Health Foods' and Evangelism

The health message has rightly been called  "the right arm of the message" by God's messenger. I have always felt that a successful evangelistic program should incorporate all the basic fundamentals of the message, and in con­nection with my meetings have included special health lectures, demonstrations, and food dis­plays. Frequently the health message has proved to be an entering wedge in the presen­tation of the truth.

A typical example of this was found in an experience in Minneapolis some time ago during the meat shortage, when we had an ex­cellent opportunity to bear witness to the value of a meatless diet. Along with our bookstand we had a large display of health foods and meatless preparations. This was done in order that the public might be introduced to the bene­fits of a fleshless diet, and has proved to be a very popular part of the evangelistic program. The general public throughout the war years, and now in these postwar years, has shown ap­preciation for this feature of our work.

In our recent effort in Minneapolis we re­ceived some of the finest free publicity that we have ever received by virtue of an opening se­cured through our health program. Here is the story : A certain war correspondent, by the name of George Grim, returned to Minneapolis after several years overseas, and began writing a daily column in one of the leading Minnesota newspapers. While overseas he had become ac­quainted with two of our missionaries, Elder and Mrs. A. R. Mazat. During the meat crisis he wrote the following article:

"SMORGASBORD SENDS AN S0S

"Main course of our Saturday Smorgasbord is missing, and we won't be able to get it until, some­where, we find Ruth and Art Mazat. I haven't seen them since the summer of 1944 when I had a wonder­ful dinner in their home in Lanchow in northern China's Kansu Province.

"The young missionary couple had come up from Burma and had worked days without end in their little hospital. They and their two children were the health­iest family I can remember (and that is why I want to send this S 0 5 out to Ruth and Art: PRICE OF MEAT ELIMINATING IT FROM MANY DIN­NER TABLES STOP SEND AT ONCE YOUR RECIPES FOR HAMBURGERS YOU SERVED ME IN CHINA URGENTLY NEEDED, RE­GARDS. GEORGE GRIM).

"You see, the Mazats are Seventh-day Adventists. They are vegetarians and the most delicious hambur­ger I ever ate didn't contain any meat at all. Quick ! Anybody know the whereabouts of Ruth and Art ?"

Seventh-day Adventists are always alert to any such publicity as that, so we immediately got in touch with Mr. Grim, and many of our people flooded him with letters, telephone calls, and personal invitations to the meeting place where the evangelistic campaign was being held. The following Sunday night Mr. Grim was present at the meeting and very graciously accepted the foods which we gave him with our compliments. The following week he wrote again in his column, and this is what he said:

"NO MEAT, BUT THIS IS A TREAT

"Today's Saturday Smorgasbord includes our meat­less hamburger. . . . We tried a dish last week that included wheat gluten, extract of brewer's yeast, vegex, mushroom broth, water, soy flour, whole wheat flour, oats, corn, mono-sodium, glutamate, primary yeast, and seasoning. We didn't mix this concoction; it came in a can called choplet-burger. The can came in answer to our S0S for a meatless hamburger we remembered eating at the home of Ruth and Art Mazat three summers ago.

"We didn't have to look far, letters and phone calls told us to drop into the lobby of the Lyceum Theater any Sunday night and find the mixture there. We did, and met a stream of healthy-looking folks attending the lecture of the Reverend Melvin K. Eckenroth. I left the lobby with two cans of the food and went home to cook up a batch. The queen—my grandmother —thought it was wonderful and insisted it had to be hamburger. She still can't believe there isn't a shred of meat in it. The rest of us liked it too."

This experience not only shows the value of the presentation of the health message along with our evangelistic meetings but also empha­sizes the importance of living out the principles of this great message no matter where we may be. Probably the Mazats, laboring faithfully in distant China, little thought that their rela­tion to the principles of healthful living would actually assist us in our evangelistic campaign in the city of Minneapolis, but such are the wondrous means God uses to spread the mes­sage throughout the earth.