VISIT BY U.S. STUDENTS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29844, 9 June 1962, Page 13

VISIT BY U.S. STUDENTS

“Missionaries” In Christchurch

Two American students who are spending three months in Christchurch assisting in the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church encountered semantic difficulties when they described themselves as missionaries on their first evening in NewZealand.

“We were promptly asked if Americans considered that New Zealanders were heathens,” said Mr W. Dixon "But we used the term in the American sense, to describe someone who is of assistance in a church.”

“We were lucky—the ‘heathens’ turned out to be very friendly people.” said his companion, Mr D. Shluntz The students are the first “missionaries” to be sent to New Zealand by American university student Baptist Unions. Every summer vacation, the unions sponsor trips by students to assist in churches in other American states, in Asia, Africa. Latin America and Europe. Mr Dixon, who is 24. is attending a graduate school in Tennessee, where he is working on a Ph D thesis in teacher education. He will eventually teach in a university to prepare teachers for public schools. Mr Shluntz, aged 18. is studying for a degree in education in Louisiana, and will eventually become a Baptist ‘minister.