Hide Article Text (OCR)
DICE OO ETT Va Cc» A ( | fa HOM = BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE, CATE —— au, TTT aM fil \ CIRCLE - THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME =_S Sa BY MRS. J. PF, WRIGHT We have a few training schools for girls in the Southern African Divi sion, and they are demonstrating what can be done. When these girls are given practical training in such work as mothercraft, babycraft, laundry, simple cooking and sewing, together with instruction from the Bible in spiritual matters, they stand out as bright lights on a dark night, when they go out into the villages. We need more such schools. We should have one on every mission station, so that we can have more lights with which to “keep the home fires burning.” In some places the wives of our missionaries are taking the burden upon themselves of establishing this work for the girls, and are paying the expense out of their own pockets, be cause there is no money in the mis sion budget for this purpose. When the girls come to the mission begging for help, our sisters find it hard to turn them away. Many times when they come, all they have is a desire to learn. They have no money, no books, no clothes, no food. Perhaps they have run away from a heathen home to become Christians. Often when parents refuse to al low the girls to come to school, they run away and come, risking the con sequence. Sometimes a Christian boy will come to the mission and ask that the girl he is planning to marry be taken in and given some training before he marries her. Perhaps he has seen the sad experience of others in marrying out of the truth. Many times boys who have been trained in one of our schools, and prepared to go out as workers, marry rank heathen village girls, because there are no others for them to marry. They become a great handicap to them in their work. Sometimes they make a failure of their work, and also of life, because of home conditions. In some sections, the girls are given in marriage very young. Often they become mothers by the time they reach the age of twelve or fourteen years. If we could get them into the school compound early, it would help to overcome this evil of child mar riage. Not long ago I saw a little girl who had run away to come to school. She looked to be about twelve years old. She was very happy when she was told that she might stay at the mis sion, and gladly went to work at any thing she was given to do. One day while she was outside helping the other girls do the washing, a cloud came over her face; she looked frightened. Just then a tall man ap peared, saying, “I have come to get my wife. I want to take her back home with me. She ran away to come here.” When questioned as to who his wife ‘was, he pointed to this child. She began to cry, and said she did not want to go with him. But there was no alternative. She was the man’s wife, and so he took her away. No doubt when he got her home he punished her so severely that she will not dare to run away again. To me this seemed a heart-rending scene. As I stood there and watched this child vanish out of sight down behind the hill, walking slowly at the heels of this man purporting to be her husband, going back to a life of dark heathenism, I could not help thinking of my own dear girls, and a prayer of thanksgiving arose to God from my heart for the light of the gospel and for Christian education. Dear reader, what if that had been your daughter? It might have been, were it not for the light of the gospel. It is not enough just to be thankful that our lot has been cast in more pleasant places, and our daughters do not have to live such a life. Let us show our thankfulness by help ing these less fortunate daughters of Africa. As we present this simple picture of the condition and the need, we ask you to pray earnestly for these darkened souls, and give liberally to the cause of missions so as to make it possible for the General Conference to send us the help we so much need for enlarging our work for the native girls of the Dark Continent. The Little Boat Twice Owned Bruce loved the sea and boats. To spend a day at a harbor watching the boats come and go was to him the best treat he could imagine. He lived with his parents in a town along the shores of a great lake, and his one desire was to have a little boat of his own to sail upon the blue waters. One day his father said, “Bruce, why don’t you make a boat?I will furnish all the materials and let you make it in my workshop.” This brought joy to the heart of the lad, and not long after that he displayed to his father a boat of his own designing and making. I be lieve he liked it a bit more than he would any other, because he had Conducted by Promise Kloss
Newspaper Details
Silver Spring Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
Silver Spring, Maryland, US
Thu, Feb 13, 1936
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Dawne Y.
USA 05 Jul 2026
Other Publications Near Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
