p. 492 | KENTUCKY by Wm. Lenker

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1901

KENTUCKY

By Wm. Lenker

APRIL 15, 1901, I left Graysville, Tenn., for what are called in this State the mountain counties of Kentucky, in which I spent about eight months last year. During this time, the blessing of the Lord accompanied my work, and I secured twenty-five hundred dollars' worth of orders for Bibles, “Bible Readings,” and “Gospel Primers,” and delivered a large per cent of them. This year I have canvassed forty-five days, and have a list of eight hundred dollars' worth of orders, most of which I have delivered.

I was greatly surprised to find that so many homes were without a Bible. I have met with no prejudice. Very few of these people know anything about Seventh-day Adventists, and most of them have never heard of the name. And this is within a few hundred miles of the very center of our work. Surely, this field has been neglected. As one climbs these mountains, going from hut to cabin, he views the frightful chasms and winding valleys, with their wooded mountain-sides or perpendicular lime-walls, some of which are hundreds of feet high and curiously wrought.

These mountains are inhabited by a people unique in their civilization and character. After the Indian wars and the Revolutionary struggle, the ancestors of the present inhabitants crossed the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies to battle with the natives, who still inhabited this territory. A number of places have been pointed out to me where notable pioneer events took place. There is, perhaps, no other people who at present represent so well American civilization of a century ago, as do these people, shut in by mountains, which have to a large extent closed them to the outer world. They are quite antique in their modes of farming and domestic life. If it were not for the use of tobacco, which is almost universal among both sexes, and the use of intoxicants, for here is the home of the moonshiner, a better class of people would be hard to find. They are impulsive, yet very hospitable, kind, and willing to learn. They need instructors imbued with the love of the truth and wisdom from on high.

It gives joy at the close of a weary day to be in these family circles, with parents and children eagerly listening and asking questions, as a few precious truths are presented. Our Saviour is soon coming; and in that grand and awful day, some of these dear souls will be among the one hundred and forty-four thousand; for the harvest is sure. I often leave from one to four books in a home, and one family took ten books of me. This is good territory.

So far as I know, Brother A. K. Baker and myself are the only workers in all this vast mountain region of Kentucky. Do not these very mountains hold up their hands, as it were, and cry for help? Can we turn a deaf ear? Come, brother, come, sister, and live the life of Christ among these people.

WM. LENKER.