MISSIONARY WORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22809, 19 February 1936, Page 14

MISSIONARY WORK

ACTIVITY ON VARIOUS FIELDS A series of meetings under the auspices of and arranged by the Otago Missionary Society, an affiliation of interdenominational missions, was held in the Trinity Methodist Church yesterday, very satisfactory attendances being present on each occasion. In the morning the speaker was Mr Andrew Cowie, of the South Seas Evangelical Mission, in the afternoon the meeting was addressed by Mr and Mrs George Allan, of the Bolivian Indian Mission, and at-night an exceedingly large audience listened to a most interesting addrses by Mr Charles H. Barton on Abyssinia. Mr Barton is a member of the Sudan Interior Mission. IN THE SOUTH SEAS. Mr Cowie, who has spent five years and a-half in the Solomon Islands as a missionary with the South Sea Evangelical Mission, told how the work of the mission commenced among the natives of the Solomon Islands when they were working in plantations in Queensland. In 1906 they were sent back to the Islands. Miss Young went back with them and formed the mission. The work had grown steadily and there were now 35 missionaries and eight outstations, in addition to 300 native villages with native teachers in charge. The head station was at One Pustt, where there was a training school to which natives came to receive Christian teaching. Two hundred natives could bo trained at a time.

The mission sought to reach the natives by the natives, Mr Cowie continued. The missionaries greatest work was the training of natives and overseeing of the churches. When the natives became Christians they were encouraged to form a Christian village of their own and thus made a clean break from heathenism. Over 20 years ago Br Northcote Deck had visited in the ship Evangel the island of Rennell, the most southerly of the group. . He had taken with him three native Christian teachers who took up residence on the island to preach the Gospel. They were apparently well received, but three days after the Evangel sailed from the island they were murdered. From that day until two or three years ago the island had been closed to missionaries, but prayer had been offered continually and a new trip had been made about two years ago, when several natives had gone away with the Evangel to One Pusu to the training school. As a result two or three had been soundly converted and had gone back to Rennell as evangelists. The Evangel had paid a recent visit and had found that they were standing firmly for Christ amidst the heathen surroundings. The two chiefs, Taubongi and Tahua, were very interested in th* Gospel and should they become Christians it would mean that the whole island would be influenced for Christ. POSITION IN BOLIVIA.

The present was a time of crisis in Bolivia, said Mr Allan, for the three years' war with Paraguay had just ended—or it was.hoped it was ended. An agreement had been signed, but if it was found that the present arrangement would not work the whole matter would have to go before the Court of International Justice at The Hague, which was what Bolivia had wanted all along. There were at the present time four aspirants for the favour of the Bolivians, Mr Allan continued. First, there were the Communists, who had been active among the army; then there was the Roman Catholic Church, which, however, had no hope of making progress. The other two were the Bolivian Indian Mission and the Government. Happily the mission could co-operate with the Government, for it possessed its confidence and had been officially encouraged by the late President Montez. There were great opportunities for missionary work in Bolivia at the present time. At first the appearance of the missionaries had been regarded with suspicion, not unmixed with a certain amount of hostility, but those conditions were now changed. There was a great day coming in Bolivia. He Avould not be surprised if the Roman Catholic Church was deprived of its funds, which would be used to pay off the war debt, while, on the other hand, those in authority were inclined to favour the evangelical movement and to provide it with every facility for its furtherance. Mrs Allan also spoke briefly. Mr Barton's address is reported elsewhere.