Sandpoint, Idaho, was chosen for three reasons: One, we have two excellent Seventh-day Adventist physicians there who are well established in the community. Two, it was a small city—population under 5,000. Three, Sandpoint is a summer resort area.
Andrews University sent us ten students, Walla Walla College eight students, and the Alaska Mission sent two district pastors.
Leading out in the campaign was the pastor of the Sandpoint church, William Ward. The Upper Columbia Conference evangelist John Klim served as coordinator, and Lorie Purdy, singing evangelist, led the music. We had a surprise visit from Pastor J. R. Hoffman, then ministerial secretary of the Atlantic Union, from whose experience everyone profited.
It was planned that the students work in teams and that the experienced ministers would rotate in visiting with the students. Our goal: To visit everyone in the entire community.
Mapping the Territory
The organization: Maps were obtained and the city and surrounding area divided into eleven sections. Each team of students was assigned to one of these sections.
As is true in all field schools, the mornings from nine to twelve were spent in class periods. The students chose to visit from twelve noon until 2:30 P.M. when they came together for a joint dinner. This enabled the wives of the students to attend the classes, giving them ample time to prepare the meal afterward. The experienced men divided themselves among the students. Services began on Saturday night, and Sunday the visitation started.
Making the Call
It was good for us to have the privilege of knocking on doors where we had no previous information about the inhabitants. A simple format was followed. Prior to the campaign, handbills had been bulk mailed, and at each home we displayed a handbill, asking whether they had received one in the mail. If they showed recognition at the sight of the handbill, we asked whether they had been able to attend the meetings being held in the junior high school auditorium.
It was interesting to see the response. Word had spread across the city from those who had attended, so we were received very favorably. I'm also sure that our physicians were to a large extent responsible for the good feeling the community had for Seventh-day Adventists.
The following questions were asked at each home in the community:
- Had they received a handbill?
- Had they been able to attend?
- If they had not been able to attend, would they be able to attend that night or the following night?
- What church were they reared in and were they active in their church?
- How long had they lived in the community?
If they seemed to be a strong spiritual family, we would request a word of prayer before we left, sometimes asking them to pray.
A careful list was kept of those not at home, and the team members called back as many as six times in order to make sure that everyone in the community was visited.
A baptism held just two weeks before the campaign included all of the previous interests and the children. Therefore, we could make a good trial run on what could be accomplished from this door-to-door visitation.
The Results
Because it was a small community, experienced workers were enabled to make visits with the student teams at least three and in some cases six different periods during the campaign. The students, in turn, were able to profit from the experience of each man; moreover, because of their strong visitation program the nightly attendance was held at nearly a hundred non-Adventists. Everyone in this community was given an opportunity to know the message, and we left the city knowing that each one had been personally invited to re-examine his spiritual condition. The result: At the conclusion of the campaign forty-six people—forty-four of these adults—took their stand.
A Boy Contact
Two illustrations will serve to show what happens when a community is worked with this type of visitation. One of the teams made up of one student from each of the schools passed by one of the Protestant churches where a twelve-year-old boy was mowing the lawn. They stepped over to him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and invited him to the meetings. They asked him virtually the same questions as previously listed.
The boy was so thrilled with the attention shown him that he promised to be at the meeting that night. After he had attended three meetings, this team wanted to visit also with his parents. Calling at his home, they discovered that he was living with his grandparents. The grandfather was an invalid, confined to a wheel chair. Both were urged to attend the meetings with their grandson, and transportation was offered to the meeting place, where no stairs were involved. On the last night of the series, grandmother, grandfather, and grandson all took a stand.
Also living in the community was the boy's mother, although she had not attended any of the series, because of her alcoholic husband. In fact, it was because of him that the boy stayed with his grandparents during the summer. Bubbling over with enthusiasm, son and grandparents urged her to come to the question-answer Bible classes the last five nights of the series. She attended, and at the end of the five nights requested baptism with her family. Extensive work was done with this mother so she could join the church with the other members of her family The boy lost his job mowing the lawn for his former church. He has since taken a paper route and in this way is paying his church school tuition.
One of our fine physicians has these people as his patients. Since the series he has studied a full course of Bible lessons with them. They have brought in friends as well. Only time will tell what will be fully accomplished because these two young men took time to speak to a lonely boy. This experience reminds us of the Spirit of Prophecy admonition that people are won through love, not through arguments.
A Young Couple Change Their Mind
Another one of our teams, two men from the university, called at the home of a younger family and were told by the man of the house that they had attended the opening meeting but, disagreeing with something that was said, would not be present again. He had been listening to a radio minister he explained, was convinced of his message, and had requested (just prior to our series) that a delegate be sent to him so that he might be baptized. He had stopped smoking just three months ahead of the campaign. A brakeman on the railroad, he had lived in that same community all his life. He had studied geology for two and a half years in college. The wife, a college graduate in the field of education, was still smoking.
Our students would not argue with this family, but with all the kindness and love they knew how to give, urged them to hear the whole message before they drew any final conclusions. To their delight the family came again two nights later and then began attending regularly, developing a very keen interest in the message. On the last night of the series they took their stand. Since that time both husband and wife have been baptized and are a real asset to the church.
And what did the series do for the church? Since the series' conclusion, one of the lay members telephoned me saying, "Before the field school, our Dorcas Society and many of the activities of our church were nearly dead, but now since the field school our new members take their cars and go round the area to gather up new and old members alike and take them to Dorcas and other activities of the church. Our church has now come alive!"
I am determined that any field school I hold in the future will be held in a small area like this so we can give personal help and experience to each of our students. In addition we can fully work the community.
