Buck Hill Falls mission consultation, after 1957, side 1.

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    Then the Christian religion. We didn't have the men. We didn't have the money.
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    Well I don't know whether Toynbee is right or not.
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    I've never read all of the book but I have read the redaction twice. And,
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    when he says that the rhythm is challenge and response
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    maybe we broke the rhythm. It is a
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    fact that these things are so.
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    Entirely.
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    And the second thing I want to say to you is that this church is the foundation of our
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    future entirely. I didn't say that this church
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    is our future.
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    And I don't believe for a minute.
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    And I thank God that there is nobody in this room who believes for one minute
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    that the migrant American missionary is our future.
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    He's not.
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    Aside from certain factors that we have not faced in this situation. He is not our
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    future because the future is fast and streamlined and most of us
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    missionaries are.
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    Well weighted down with impedimenta to say the least. The migrant
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    American missionary is not our future. The church is not our future.
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    The church is the foundation of our future. And, one of the
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    errors, one of the subtle errors in our thinking in this conference.
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    I'm not saying because you are there and I'm here.
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    One of our errors and one of the errors in larger circles that
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    deal with these problems is the subtle error to make the
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    church our goal. The church is not our goal.
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    It was not called into existence by the Lord Jesus
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    Christ as an end in itself. The church is never
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    its own goal. The church is the foundation of our future
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    for the fundamental support of the future. The fundamental
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    support of the future which we long for and strive with all
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    our might to realize is in the imagery of the New Testament
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    the coming together in an indissoluble unity of the
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    living stones which are the foundation. That's what the church is. It's the foundation
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    of the future. We are the living stones. If we are living on
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    that we cannot say we are or we cannot say we are not. It all depends upon our faith.
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    Only God knows who belongs to him. But anyhow we are not the future, that's
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    evident.
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    And the church, as we constitute it organisationally and ecclesiastically, is not
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    the future and it certainly is not the future strategically but it is the
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    foundation of our future.
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    The kingdom of God is the future, and the
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    Kingdom of God is the goal of the church.
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    The church exists for the purpose of giving glimpses,
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    of the kingdom, of revealing the kingdom, of witnessing to the reality of the
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    kingdom, of telling men by word and by deed that there is something that is
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    real and of pointing to it.
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    The kingdom is precisely anywhere where Christ reigns as
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    Lord and that very.
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    The structure of the church,
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    the the visible organizational problem with which we struggle, all of
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    this is not reality it's it's it's it's symbolic of something,
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    which is deeper and more more meaningful. And, the only thing is
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    God's kingdom where he is king of the human heart.
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    That's the only reality there is.
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    And the thirst after God cannot be channeled in these programs the
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    program.
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    Well or program. We have many programs but
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    but that isn't it.
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    All other reality is derivative and symbolic.
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    And therefore because this is true, whether we want to face it or
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    not, I can show you one example which I think is cogent
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    logically irrefutable. We think for example not to ourselves here of
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    course. We don't think it, but most people in the United States would say that real
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    power and they mean by that real reality. The thing that actually
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    is is.
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    Best symbolized by the development of well the hydrogen bomb. We
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    talk about it, but that's what we mean. That that's the real article.
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    But that isn't the real article, the real
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    article that created that symbolism of the diabolical
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    hellishness in it,
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    Is the misguided sinful rebellious
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    power of the unlimited spirit of man.
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    You see that that's what created it. That's what brought it into being. The real thing is what you
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    can't see. The real power is spiritual power.
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    And that's but that's that's where we are. We, we don't grapple with
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    it because it's tougher. Thus we say the mission of the church
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    is the only relevant activity because the mission of the church is to point to that power.
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    And the church is the instrument of God to achieve that power. And,
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    to disclose that reality, it follows that the church must be ecumenical now.
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    We we we talked here about the church in the
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    world and we are tempted to get the idea that there are a series of churches across the
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    earth as there is a series of links in a chain.
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    And often times the chain has been severed by some uncourageous
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    thoughtlessness which has ruptured the inner
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    continuity which holds the chain together. The chain is not held together
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    incidentally by the iron links. The iron links, each in itself is
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    completely independent.
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    They are joined together by an intellectual concept of unity which has fashioned
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    them into a mold which can add here.
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    And the church must be ecumenical because the mission of the church is to unveil the
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    only reality that is and that is God.
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    And you cannot have a partial instrument revealing the whole of reality. That's
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    the point. You cannot have a partial instrument giving service to the
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    total. And you cannot have the partiality of the church in America
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    revealing the wholeness of God across this earth. Don't forget that! That's
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    the error of the arrogance that may creep into our thinking as a board that
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    we can give the witness to the world.
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    Yes.
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    And the other thing is that we cannot have the partial reality at the other end. The church on the
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    field cannot give the reality, the witness to the reality,
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    to the world. And, we are in danger of falling into a false
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    antithesis if we believe that the question comes down. We don't care and I don't say that.
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    But we are in danger of being led to a place where we in our
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    difficulties, and they are real. We are going to say that this
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    this witness, through the sharing of our life with that life, is not so
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    important as the nourishment of that life in order that it may come back to us
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    in building the ecumenical church.
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    It is impossible to fashion an ecumenical instrument
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    unless there goes out from this church you're
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    dedicated fresh life.
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    And it is impossible to refresh the stagnant water
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    in this church here unless we bring to it the gifts and the
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    grace of that church there. Oh I know you will say you're just running away, Ryburn! [Ryburn, Horace Wintzer] You're
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    just dreaming! You can't do it all.
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    Well God can. We must do it.
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    Do we we we we cannot
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    this this is we were instructed in
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    these documents which came to us.  I say in all honesty and sincerity
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    in some people here questioned it.
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    But I don't care about that. I did read them. I read them carefully I studied them.
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    And we were told that this re-evaluation was upon us because
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    of the times and that's true. And, that it was hastened by the financial situation which
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    is so obvious that it hurts. And then we were told
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    that also we must look at it
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    because of the reality of our faith.
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    That's really it. It's because of our faith
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    at that point.
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    Our faith in the ecumenical instrument,
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    the ecumenical ties. Our faith in the wholeness of Christ Church
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    our faith.
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    This is the foundation of our future and if we build,
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    if we built across this world, if we were clever enough with our administrative technique to fashion an
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    organization which would be ecumenical and tightly knit in the fellowship and unity of
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    service pursuing its common mission across the earth. If we built that, if we achieved it over the next
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    five years either through the insight and vision and leadership of this Board [Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Board of Foreign Missions] or because there would be
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    springing up across the church in a number of places spontaneously at the same time the same
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    drives and impulses we still would not achieve our mission.
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    Let us not forget that our mission is not the creation of that structure.
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    Our mission is to witness
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    to the reality of God. And, the instrument is this church. Our
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    technical task is the creation of this organizational pattern so
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    that we may get on with the job.
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    Well if this thing be so and I believe on the
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    basis of the New Testament it is so.
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    Let's face it. What are we going to
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    do in Thailand? In
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    1953 we requested from the Board in
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    the so-called field work appropriations, the class four two 11 a million 400,000
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    999 to call say roughly at the current rate of exchange is not exact but
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    figures even seventy thousand dollars US.
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    In 1952 the board gave to us in the
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    same classes 55,000 U.S. dollars. In other words this year
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    if we receive, as we have already been told we are to receive,
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    the same budget that we received last year. We will receive 25
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    percent less than we asked for. And, then there comes into this group here the
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    question is the budget then realistic? And that is an
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    administrative problem. The budget that
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    comes from the field should be realistic because
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    the man sent out there by the Board should see that it is. It's not
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    a question. We are frustrated. We cannot we cannot get the money we
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    need.
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    But it is partly because we have a dream concept of an
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    unlimited amount if we if we were only free just to ask for more and
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    more and more and more and satisfy ourselves by our particular American
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    preoccupation of an endless series of activist programs
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    that continue to grind the treadmill of tradition. Pardon me for using what
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    Charlie said.
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    Who am I to use his imagery and his verbiage.
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    But anyhow that's exactly the truth.
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    We are not asking for these endless promotional sort of
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    dreamland stuff which is blown up like a balloon with nothing more than the verbiage
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    which comes out here and which is trapped on that gelatinous thread which winds
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    round and round and round and round. And, we must more and more finance every
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    kind of technological improvement which will somehow capture the spirit and
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    imprison him.
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    But anyhow $70,000 is a
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    measurable opportunity.
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    And whether it goes on the tape or not. I know that Bert Rice, who has been a missionary and
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    lived in the Far East, will by the sharp analysis of her mind put that down.
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    Seventy thousand dollars there's a measurable opportunity. I'm not asking for the
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    world or the moon. I'm not asking for a great new reorganisation
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    of the board. I'm not asking that we bust through the hard Jericho
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    wall of the General Council which was erected in order that the church might be
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    protected from the unguided and unpredictable emotionalism of the
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    Spirit of God.
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    I'm only asking for seventy thousand dollars.
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    That's all. That's all we can spend. If you have seventy-five thousand give the other
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    five thousand to Japan. John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] needs it. It's a measurable
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    opportunity. It's a piece of work that can be done. It's there and we ought
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    to support it.
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    God Incidentally we said examine it by our faith.
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    All right! Do it! God has not given us yet the opportunity
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    to do any more than that seventy thousand dollars will do.
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    That's what I'm trying to say. That's exactly what I'm trying to say. We couldn't spend any
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    more than that profitably.
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    God has matched that opportunity to what I believe in our
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    faith is God's estimate of at least
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    some of our power to give this year.
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    The Church of Christ in Thailand requested in nineteen hundred and fifty
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    three projected its own budget of sixty thousand dollars US.
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    This is it's estimated 1953 budget and
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    it's estimated that of the sixty thousand dollars US its own churches would contribute fifteen
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    thousand dollars US and it requested to the mission.
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    Forty five thousand dollars US in class six.
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    And when they brought that in to us we of course told them it was impossible because
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    we knew that when it comes to talking about faith that is just a lot of hooey.
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    And so we said we would put in our request for twenty thousand dollars U.S.,
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    which is less than half and you say ring the budget's
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    out. Well we rung it. Here it is.
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    This isn't the mission budget. This is the budget of the General Council of the
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    Church of Christ in Thailand. It's staffed with their own staff, which is sent to Dan Pattison [Pattison, Daniel M., Treasurer, Board of Foreign Missions] and
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    John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] there are the columns, the names, the words. There are still more pages that's
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    only three four so on right down to the end. It's all right there for
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    cogitation, for prayer.
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    They sent it to the Board because the field administrator compelled it in order to get
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    $20000. Not on your life.
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    They asked that I would send it because they wanted the church here to know what
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    they were doing. Talk about nationalism, anti-Americanism, the
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    difficulty of getting people in.
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    I sympathize with Park Johnson [Johnson, R. Park] with a minority Christian group. That's what we face. Who ever heard
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    of Presbyterians wanting to quit because it's tough. I sympathize with John Weir [Weir, John Barr]. He
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    says the Hindus don't want us there [india].
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    But in this country they want us just as lousy as we are.
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    They want us.
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    They are inviting us.
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    They are urging us.
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    Why sure, the Church of Christ in Thailand asked Mary [Ryburn, Mary Ethel Turner]  and me [Ryburn, Horace Wintzer] to come back. You
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    would say that's natural. Whoever carries the bag always find an open door. I
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    know that. But we've had letters since we came back here from non-Christian
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    people in our Thai circle in Bangkok.
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    Editors of newspapers asking us to come back. They don't.
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    It isn't this. It's the fact that the American is welcome. And, we are
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    Americans. And, we are an American mission and we are a Board
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    in America. And if you can't do it in another area. And, if you
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    can't do it there, and what are you going to do? Go about
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    theologizing about the forces that are crowding in upon us so that we
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    must break through them? Well, here's the door, boys. It's wide open. We can go
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    in with any amount of consecrated personnel we can corral. And,
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    we can go in with a lot more money than we've got today. And,
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    we can spend it to the glory of God, not by missionaries. The most extravagantq
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    part of our force across this world is the missionary.
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    Don't blame!  Don't say anything to me!
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    I'm a missionary and I'm on the field, but I still say that. Can
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    we give them 400,000? That is $20,000 when they
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    ask $45,000 in Class Six?
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    Well, the way is open. We've got roughly speaking, I don't know exactly,
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    that's one thing I confess to you here I am amazed at the way some field
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    administrators have been able to get up and right down the line.
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    They can pick statistics to the finest shade and variation.
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    They do exactly the type thing that Pete Wysham [Wysham, William Norris] has pressured me to do for three years. And, I've
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    never delivered because I can't do it.
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    And he and John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] have written the reports and dreamed the statistics. It's not for me.
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    We have more or less 60 missionaries, I can't say exactly because some might be on the high seas
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    coming home.
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    Others may be away for meditation and reflection and
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    so on. But, if we have 60 missionaries, that we've got 30 couples. Some
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    of them of course are single women. But if we've got 60 missionaries if we have sixty
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    missionaries, figure thirty at five thousand dollars a throw, you've got $150000.
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    I think the reality would be near 165 or maybe $70000 in class
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    one.
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    That's a lot of money.
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    And one of the things that distressed me measurably as I came down here
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    this morning and that's one reason why I'm so disorganized in these remarks that I'm making is the fact
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    that there has just come a copy of the minutes of the Executive Committee of the Missions.
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    Now let's face it.
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    And I've tried so desperately to create the idea that
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    property for example is not the sacred cow of
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    perverted Presbyterianism but is simply an instrumentality in the hands of
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    the Christian community to do its job. And now because there has been
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    trouble and because of all the confusion that exist in the
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    minds of missionaries and even our Thai brethren, the
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    High Court of the Mission has sat in judgment interpreting the tradition and has come up with the
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    idea that since property belongs to the Board,
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    it is a solemn responsibility of the mission.
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    A hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year maybe more.
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    And one thing we must do.
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    Is to share with these missionaries more fully and completely until there is
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    understanding concerning our aid. I admit that . Some
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    of my colleagues in Thailand don't understand what I'm getting at because I haven't been able
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    to make it clear to them. Others do understand it and are working beautifully for it,
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    which makes me wonder if there is a variation
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    in the perspicacity of some of us. But, I wouldn't be unkind about that. I don't
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    understand some of the things that we're doing here.
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    We have some immediate tasks
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    that must be achieved. The Chinese Christians in Thailand are frustrated for
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    education because the government provides schools, but there aren't of course enough and
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    naturally the Chinese cannot get in when there are three Thais standing in front of him.
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    Naturally the Thai are taken first. The Chinese cannot get through the fourth grade. And, the
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    government has now given us the first Chinese school in the whole kingdom, permission to
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    organize a school beyond the fourth grade through high school level. We can do it. They trust
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    us because we are Christians. Well but that's not sentimentality.That's
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    why they trust us. They don't trust us because we're Americans. They trust us because we're Christians.
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    And that same Chinese community has this past year believe it or not in connection with the
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    restoration grants we gave to remodel some of their property raised out of their own
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    resources over six thousand US dollars.
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    We want fifteen thousand dollars from the Board here in order to
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    start that school on land which we already own and have ample. And, they'll
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    match it with another fifteen or twenty thousand dollars to put up the basic structure
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    on the land which was consecrated to God by the first printing press ever taken to that
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    country by a missionary. The Board has given us $25000
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    to finish a headquarters building for the Church of Christ in Thailand. We have a church but we have no place
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    for them to function as such.
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    And in the headquarters building campaign Dr Chindossing, a name that
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    many of you here know, who does not take a dime from us, but views uncounted hours
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    free in the service of McCormick hospital has already given us we have it in cash in the bank.
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    Five hundred dollars toward the building himself. And has promised that just as soon as we starts spading,
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    so he can see that we're going to produce. He will give another five hundred dollars. In
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    other words what I'm trying to say to you here is although we don't have the building we have collected on the
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    field from Christians in this case. Not in the case of school buildings where
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    we kept the non-Christians but from Christians over ten thousand dollars US. And you say
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    well why don't you do it. Is there no end to what you need. Well I don't know. But, inflation and
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    costs are such that we will have to find someplace either here or there three
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    thousand five hundred dollars additional to do what we had basically projected.
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    They all contribute part of it but we've got to do it too. And, we have
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    five thousand university students in Bangkok.
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    in Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University.
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    Thammasat means the University of Maryland political science and the agriculture school pharmaceuticals school the
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    medical college. Chulalongkorn University and the medical college of Thammasat. And in
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    all of the other institutions there are these five thousand students and there is
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    no single university student in the Kingdom of Thailand in any other place
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    except Bangkok.
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    for there is no university anyplace else. And, it's all right there for
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    us. We don't need a large force of one missionary in this university center and another there and another
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    there to spot all over the map a number of student centers in order to reach the students. All we
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    need is what we've got--a magnificent missionary in Ray Downs [Downs, Raymond Cloyd]  and his wife [Downs, Elizabeth Holmquist], two of them.
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    And enough money to bring that hostel to a reality. You say, Oh
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    yes.
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    Why do you want the hostel? Well it just comes down to this. We can't have
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    a Christian university. We projected it five years ago, six years ago, whenever the
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    deputation came back. We could have had it then if we'd acted with boldness and vision. For
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    the first three years after the end of the war, when America was absolutely king pin in the Far East, we could have
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    achieved any sort of recognition from the government, but with our hesitation and
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    the rise of nationalism and the second outran, of course, our hesitation the first outran
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    the second and we we we cannot get it now.
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    When we were ready we could not get it because there was a new day, and I believe it's God's new day.
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    Because in Thailand, I don't think we have the manpower. And, I know from what I
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    hear here, the Board hasn't got the money to finance the university, but we can have a hostel for this one
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    purpose to gather the Christian university students, who are taking their training in Bangkok,
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    and to let them live in a fellowship in a Christian hostel where Betty and Ray Downs will
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    live and where the pattern has already been approved by the young people and by the
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    Church Committee working on the project, the National Church Committee, that they will live cooperatively.
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    And they will pray, they will read scripture, they will discuss the
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    issues that face them and face their church and face the world and their place
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    as witnessing individuals and God's calls. They will
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    create a forum where men coming from this country and from parts of
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    Europe when they reach Bangkok will have an adequate platform upon which to present their claims
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    for Jesus Christ in the heart of the all new
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    life.
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    Bangkok has. They will do this. But after all
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    you can't ask us to do this type of new pioneering thing
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    with resources from the field because we have reserved to our right.
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    The pioneers place.
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    We have said to ourselves that we are the leaders. We are the pioneers. We thrust forward and
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    others follow.
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    Let us really walk out and do this or we're both going to fall into the ditch.
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    We must have enough money. It's in your youth
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    budget of course. But we ask for 10 times in youth budget what is in
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    there. And the youth budget isn't raised. I just put this
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    down for your consideration.
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    If we could get which we we did not have last year in the budget incidentally instead of having
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    $20000 in Classics last year we had less
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    than we had less than $13000. And, we got the rest of it
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    by the shrewed operation of John Smith [Smith, John Coventry] and the
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    cordial collaboration of Dan Pattison [Pattison, Daniel M.] for which we are eternally grateful.
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    If we had even $20,000 in Classics
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    We would have 15000 constituents, communicants that is, in the Church of
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    Christ in Thailand and we would be requesting from classics a
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    dollar and 33 and a third cents per year per Christian or a third of a cent per
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    Christian per day.
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    I know you don't like me to waste your time talking about that, but that's a fact anyhow we have to face it.
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    So I end with only this
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    one fact about our financial situation.
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    We need for our Mation school for the Chinese and
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    we need for our church headquarters, and we need to complete
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    our hostel project where we have already
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    a fellowship of fifty Christian students in Ray Downs' house,
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    Actually, we need at least 28000 and $500.
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    and if he was invited today to challenge us
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    for this conference, what wou`ld you think? The strategies that we are seeking for in  this conference is to get some strategies that will break through these oppositions and look and be prepared..
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    He's got some really great truly thoughtful vision that we
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    prepare.
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    And the second thing is you and I have talked often, Horace [Ryburn, Horace] concerning this government
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    business that's piling down on on Thailand.
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    The government going in there and trying conscientiously perhaps with all of its
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    economic program and agricultural programs. But we are
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    so certain there is going to be a reaction against that before very long.
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    And there's where we are. I only that somewhere here
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    isn't what we tried to say I like we do so poor in mind
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    particularly when we said at the beginning that the financial situation that we report
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    is the most important thing. You think perhaps that's like a light to your wishful thinking. We said
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    we wrote the most important thing is that how we can so real about in a
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    way doesn't mean necessarily we set it on time but we simply look it
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    up. Cutting off. A piece of work because it
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    happens to be more important. Or as someone here
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    said because it is producing it maybe that's a place that
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    isn't producing is the place that we ought to concentrate.
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    Time it's got to be said. I've been waiting for us to get into. This is Tuesday morning.
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    And, it's not going to be easy maybe
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    we are too much at one. Maybe we're not and we were pretty bringing
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    in this. But when we come out here.
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    I know one thing I'm sure of that information.
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    When you get us, when you get the picture
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    In the Near East today and the progress of this bill. Maybe not progress to, which means to presume
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    one is better than the other, but the adjustments that you have given are the most encouraging
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    things I've heard.
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    As to trying to meet a situation realistic.
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    I don't know where in the world we as Americans are going to go on unilaterally and just count
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    the number of personnel or add up the amount of money that we're spending in any given area. That
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    isn't the major problem. The major problem is how we can
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    make a witness that is, as somebody around here said. Who was it?--Charles Arubthnot. [Arbuthnot, Charles W., Jr.] T
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    he partial witness is not that we don't. If we have a hundred dollars
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    not a thousand dollar. The partial witness we now are making
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    the the whole approach in behalf of the whole church, which isn't America and
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    Britain, but which is a total church upon a total world. Now, before
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    this meeting this morning we took up in the Nepal business and we say
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    we sit here and judge whether we should go into the Nepal. That we've
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    already had discussed that in Administrative Council, that it is a global matter
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    and the National Missionary Council has called us together and
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    Roy gave us a talk about this morning. It's not simply shall Indian missions move in or even
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    American missions as a whole move in. But maybe
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    it's a time for us to move into Nepal with Filipinos or with
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    Koreans or with Japanese or with British and we just do it together.
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    And that's why we ask for the International Missionary Council to bring us.
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    Somewhere. I think we've got to get under.
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    These things that are talked about, the budget, are all important. No
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    doubt about that. But I ask
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    When are we going to start thinking of how we may do our task in the
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    framework of what we call the ecumenical so that we will make a more effective
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    witness and penetrate
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    Deeply and for a lasting period
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    into these areas which we are confronting. I know that is only a word, and you can
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    take some of it, take none of it. Somewhere
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    in committees that we meet now we ought to be thinking not only I said this
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    now the end of this not mine just Horace [Ryburn, Horace W.], but he happened to raise
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    one or two things that I think crystallize it. In particular, his emphasis upon
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    Americans being popular there and the ambassador's statement, as
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    sincere as it might have been from the man, is in a framework that I don't think May
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    would have answered that way or Pago.
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    There are many differences of course. Africa has no universal organized religions to contend with. A
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    multiplicity of languages and dialects continue to divide and separate the tribal groups.
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    There are old traditions, but no written philosophies and no cultural loyalties.
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    In fact no historical writing at all. But in its emergence to world
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    citizenship, it is ever in its ever increasing flow from the stagnant
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    waters of hidden placid inactivity into the rushing flood of world events is much
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    the same. In Africa, one speaks of developing leadership,
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    alleviation of suffering among the ignorant masses, and the destruction
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    or adaptation of old ideals to Christian life. Reading
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    reports of early Christian activity in China, one realizes how similar the two
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    areas of missionary activity are. 75 years ago in China,
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    today in Africa. It is logical then to study the successes and
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    failures of Christian missions in China and the emphasis on their type, on
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    this type of evaluation proposed by various Christian organizations is timely and important.
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    One of the dangers however in this kind of study is the tendency to
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    concentrate on the present tragedy in China and its immediate cause, that is to say
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    communism, and to pass over the historical setting leading to the
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    absorption of a huge nation by a foreign ideology.
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    We are asked to take immediate steps to avoid the same catastrophe in Africa
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    because of the immediate danger of a common foe. "Nationalize" is the
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    watchword so that the insidious incubus of foreign control in church and
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    mission activity may not prove again to be one of the levers by
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    which, working on a fulcrum of political unrest, the church and indeed
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    Christianity will be dislodged from its control over the lives and thoughts of
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    people. The solution is not going to be as simple as that.
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    The nationalization of control of all church and mission institutions would be the
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    solution if all the individuals concerned were Christ filled competent
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    men and women. But, national control by semi Christian,
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    incompetent men and women will play right into the hands of the enemy. To say
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    this, immediately arouses the criticism by all liberals
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    souls that one is still shackled by a paternalistic blindness that
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    cannot see the worth of the individual Christian, the product of church and mission. That, it
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    is true, is a danger in all situations where foreign agents have been
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    the means of developing a primitive people into a modern society. But
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    there is just as grave a danger of being swept off our feet by popular sentimentalism
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    in the heat and urgency of our present emergency. The attacking virus
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    is anti-Christian communism. It attacks where there is. It attacks where there is weakness.
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    There is little use in a makeshift patching up of an easily infected area to avoid the plague.
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    The internal sickness that has created this easily infected area
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    must be cured to make the whole body impervious to the enemy.
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    Nationalization is not the complete answer. In fact in some instances it may
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    not be the answer at all. Taking a lesson from one of our Board's
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    own sore spots. Consider the work in Chile. A Chilean
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    pastor, Mr. Nuñez [Nunez,Carlos] , had a memorable meeting of Chile Presbytery in
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    1939. Stated with some heat. "You speak of
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    nationalisation, you speak of creating an indigenous church. You
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    say we must not ever remain children depending for our sustenance on
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    subsidization from abroad. You say we must learn to walk on
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    our own feet. Is how to teach a young child to walk. It is quite
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    another thing to throw him down, breaking his legs in the process, and then expect
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    him to walk." As far back as 1920, a
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    systematic withdrawal of financial aid from the Chilean church was inaugurated
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    without adequate provision or inspiration for the development of competent leadership.
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    It was expected to that the Institute in less and the Escrella Popular would develop
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    inspired and competent leadership. They did not. About the
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    same time the Pentecostal movement got underway and are rather uneducated but inspired
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    leadership and without foreign aid and either personnel or funds, it
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    achieved considerable success. One can readily realize that we are
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    here dealing with imponderables. That elusive quality we have
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    chosen to call inspired leadership. It is nothing more than the Spirit of
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    God taking hold of individuals. It is not by power, nor by might, but
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    by His Spirit that this evasive quality works in the man and through
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    that man makes safe of people against the inroads of the enemy. We are not
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    waging a material warfare. It is spiritual. And, it is a spiritual
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    law that we must follow. Those apply this principle to the
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    three lines of approach to the Africa problem mentioned above. That is to say
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    the development of leadership, the alleviation of suffering and
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    ignorance among the masses, and the changing of old beliefs and customs to full
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    commitment to Jesus Christ. First, develop into Christian leadership
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    in order to nationalize the church and mission institution.
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    Dr. Leonard M. Outerbridge in his recent book "The Last Churches of China," published by
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    Westminster Press states, "The Christian Church must
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    recognize that the church, not Russia, developed the soil in which communism
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    was planted in China.
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    True the enemy has sown tares in the field but the enemy
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    did not plant the tares until the field was well plowed and harrowed
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    by 100 years of missionary work.
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    Communism simply could not have taken root in China 100 years ago because then
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    there was no adequate idea of universal brotherhood." He then goes
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    on to quote from George Sokolsky, the columnist, who spent 18 years in China. Quoting
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    from Sokolsky, "Christianity as a religion or a practice of life
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    can only interest me academically. I am a Jew and should therefore abhor
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    missions. But I have lived in China during most of my adult life.
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    To the foreigner in China the Christian mission cannot be a mere question of religious
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    affiliation. For the Christian mission is one of the most vital
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    revolutionary forces in that country. It is the role that Christianity has
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    played in the creating of a distinctive personality that has made missions so
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    attractive to me. What does it matter what the number of converts is?
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    What matters whether there is a large or small number of churches?
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    China will not be saved as a nation by multitudes or by buildings. It should. It requires
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    leadership leadership and a Christian mission has done more than its share in the
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    reorientation of the Chinese mind from Confucian selfishness,
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    as evidenced by the family system, to the social consciousness, as evidenced
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    by the effort of an increasingly large number of Chinese men and women to
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    serve China in a modern manner." Unquote.
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    Doctor Outerbridge continues. Outerbridge continues, "In the Christian
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    schools. Missionaries had achieved success in That is in quotes. in
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    supplanting Confucius.
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    The task was made easier as graduates of Christian Schools gained ascendancy in the
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    Nationalist government.
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    It was not unnatural that there were some who hoped that the ground lost by Confucius
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    would be won and occupied by Christianity. Little did they realize that the
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    ground lost by Confucius would be occupied in large measure by the
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    forces of atheism, materialism and communism."
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    Whether or not this is an extreme statement That's the end of the quote.
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    Whether or not this is an extreme statement or a generalization too sweeping in its condemnation
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    will have to be decided by those better qualified than I to judge. But there must be a
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    grain of truth in it.
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    Success in mission educational institutions has too often been based on the
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    size of the school, its ability to attain a large measure of financial
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    independence. It's recognition of non-Christian local governments,
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    and the fact that its graduates, although not professing Christianity, have become
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    sympathetic to Christian missionary activity through their devotion to the alma
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    mater and individuals on the teaching staff. These hundreds of
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    graduates assumed important government positions of authority. And, we were proud
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    of their achievements. But when the test came, their loyalty was not to Jesus Christ,
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    but to an institution or to an individual. And, that kind of loyalty loses
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    significance when loyalty becomes a matter of life and death. One will willingly
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    lay down his life for a friend, but rarely for an institution.
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    This is not written in condemnation or criticism of the loyal and faithful servants of the cross
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    who gave their lives to in China for Christ.
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    It is simply an attempt to evaluate the situation as it exists now in China
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    in order to avoid possible errors in strategy that could take place in Africa. In
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    order to develop Christian leadership in one part of Africa, we have started to cull it. The
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    natural tendency is to enlarge its influence, better its equipment,
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    enlarge its faculty and enhance its popularity.
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    We desire to make it not only the apex of our Christian educational system in
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    Cameroon, but the recognized educational institution in that part of
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    Africa as well, offering educational advantages under Christian auspices available
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    nowhere else in that part of Africa. Why? So that
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    its graduates will receive recognition in government, commerce, professional circle.
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    In this way Christian influence, we say, will be brought to bear on all of life.
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    In order to achieve these ends, we again are apt to depend on material aid, excellence of
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    service, and in quantity but that is just where the mistake has been made in other
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    Christian institutions. The emphasis must be put, not on the development of
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    a quasi christian character development, but on a personal vital loyalty
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    to Jesus Christ himself.
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    Excellent and pedagogical methods. Yes. Providing the best equipment? By all
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    means! But, these do not come first. The ideal must ever be
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    kept in mind that in addition in addition to excellence of preparation.
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    There must be developed within every graduate this consuming passion to witness
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    to his Christian faith. Our enemy communism will not tolerate half
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    loyalties and sympathetic attitudes towards other faiths.
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    People of this nature with even a tendency to look with favor on other ideologies are
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    liquidated. Because this sympathy makes a weak, vulnerable point
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    in an otherwise impregnable society. The Christian movement cannot adopt
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    these drastic methods, but it can stop dissipating its resources on the
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    development of men and women who will not stand in the day of testing.
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    A selective process, coupled with concentration of effort on the development of
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    consecrated Christian leadership, is essential to repeat Sokolsky's warning.
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    What matters whether there is a large or small number of churches. Africa will not be
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    saved as a people by multitudes or buildings. She requires leadership.
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    We're young enough to fix the pattern of leadership training in Cameroon where we are just
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    starting the process at the higher level. It is going to be costly to be
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    selected and intensive but if nationalization of the church
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    and its services is the answer to Africa's problem, we shall have to pay for
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    it. Indigenous indigenisation does not mean simply the
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    handing over of authority to national leadership. That could be easy.
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    It is rather changing the soul of an African, creating a new man in Christ.
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    From a political standpoint, there is no more favored an area in the world than French
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    Cameroon for the following reasons. Cameroon is under the tutelage, a
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    ward of the trusteeship council of the United Nations. As long as the United
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    Nations exists, liberty is guaranteed. For
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    far different conditions obtain in contiguous areas of Africa under complete French
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    control. Cameroon is, as it were, a showplace of the French government for the
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    world to demonstrate the humanitarian and social betterment policies of the
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    government in France overseas. The rapid and sometimes
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    illogical delegation of authority to African leadership in
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    Cameroon is an indication that France is sensitive to the criticism of the
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    nations that she is exploiting her African wards.
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    Constantly one hears experienced French administrators complain
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    about the inefficiency and incompetence of those they have placed in control of the
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    destinies of the people. But fear of being considered reactionary keeps them from
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    publicly voicing their fear. They're pleading for a leadership with a
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    moral consciousness. Whether they be Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Muslim
  • speaker
    means nothing or very little to them. What they desire is competent honest
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    men in key positions. That is one of our opportunities. History
  • speaker
    has shown that we cannot rely on political parties or government aid.
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    Dr. Outerbridge in this book these some you you're interested in lost "The Last Churches
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    in China," again says the glaring lesson of
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    history is that Christianity has been cast out of China five times in
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    thirteen hundred years. Each exodus of missionaries has resulted
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    from the repercussions of political entanglements. This is the most serious
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    charge of the anti-Christian forces." any
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    affiliation of the church with colonial governments is always disastrous. But
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    that does not mean that leaders and government cannot be made Christian or that a
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    strong Christian Leadership can be provided for government offices whether
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    it be in a democratic society or a totalitarian state. A few men
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    in high office can and do determine the course of events in the history of a country.
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    Can we in the few years that may be allotted to us provide those
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    few necessarily men with a constant faith, strong enough to withstand the
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    temptations and pressures of political life. Secondly
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    the mission and its social obligation.
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    One of the most alarming aspects of contemporary Africa is the revolt against the
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    foreigner, not necessarily against governmental control by a foreign nation,
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    which is evident everywhere, but against the foreigners themselves.
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    When one talks with the African in the village, in a church and market place,he
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    Soon realizes that in a large measure it stems from a resentment mixed
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    with jealousy against the possessions and sense of superiority of the
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    white man.
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    But one must study carefully the contribution that Christian Maisha
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    missions should offer for the alleviation of human suffering. Again
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    quoting this book by Dr Outerbridge.
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    "The second contributing factor to the success of communism in China is
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    more particularly the responsibility of Christendom in that Christianity in this
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    generation so often neglected to give priority to the teaching
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    of the first and great commandment.
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    Too often we have sought popularity and prestige by stressing the material benefits
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    the church had to offer. Christianity was the success religion.
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    Too large a proportion of all Protestant missionary energies were thus expended.
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    Missionaries who were sent to preach the Gospel were too often the ones most encumbered with the
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    multitude of humanitarian responsibilities. China willingly received every
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    social service expression of Christianity.
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    Schools, colleges, hospital,s humanitarian aid, famine relief, famine
  • speaker
    prevention projects.
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    Through these agencies Christianity became popularly conceived in China as the
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    social reform religion. While these expressions of the faith of Western
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    Christians was praiseworthy, the
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    question confronts us today as to whether the Protestant churches have not placed
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    too much emphasis upon the social interpretation of the Christian message and too little
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    emphasis upon the actual teaching of the message of Jesus. Too often our
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    social gospel has been the only gospel." The first
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    section of this report has been a discussion of the formation of the elite.
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    Evaluate as the French call it.
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    which will have so much to do in determining the future of French territories in Africa
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    but it will do little good for the mission to the church to concentrate on the
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    elite. If the masses turn violently against the European and against
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    all foreign intervention in their local affairs. It is not that the masses in
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    Africa are conscious of suffering, as people suffer in other parts of the world.
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    No one dies of cold in the tropics. Anyone willing to work can eat. There
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    are no famines in equatorial Africa except occasional scarcity of food in the more desolate
  • speaker
    areas due to crop failure. Situation that confronts us however is
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    precisely the same thing that developed Hitlerism in Germany. It is a
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    consciousness that they are the have nots and that white man has everything. In the
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    early days of the occupation of Africa by the white man, the intruder was
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    regarded with respect, awe and almost reverence. This has
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    disappeared except in some remote areas. In place of this attitude there is a
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    fast developing. There is fast developing a cynical mistrust, suspicion
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    and almost hate, particularly in large urban centers where the African is brought into
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    daily contact with the European. It is simple to explain. In
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    their primitive state, they did not realize that there was any different way of life. The
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    high mortality rate among the children was just taken for granted. Their living
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    conditions were shared by head man and slave alike. Everyone ate the same kind of
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    food. A frustrating discontent is emerging as the luxuries
  • speaker
    of common place European life are put in juxtaposition to their primitive living
  • speaker
    conditions. If we have their welfare at heart, why do we not share with
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    them? It is true that many of the elite enjoy every
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    privilege of the European. Many of them live much more luxurious, luxuriosly
  • speaker
    than his average foreign brother in Africa. But the villager
  • speaker
    does not look for help from his favorite brother. No one can exploit an
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    African quite as much as an African, and he knows it.
  • speaker
    His venom is vented on the European, who has the wealth, and from whom his fortunate neighbor has
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    gained his wealth. So far the mission in its thought and act has been so concerned
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    in caring for the thousands that are crowded into the churches schools and hospitals that it
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    simply has not had the chance or time to see this cloud that is rising on the
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    horizon. Everyone is so busily engaged in these task that these
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    concerns are pushed into the background in order that the limited strength and time can be
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    concentrated on the job at hand. But in recent years more and more concern in the
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    mission is being voiced on the need to do something drastic to offset this cynical
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    pessimism and antipathy evidenced by contemporary Africa. This
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    mission has made a small beginning at Yaounde, the capital, to meet the social
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    needs of that community. This must be enlarged and developed. Similar
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    centers should be started at Ebolowa. That's where Elat  and at Edea, where the large
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    hydroelectric dam is being erected by 300 imported Italian
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    laborers. But this again ministers to the need of the better
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    educated that have come to the cities to make their fortunes. It is at the village level that this
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    danger is beginning to be felt. Experiment a Kumbo, which Miss Grey and Mrs Moser
  • speaker
    attended this past March March indicated the possibilities of
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    taking thep mission station services, medical agricultural, educational, and evangelistic,
  • speaker
    help for the most recent developments in audio-visual aids to the village. It Demonstrates
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    it demonstrated to the people that we do care and are willing and ready to share our blessings
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    with them. Enthusiastic response of this one village demonstrated the value of the approach.
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    The problem for the field to work out is how
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    much this can be expanded over the whole area to reach enough people soon enough where the
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    time may come when this type of service will not be welcome, or it may be substituted by some
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    other agency, if not anti-Christian, then anti European and anti-white. Christian
  • speaker
    cooperative mobile tactical units and other social services must have, that have
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    proved to be of value in other countries could well be tried in Africa. The mission stands ready
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    and anxious to move out into these services, but it depends on the availability of personnel and funds.
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    These are not forthcoming and probably the only solution will be to work out some scheme of
  • speaker
    rotation. An annual master plan will be determined by mission and church where
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    by certain services at several stations will be temporarily suspended in order to
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    enable the personnel of the stations to make widespread excursions into the faraway villages
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    surrounding the stations. See the religious situation.
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    It has been said over and over again that the African is religious being. His
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    whole life has been ordered by his faith in local and tribal
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    divination fetishism by the local witch doctor. To imagine that this primitive conditions
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    still exist in all Africa is part of the myth that is growing up about Africa in the
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    Western countries. It is true that most of the inhabitants of Bantu Africa are still controlled
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    by superstitions and a mixture of Christian and Pagan taboos. But the old time
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    allegiance to the witch doctor and his power is gone in many place. The African of
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    civilised Africa, if it so can be called, is sensitive about the world's opinion
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    of him that he is still a worshipper of voodoo and witchcraft. He likes to throw restraint
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    to the wind and prove that he is no longer tied by these inhibitions. This has bred
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    license and revolt from all spiritual authority, aided by the amoral
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    attitude of the average European, who feels that once in Africa he can throw
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    old restraints of the homeland to the wind. The African is quick to follow and follow suit.
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    But even a casual acquaintance with young Africa impresses one with a deep-seated yearning of
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    his soul for something to hang his heart to. As they say, in this,`
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    obviously the Christian mission has an overpowering interest and concern.
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    The official agent in this service is the Church in Cameroon. For the past 10 years and
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    more in Cameroo, this organization has been under national control except for the
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    fact that it is still organically related to the Presbyterian Church in the USA. The missionary as such is
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    a member of presbytery and synod. And in certain instances the
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    voices of the missionaries still carry considerable weight in these official courts of the church. But,
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    in most instances where there is a difference of opinion expressed on the floor of these meetings,
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    the divisions are not along racial lines or between mission and church. Almost
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    invariably the division is equally distributed between nationals and foreigners. Pressure
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    is continuously being brought to bear up on the mission to accelerate the process whereby all
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    mission institutions, and in particular the church, should become completely independent of all
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    foreign entanglements and affiliations. To this end the Constitution of the Synod of
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    Cameroun was adopted years ago. The one remaining relationship
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    being that mentioned above. It is still part of the USA church. Plans are under foot to sever this
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    relationship in 1960. Some feel that that is too long a time to wait for the
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    consummation of this ideal. On the other hand the government, and this is the
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    French government, has repeatedly voiced concern over the establishment of this communal entity
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    within their territory. It is not connected in any way with their program of
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    territorial development.
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    The church is an outgrowth of growth of an American mission. And, they think of it
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    as an American. The Roman Catholic Church has encouraged the use of the
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    term American for Protestants. And, we are all known over Cameroon, not as
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    Protestants but as Americans. The danger of this misnomer is clearly
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    indicated in one of the findings of the Board study of the missionary obligation of the church. It must
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    be pointed out that, apart from the fact that most of the missionaries of the mission have
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    been American, and so have become identified with the Protestant development in large areas of
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    Cameroon. The use of the term seems to have stemmed from a determined
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    policy on the part of the Roman church to create the impression that the Protestant movement
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    is American in design and purpose, thus bringing us under the scrutiny and
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    concern of the government. To offset this and prepare the way for the establishment of a General Assembly
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    of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon by the way that term Presbyterian is
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    insisted upon by the leaders of the church, not by the mission. A committee of synod and
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    mission has been developing and drawing up a constitution for the church where by it will become the
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    legal entity with power to hold property and appear as a legal personality
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    in the courts of the land. Once approved by the Synod of
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    Cameroon, with the help of the mission, which is the only recognized church body in the land today,
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    this constitution will then be submitted to the government for approval. And, the constitution
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    once approved will appear in Le Journal du Ciel as you know this is the recognized Protestant church in South
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    Cameroon. It is not going to be easy to work out to the satisfaction of the
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    government, for they insist that the mission maintain some direct control. We have as
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    tactfully as possible pointed out that this is against the very nature of our design
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    in building up the Church of Christ in Cameroon. That the church must become a part
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    of the church universal if it is to be established at all. But the
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    majority of French administrators are nonplussed by this division of Protestantism into
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    sects, as they call them and cannot conceive of any Christian movement that is not under
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    some centralized authority that is Rome. The one argument that seems to
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    have borne fruit so far has been the declaration of our intention to become part of
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    the great body of those churches holding to the Reformed system of church government, which has its
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    headquarters in Geneva. This seems to allay
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    their

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