When I attended college a few decades ago, the ambition of the majority of my fellow students was to offer themselves for service in needy mission fields. Anyone not sharing in this general conviction of duty was considered just a little "off color." Many students vied with one another in securing a mission appointment, the more neglected and the harder the field the better. To be out in the thick of the fight was a privilege to be prized.
Back in the days when I accepted such an appointment, exactly thirty years ago, the appointees, as far as I knew were sent out for life. No furloughs were promised; and when one abandoned the shores of his native land, he had no reason to hope that he would see his family and friends again this side of the resurrection morning.
It was popular to be a missionary then; and as a general rule, young people given this high privilege were from among those classified as most likely to succeed. Without the shadow of a doubt, with the going forth of this invasion force into practically the entire world, the cause of missions received a stimulus which marked the beginning of a new era with us.
But alas, how the picture has changed! From questionnaires filled out in our secondary schools and colleges in recent years, we find that clerical pursuits at home, the medical, and the nurses' profession, even aviation and mechanics, turn out to be the goal of the great majority of students. Being a missionary is no longer the thing to do. judging from the questionnaire findings, we can see that it was decidedly the thing not to do.
In those days our teachers possessed few academic titles. Usually there were none more dignified than an A.B. or a B.S. It was extremely rare to find an M.A. That which those godly men and women lacked in scholastic degrees (but not in scholastic ability) they made up in other ways. The academies and colleges, being smaller, permitted the teachers to know their students and hold fellowship with them, and to serve them as counselors and friends. Majors and minors, as such, were unknown. But somehow we who attended school in those early institutions received a preparation and an unction that inspired us to respond to the call of missions, which has remained with us through the years.
Some of that group of students who responded to the call to service in mission lands are still serving, and still consider it the greatest privilege of their lives to continue to carry the battle to the gates of the enemy. But many are no longer the GI's or doughboys of the King's army as they were then called. Some have long since assumed the role of officers, and are now behind the lines in the command dugout. But it is more thrilling to volunteer and charge the enemy positions, than to be obliged to wait and pray that others may be willing to do so. The waiting part of mission experience constitutes the missionary's real hardship.
In the union in which I labor, we have placed with the General Conference eight calls for laborers, which are still unfilled. One of these calls was placed as long as nine months ago. Many times those called are able to give the mission board very plausible reasons for not responding. Others simply ask to be excused.
A missionary who came out to us a short time ago told us that some of his closest friends (and among them fellow workers) expressed their surprise that one so promising would be willing to bury himself in a mission field. In some instances there even seems to be a reluctance on the part of the home base organizations to pass calls to employees, especially when the one being called is doing outstanding work. Happily, this is the exception rather than the rule.
Over the years we have made some observations from contacts with missionaries from other church mission boards. Rather than being those who could be spared at the home base, apparently these missionaries were from among their church's best workers, in many instances possessing special preparation for their specific fields of endeavor. They were from among those of the highest moral and spiritual caliber.
The proportionate results in the mission field for money and effort expended continue to be most gratifying. In this union last year there were 1,696 converts baptized, or an average of more than twenty-eight for each licensed and ordained minister. The average in the homeland is much lower.
Privileges extended to missionaries are now greatly increased, even the wages being almost up to the American standard. Yearly vacations are granted, midterm and regular furloughs, sick benefits, and rent allowances are matters of routine policy.
What, then, is the reason for the reluctance to respond to God's call? Are our students and young workers less willing than formerly to volunteer or to respond when called? Could it be possible that conference and college leaders, anxious to take advantage of the wave of prosperity to remodel and rebuild their institutions, may have been led, in some instances, to hold on to their best teachers and graduates in order to broaden and strengthen their base, not realizing that by so doing, they deprive the work in the fields beyond of men and means with which to hold the lines established by years of toil and sacrifice?
In this union there is an educational institution pretending to do junior college work, which even from the standards of an academy in the United States is very meagerly equipped and manned. Another institution in another language area, because of the lack of ten or fifteen thousand dollars, is obliged to suspend building operations. A medical institution, the only one of the entire union, has been promised only about twenty per cent from mission funds to put up the necessary buildings.
The tragic thing just now, when mission opportunities are wide open, is that we are either unwilling or unready to enter the doors. These doors may not always be open. In fact, we know that they will not be. If not taken advantage of now, long and tedious years of toil may be required to do the work which can now be done with relative economy and success.
May the great God who inspired the leaders of our Advent Movement with the spirit of sacrifice awaken us—workers, missionaries, and members—and breathe into us that holy zeal which will lead us to count no sacrifice too dear in order that the glorious message of the Advent may speedily encircle the globe.
