MISSIONARY WORK

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1934, Page 5

MISSIONARY WORK

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FIELD. GENERAL ASSEMBLY DISCUSSION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night At the Presbyterian General Assembly to-day the Rev.' F. B. Barton spoke of the need of reinforcements for the foreign mission fields. The lack of these weakens the present efforts and hinders the future progress of the Presbyterian Church. The church had not had to withdraw missionaries but unless further workers were sent out there was a danger of failure. Gratification was expressed at the quality of volunteers offering. for service abroad. The Rev. W. Mawson, secretary of the foreign mission committee, said that the pioneer missionary work of last century was beginning to tell on churches in India, China and elsewhere taking a full place in missionary enterprise. The Rev. J. A. Thomson said the church must visualise the requirements of years ahead in order to be able to. meet the demands of the work. Resignations inevitably occurred and missionaries grew old. Such gaps, should be planned for to-day to prevent the work suffering in the years to come. The Rev. G. H. McNeur, of the Canton mission, said that only five out of 20 missionaries at work 15 years ago. remained on the field. Work in the hospital was hampered by the lack of a trained staff. Two doctors and two nurses were not enough to enable, the standard to be kept up. In educational work the church was giving money contribution to the teacher training, school. It. should be giving personnel. Similarly the evangelistic staff had become too weak to do fully the work offering. A great opportunity , was facing the church in China to-day but the staff was too few in number to seize it. The Rev. J. L. Gray, India, spoke of the needs of the Punjab mission. A missionary should be on the field by 1936 to prepare to replace the Rev. T. E. Riddle. Much travelling work was done by women missionaries and they had to go in pairs. To this end another woman missionary was absolutely necessary. The Sirmur state was not touched adequately yet, but the people were willing to receive the missionaries. The Church must remember that two years was required to grasp the language. At present the staff in India was dangerously low in strength and sickness might cause a serious position. Mr. Gray urged a cautious but courageous advance. There was such a thing as faith and he urged the church to use it. Mr. E. G. Jansen was accepted for service on the foreign field. He will be sent out after the close of the financial year so that the burden does not come upon the present budget allocation. The foreign mission committee was empowered to send out a woman worker to India as the representative of the Young Women’s Bible Class Union. It was agreed to ti'ansfei' £2OOO from the Canton sites and building fund to the foreign mission working fund. Negotiations are to be entered into with the Presbyterian Church of Victoria regarding bearing a proportion of the salary of the principal of the Tangoa Teachers’ Training Institute .in the New Hebrides.