Outlook in Brazil by F. W. Spies

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 46.

Outlook in Brazil.

By F. W. Spies

THE great territory of Brazil has recently been divided into four fields. The area of the entire country is about that of the United States. The twelve years have passed since we first entered it, and we have about a thousand members in the field, the work is comparatively in its infancy. The first conference to be organized was that of Rio Grande do Sul, a state with a population of 1,300,000, and an area equal to that of New York and Ohio combined. Its working force consists of one minister and five other workers.

The next conference organized was that of the states of Santa Catharina and Parana, an area equal to Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, with a combined population of 800,000,—thinly populated with a large part of both states in the possession of the aborigines, and the working force consisting of but one minister and one helper. It takes four weeks of hard and continuous riding on mule-back, the only means of conveyance, to travel from the extreme southern to the northern boundaries of this conference. In the rainy season swollen streams continually impede the rider's progress. Sometimes one has to wait two weeks for a stream to subside, and, if in the forest, has sometimes had to eat rawhide to keep from starving. The writer has often, after a hard day's ride, had to sleep out-of-doors on the open prairie, or what is worse, find a resting-place on the floor of some native hut, with not only cats, dogs, goats, and pigs for companions, but a host of fleas and other vermin. But this the true missionary is glad to do if by this he can but save souls.

The third division is the San Paulo Mission Field, with a population of 2,570,000, and an area of 112,280 square miles, with but one minister and he the editor of our Portuguese journal, O Arauto da Verdade, with no helper. The rest of Brazil, sixteen states, about the same as all of the United States with the exception of Texas and New Mexico, with a population of over seventeen million, has only a single worker, the writer of these lines.

Calls come to us from many places for some one to bring the Bread of Life to the starving, perishing millions, but we lack men and means to answer them. Surely South America is rightly called the "Neglected Continent," but instead of losing courage, our great need inspires us with greater fervor. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He send us men to help gather the grain into the heavenly garner, and means to support them. We know, too, that in answering our prayer He will use human instruments. Who shall it be?

F. W. SPIES.