MISSIONARY FARMING AND GARDENING AGAIN
By John Harvey Kellogg
Several years ago the writer presented the plan of planting a crop for the Lord as one of the means of raising money for carrying forward missionary enterprises, especially for helping in the development of medical missionary work, which at that time was in its infancy. Through the kind co-operation of missionary farmers and gardeners, many thousands of dollars were raised, and have been used in planting missionary enterprises, which have been the means of accomplishing untold good. Comparatively little has been said upon this subject recently, for various reasons, which we need not take the space to explain. Quite a number, however, of those who enlisted as missionary farmers several years ago have continued each year to raise a crop for the Lord, and have sent in the proceeds to the Medical Missionary Board. Others have given a portion or all of the income from the acres devoted to the Lord, to various other charitable and missionary enterprises. Every one who has engaged in this work has reported himself as abundantly blessed in his labor. Missionary farming and gardening is work in which the laborer is certainly doubly blessed. In addition to the physical blessing that comes from314outdoor employment, he has the satisfaction of knowing that the energy he is putting into the soil will reappear in a glorified form. What a marvelous transformation!—energy worked into the soil, by means of which the humble earth is converted into corn, or wheat or other products, which are in turn converted into money, and this into books or papers or live missionaries to carry the gospel of healing to thousands of hungry souls, and may be the means of saving scores or even hundreds of lives. In bringing forward this subject of missionary farming and gardening at the present time, we have a special and most important object to present. At the last meeting of the General Conference it was decided that the denominational school now conducted at Battle Creek, known as the Battle Creek College, should be moved elsewhere for the purpose of developing a model missionary training school, and that the buildings now occupied by the Battle Creek College should be turned over to be used by the Medical Missionary College and the Sanitarium Training School for Missionary Nurses. The Medical Missionary College now has one hundred and twenty students in attendance, but no building of its own. The Sanitarium Training School for Missionary Nurses has an enrollment of nearly three hundred, and is likewise without a suitable building to be used for dormitories for its students, or as recitation rooms for its classes. In the medical college and the training school more than one hundred and seventy-five class recitations are held weekly, in which instruction is given by sixty-five lecturers, professors, and demonstrators. All this work has been carried on for a number of years with increasing difficulty because of the lack of room, and it has been impossible to do justice to the students in instruction, or properly to care for them. Appreciating this fact, and also to assist the Battle Creek College to carry out the plans that are evidently best for the future development of the school, the General Conference has arranged that the buildings should be purchased for the use of the Medical Missionary College, but to do this not less than one hundred thousand dollars will be required. It is proposed to secure this money by means of missionary farming and gardening. By the action of the General Conference Committee this plan of raising funds has been especially designated to be managed by, and in the interests of, the Medical Missionary College. To raise the amount of money required within a reasonable length of time will demand the services of not less than ten or fifteen thousand missionary farmers and gardeners. The co-operation of this number of persons, with the blessing of a kind Providence, will, within two or three years at the longest, raise a fund sufficient to purchase the college buildings, and put the college work on a sound basis, free from debt. The Medical Missionary College receives only missionaries for training, and charges no tuition, hence it has practically no income. The Battle Creek Sanitarium pays the salaries of the teachers, which is no small burden. There being no income, there is no hope that the institution can ever earn the money required for the purchase or erection of the college buildings. The money must be given. There are many charitable enterprises calling for money. It is proposed, by means of missionary farming and gardening, to secure funds for this worthy object without detracting from the income of other equally important missionary enterprises. We have a great task before us. One hundred thousand dollars must be raised within the shortest possible space of time. Battle Creek College needs every dollar of this money at once to pay for the new buildings that it must erect in its new location, so it is important that we should plant a big crop, and we must take hold of this matter in earnest, and right away. We earnestly request every Seventh-day Adventist farmer to plant at least one missionary acre. If possible, give two, three, five, or even ten acres to the Lord, but do not fail to mark out one acre at the very least, the full crop of which will be sold when harvested, and every cent of the money received forwarded to the treasurer of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association for the purpose of paying for the buildings heretofore occupied by the Battle Creek College, to be used for the training of medical missionaries. There may be those who can afford to dedicate a whole farm to the Lord. Five hundred or a thousand such farms would buy the college in one season, and leave a nice sum for endowment besides. We are just in the beginning of our medical missionary work. This people is intended to be a medical missionary people. There are greater things before us than we have dreamed of. We need doctors and nurses by thousands to go out as good Samaritans along the highways and byways and the Jericho roads of the world, to give a knowledge of Christ—of salvation for soul and body. The whole world is reaching out its hands toward us. We have mighty principles for saving and healing that no other people possess. We owe a duty to the world which we can not neglect. Here is an opportunity for every man, woman, and child to take part in this work. You say, “I have not a farm; I live in town.” Very well, plant a crop in your garden. Plant peas, beans, onions—anything that can be converted into money, except tobacco or some other positively harmful thing. We draw the line on tobacco and pigs. If you have not a garden, you may be able to get the use of a vacant village lot, or induce some farmer to give you the use of an acre of land, free of charge, or perhaps you can get some one to pay the rent, and help you with a day's work with a team and plow. You may keep a cow and sell milk, or keep chickens and sell eggs (don't kill the chickens). Perhaps your crop is already planted, as orchards, wheat, berry patches, etc. Stake out a certain part for the Lord, or count off certain rows to be designated as sacred to the Medical Missionary College fund. Here is a chance to raise the biggest crop you ever cultivated. By exercising a little personal effort and enterprise you may convert soil into strawberries, strawberries into money, money into a medical missionary college, and, through the Medical Missionary College, into medical missionaries; and through the blessed ministrations of the medical missionaries who may be thus trained, within the next few years you may be represented in the most distant parts of the earth, and may be instrumental in relieving the suffering of thousands, and leading hundreds to a knowledge of the Way of life. We want, right away, the names of every one who is willing to join us in this plan. Send us your name and address right away. Tell us what you will do, how much you will plant, and what you will plant, and we will put your name on our list of missionary farmers, and send you, free, a small monthly—The Missionary Acre—which we are getting out in connection with this work. In this will be reported the interesting experiences of missionary farmers, the names of all who engage in this effort, and a report of the results. We should like to have about ten thousand names within the next thirty days. All letters should be addressed to the Missionary Acre, Battle Creek, Mich. J. H. KELLOGG, Pres. Med. Miss. and Ben. Ass'n.