work, desires to be instructed on the Sabbath question. Besides the regular meetings at the mission in Basutoland, services are held once a week at Mafeteng. The average attendance last reported was ten. The field in our Central American Mission, South, is everywhere ripe for the harvest. At Bocas del Toro six were baptized, as the result of the canvassing work. Several became interested through the baptismal service, and one, a tailor, after a few readings, accepted the truth. At Port Limon, Costa Rica, nine are keeping the Sabbath, six of whom were the harvest of the canvassing work. One woman who heard of our workers just as they had reached the city where she resided, was invited to attend the meetings, and before our laborers left, she was baptized. At Principaulca six persons were, according to latest reports, awaiting baptism. All of these had learned of the truth through the printed page. Four have accepted the truth at Wakamatsu, Japan. Another is paying tithe, but does not yet see his way clear to accept the Sabbath. Eight or ten good, substantial persons have recently accepted the truth in the country a short distance from Bridgetown, Barbadoes. One native woman has accepted the truth in Paraguay. A company of Sabbath-keeping Indians in British Guiana will soon be organized into a church. A brother, the local elder of two churches, who was a Bible student, became interested through Bible readings, and began to keep the Sabbath, at Tocopilla, Chile. He took his stand on the side of truth when almost all his friends were bitterly opposed to it. A young lady from Lahore, India, writes that she and her mother have recently begun to observe the Sabbath, and desire to do something to lead others to know the joy they find in this truth. She has already disposed of a number of small publications, and secured several subscriptions for the Oriental Watchman. Brother A. LaRue, our faithful brother in Hongkong, China, sends over forty dollars tithe from Sabbath-keepers with whom he has labored in that far-away field. From Natal, South Africa, Brother Hyatt writes that the Lord has been especially blessing in forgiving sin and in healing disease. There are now over thirty adult Sabbath-keepers there, and a school of almost fifty. At Durban, South Africa, a brother, who was a prisoner of war on parole, has been canvassing and otherwise laboring, and seven Sabbath-keepers were found there, one family who had kept but three or four Sabbaths. About twenty-five adults began to keep the Sabbath, in the same place, as the result of the labor of a Bible worker, and the Sabbath-school numbers forty. As a result of the tent-meetings held in a booth at Sherwood Forest, Jamaica, twenty-three are keeping the Sabbath. They are preparing to build a chapel. These progress items are gleaned from news received from all parts of the harvest field, by the Secretary of our Mission Board located at Battle Creek. These are items such as we would be pleased to receive from all our laborers, both in the United States and abroad. We wish to supplement our appeal on the last page of the Review of July 9, 1901, by again asking our ministers, licentiates, Bible workers, canvassers, teachers,—any and every worker in the missionary field,—as and us brief, newsy reports, telling, in a few words, what has actually been accomplished in the work. It will take the co-operation of every worker in the field to make our Progress of the Cause department of the Review what it should be—a digest of Seventh-day Adventist news the world over. A. J. B.