MISSIONARY PARTY

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21087, 12 February 1934, Page 2

MISSIONARY PARTY

HOLY TRINITY CHLKt II Once a year the parishioners of Holy Trinity Church, Avonside, hold a garden party in aid of the church missionary fund, and so capably do the members of the vestry organise the party, which is usually held in fne picturesque grounds of the church, that it has come to be regarded as one of the most important annual social gatherings of the parish. This year it was decided to hold the party on Saturday. The organiser:. did ihcir work as well as usual, bul the weather played them false. Early in the forenoon, rain fell so heavily that all hope of holding a garden party had to be abandoned. Without wasting time in repining, the stallholders promptly arranged their stock of yoods in the school room, where in the afternoon a very enjoyable and successful party was held. A song was sung by Miss Connie Hill, and spirited music was supplied by Mr Ralph Lilley's crehestra. The .Stall-holders The stall-holders, who did good business, were as follows:—Book::. Sunday School teachers; produce, Mr F. King and Mr J. Clausen: sweets stall, Girls' Bible Class: work stall. Sewing Guild; afternoon tea. Girls" Friendly Society: cakes, Mrs R. Wardle, Mrs C. Rissman; variety stall, Mrj W. J. Hands, Miss E. Sorensen, Mrs K. Marshall, Mrs J. E. K. Brown. Missionary From China Added interest was given to the gathering by the presence of Miss V. Bargrove, a nurse-missionary, who returned to New Zealand from China a few months ago, and Who gave a short account of her work in the Far East. Miss Bargrove first went to China as a nurse-missionary 10 years ago, and she is now on furlough for the second time sir.ee she joined the ranks of the Church Missionary Society. She has been one of three British trained r.urses on the staff of: the society's hospital at Hangchow, a hospital that has 450 beds. There are also on the staff 13 Chinese trained nurses and many Chinese pupil nurses, who are being trained. On the medical staff there are 11 doctors, five British, including two women, one of whom is a New Zealander —Dr. Phyllis Haddow, of Auckland —and six Chinese. On Saturday, Miss Bargrove described the terrible state of affairs that prevailed at the hospital when it was taken by Russian communists in 192 V. They put in their own staff—mostly German trained doctors, and absolutely untrained irresponsible girls as nurse.-'. After they had been in occupation for 18 months, the Chinese generalissimo ordered them to vacate the hospital, which in July, 1028, was handed back, very much the worse for wear, to the Church Missionary Society. In November of that year, Miss Bargrove returned to Hang-chow from a visit to New Zealand, and with two other nurses, both English, she undertook the difficult uphill work of putting the hospital in order once more. Due. she thought, to the privations and hardships endured at that time, both the English nurses who were associated with her had since developed tuberculosis, and v/cre recently invalided to England. But the lack of comfort—she had never seen an easy chair in a Chinese house—the difficulties, and the hardships. Miss Bargrove said, were as nothing compared with the joy that she and her fellow workers had experienced m spreading the Gospel amongst the pagan people. She had seen women utterly dejected, hopeless, and spiritless; when these women were taught the Gospel they became earnest Christians, and so joyous, happy, and helpful, that they were almost unrecognisable. This was the work that brought encouragement and great happiness to the nurse-missionaries and, Nurse Bargrove concluded, "we could not do this work if it were not for your prayers and for the help you give us, and I ask for the continuance of your prayers and your help."