Relief Work in Rochester, New York

Five years ago, when I first visited the Chamber of Commerce in Roches­ter to secure a permit for Harvest In-gathering, I found considerable oppo­sition to our work. The secretary of public campaigns said: "You are al­ways gathering money for the for­eigner, but what are you doing for the needy of Rochester?" This led me to reflect on our duty to the needy at our very doors as well as to those in distant lands.

We began relief work at that time, and it has been steadily growing every year since. The results of this work in removing prejudice were seen when we visited the Chamber of Commerce recently. The same secretary whom I visited five years ago said to me, "Mr. Woodward [the president of the Chamber of Commerce] is very much interested in the good work that Sev­enth-day Adventists are doing in Roch­ester." Through his interest, and by the recommendation of members of the Chamber of Commerce, some large gifts have been secured for our work.

In carrying on our local relief work, we have co-operated from the begin­ning with the Bureau of Public Wel­fare, and have found that it is much better in every way to work with the local organization. Some of the meth­ods we have adopted were suggested by them. They gave us the names of families that had been investigated by them, and found worthy of help. Families in want in our own church were the first to receive aid, and in addition to these we helped to clothe 200 children and about 100 adults last year.

The fifteen-minute service following the Sabbath school is the time when we promote all missionary work. As the deacons and deaconesses report the condition in which they find many of these poor families, the church is willing to do all it can to relieve the conditions of poverty and suffering. Often a visit to these needy homes awakens sympathy and a desire to help.

As far as possible we find it best to have the working bands made up not only of members of the same age, but from the same locality. Those living in the same district can do bet­ter work than scattered members, as they can meet during the week for prayer and study as well as to carry on their work.

All the used clothing was gathered by these mission bands. The leaders encouraged the members to do their part faithfully in gathering the cloth­ing, and also in seeing that it was de­livered to some company to be thor­oughly cleaned before it was sent to the storeroom.

It was the work of one band of four members to solicit gifts of new clothing from the business men of the city. One company gave twenty new coats for women; another, fifteen coats for girls; another, $20; another, sev­eral boxes of new underwear for both children and adults. Several large boxes of shoes and rubber overshoes were also given. Lumber companies gave the lumber needed for all the shelves and tables; and the plumbers gave pipe, and made the racks for the suits and coats.

The leader of our Dorcas Society had spent several years in this work before she accepted the truth. She visited all the homes to become ac­quainted with the inmates, and to se­cure a list of the sizes and kinds of clothing each family needed. A sec­ond visit was made when the clothing was delivered.

The society met at the storeroom every Thursday. Several persons who were not members of the church met with the society to help. Some of these became interested in the truth, and today are meeting with us on the Sabbath. At these meetings the cloth­ing was inspected and repaired by one of the bands. Another band placed it on the shelves and racks and kept things in order. Another made up the parcels to be delivered. Literature was placed in each package. In sev­eral instances, openings were thus se­cured for giving Bible readings.