p. 14 | More from India by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 17, 1911

More from India

By Editor

[The following is from Mr. Sterrie Wellman, of Lucknow, India, taken from a letter written to his uncle, Mr. George Wellman, of Mountain View.]

AT our conference this year the territory was divided up into five missions. Of these the one that we are working in is the largest, and the population of our portion is something over 120,000,000 souls. We have for the work in this part of the field at the present time just two European workers, with their wives, four lady workers, and seven native workers, five men and two women. This would not be considered much of a force in all the United States. We are calling for one more worker and his wife, and hope to have that much granted; but it should be ten at the least.

In this mission there are five languages, the Hindustani, the Rajasthani, the Banjabi, the Behari, and the Sindhi. The territory covers all the north of India, some of Central India, and well into the province of Bengal. So you will see that we have a large territory as well as a large population. In our territory are to be located the sanitarium and the school and the publishing work. These will, however, mean but little help to us except through influence, as the workers do not speak the language, and without it they are unable to do anything except for the European and Eurasian population.

In our work one of our best ways of presenting the truth to the people is to get a stereopticon and give them the picture of the Bible life and story and then talk upon the subject presented. This is done in many of the missions and with good success.

This is the vegetable market in Najibabad, United Provinces. It is a native city of 20,000 inhabitants, 364 miles north and west of Lucknow, near the Himalayas.

In this place we have a dispensary and a girls' school. The sisters that are connected with this dispensary are Miss Shryock and Miss Kurtz with their native assistants. They are in the midst of a plague-infected district. That is, this winter the plague is raging, eight and sometimes more dying during a day; and they are working on in the midst of it all, trying to relieve the suffering of the people and reach their souls. We had expected to be there also, but the brethren voted against it because of my sickness. You see the only house that we could get was in the midst of a native quarter, and surrounded, as is the case in all the native towns, with the homes of the people of the country. Filth abounds, and as a consequence disease also. It is very possible that before the winter is over the disease will become so bad that we will have to recall the young ladies as well from the station temporarily. If we had the proper quarters of our own, outside the town, where we would be able to control the surroundings and keep things clean, both ourselves and the other workers would have been able to remain for the entire winter. We are all anxious for the time to come when the $300,000 fund will be raised and we be able to have homes from which we can work safely, or that is, as safely as it is possible in this land, all the year round.