USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Westerville > Three quarters of a century of triumph : seventy-fifth anniversary report and board meeting, Westerville, Ohio, November 11-13, 1930 > Part 6
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Respectfully submitted, J. EDGAR KNIPP.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON JAPAN
We commend the Japanese Christians and especially our own native pastors for the united Kingdom of God Movement and earnestly pray and hope for its success.
We are glad to note the great numerical and financial gains in the past thirty years. It is surely a mark of God's favor to the Japanese nation and people.
We commend the wide and out of proportion influence of the Christian people of Japan in their progress in social reform with special reference to purity and temperance.
We congratulate our Japanese conference on their ability to move two Japanese congregations into new church buildings. We would recommend too, that as fast as building funds become available Japan be generously remembered.
We are glad to note the change in attitude in regard to Religious Education and urge that our workers take advantage of every opportunity thus offered.
We are in hearty accord with the movement toward a united Church of Christ in Japan, and recommend that as speedily as wisdom will allow we join our forces with the other Christian bodies in Japan.
Our hearts are touched by mention of some thirty million of untouched farming people, and particularly of our Chiba District.
We recommend that as soon as financial conditions are favorable we comply with the askings of the Japan Mission and Conference in regard to that great field.
Respectfully submitted,
BISHOP G. D. BATDORF J. R. KING MRS. J. R. ENGLE J. H. RUEBUSH A. H. SHOLTY Committee
OUR UNFINISHED TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES
Dear Co-Laborers in the Service of Christ:
This Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the founding of our missionary work in Africa, marks the twenty-ninth anniversary of our beginnings in the Philippine Islands. Approximately twenty-five years ago, the official body responsible for the undertaking and promotion of the work in the Philippines was weighing the question: "Shall we continue the work in the Philippines?" The years have rolled by, and we now look back and exclaim with deep emotion, "What hath God wrought!" Truly God has worked marvels in the Philippines. His Spirit has been at work in its transforming power, regenerating hundreds of lives; its life-giving influence has penetrated the very social fabric of the nation; it has given birth to Rev. W. N. Roberts an invisible divine "Fellowship" which externalizes itself into a visible organization we call an indigenous Filipino Church. We can now see that from the day that the candle of the Lord was lighted in the Philippines, the holy flame spread in ever increasing proportions. We have faith to believe that his holy fire in the hearts of our Filipino brethren shall continue to burn with accelerating magnitude until its light and warmth shall be manifest throughout the Philippines and the whole Orient. There is an invisible, intangible Something in the spirit of the work and workers in the Philip- pines that smacks of stability, permanence, divinity, and eternity. This, we be- lieve, was the objective now in its adolescence, for which our fathers gave them- selves in no mean sacrifice of devotion.
Formerly the question was asked: "How can we establish a self-supporting, self-propagating, evangelistic church?" That was a pertinent question. But has not the time come when we should ask ourselves, and our brothers across the waters, "How can we most effectively enhance the work of the indigenous church, helping it to realize more effectively its objectives and at the same time occupy our virgin fields of responsibility in the Mountain Province?" These are the two phases of our unfinished task which call for our steady faith and constant devo- tion. In this difficult task ahead, we need all the statesmanship and vision that accumulative experience can give us. But more than that do we need our fathers' devotion and faith in the miraculous. In the sphere of the miraculous have foreign missions grown and thrived, and only in that realm can we be found fit for the increasing perplexities and problems that our task involves.
THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES
The Territory Allotted to the United Brethren Mission in the Philippines has been intensively cultivated and organized for a period of several years, only in the lowland districts. A glance at the map of our territory bears out this fact. The work in the mountain areas (regions containing more than three-fourths of our land area and one-half of our population responsibility) has been undertaken in recent years. The time has come when we should think of our work as a whole,
50
5I
OUR UNFINISHED TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES
and to proceed along such lines as shall most effectively evangelize the people of our whole area of responsibility.
The Ministerial Leadership of the Church is its priceless possession. The strength of our work in the Philippines has consisted largely in the strong and consecrated leadership it has recruited and kept in the service of the Church. Sixteen ordained pastors, six annual conference preachers, and eight quarterly conference preachers, together with thirty-two deaconesses in active service, constitute the churches' corps of workers. These are the workers, together with those who are being enlisted year by year, that determine the destiny of the work in the Philippines.
The Securing of an Adequate Support for the Ministry is a problem that must be ultimately solved on the field. In the meantime we must keep faith with those who have borne the heat and burdens of the day, and vicariously enter into the "fellowship of suffering" with our Filipino brethren until the problem of self- support can be solved. In the past five years, the total giving of the Church has mounted from $2,703 per annum to $13,171 per annum. This does not mean that our problem of self-support is solved. We are still far from that goal, and we are not always able to see the light. The "spirit of self-support," especially as manifested by young and enthusiastic recruits, will continue to work a marvelous change in the next few years, resulting in a far more adequate support for the leadership of the church and a great increase in the church erection enterprise.
The need of a more adequate supply of constructive and inspiring religious literature for our ministers' libraries should be met at once. It is one of the most practical and tangible things we can do to inspire new courage in these gallant and worthy servants of the King. We recommend that a committee be appointed . to collect from pastors in America who may be willing to donate a selection of constructive and inspiring religious books and commentaries for which they no longer have use and ship them to pastors in the Philippines.
The Ministerial Pension Bureau of our Church has recently announced that our Filipino pastors are eligible to enter the Pension Bureau on the same basis as are other pastors. This not only opens the way for our Church to show her affection for our Filipino brethren who have served so sacrificially through these years, but it also gives the Church a worthy channel for discharging a moral obligation to these workers in their protection in old age or disability.
The long felt need of a more constructive religious education program in our conference seems to be within reasonable possibility of being met. Miss Avelina Lorenzana, who has been specializing in religious education at the National Kinder- garten College and Boston University, will soon be ready to return to the Islands and join our force of workers in the Philippines. We are counting on her teaching one. semester a year in the Bible Training School at San Fernando, and giving the rest of her time in the field as Director of Religious Education in our Conference.
We are in the dawn of a great evangelistic emphasis and program in the Philip- pines. Many of our workers have been inspired by similar movements in China and Japan. Our churches entered heartily into the observance of the National Week of Prayer, the first week of January, 1930. Many of them also observed in fitting and helpful services, the nineteen hundredth anniversary of Pentecost. It is to be regretted however, that many of those churches that most need such a spiritual impact, do not take advantage of such opportunities. The National Christian Council is making plans for a five-year program of evangelism. Men of ability along these lines are being directed in their travels in the Orient to include
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THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
the Philippines in their evangelistic efforts. The services of Doctor E. Stanley Jones have been secured for the months of January and February, 1931. He will devote the major part of his time while in the Philippines to evangelistic work among students.
We believe our program of religious education and self-support should come to its fruition in a great evangelistic emphasis. One of the most pertinent things to make this emphasis effective is to provide the ways and means for the reinstate- ment of the evangelistic team in our conference. During this past year when so many were entering into the spirit of the Pentecost celebration, it grieved us that funds were not available for the maintenance of the evangelistic team.
We urge that a special effort be made to secure at least a part of the usual evangelistic team support which has proved so effective in former years.
The church Building Movement in our conference has been a source of great encouragement. It is amazing what sacrifices ministers and laymen alike, are
The Mission Hospital at San Fernando
willing to entail to make possible a more adequate and worshipful church edifice. When mission funds are not available for assistance in the erection of chapels, it often happens that small, temporary and inadequate edifices are erected-a process which has to be repeated every few years. It is urgent both for the sake of securing new chapels as well as for the sake of insuring adequately constructed chapels, that we adopt some program of chapel building.
We recommend a program of chapel building in the Philippines and that im- mediate steps be taken to make this program financially possible. The plan should include a gift fund-making gifts direct to congregations which want to build, and a loan fund from which churches may borrow without interest. The plan of furnishing cement and iron roofing for churches whose members donate the lumber and labor and other materials, has worked well in the past. That policy or some similar arrangement, that would have the merit of challenging the church membership to give, should be followed.
In accordance with the instructions of the Board, the church property within the bounds of our conference in the Philippine Islands was practically all transferred to the Northern Luzon Conference of the United Evangelical Church in the Philippines. This was taken care of just before I left the Islands for furlough.
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OUR UNFINISHED TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES
Instructions were left with Mr. Eschbach for the completion of the transfers outside of La Union Province which I did not get time to take care of before leaving.
THE INSTITUTIONS
We have reasons for great rejoicing because of the splendid growth in all of our institutions on the field and in the fine spirit with which they are operated. This report can not go into any detail concerning these institutions, realizing that to do justice would require several pages. We do desire, however, to call your attention to the problems of policy, that naturally confront any growing institution.
Mission Hospital
The following compilation of statistics will show the growth of the hospital since the beginning. The complete statistical record is not available, but what is given will give an insight into the past as well as the present:
Year
No. In- Patients
Dispensary Treatments
Major Operations
Minor Opera- tions and Other Surgical Patients
Obstetrical
1924
272
7
I
52
18
1925
289
1436
8
76
17
1926
407
IIOO
7
132
31
1927
450
1924
9
143
27
1928
701
1473
14
188
36
1929
1408
1755
65
498
44
Upon recommendation of the Mission Council and in conformity with what we feel to be the best Mission policy, the hospital now has a Board of Directors. According to the plan drawn up and approved by the Foreign Mission Board in its annual meeting in 1929, the following organization has been constituted. The Board of Directors consists of five members: the superintendent of the hospital, (appointed by the Foreign Mission Board), two members elected by the Mission Council and two by the conference Executive Committee.
No precise definition of powers of the Board are given but this is left open to allow for increasing participation and responsibility as familiarity with the work increases. This Board of Directors has had several meetings already and is well on the way of discharging the heavy responsibility gradually being assumed by it.
In view of the crowded conditions of the building and the lack of space for much needed equipment, the hospital should look forward to the following addi- tions:
(a) A Nurses' Home: At present the nurses are occupying a room on the third floor of the hospital. This is by no means an ideal situation, since it does not enable the nurses to get away from their work for real rest and recreation. Besides the room is needed for hospital cases.
(b) An Annex to the Present Building: This annex should be of sufficient size to at least double the bed capacity of the hospital and should contain other rooms and space which are needed in a well-equipped hospital. While this may not be an immediate need, as is the case of the nurses' home, yet we would do well to
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THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
look forward to it in the next four years, should the work of the hospital continue to grow. Herewith is given a list of additional equipment needed at once, also esti- mated cost of same:
I Sterilizing Outfit $ 600.00 I Operating Table $400.00
I Portable X-Ray 1,000.00
I Elevator for present Bldg. 1,250.00
I Cautery 100.00
BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL
A survey of the graduates of the Bible Training School is a revelation of what the school has done and is quite suggestive of what it must do in the future.
If we set as one of our goals the training of a sufficient number of deaconesses in the Bible Training School to supply the needs of our forty-four churches, it is evident that we are still lacking enough deaconesses in actual service.
There are two shortages, then, that we face, the one is a shortage of deaconesses to supply the needs of the churches and the other is the shortage in the supply of new deaconesses to take the place of the older ones who drop out of the work.
There are other lines of service which the Bible Training School should be prepared to render. The one is that of serving the needs of the students (minis- terial) from the mountain districts. The trustees of the Training School have recommended the policy of sending the mountain ministerial students to the Bible Training School for their ministerial preparation, instead of sending them to Manila where conditions are so different from what they are used to in Mountain Province. The Training School could very well put in a few additional classes, especially designated for high school graduates who are planning to be deaconesses and for these mountain ministerial students. That would place our courses on two different levels, the one as at present would be for those who are Intermediate graduates and are taking first year high school. The other would be a graduate course, practically on the level with first year college. Arrangements should be made with Union Theological Seminary in Manila to allow credit for this advanced work on the Bible course. Then, if any of our deaconesses or ministerial students from the mountains should be recommended to continue further study in the Seminary, they would not have to repeat what they have gotten in the Bible Training School.
The trustees of the Training School are of the opinion that these needs can be met with very little additional equipment and expense and the school thereby render an increased service to the field.
Another possibility of service has been suggested along the line of a summer course in religious education, especially for the laity of the church. An intensive course of two or three weeks could be given which we have reason to believe would meet with a hearty response from many of our young people who are in school during the year.
EVANGEL PRESS
The Press was first operated under the mission house at San Fernando. Later it was moved to its present location at the corner of Central and Duval Streets, occupying an old building. In 1920, a concrete addition was built on the south end of the old building. This new section was used to house the engine, presses, paper cutter, and typesetting department. The old part is used for stock room, sales room, offices, folding, and mailing.
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OUR UNFINISHED TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES
During the last twenty years the original equipment has been increased by the purchase of type, cases, presses, cuts, safe, cash register, etc., until in December, 1926, an inventory showed equipment valued at P10,502.00. In 1927-1928 an addressograph was purchased for keeping the mailing list up to date and accurate.
A small amount of new 8-point type was purchased to meet an immediate need.
The mission purchased a mimeograph machine for the Press and a filing cabinet was secured with Press funds. During 1927, hopes rose high for a union Press which might be formed by the moving of the Mission Press of the Christian (Disci- ples) Missicn from Manila to San Fernando where the combined plant could be
The Evangel Press in San Fernando
jointly administered. The Disciples however, decided to go entirely out of the printing business and offered their plant for sale, the major portion of the equip- ment being purchased by our mission. It included a Krause rotary paper cutter, an 8" X 12" press, a 29" X 40" Miehle cylinder press, a large quantity of used type, and miscellaneous furniture and equipment.
As early as 1911 the Methodist paper, "Iti Abogado Cristiano," was combined with "Dagiti Naimbag a Damag." During the latter part of 1926 a couple of months' trial was given to a further combination with "Ti Dalan ti Cappia," the paper of the Christian (Disciples) Mission. A vote was then taken which favored the continuation of the arrangement, and in connection with the All-Ilocano Convention, an editorial conference was held on January 3, 1927, in which plans were completed for the joint publication of the three papers under the name, "Dagiti Naimbag a Damag ken Ti Dalan ti Cappia." Editorial responsibility was divided, but the matter of financial responsibility was left for future considera- tion, the Evangel Press in the meantime taking care of that matter. While the . new arrangement was only agreed upon definitely for one year, the plan was found
56
THREE-QUARTERS OF A CENTURY OF TRIUMPH
sufficiently satisfactory to justify its continuance ever since. Recently the Disci- ples voted to contribute P600 annually toward the cost of the paper. The Finance Committee of the Methodist Church has also expressed its desire to assist in the support of the paper and they are only waiting until funds become available for the purpose.
THE RELATION OF THE PRESS TO THE CONFERENCE AND MISSION
In order to secure a wider scope of judgment and counsel in matters of Press administration, production, and distribution, it would be well to have a Board of Directors which could assist more and more in the direction of the affairs of the Publishing House, the degree of responsibility increasing as familiarity with the problems and conditions increases. The Agent, upon whom the Board of Foreign Missions has placed the responsibility of management should be one of the mem- bers of this Board. Two other members should be selected by the Executive Com- mittee of the conference and two by the Mission Council. One of the things to which the attention of this Board should be given is the selection of an associate editor for the periodical. In order that a definite procedure may be had, the fol- lowing plan is recommended. The employment shall be made by the Board of Directors if and when that body is organized, upon nomination submitted by the Agent. The Board shall have the power to reject the nomination or to recommend alternative nominations. The dismissal of an editor so chosen shall be by vote of the same Board.
UNION SCHOOLS
The present organization of Union Theological Seminary is the result of a gradual, natural growth in religious education. It started as a union institution in 1907 when, largely through the efforts of representatives of the Presbyterian and the Methodist Missions, the Ellinwood Bible Training School and the Nichol- son Seminary were united. The United Brethren joined the Seminary in 1911, the Disciples in 1916, and the Congregationalists in 1919. The Baptist Mission has long been identified with the school but has not yet become a constituent member of the corporation. The Christian and Missionary Alliance has been sending students for several years but has not been able to furnish a member of the faculty. Students are now being sent by various other religious organizations in the Islands and are welcomed most cordially.
THE MISSIONARY TASK IN THE MOUNTAIN PROVINCE
From the date of our beginning as a church in the task of evangelizing, until recently, our efforts have been confined largely to a section of our whole missionary responsibility in the Philippines-namely, La Union Province. This section of our missionary area contains a population of about 160,000 people. We feel that an indigenous church has been established here. While our task in that area is far from complete, yet we must keep our eyes open also to the larger need in the whole area of our responsibility. The burden of this report is to the effect that the time has come when we should think in terms of and be actively engaged in our WHOLE task in our WHOLE AREA of responsibility in the Philippine Islands.
This we believe can be carried on with a reasonably high degree of efficiency with our present working budget together with our specials (as a minimum). This does not mean that we should not keep the vision of the unmet needs before our people. We must keep our expenditures within our income-but let none of
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OUR UNFINISHED TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES
us be quiet and complacent in the face of our larger task, so impelling and fraught with such great immediacy.
This is the strategic hour in Ifugao and Kalinga. New roads are being built. New ideas are flowing in. New elementary and intermediate schools are being started by the government. New ways of life are clamoring for ascendency. A real fight is on. The real danger to character lies in the deceitfulness of the whole situation. Semi-civilized people (as well as some others) think everything new" is good. The worst vices of (Christian) civilization are entering these regions. We do not need to guess what the outcome will be if we do not rise to the immediacy of this task. The thing that ought to disturb us and "haunt us" is the fact that the outcome of an awful alternative between good and evil, between Christ or Satan, between a paganism corrupted with the worst in civilization, and the abundant life, redeemed, regenerated, into the likeness of Christ, is being determined now by the response of our church.
What does the heroic venture of Miss Metzger five years ago into Kiangan, Ifugao, hazardous with disease, privation, and sacrifice, mean to you? What does Miss Miles' choice in leaving home and an attractive, influential position in the church, to go to Kiangan, mean to our church? What significance does the mis- sionary labors of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer in Kalinga, isolated from the benefits of civilization, buried in the places of need, have to us?
What token does the going of our Filipino Christian workers into these regions to teach school and serve as pastors and deaconesses for a sacrificial monetary consideration, have for us? What omen of the future does the fact of almost a thousand Christians in these regions have for us? The thought of these workers and the fruit of their work, together with the impelling task to be done, should bring to the church a clear vision of a Macedonian call-"come over and help us."
We shall here call attention to some of our most immediate needs. The pur- chase of the Kiangan hospital completes a plant of splendid, first class equipment for Kiangan which ought to be sufficient in building needs for several years, being adequate to take care of a constructive and progressive program of advance. We feel that through all the intricacies and difficulties involved in the whole affair of securing the hospital building, God's good providence has marvelously directed the affairs. We feel this has been one of the most, if not the most, satisfactory and economical purchases our mission has ever had the opportunity to make in the Philippines.
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