AT THE close of the Australasian Division annual meetings it was my privilege, together with Brethren W. R. Beach and W. L. Pascoe from the General Conference, to attend the North New South Wales camp meeting. The campground is beautifully situated on the shores of a large lake. The attendance was very good and the president, Pastor L. S. Rose, had a strong and balanced program planned. Here again the eagerness of our dear people to respond to the call of the hour was most gratifying. One is more and more impressed with the fact that the Lord is about to do great things among us and we must be prepared to have a part in it.
Our next ministerial institute was at Lilydale Academy, near Melbourne. About one hundred workers from the Trans-Commonwealth Union came together. Also with us from beginning to end was Pastor S. M. Uttley, the union president, and four of his conference presidents. Pastor Uttley's studies at the morning devotional meetings were outstanding and set the pace for all the meetings that followed each day. The spirit of revival and reformation was much in evidence.
The meeting closed on Saturday night and on Sunday evening we opened our next institute at our campground near Auckland, New Zealand. We were privileged to have with us G. H. and E. L. Minchin, from Washington, and they brought great inspiration and help to us. Brother Burnside gave his usual strong presentation to the meeting. F. L. Stokes and J. H. Wade, the presidents of the local fields, were with us from the beginning and it was a joy to fellowship with them. It would be hoping for too much to expect that there would not arise some problems that needed attention. It was always marvelous, how ever, to see how the Lord worked to turn these to times of great victory for those involved. God answered our prayers and a large measure of His Spirit was felt by all who were present.
It was my privilege to go to Christchurch for two services on the Sabbath. The after noon combined service was a precious experience and the attendance was very good. It was encouraging to see our newly built food factory there and the beautiful grounds that surround it. The old factory was burned down a year or two ago and the new one is now completed and operating at full capacity.
Our next institute began the following Tuesday morning at Jones Missionary College at Kambubu. This was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. It was here that the workers sang the beautiful song, "The Half Has Never Been Told." These were the workers from the Bismarck-Solomon Union, with A. R. Mitchell, the union president, in charge. With him also were the mission presidents, and district leaders. I was thrilled by the dedication of these brethren and of the national workers and students who were present. It was a real revelation to me to discover that they have the same problems basically in these island missions as we have in the home fields. Of course, we know the devil is our common foe and he will not make it easy for our workers anywhere. Here as in other places it was evident from the discussion groups that our workers are so busy with their many duties that they have little time for personal prayer and Bible study. There are no short cuts to holiness of life and all of us must see to it that we have sufficient time with the Lord for prayer and study so that we may be the kind of men that God can use in the finishing of His work.
It was a special pleasure to see our mission boats and their captains and crews. These men are as consecrated in their service as are the ministers in theirs. The beauty of location for this college is unsurpassed and the school is doing outstanding work for God. It must be stated that here, too, the Spirit of God was among us. The work here shows great promise of growth and advancement. It was a privilege to meet a number of the laymen from Sonoma who were giving three or four weeks of their time to the building of our new workers' training school some thirty or so miles from Rabaul. They had left their families be hind for a period of time to aid in this undertaking, and though they were away from home over Christmas their spirit was good and they seemed thrilled to have a part in the work.
We left Kambubu on Thursday night after a communion service, with which we closed all of our institutes, and went to Rabaul for the night.
Early the next morning we flew to Goroka for our next institute at Kabiufa. This is a beautifully situated college in the heart of the New Guinea highlands. There were about eighty workers present for this meeting and it was a time of rich spiritual blessing. During my stay there, I enjoyed the warmth of the M.P. Cozens' home. Pastor Cozens is the principal at the college and he and his family are charming and capable people. The leaders of both the union and the local missions have a great burden upon their hearts for the finishing of the Lord's work. The Spirit of God did a wonderful work for us and there was a whole-hearted response to the call for revival, reformation, and evangelism. O. D. F. McCutcheon, the union president, was with us throughout the meetings and gave helpful leadership as well as some inspiring studies.
The ministerial institute was followed by a lay workers' convention conducted by H. F. Rampton, the Lay Activities secretary for the division, and it proved to be a great blessing to all.
The brethren kindly arranged to take me in mission planes to see some of our work in the newly developed areas of New Guinea. We were flown first to our leper hospital at Togoba where we saw many of the three hundred and fifty lepers being treated there. This was indeed a pitiful sight. The workers of this institution are to be highly commended for their dedication to their work. May God bless the entire staff as they offer themselves in loving service to these people.
Then on to our mission hospital at Sopas. Here we met Dr.'and Mrs. R. D. Wood and their children. Dr. Wood is a graduate of Loma Linda University Medical School, and he and his family are now completing their five-year term of service there. They plan to return to the States for his advanced training in surgery. They are eager, how ever, to return to mission service following this training. We visited until late New Year's Eve and then closed our visit with prayer and a rededication to the task. It was a joy to meet the staff at the hospital and to worship with them and to see the scope of the work being done there.
The next day Pastor L. H. Barnard flew us out to the most recently opened mission station in his territory at Nomad River. This is right in the heart of the cannibal country, and when we landed on the government strip we were told that the government agent with a number of his peace officers was out trying to round up some of the men in the bush who had killed a man and had a cannibal feast only a day or two before we arrived. We met the lovely missionary family, a young man and his wife, and they are wonderful. The night before we got there six cannibals from the jungle had walked into their station and had asked for food. What little they had they shared with them and let them stay through the night. They were there the next morning when we arrived. They were raw heathen dirty, greasy, and wild but this missionary and his wife were unafraid. They knew of the Saviour's promise to be with them always, and in this blessed promise they felt secure.
We went from there to Kiunga and after some time Pastor Paul Piari, the national worker who attended the General Conference session in Detroit, came to meet us. He is a successful missionary. He was not spoiled by the luxury that he saw and experienced in the States and requested that he be sent back to his post of duty upon his return. He, with his son and two other helpers, had walked seven miles to the air strip even though they had no previous knowledge of our plan to visit them. Here is a remarkable man and God is certainly blessing his work.
From there we went to Lake Kapiago, where we met more of our national missionaries, and then on to Oksapmin and saw more of our wonderful people, among them Pastor Moses, in charge of the work in that area, and Sister Lily, a young woman whose story of faithfulness and courage is thrilling, and whose Christian witness has been a source of inspiration to many.
Then we went on to Laiagam where Pastor Barnard lives and there we spent the night. We had a worship service that evening with about one hundred of the people from the community. The next morning while we were eating breakfast a large delegation came to the Barnard home and asked to see me. They did not want to talk to Pastor Barnard, nor even for him to translate for me, so Pastor A. C. Thompson, from Angoram, did the honors. This delegation had chosen a spokesman and came to ask me to relay two requests to Pastor Naden. Since I would be seeing Pastor Pierson soon, it was hoped that I would share the message with him too. In as well prepared an appeal as I have ever heard they asked me to tell the brethren that under no circumstances should Pastor Barnard be taken away from them. They told what things were like before he came and the marvelous changes that had taken place in their lives and they wanted to keep him with them as long as he lives or until Jesus comes. If he dies they promise that they will give him a loving burial and will take care of "his Mary," but he must stay with them. Pastor Barnard and his wife love them and understand them and they need to have them with them to help get ready for the coming of Jesus and to finish the work in this part of His vineyard. It was a very moving experience. The seriousness and earnestness of their appeal was most impressive. I have passed on this word to the brethren.
Now, there was another request that they wanted me to give also; they want a new church with an iron roof on it like the other mission has. They do not want an elegant church, just a truly representative church so that the people will know that the Adventists love and honor their God also. I think the thing they wanted above every thing else in connection with the new church was the permanent roof---the iron roof. So I have passed this word on too, and have done my duty except perhaps to give to this project if and when it is carried out.
The next day we flew to the Sepik area, up to Wewak, Angoram, and Ambunti. At Ambunti we were to pick up a missionary nurse who was to be taken out for a few weeks of rest and relaxation. She did not know we were coming, however, and was out doing the work for which she had been so well trained. The dedication of these missionaries is unsurpassed. It was here that our plans changed, for we had expected to fly on to Goroka. But since the weather turned so bad we flew instead to Kompiam and then to Wabag and Laiagam where we spent the night.
Friday morning we were able to fly to Goroka and immediately upon arrival went with Pastor C. M. Winch in his plane to the Kukukuku country to see some of our national missionaries and our work there. We saw the small people in the Kukukuku country and were thrilled with the reports of the way the Lord is opening up these areas also. Here again a strong work is being done and a new mission station has just been opened in the wildest part of this territory. God is blessing the work in New Guinea.
In a letter I received from Pastor Barnard the following story is told: "Two Sabbaths ago I spent in fellowship with our believers in the Maramun valley which is due north of Laiagam. Here a heathen man made a desperate plea for a missionary to help his people and when queried as to why he wanted an Adventist missionary he told me of a dream he had recently which deeply impressed him. In his dream he was walking along a trail from his village to a group of heathen people who were preparing for one of their pagan festivities. He was accosted by a man in bright white clothing who led him past this group toward our mission station further up the valley at Kiamatok. After walking some distance with him, the stranger pointed upward and told him that there was a home prepared for him above, then he left him.
"The following morning our faithful missionary from Kiamatok village arrived outside his hut with a Picture Roll to hold a branch Sabbath school on the Sabbath day. When this man saw him he knew the answer to his dream which had been troubling him. It was a great joy to see him drinking so deeply of the truth the weekend I was in his valley. Thus the Lord is leading these people by signs and wonders to His glorious truth."
Our last institute was the Council on Evangelism at Avondale. Gathered for this meeting were about thirty of the top soul winners of Australia and New Zealand. They were good, strong evangelists and pas tor-evangelists. This was in every respect a most beneficial meeting and the brethren hope that they may be able to have another one before too many years go by. They went back to their work with new courage and commitment.
It was a wonderful privilege to be with the workers of the division for these meetings and my only hope and prayer is that our fellowship and ministry with them will produce much fruit in their lives and in their work in the days to come. We are most grateful that we have leaders in the Australasian Division and throughout the world field who share the immense burden for revival and reformation with us. May God bless us abundantly as we carry the gospel to all the world in our generation.
