p. 12 | Our Work in India by J. L. Shaw

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 23, 1912

Our Work in India

By J. L. Shaw

Bengal

OUR first missionaries came to India fifteen years ago and began work in Calcutta, the seat of government and largest city in the Indian Empire. We now have in that city a Bengali church and an English church, a well-equipped set of treatment rooms, and a health food factory. We have three other mission stations in Bengal, located at Karmatar, Babulmohal, and Gopalganj.

At Karmatar a dispensary is operated, active evangelistic work is carried on in the surrounding villages, and four village schools are maintained, having an attendance ranging between two and three hundred pupils. Within the last few months eight souls have been baptized. Land for the erection of a mission house and church has recently been obtained. A brick wall surrounding the land has already been built, fruit-trees have been set out, and the foundation for the mission house is now being laid. The prospect for the future development of the work at Karmatar is very encouraging.

At Babulmohal, which is located on the border of the Santal country, is a boarding-school, with three village schools near-by. Santalis make very reliable Christians. Some have already accepted the faith as the result of our boarding-school, and are developing into successful workers. Several in the school are much interested in what has been taught them of Jesus Christ, and we believe some of them will drop their worship of demons and accept the Gospel.

Gopalganj is located in East Bengal. Recently a mission house has been purchased. Tho there is much fever in this part of India, and it is difficult for our workers, yet it is thickly populated, and we have a number of scattered Sabbath-keepers and several Bengali workers in this district. Our canvassers are selling many papers and tracts. During the monsoon season, which lasts for several months of the year, the many branches of the Ganges River overflow their banks and the land is covered with water. Our workers have to go entirely by boats from one house to another. A house-boat suitable for a European family and several Bengali workers is now being purchased. It will be propelled by oars, and tho slow in motion, will be sufficiently commodious for workers to make their home on for several weeks or even months at a time, while going from village to village, so that they will not need to return to the mission house each night.

Burma

Our work next opened in Burma. A thriving little English-speaking church with several Burmese members is located at Rangun. Land has been purchased in the suburbs for putting up a mission house. Most of the money for the purchase of the same has been donated by the Rangun church.

At Meiktilla, in Northern Burma, an industrial school has been started. The need of practical education is felt in Burma, and many Buddhists are anxious to have their sons attend mission schools where the Word of God is taught. Money for purchasing land at Meiktilla has been subscribed by interested people in Burma. One building is already completed and another will soon be started.

Work has been opened up recently at Mandalay, the largest city in Northern Burma. The Burmese people about Mandalay buy Gospels and tracts readily, as many as 1,150 Gospels and tracts being sold in one week.

Word has just come from the Shan States, on the frontier of China, that a very favorable, healthful, and suitable location for a mission station has been found, and temporary buildings will soon be erected. The land is good for cultivating, and the people seem friendly. Heralds of the Gospel are finding the farthermost corners of the Indian Empire.

North India

In North India, missionaries are located at the following places: Lucknow, Mussoorie, Deosa, and Najibabad.

At Lucknow are located the Watchman Press, the union mission office, and the tract society depository. One worker is giving her time to zenana work in Hindustani homes, with encouraging results.

Mussoorie is the headquarters for our work in India during the eight months of the year while the heat of the plains is oppressive. A rest home for missionaries was purchased several years ago with money donated by the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. A school for children of missionaries and other English-speaking believers is carried on in connection with it. Treatment rooms and a free dispensary are also operated at Mussoorie. A public effort in English is carried on each season.

The beautiful palaces of lights of the old kings of Oudh, Lucknow

The large boarding-school at Deosa, Garhwal, has now been running nearly two years and is making good progress. The first convert is now waiting for baptism. A mission house, a school building, and two small dormitories have been built. The mission station enjoys a healthful, invigorating climate. The people in surrounding villages are very friendly; and in time, by God's help, we look to see a goodly number of souls liberated from the shackles of Hinduism and instructed in the Gospel of Christ.

The dispensary at Najibabad has only been going a little over a year, during six months of which time the work was seriously interrupted by bubonic plague. One

worker was seized with the plague, but in answer to prayer the disease was almost instantly checked and the life of the worker spared. From thirty to fifty patients are treated daily at the dispensary. The only house for workers is located in the center of the native city, and is really not safe and suitable for our missionaries to live in. Land has been offered about a mile from the city.

South India

Mission work has been carried on at Nazareth, Tinnevelli, for four years. Two acres of land was given to us by the Tamil Sabbath-keepers. A mission house and church and school building have been built. With a church of forty members who have accepted the faith since the work began, a Sabbath-school of a hundred members, and a day-school of equal size, together with a dispensary treating from forty to sixty patients daily, the work at this mission station is moving forward hopefully. An outstation a few miles away has been recently opened.

At Trichinopoli, a large city in South India, a beginning is being made. Our workers have been preceded in this place by an Indian brother who has been preparing the way by teaching the Gospel to his fellow countrymen.

West India

Work has fairly started in West India. A few souls have accepted the faith. Mission work has been started this year at Panwell, fifteen miles across the bay from Bombay. A few native workers are in training. Our workers at Panwell are in a thickly settled district, and the great city of Bombay is only a few miles away, with but two lone sisters doing medical work in that great gateway of India.

Lonavla, a more healthful station situated in the Western Ghats, thirty miles distant, has a few believers. A dispensary is just being opened at that place.

Summary

Considering the field as a whole, there is much for which to thank God. To be sure, there are many difficulties to be overcome. Caste, the large diversity of languages spoken by the people, the climate, and poverty of the poor, present obstacles which can be overcome by divine power only. Yet nothing can stay the hand of God in His work. Our dispensaries are creating a friendly feeling and opening the way to teach the Word of God. Last year 42,000 treatments were given. The number of pupils in our boarding and village schools totals more than six hundred. Papers, tracts, and pamphlets are now being issued in eight different languages. Our canvassers are finding that literature can be sold, and prospects for increasing its circulation are favorable.

The great need is for men and means to answer the pressing calls and fill into the openings on every hand. Truly God is going before His servants in India, the time has come when India is to hear the Gospel, and a people be gathered out to meet the Lord when He shall come. Let us continually pray the Lord of the harvest that more workers may be drawn out into His harvest-field in heathen lands.

J. L. SHAW. Mussoorie, India.