LEPER MISSION WORK

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 3, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 56.

LEPER MISSION WORK.

A MISS NOTT, who labors under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society of England, writes as follows concerning her work among the lepers at Kumamoto, Kiushiu, Japan:—

“Our dear lepers are as ever in our minds. There have been many unavoidable hindrances to getting the hospital started, but a piece of land is almost secured now, and we hope soon to have the building up and work started. We have just had a very urgent application for help from a poor man who has become a leper; he is quite a gentleman, and very well educated, but he absolutely spent his all for medical help, to no effect, for those who call themselves leper doctors in Japan are all quacks. He is a Christian, poor fellow, but this trial seemed more than he could bear, and he was losing faith and hope when he heard of our endeavoring to help lepers; and the missionary through whom he was led to Christ wrote to us about him, begging us to take him at once. It seemed at first impossible, as the hospital is not built yet, but yet it seemed equally impossible to refuse. We hope to get a little house for him, and provide him with board and lodging till the hospital is ready. The offer of help has been a great comfort to him, and just given the needed stimulus to his failing faith. He is most anxious to be of real use in the hospital, and I think that he may be, being a Christian, he may have a great influence for good over the other lepers, and, being an educated man, he will, we hope, be able to take some post of responsibility among them. That we have been able to offer him help is entirely due to the dear friends in England who have so generously responded to our call. People have been so kind! . . . But we still need much more; we have not yet got even quite as much as we shall need to start with, and the expenses of carrying on will be very great—at the lowest computation, £1 per month for each person. Still, we feel sure that God will raise us up friends, even as he has done so far.”

Rev. A. T. Leonard, of the American M. E.

Mission, writing from an asylum at Rurki, in the Northwest Provinces of India, says:—

“I find a quadrangle inclosed with a mud wall, three sides of which form the back wall of the houses, which are built in eight blocks, each block having two rooms, with a veranda extending the length of the block. This roof is made of bamboo trellis work (that) and covered with tiles. The floor is beaten earth. Each room has but one entrance, but no doors.

“Of furniture, none has been provided by us, each inmate bringing or supplying his own. This consists, in the best-furnished room, of a bamboo bed with straw rope web, a brass drinking vessel (lotá), with a few earthen pots for cooking and storing their supplies, and a brass plate or two to eat out of; this is all the furniture the best hut contains. The poorest hut has a bit of date-palm matting for bed, and some few rags for a mattress, the occupant sleeping for the most part on the floor. It seems as though these poor, wretched creatures realized fully, ‘Dust thou art,’ and, as if from choice, if not from necessity, began to be reconciled to mother earth.

“Of cooking, ah, there’s the rub! The flour must be well kneaded before it can be rolled into biscuits (chappáties), but it requires fingers for both kneading and rolling. How can these fingerless palms do that? I asked the question, and, pressing the earth with these same fingerless palms, they replied:—

“We do it so!”

“And how do you roll it out?”

“Again clapping one bald palm against the other, they replied, ‘So.’”

“Others said, ‘We just roll the dough into a ball, and push it into the hot ashes, and then rake it out with our stumps, and eat it off the floor.’”

“The mud floor! Others said, ‘Some of our family have but their feet affected, and they cook for us only, but not for any others.’”

“Said I, ‘Will those among you who can, cook for others who cannot? If so, you will receive some compensation for your labors.’”

“They replied: ‘No, sir, we are not able to do that. The effort of cooking for ourselves is exhausting; then at times we are even too ill to cook for ourselves.’”

“I propose to appoint a man who will preach, and be in charge of the cooking for these people. It will cost £1 a month for the support of a man and his wife. They will require a house to live in. This I will put up at any cost if someone will send me £6 ($30).

“Of clothing, a blanket is provided once a year at the beginning of the cold weather, that is, when the funds will allow; otherwise they wear cotton cloth. Some recent arrivals are semi-nude, no clothing having yet been provided. My plan is to make one long garment, reaching from the shoulder to the knee, of suitable material, costing three rupees. Who will clothe one or more of these? Remember the words of Him who said, ‘I was naked, and ye clothed Me.’

“I had the pleasure ten days ago of clothing eleven men in clean white garments, of such a pattern that, simply by inserting their stumps into the short sleeves, it would easily slip over their heads. The poor creatures looked so pleased, and showed their gratitude, folding both hands and bowing to the ground. It would have abundantly repaid any of your generous contributors to have seen this sight. Then, looking round to one another, they smiled a grateful, happy smile. But the pure white against their loathsome, hot, dry, parched, bursting skin made my heart ache, but I prayed to God to make them pure within.”