Club Booklet - Women's Missionary Societies, 1942-1943 Wellington, Kansas
Collection: Women's Missionary Societies
Title
Club Booklet - Women's Missionary Societies, 1942-1943 Wellington, Kansas
Subject
Wellington, Kansas--History
Wellington, Kansas--Civic Organizations
Wellington, Kansas--Community Clubs
Description
Club Booklet for the Women's Missionary Societies of Wellington, Kansas, 1942-1943
Creator
Women's Missionary Societies, Wellington, Kansas
Source
Wellington Public Library, Wellington, Kansas
Publisher
Wellington Public Library, Wellington, Kansas
Date
1942-1943
Relation
Sumner County Club Booklet Collection
Wellington History Collection
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Citation
Women's Missionary Societies, Wellington, Kansas, “Club Booklet - Women's Missionary Societies, 1942-1943 Wellington, Kansas,” Wellington Digital Collections, accessed December 22, 2024, https://wellington.digitalsckls.info/item/98.
Text
1942-1943
LET US PRAY
O THOU who wast, and art, and art to come, we thank thee that the Christian way is no untried or uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. We thank thee for the finger posts and danger signals with which it is marked at every turning, which may be known to us in the study of the Bible in particular and of history in general, through the experience of thy Holy Spirit. Beyond all, we give thee devout and humble thanks for the great gift of thy Son who continues to be the Pioneer of our faith. In quiet confidence, in world-wide fellowship, even as the storms of the transitory sweep about and over us, we wait before thee. Accept anew, we pray thee, the dedication of our lives, in the certain victory of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.1
1. From To the Missionaries; a message, as of August 15, 1941, from the Execu-tive Council of The Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A
[2]
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done . . Matt. 6:10
__________________________________________________________________________
Officers Mrs. H. E. Fetters Mrs. Claude Kissick Mrs. R. H. Stewart, Vice President, Mrs. Joe Waugh, Mrs. L. Rockhold, Mrs. R. H. Stewart, Mrs. E. K. Richmond, Mrs. George Lawrence, Mrs. F. S. McNair, Mrs. R. P. Richards, Mrs. Paul McCormick, Mrs. Boyd Morris - pianist, Standing Committee, Mrs. E. R. Richmond, Mrs. L. Rockhold, Mrs. Joe Waugh Mrs. Karl Voldeng, Hostesses
...
Secretary for Missionary Education
Secretary for Membership
Secretary for Stewardship
............................................................................
Secretary for Spiritual Life Groups
............................................................................
Secretary for National Missions,and Overseas Hospital Sewing
............................................................................
Secretary for Social Education and Action
.................
STanDINg COMMITTEES
............................................................................
Chairman of Membership Committee
............................................................................
Chairman of Program Committee
Chairman of Finance Committee
Chairman of Nominating Committee
DATE AND HOur OF Meeting
...
Circle with red the date of meeting on each month’s calendar. 1:00
THEME FOR THE YEAR
Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
FIELDS AND MISSIONARIES Receiving support from
Society
Church
Foreign Missions: Pledged Paid
Board’s Share of Pension of Missionaries
National Missions: Support of Missionaries
Board’s Share of Missionaries’ Pension Premiums
Scholarships
Station Support
Emergency Fund
Summer Offering
General Fund
Remittances should be forwarded quarterly by the local treasurer to the presbyterial treasurer on or before the 15th of June, September, December, and March.
Credit is given for quotations from: (1) Copyright The Pilgrim Press. Used by permission. (2) From A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages, arranged by Selina F. Fox. Used by permission E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, publishers. (3) From Lift Up Your Hearts. Used by permission The Macmillan Co., publishers.
[4]
• Twenty churches in the country territory of Chosen owe their existence to the efforts of a single person. Oh Chan II, who died a year ago, served for twenty-five years as a circuit Bible woman, but it was in the fifteen years after her "retirement” that her great work was done. When she found a spot where a church ought to be, she gathered volunteers and campaigned to raise money for some tiny building in which the new believers could meet. Hers was a fiery zeal for the kingdom of God, and her soul-winning work was inspired.
• A missionary working among the Navajos in Arizona was surprised one night to see a young Indian girl come into church, carrying a baby sister and dragging a baby brother, sit down, put one child to sleep on either side of her, and then listen interestedly for an hour and a half. When, after the service, the missionary took the three children to their hogan, he discovered that both parents worked; therefore, the girl, Chinnebah, who was in full charge most of the time, could come to church and Sunday school only if she brought the babies.
PRAYER — The darkness hideth not from thee, O Lord, for the entrance of thy word giveth light. Open to us the hallowed pages of thy word that we may truly divine their meaning, and lay hold of their promises for ourselves and others. "O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky.” Amen.
[5]
TOPIC FOR THE MONTH APRIL 1942
SUSUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
Geo. Richmond 1 2 3 4
Leaders 5 6 7 8 9 10 ll
Leaders Lesson 12 13 14 1516 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Hostesses. Voldeng . ... 26 27 28 29 30“O
Stewart Goodwin ......................................
TOPIC FOR THE MONTH MAY 1942
Devotional - Fetters . SUN MON TUE WED THU FR1 SAT
Leaders:
Kissick and Wallace, Stewardship, Carson 1 2
3 4 6 7 8 9
Hostess: Clark, Morris, McCormick 10 l1 12 l3 14 15|16|
17 l8 l9 20 21 22 23
25 26 27 28 29 30
PRAYER — O God of Peace . . . send thy grace and heavenly blessing upon all Christian people who are striving to draw nearer to thee, and to each other, in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace. . . . Suffer us not to shrink from any endeavor which is in accordance with thy will, for the peace and unity of thy Church. Amen.
From Manual of Prayers for Unity
[6]
• "Go ye unto all the world” was the command of jesus, without restriction as to color or race. At a National Missions church in New Mexico, a Cub Scout pack of thirty-five boys was recently organized, one-half of whom are Spanish-American. The pack has two Spanish den dads (adult sponsors) and three Anglo den dads, and in spite of the town’s fifty-year-old saying, "Mexicans keep south of Tenth Street,” the groups work together effectively. Plans are now under way to include Negroes in the pack. Backgrounds different, but all learning the same principles of life.
• That the kingdom of God held first place in his life was evident when a mature minister stood before the Board of Home Missions of the Brazilian Church last year and told of the little, scattered groups of believers living on the banks of the mighty Amazon. Able, a school administrator, underpaid, without funds to return, he pleaded the cause of that empire of rivers and forests — an empire out of which he had been carried three times prostrated by malaria. He closed by saying, "Don’t send a young man to that field. He may die. I am used to it and can stand it. Send me.”
• Not long after the hiring of an Evangelical Christian as a member of the municipal police force in a town in the Philippine Islands, a prisoner for whom he was responsible escaped. In such a case the law is that the officer must serve the prisoner’s unexpired sentence. Fortunately, he himself recaptured the man after a few hours. Much to the mystification of the townspeople, when the prisoner was once more in his cell, he bore no marks of violence. "It is because you are an Evangelical,” they said. Kindness is an attribute of him who seeks first the kingdom of God.
• A missionary in Cuba writes: "A few nights ago after a Christian Endeavor meeting at El Fuerte, a branch station of La Progresiva, Cardenas, an enthusiastic group of young men came to me and said, 'We are going to save the world.’ To which I replied, 'Good! Let’s begin in our community.’ With Sunday school literature and tracts under their arms and love in their hearts they started out. . . . We had been talking about 'Come unto me’ and 'Go ye’.” "To save the world’’ — what a goal! But note where they began. "In Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
PRAYER
0 thou who didst the vision send
Give us a conscience bold and good, Give us a purpose true,
And gives to each his task,
And with the task sufficient strength,
That it may be our highest joy,
Our Father’s work to do. Amen.
Show us thy will, we ask;
Jay T. Stocking1
[7]
• Several years ago a Sunday school missionary gave a little one-room schoolhouse a Bible. Today a Sunday school is held every Monday afternoon and is attended by all the pupils in the public school plus the bus driver. It was found that the children were too scattered to gather together for Sunday school on Sundays so the teacher, a devout Christian, volunteered to teach the class after school on Monday, if the bus driver would wait for an hour to take the children home. The bus driver not only agreed but joined the group.
• Missionary societies throughout India are used as real teaching centers and as means of strengthening the Church. At a meeting of the big Anjuman, or synodical society, in Jullundur, what would correspond to new "Standards of Excellence” in this country were set up. Where formerly there had been one banner, awarded to the society which came nearest to filling all the various requirements, now there are two banners, one for the city Anjuman and one for the village Anjuman, with different requirements and standards.
PRAYER — Our Father, we would believe that the fruit of the spirit of a nation as of an individual is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance. And so may we evidence in our lives truth, fair dealing, and justice, believing that only so a Christian commonwealth may he built. Amen.
[8]
"I want to become a Christian,” said a student at Yih Wen Commercial College, Chefoo, China. "That’s fine,” replied the missionary, "but tell me why.” "It is because Mr. Li and Mr. Sun and one or two other Christian students have something I do not have. I want that something.” The boy knew what he wanted was a strong Christian character and that it could be obtained only by seeking first the kingdom of God. "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Young China is mastering the hardest lesson of all.
• "Being a missionary requires no sacrifice from us,” states a missionary at the Tucson Indian Training School, Escuela, Arizona. "We have the thrill of watching Christian characters develop, of seeing our students’ willingness to accept the challenge of carrying the message of the love of Christ to their home communities, of seeing them return home to become leaders in their tribal councils, in government schools, in churches, and in community activities.” . . and all these things shall be added unto you.”
PRAYER — Set free, 0 Lord, the souls of thy servants from all restlessness and anxiety; give us that peace and power which flow from thee; and keep us in all perplexities and distress, in all griefs and grievances, from any fear or faithlessness: that so, upheld by thy strength and stayed on the rock of thy faithfulness through storm and stress we may abide in thee. Amen.
Bishop Francis Paget
[9]
• He is a young Mexican working full time with boys in a California city. During the week he teaches crafts and singing and games. On Sundays he teaches a church school class of boys and leads in Christian Endeavor work. Yet it has not been long since this same young man was a member of one of the city’s worst gangs, a gang with many "talents,” whose specialty was stealing cars. But a Presbyterian pastor found him. In the youth’s own words, "I don’t know what happened to me. All I know is I was bad, now I belong to the Lord.”
• War relief is nothing static or cut and dried. It changes with changing need and seeks only to express the love of Christ; in lifting up out of want and despair it lifts up hearts, so that they may find the love of Christ also. It is an outward manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth.
"Multitudes in our day indeed are called upon to make sacrifices in the service of earthly lords and rulers. We go forward in faith in One who is above time and its turmoil and in whose peace we can abide.” (From the letter of a missionary in China.')
PRAYER— Make us of quick and tender conscience. O Lord; that understanding, we may obey every word of thine this day, and discerning, may follow every suggestion of thine indwelling spirit. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Christina G. Rossetti2
[10}
• To the Christian women of India the kingdom of God is a very real and vital thing. When the fields around Kodoli were turning brown from lack of rain and there was anxiety lest the crops should fail, the women’s society of the church held a special meeting to pray for rain. "Even the peanut vines are folding their leaves together as hands clasped in prayer to God, and the birds fly through the sky calling, 'Paw-oos! Paw-oos! (Rain! Rain!)’,” said the chairman. "Shall we then be less mindful of our Creator than the birds and the plants?”
• In the days of crisis missionaries in Alaska sent the following messages to headquarters. In them is our strength for all times: "We continue to feel your prayers daily and this adds to our strength as we carry on.” "We wish you all a rich blessing from Him who is certain in the midst of uncertainty.” "We are welded together in a fine spirit of Christianity and are ready, with God’s help, to meet whatever comes.” Prayer for one another — Christian unity — God our certainty — on these we can rest and feel secure "whatever comes.”
PRAYER
O Christ, forget not them who stand Thy vanguard in the distant land. In flood, in flame, in dark, in dread, Sustain, we pray, each lifted head. Thine is the work they strive to do,
Be with thine own, thy loved, who stand,
Their foes so many, they so few,
Christ’s vanguard, in the storm-swept land. Amen.
Margaret E. Sangster
[11]
"Our church is the first and only church many of our people have ever seen,” writes the missionary executive at Wooton Community Center in the Kentucky mountains, where a church was built and dedicated last year, and adds, "One mother coming into the church for the first time with her children was so impressed with the beauty of everything that in the midst of the service she got up from her seat, leading one child, carrying another in her arms, and with two following came to the pulpit and, with tears running down her face, said, 'I want to give myself and my family to the Lord Jesus’.” "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
• "I looked the word up in the dictionary and felt that I would rather have a broken neck.” This was the reaction of Lam Duang, inmate of the Leper Home at Nakon Sritamarat, Thailand, when a doctor first told him he had the dread disease. Talented and educated, this young man, not yet thirty years old, has had a foot amputated, and is almost blind. He can no longer read and paint, but is still the musical leader of the asylum. And he is happy, for at Nakon Sritamarat he has found his place in the kingdom of God.
PRAYER — They that uait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. In this is our thanksgiving, that each day we can renew our strength in thee if we hut lay bold of thy promises. Give us faith to believe. In Christ’s name. Amen.
[12]
TOPIC FOR THE MONTH
Leaders.
...
Hostesses ________________
Morris McCormick Stewardship, Weed, Richmond, Turner, R.P. Richards
• Iranian mission schools, after they became government-controlled, began to operate on Sunday, Friday being the national weekly holiday. Naturally Sunday school attendance fell off to an alarming degree. However, in one mission center the superintendent (who was also principal of the boys’ school) held Sunday school at the close of classes Sunday afternoon, making it part of the religious instruction Christian pupils must be given. Then all went to church for the closing exercises. Attendance rose from about one hundred to over three hundred and fifty, all because of one man who was actively and efficiently working for the kingdom of God.
• A mission church at Brownfield, Texas, looked to the task near at hand. And it is now able to report that the two Sunday schools for Mexican migrant workers which it started last spring are doing well and that soon a group will be ready for baptism. One Sunday school meets in a school ten miles from Brownfield; the other meets in the mission church on Sunday afternoon. These migrants, who otherwise would have no religious contacts whatsoever, say that they want to form a Spanish-speaking church very soon.
PRAYER — O Father, who hast given us Christmas as the festival of great joy, grant us warm hearts for one another’s happiness, and such enlargement of our lives in love as shall make room within us now for him whose name makes this day beautiful, Jesus Christ, thy blessed Son, our Lord. Amen.
Walter Russell Bowie3
[13]
j
• When commissioners to the last General Assembly crowded around a Navajo mission worker to congratulate her on the speech she had made in connection with the conference on evangelism, she replied, "The honor is not mine; it belongs to Christ, who made my life possible, and to the Presbyterian church, which brought the knowledge of Christ to me.” She sought for herself first the kingdom of God and today she and her husband are telling the gospel story of Christ’s love to their own people, effective witnesses by word and life of their message.
• During a severe bombing of Changsha, Hunan, huge fires were started, one in a block where lived a mission school child. Because of the illness of the father and mother, the family could not get away. As the crackle of flames grew louder and the acrid smell of smoke more pungent, the little girl began to repeat, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Somehow the whole family began to pray, and they were comforted. Miraculously, their home was saved. The hearts of Christians the world over turn to the kingdom of God as an eternal place of refuge.
PRAYER — We are ambassadors for Christ, our Father. Let neither word nor act cloud our message or rob it of its power. Make us whole-hearted and zealous in the fulfilling of our commission. As we enter upon the new year, may we know naught but Christ and him crucified. Amen.
[14]
• Young people’s conferences (indeed anything exclusively for young people) are comparatively new in the Cameroun, West Africa, where our missionaries are at work. When these conferences were first proposed by the Mission, it was difficult for the older Christians, especially church elders, to understand that they were not included. But now as they begin to comprehend and stay away from the gatherings for youth, the boys and girls are coming to appreciate that they are really wanted; they are learning to take their places in that world-wide community which is the kingdom of God on earth.
• Service to others is one pathway on the road to finding the kingdom of God. In a mission church for Negroes in rural North Carolina a class of junior boys, alert and promising, is discovering what service to others means. The pastor writes: "This class of boys decided to put into practice some of the teaching that they are getting in Sunday school. Each week they visit in the homes of six old people living in the community, two of them blind and the others too old to read, and read the Bible to them, sing songs, and have prayer.” A service "twice blessed.”
PRAYER -— O God . . . by the example of thy Son, Jesus, our Saviour, enable us while loving and serving our own, to enter into the fellowship of the whole human family; and forbid that from pride of race or hardness of heart, we should despise any for whom Christ died, or injure any in whom he lives. Amen.
From The Book of Common Worship
[15]
• The reunion banquet was over and the Chinese group of high school age that had met together in conference during the summer was now speaking of more serious things. One of the older boys expressed himself this way: "I came to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour in a new way at Camp Kent. The theme of our conference was 'That I May Know Him.’ Now I think we must change it to 'That Others May Know Him Through Me.’ I am going to make this my business from now on.” "Through me.”
• "You have labored for eight long years in order to bring the gospel to us Japanese and, as a result, my old home town has become a quieter and more serene place. Those eight years are a short enough time, but who can say what toil you put into that long time! . . . Amid all these difficulties you boldly labored, sometimes by preaching along the roadside, sometimes by holding classes in English, in order that some of us Japanese people might draw near to God and be enabled to live purified lives.” (From a letter written by a young Japanese to a Presbyterian missionary friend on furlough.')
PRAYER — O Lord, quicken us each day with a remembrance of thy statutes: to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. Show us how to practice these in our lives, that we may truly worship thee and sincerely love one another. Amen.
THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS—BOARD OF NATIONAL MISSIONS of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Price, Two Cents
Original Format
Small bound program booklet approximately 4 1/4" wide X 6" tall, in typewritten cover, with typewritten pages.
Title
Club Booklet - Women's Missionary Societies, 1942-1943 Wellington, Kansas
Subject
Wellington, Kansas--History
Wellington, Kansas--Civic Organizations
Wellington, Kansas--Community Clubs
Description
Club Booklet for the Women's Missionary Societies of Wellington, Kansas, 1942-1943
Creator
Women's Missionary Societies, Wellington, Kansas
Source
Wellington Public Library, Wellington, Kansas
Publisher
Wellington Public Library, Wellington, Kansas
Date
1942-1943
Relation
Sumner County Club Booklet Collection
Wellington History Collection
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Citation
Women's Missionary Societies, Wellington, Kansas, “Club Booklet - Women's Missionary Societies, 1942-1943 Wellington, Kansas,” Wellington Digital Collections, accessed December 22, 2024, https://wellington.digitalsckls.info/item/98.Text
1942-1943
LET US PRAY
O THOU who wast, and art, and art to come, we thank thee that the Christian way is no untried or uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. We thank thee for the finger posts and danger signals with which it is marked at every turning, which may be known to us in the study of the Bible in particular and of history in general, through the experience of thy Holy Spirit. Beyond all, we give thee devout and humble thanks for the great gift of thy Son who continues to be the Pioneer of our faith. In quiet confidence, in world-wide fellowship, even as the storms of the transitory sweep about and over us, we wait before thee. Accept anew, we pray thee, the dedication of our lives, in the certain victory of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.1
1. From To the Missionaries; a message, as of August 15, 1941, from the Execu-tive Council of The Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A
[2]
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done . . Matt. 6:10
__________________________________________________________________________
Officers Mrs. H. E. Fetters Mrs. Claude Kissick Mrs. R. H. Stewart, Vice President, Mrs. Joe Waugh, Mrs. L. Rockhold, Mrs. R. H. Stewart, Mrs. E. K. Richmond, Mrs. George Lawrence, Mrs. F. S. McNair, Mrs. R. P. Richards, Mrs. Paul McCormick, Mrs. Boyd Morris - pianist, Standing Committee, Mrs. E. R. Richmond, Mrs. L. Rockhold, Mrs. Joe Waugh Mrs. Karl Voldeng, Hostesses
...
Secretary for Missionary Education
Secretary for Membership
Secretary for Stewardship
............................................................................
Secretary for Spiritual Life Groups
............................................................................
Secretary for National Missions,and Overseas Hospital Sewing
............................................................................
Secretary for Social Education and Action
.................
STanDINg COMMITTEES
............................................................................
Chairman of Membership Committee
............................................................................
Chairman of Program Committee
Chairman of Finance Committee
Chairman of Nominating Committee
DATE AND HOur OF Meeting
...
Circle with red the date of meeting on each month’s calendar. 1:00
THEME FOR THE YEAR
Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
FIELDS AND MISSIONARIES Receiving support from
Society
Church
Foreign Missions: Pledged Paid
Board’s Share of Pension of Missionaries
National Missions: Support of Missionaries
Board’s Share of Missionaries’ Pension Premiums
Scholarships
Station Support
Emergency Fund
Summer Offering
General Fund
Remittances should be forwarded quarterly by the local treasurer to the presbyterial treasurer on or before the 15th of June, September, December, and March.
Credit is given for quotations from: (1) Copyright The Pilgrim Press. Used by permission. (2) From A Chain of Prayer Across the Ages, arranged by Selina F. Fox. Used by permission E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, publishers. (3) From Lift Up Your Hearts. Used by permission The Macmillan Co., publishers.
[4]
• Twenty churches in the country territory of Chosen owe their existence to the efforts of a single person. Oh Chan II, who died a year ago, served for twenty-five years as a circuit Bible woman, but it was in the fifteen years after her "retirement” that her great work was done. When she found a spot where a church ought to be, she gathered volunteers and campaigned to raise money for some tiny building in which the new believers could meet. Hers was a fiery zeal for the kingdom of God, and her soul-winning work was inspired.
• A missionary working among the Navajos in Arizona was surprised one night to see a young Indian girl come into church, carrying a baby sister and dragging a baby brother, sit down, put one child to sleep on either side of her, and then listen interestedly for an hour and a half. When, after the service, the missionary took the three children to their hogan, he discovered that both parents worked; therefore, the girl, Chinnebah, who was in full charge most of the time, could come to church and Sunday school only if she brought the babies.
PRAYER — The darkness hideth not from thee, O Lord, for the entrance of thy word giveth light. Open to us the hallowed pages of thy word that we may truly divine their meaning, and lay hold of their promises for ourselves and others. "O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky.” Amen.
[5]
TOPIC FOR THE MONTH APRIL 1942
SUSUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
Geo. Richmond 1 2 3 4
Leaders 5 6 7 8 9 10 ll
Leaders Lesson 12 13 14 1516 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Hostesses. Voldeng . ... 26 27 28 29 30“O
Stewart Goodwin ......................................
TOPIC FOR THE MONTH MAY 1942
Devotional - Fetters . SUN MON TUE WED THU FR1 SAT
Leaders:
Kissick and Wallace, Stewardship, Carson 1 2
3 4 6 7 8 9
Hostess: Clark, Morris, McCormick 10 l1 12 l3 14 15|16|
17 l8 l9 20 21 22 23
25 26 27 28 29 30
PRAYER — O God of Peace . . . send thy grace and heavenly blessing upon all Christian people who are striving to draw nearer to thee, and to each other, in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace. . . . Suffer us not to shrink from any endeavor which is in accordance with thy will, for the peace and unity of thy Church. Amen.
From Manual of Prayers for Unity
[6]
• "Go ye unto all the world” was the command of jesus, without restriction as to color or race. At a National Missions church in New Mexico, a Cub Scout pack of thirty-five boys was recently organized, one-half of whom are Spanish-American. The pack has two Spanish den dads (adult sponsors) and three Anglo den dads, and in spite of the town’s fifty-year-old saying, "Mexicans keep south of Tenth Street,” the groups work together effectively. Plans are now under way to include Negroes in the pack. Backgrounds different, but all learning the same principles of life.
• That the kingdom of God held first place in his life was evident when a mature minister stood before the Board of Home Missions of the Brazilian Church last year and told of the little, scattered groups of believers living on the banks of the mighty Amazon. Able, a school administrator, underpaid, without funds to return, he pleaded the cause of that empire of rivers and forests — an empire out of which he had been carried three times prostrated by malaria. He closed by saying, "Don’t send a young man to that field. He may die. I am used to it and can stand it. Send me.”
• Not long after the hiring of an Evangelical Christian as a member of the municipal police force in a town in the Philippine Islands, a prisoner for whom he was responsible escaped. In such a case the law is that the officer must serve the prisoner’s unexpired sentence. Fortunately, he himself recaptured the man after a few hours. Much to the mystification of the townspeople, when the prisoner was once more in his cell, he bore no marks of violence. "It is because you are an Evangelical,” they said. Kindness is an attribute of him who seeks first the kingdom of God.
• A missionary in Cuba writes: "A few nights ago after a Christian Endeavor meeting at El Fuerte, a branch station of La Progresiva, Cardenas, an enthusiastic group of young men came to me and said, 'We are going to save the world.’ To which I replied, 'Good! Let’s begin in our community.’ With Sunday school literature and tracts under their arms and love in their hearts they started out. . . . We had been talking about 'Come unto me’ and 'Go ye’.” "To save the world’’ — what a goal! But note where they began. "In Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
PRAYER
0 thou who didst the vision send
Give us a conscience bold and good, Give us a purpose true,
And gives to each his task,
And with the task sufficient strength,
That it may be our highest joy,
Our Father’s work to do. Amen.
Show us thy will, we ask;
Jay T. Stocking1
[7]
• Several years ago a Sunday school missionary gave a little one-room schoolhouse a Bible. Today a Sunday school is held every Monday afternoon and is attended by all the pupils in the public school plus the bus driver. It was found that the children were too scattered to gather together for Sunday school on Sundays so the teacher, a devout Christian, volunteered to teach the class after school on Monday, if the bus driver would wait for an hour to take the children home. The bus driver not only agreed but joined the group.
• Missionary societies throughout India are used as real teaching centers and as means of strengthening the Church. At a meeting of the big Anjuman, or synodical society, in Jullundur, what would correspond to new "Standards of Excellence” in this country were set up. Where formerly there had been one banner, awarded to the society which came nearest to filling all the various requirements, now there are two banners, one for the city Anjuman and one for the village Anjuman, with different requirements and standards.
PRAYER — Our Father, we would believe that the fruit of the spirit of a nation as of an individual is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance. And so may we evidence in our lives truth, fair dealing, and justice, believing that only so a Christian commonwealth may he built. Amen.
[8]
"I want to become a Christian,” said a student at Yih Wen Commercial College, Chefoo, China. "That’s fine,” replied the missionary, "but tell me why.” "It is because Mr. Li and Mr. Sun and one or two other Christian students have something I do not have. I want that something.” The boy knew what he wanted was a strong Christian character and that it could be obtained only by seeking first the kingdom of God. "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Young China is mastering the hardest lesson of all.
• "Being a missionary requires no sacrifice from us,” states a missionary at the Tucson Indian Training School, Escuela, Arizona. "We have the thrill of watching Christian characters develop, of seeing our students’ willingness to accept the challenge of carrying the message of the love of Christ to their home communities, of seeing them return home to become leaders in their tribal councils, in government schools, in churches, and in community activities.” . . and all these things shall be added unto you.”
PRAYER — Set free, 0 Lord, the souls of thy servants from all restlessness and anxiety; give us that peace and power which flow from thee; and keep us in all perplexities and distress, in all griefs and grievances, from any fear or faithlessness: that so, upheld by thy strength and stayed on the rock of thy faithfulness through storm and stress we may abide in thee. Amen.
Bishop Francis Paget
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• He is a young Mexican working full time with boys in a California city. During the week he teaches crafts and singing and games. On Sundays he teaches a church school class of boys and leads in Christian Endeavor work. Yet it has not been long since this same young man was a member of one of the city’s worst gangs, a gang with many "talents,” whose specialty was stealing cars. But a Presbyterian pastor found him. In the youth’s own words, "I don’t know what happened to me. All I know is I was bad, now I belong to the Lord.”
• War relief is nothing static or cut and dried. It changes with changing need and seeks only to express the love of Christ; in lifting up out of want and despair it lifts up hearts, so that they may find the love of Christ also. It is an outward manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth.
"Multitudes in our day indeed are called upon to make sacrifices in the service of earthly lords and rulers. We go forward in faith in One who is above time and its turmoil and in whose peace we can abide.” (From the letter of a missionary in China.')
PRAYER— Make us of quick and tender conscience. O Lord; that understanding, we may obey every word of thine this day, and discerning, may follow every suggestion of thine indwelling spirit. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Christina G. Rossetti2
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• To the Christian women of India the kingdom of God is a very real and vital thing. When the fields around Kodoli were turning brown from lack of rain and there was anxiety lest the crops should fail, the women’s society of the church held a special meeting to pray for rain. "Even the peanut vines are folding their leaves together as hands clasped in prayer to God, and the birds fly through the sky calling, 'Paw-oos! Paw-oos! (Rain! Rain!)’,” said the chairman. "Shall we then be less mindful of our Creator than the birds and the plants?”
• In the days of crisis missionaries in Alaska sent the following messages to headquarters. In them is our strength for all times: "We continue to feel your prayers daily and this adds to our strength as we carry on.” "We wish you all a rich blessing from Him who is certain in the midst of uncertainty.” "We are welded together in a fine spirit of Christianity and are ready, with God’s help, to meet whatever comes.” Prayer for one another — Christian unity — God our certainty — on these we can rest and feel secure "whatever comes.”
PRAYER
O Christ, forget not them who stand Thy vanguard in the distant land. In flood, in flame, in dark, in dread, Sustain, we pray, each lifted head. Thine is the work they strive to do,
Be with thine own, thy loved, who stand,
Their foes so many, they so few,
Christ’s vanguard, in the storm-swept land. Amen.
Margaret E. Sangster
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"Our church is the first and only church many of our people have ever seen,” writes the missionary executive at Wooton Community Center in the Kentucky mountains, where a church was built and dedicated last year, and adds, "One mother coming into the church for the first time with her children was so impressed with the beauty of everything that in the midst of the service she got up from her seat, leading one child, carrying another in her arms, and with two following came to the pulpit and, with tears running down her face, said, 'I want to give myself and my family to the Lord Jesus’.” "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
• "I looked the word up in the dictionary and felt that I would rather have a broken neck.” This was the reaction of Lam Duang, inmate of the Leper Home at Nakon Sritamarat, Thailand, when a doctor first told him he had the dread disease. Talented and educated, this young man, not yet thirty years old, has had a foot amputated, and is almost blind. He can no longer read and paint, but is still the musical leader of the asylum. And he is happy, for at Nakon Sritamarat he has found his place in the kingdom of God.
PRAYER — They that uait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. In this is our thanksgiving, that each day we can renew our strength in thee if we hut lay bold of thy promises. Give us faith to believe. In Christ’s name. Amen.
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TOPIC FOR THE MONTH
Leaders.
...
Hostesses ________________
Morris McCormick Stewardship, Weed, Richmond, Turner, R.P. Richards
• Iranian mission schools, after they became government-controlled, began to operate on Sunday, Friday being the national weekly holiday. Naturally Sunday school attendance fell off to an alarming degree. However, in one mission center the superintendent (who was also principal of the boys’ school) held Sunday school at the close of classes Sunday afternoon, making it part of the religious instruction Christian pupils must be given. Then all went to church for the closing exercises. Attendance rose from about one hundred to over three hundred and fifty, all because of one man who was actively and efficiently working for the kingdom of God.
• A mission church at Brownfield, Texas, looked to the task near at hand. And it is now able to report that the two Sunday schools for Mexican migrant workers which it started last spring are doing well and that soon a group will be ready for baptism. One Sunday school meets in a school ten miles from Brownfield; the other meets in the mission church on Sunday afternoon. These migrants, who otherwise would have no religious contacts whatsoever, say that they want to form a Spanish-speaking church very soon.
PRAYER — O Father, who hast given us Christmas as the festival of great joy, grant us warm hearts for one another’s happiness, and such enlargement of our lives in love as shall make room within us now for him whose name makes this day beautiful, Jesus Christ, thy blessed Son, our Lord. Amen.
Walter Russell Bowie3
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• When commissioners to the last General Assembly crowded around a Navajo mission worker to congratulate her on the speech she had made in connection with the conference on evangelism, she replied, "The honor is not mine; it belongs to Christ, who made my life possible, and to the Presbyterian church, which brought the knowledge of Christ to me.” She sought for herself first the kingdom of God and today she and her husband are telling the gospel story of Christ’s love to their own people, effective witnesses by word and life of their message.
• During a severe bombing of Changsha, Hunan, huge fires were started, one in a block where lived a mission school child. Because of the illness of the father and mother, the family could not get away. As the crackle of flames grew louder and the acrid smell of smoke more pungent, the little girl began to repeat, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Somehow the whole family began to pray, and they were comforted. Miraculously, their home was saved. The hearts of Christians the world over turn to the kingdom of God as an eternal place of refuge.
PRAYER — We are ambassadors for Christ, our Father. Let neither word nor act cloud our message or rob it of its power. Make us whole-hearted and zealous in the fulfilling of our commission. As we enter upon the new year, may we know naught but Christ and him crucified. Amen.
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• Young people’s conferences (indeed anything exclusively for young people) are comparatively new in the Cameroun, West Africa, where our missionaries are at work. When these conferences were first proposed by the Mission, it was difficult for the older Christians, especially church elders, to understand that they were not included. But now as they begin to comprehend and stay away from the gatherings for youth, the boys and girls are coming to appreciate that they are really wanted; they are learning to take their places in that world-wide community which is the kingdom of God on earth.
• Service to others is one pathway on the road to finding the kingdom of God. In a mission church for Negroes in rural North Carolina a class of junior boys, alert and promising, is discovering what service to others means. The pastor writes: "This class of boys decided to put into practice some of the teaching that they are getting in Sunday school. Each week they visit in the homes of six old people living in the community, two of them blind and the others too old to read, and read the Bible to them, sing songs, and have prayer.” A service "twice blessed.”
PRAYER -— O God . . . by the example of thy Son, Jesus, our Saviour, enable us while loving and serving our own, to enter into the fellowship of the whole human family; and forbid that from pride of race or hardness of heart, we should despise any for whom Christ died, or injure any in whom he lives. Amen.
From The Book of Common Worship
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• The reunion banquet was over and the Chinese group of high school age that had met together in conference during the summer was now speaking of more serious things. One of the older boys expressed himself this way: "I came to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour in a new way at Camp Kent. The theme of our conference was 'That I May Know Him.’ Now I think we must change it to 'That Others May Know Him Through Me.’ I am going to make this my business from now on.” "Through me.”
• "You have labored for eight long years in order to bring the gospel to us Japanese and, as a result, my old home town has become a quieter and more serene place. Those eight years are a short enough time, but who can say what toil you put into that long time! . . . Amid all these difficulties you boldly labored, sometimes by preaching along the roadside, sometimes by holding classes in English, in order that some of us Japanese people might draw near to God and be enabled to live purified lives.” (From a letter written by a young Japanese to a Presbyterian missionary friend on furlough.')
PRAYER — O Lord, quicken us each day with a remembrance of thy statutes: to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. Show us how to practice these in our lives, that we may truly worship thee and sincerely love one another. Amen.
THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS—BOARD OF NATIONAL MISSIONS of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Price, Two Cents
Original Format
Small bound program booklet approximately 4 1/4" wide X 6" tall, in typewritten cover, with typewritten pages.