"The Other Sheep" September 14, 1924
"One Dime for God-nine dimes for self"

I noticed that the first two pages of this paper was an advertisement for, "$20.000 for Missionaries." John Matthews wrote the article and wrote a great argument, on why we should tithe 10% of our earnings. He uses Biblical scripture as to why and how much to tithe. Little paragraphs, for example, "It is the money on which God does Business," or "What will God do if we take his little dime?" Although I agree with these two headlines so to speak, I also think that it is used to guilt the reader into giving. It is true that we should give our tithes to the Lord, before we spend it on ourselves. In this case, in September 14, 1924, it was a dime. One simple dime could change the world. The article goes on to say that in the paragraph, "Our coffers would be full. Revivals would abound," states the reason for why churches are not full, or why are churches, "three fourths dead," is because Christians are robbing God of his dime. Please don't get me wrong, I know God blesses the giver, however, there could be other factors, why a church is, "three fourths dead." This blogger does not have an answer for that topic of why a certain church is "three fourths dead." Another question in the same paragraph asks, "Why does not God pour forth great spiritual blessings refreshing on us?" Matthews says that we are again robbing God. Though I understand why the church needs money, however, I think the article is trying to say that if the reader does not give, then God is not going to bless them. Again, this writer, (me) is not fully aware of the tithing process, and so I can and probably will be corrected, this is only an observation and I understand that I am learning the ways of God. Overall, I liked the articles and the topics written in, "The Other Sheep." I am aware that nothing ever changes as far as asking for money. Missionary groups will always ask for money. Through the image of technology we can see the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. In 1924 there were few images to have an impact on giving.
Finally, In the very next paragraph on page three of the article it states, "Twenty Missionaries to go," and, "Bring in or send in that dime, then add gifts and offerings and be a Christian." Giving a dime to a mission does not make you a Christian, however I do agree that we should give money to help support mission work. Therefore, not giving money to mission work doesn't make me "not" a Christian.

 

Of money, ministers, and missions

In the December 1925 issue of The Other Sheep, many of the articles within concerned a budget deficit for which the Church of the Nazarene need to raise $100,000 by the end of the year in order to not end the year in debt. In order to facilitate this need, the church leadership had come up with two options. They decided to ask the general church to hold a special offering on December 20 in which they hoped to raise $2 per church member, and so end the financial crisis. If this plan did not succeed, they were going to cut back on missions spending, close several missions, and recall about 25% of the missionaries to their home. Obviously, they did not want to take such a drastic action as this latter option, but they believed it necessary not to be left in debt, as that could also complicate the church’s mission to the world.

This is all well and fine. It is clear from these articles that no one wanted to stop sending missionaries, just that they believed they might have to cut back temporarily due to the circumstances. However, I find extremely troubling some of the reactions to this proposed cut back. As one article put it, “Closing mission stations will mean that hundreds who have been saved and redeemed from a life of sin and degradation will be left in the various parts of our mission fields without any shepherd or leader.” The article goes on to say that because the proposal was to close missions with high numbers of converts, all those people with be left without guidance and would scatter.

So then, my question is, why can none of these converts serve as a spiritual leader? If there are so many people who have turned to Christ in the places, why had none of them received training to continue God’s work amongst his or her people once the missionaries had gone on? It is important that we not only preach salvation to those who do not know God, but also to teach those who have just begun to know Him about His will and word, in order that they may do the same. Though there are multiple reasons for this, one is certainly that such a disaster might occur and leave these people without guidance. That is why Jesus did not command us to “go and make converts of all nations,” but rather disciples.

P.S. In case you are wondering: the January issue of the next year revealed that the offering came through and the crisis was averted. 

Beliefs of a Frightened People

There was really only one thing in the May 1924 issue that struck me in a negative way. It’s hard for me because this issue seemed to be a really positive one, with many of the authors of the individual articles listing good things that have happened to them. However, over the course of these monthly issues, I've begun to see the idea of heathenism and the negative opinion of those who have a different faith than those of the missionaries, and the article I found is a good example of that.

The Other Sheep’s purpose is to report to the general Nazarene public the state of missional affairs across the globe. In my issue this week, there was an article about one of the local superstitions in India. According to the missionary who wrote in, there was a total eclipse of the moon, and in response the “poor people began to scream and groan”. The reason for this action was that the local belief is that the moon is struggling to get free from the eclipse, and the people show sympathy for it by moaning and grieving. They fast during this time, and then at the end of the eclipse, the people wash up and feast to celebrate the moon’s freedom from something that they cannot see. The author then states, “The eclipse lasted for some time. Just for how long I do not know, for after it had continued for an hour and a half, I retired.”

My first feeling was one of disbelief. She not only implies that the beliefs of the local people are inferior to hers, but instead of trying to explain to some of the members of the community what an eclipse is, she goes to bed. I think that I would at least stay up and try to comfort some of the people instead of dismissing their beliefs as silly and “strange”. All I can really do is ask why there was no attempt at education, and if there was  at all, why was it not mentioned and why were the beliefs of the people looked down on so negatively?

What What Whaaaat?

This is that moment where I realize I’m becoming a pretty good history major, but I’m not sure that I’m feeling okay with that right now.

This blog entry is supposed to reflect on something that I found particularly appalling or, at the very least, rather uncomfortable to deal with.  It took me awhile, but I did find one thing that made me at least a little uncomfortable, but it was not wholly satisfying in the kind of way that I really felt it was worth railing against. 

I tend to focus on the articles about Africa, partially because I’ve been to South Africa and Swaziland, and partially because I recognize the authors of the articles.  I was skimming through the last letter about Africa on the last page of missionary updates and feeling rather discontent with not finding what I wanted.  Then it hit me: the whole first paragraph of this article was completely and utterly racist.  Six months ago, I would have been shocked by the crazy view this missionary so plainly wrote about, but I had contextualized the letter so automatically that it didn’t strike me as wrong at all.  Something about that makes me pretty sad for myself.  

But anyway, moving past that rude awakening, it will probably be helpful for the reader to have a taste of this racism that is so uncomprehendable:

"To the native mind, the white man is a conundrum which he may try in vain to fathom.  However, he does not lose much sleep trying to fathom that which is too deep for him; and if the white man will leave him alone he is quite satisfied to leave the white man to himself.  … [When they are converted to Christianity] what a change takes place in their lives! They quit their fighting and quarreling, their lying and stealing, their cursing and drinking, their witchcraft and sorcery.  How strange! Was ever such a thing known about before? And it all came about through listening to the teaching of these missionaries.  Is it a new form of sorcery that has cast a spell over them? And will it soon pass away?"

Ummmm… What?

Where do I even begin?  Maybe a list of why this whole letter is ridiculous is the best way to go about this:

1. White men are a conundrum to me, too.  They say they’ll call you and then they never do and you just end up waiting around for them to get off work and… oh wait.  But in more seriousness, shouldn’t this missionary just be thanking his lucky stars that the African peoples are not trying to make him go away?  Why is he insulting them for letting him do his work?
2. The blatant statement that Africans are unable to comprehend the white man because they are less intelligent
3. The idea that Christianity magically makes people stop stealing, lying, cheating, drinking, and believing in sorcery
4. The implication that the Christian Africans do not know why all of a sudden they have magically stopped stealing, lying, cheating, drinking, and believing in sorcery
5. The devaluation of missionary work in thinking that the converts are not able to understand the saving grace of Jesus and the idea that they think it’s sorcery that might vanish

I mean, really, he spent all this time trying to convert people, trying to help them understand why they should be Christian, but even once they are converted and living a holy life they are unable to comprehend that they are Christian?  That makes no sense!!

Alright, so this blog entry went pretty far over the suggested 300-400 words, but I guess if you’re going to let me complain, then I’m going to do it right.  It is fascinating to me that missionaries used to be able to do work with people they believed were so far below them in every way.  It makes me so depressed that this is where we’ve been.  And I don’t even have a nice poem to cheer me up this time.

Guilt Trip Funding

  I really liked how this article started off, because it started with a section all about praising God for what He has done! I especially like this because many times in entries from missionaries, it is about what God has done but mostly about what financial contributions they still need. I think it was a great way for the author to start off this article, just to stop for a minute and take the time to write down what they were thankful for! 

      And here comes the negativity....one thing I was confused about in this article was the reason as to why one of the missionary entries was in this magazine. The entry was more of a personal diary about themselves, instead about other people and the work they were doing. Don't get me wrong, I do not mind reading from the missionary's point of view, but the entry just did not fit into the context of “The Other Sheep" article. Things about crossing a river, camping out, and pulling out someone's tooth are not usually things I read in missionary updates. 

      One thing that irritated me from this article was the way in which one entry was written. It was an entry from a missionary in China, asking for funding for building a men's Bible training school. I have nothing wrong with missionaries asking for funding, but it is the way in which they go about doing it that changes things. The missionary said "When you read this will you not sit down and write a check to support these students?" The way in which the person wrote made it seems as if it was everyone's duty to plop down right then and there and donate to this cause. I grew up in the church and have given to many missionaries. but I have found that when missionaries try to guilt trip others into giving instead of the person giving because they feel led to, that this is the wrong way to go about getting funding. My opinion on how missionaries should ask for funding is through presenting their mission to others, give facts, and tell stories about it, and let the people give as they feel so led to do. I think that there are many, many missionaries out there that are doing amazing things for the Lord and that use every penny donated to help further their work. However, I think sometimes that the way in which their financial need is presented needs to be changed. God will provide for their needs, and sometimes I think the guilt tripping is a way of taking matters into their own hands. 

Money, Money, Money

    Let me preface this post by explaining a bit about myself. I grew up in a pastor's home, well, more like a pastor's apartment building. You see, everywhere I looked there were pastors. My dad is a pastor, my uncle was a pastor and my grandpa was not simply a pastor, but a Bishop in the Free Methodist Church. I was probably the only person in my first grade class to know what the word tithing meant. By the time I got to the fourth grade, I definitely knew what a church board was. Church politics were a part of my life, and the older I got, the more I disliked them. I had nothing against the board members or the superintendents or the bishops. They were all really nice people who loved God and wanted to do His will. My frustration instead came from their tendency to obsess over money. If there is anything I have learned from being a PK, it is that money is needed to run a church. I realize there is no way to get around that fact. However, I also learned that money is not everything, and it does not take long for a church to become so concerned with money that they loose sight of what is most important: reaching those who do not know Jesus. In the January 1924 article of The Other Sheep, the main topic of the entire edition was money. As I read, my frustration with money focused church politics that I developed as a teenager began to resurface. 
    This edition of the magazine came out right after a new General Board was appointed, and as I read the first few articles, I felt as though I was sitting in a board meeting. They were all detailed descriptions of various facets of the new budget plan the board had approved for 1924. Again, I am perfectly aware that money is needed for a denomination to function properly. I also am aware that the Bible tells us to be good stewards of what we have been given. However, the Bible also says that one cannot serve both God and money. It is a slippery slope when people begin focusing on the money needed. This can often lead to worrying. It is hard to remember that God is Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord that Provides, when one is stressing about raising a specific amount of money. What struck me as ironic is that the articles written by the missionaries who were in the field barely mentioned money. Instead, they spoke of how God always provided for them through material gifts, not monetary ones. The articles that made cries for money were written by board members. If the people in the field did not present great concern about the money needed, why are the board members highly concerned. One person stated that, "money must come, not by spasmodic efforts, but in a steady golden stream." Why the emphasis on not only having the minimum amount of money, but a large steady flow? It seems to me that they began to place too much trust in money; they valued it too greatly. This tendency to find assurance in money is one that could easily take over denomination boards today as well, and is one church leaders today would be wise to avoid. For does not our money remind us that it is in God that we trust? 

Kraaling

Kraaling.  That’s a cool verb.  It sounds very much like an activity I’d like to do.  It’s somehow reminiscent of mountain climbing or hiking (at least in the visual sense, I’m sure if it were verbalized it would be more like a distorted “crawling,” which in no way invokes adventure).  But anyway, this word is apparently what was used by Nazarene missionaries in Africa for their evangelistic efforts in 1922.

Rev. J. F. Penn is the author of (you might even say he penned!) the particular letter I’m focusing on today.  Much of this issue of The Other Sheep focuses on reports from various district meetings, which, quite honestly, doesn’t provide much in the way of interesting material.  Not that giving to missions isn’t important, and I’m sure the Pittsburgh district really appreciated all the shout-outs they got for outstanding missions giving, but this isn’t 1922 anymore!  So, the focus fell on a relatively short explanation of Penn’s daily ritual as a missionary in Africa.

Penn uses his letter to describe the work he does, which seems to be a very simple meeting of people.  He, using his letter as a story narrative, visits nine kraals (homesteads, houses) and discusses the “saving grace of Jesus” with 21 people- all in one afternoon!  That’s a lot of sharing Jesus’ love.  But the question for me was of relationship.  Obviously, he’s meeting all these people and inviting them to church, but it seems that there is no interest in relationship unless they decide they want to come.  This, as far as I understand it, is pretty far off from missionary practices today.  Instead of quickly relating the way Jesus loves people, don’t most try to demonstrate that love? 

It seems pretty clear as to why that practice/view has changed, but it is hard to understand the reasoning behind the old practices.  What were the unsaved viewed as? 

Yeah, so I guess those are my questions.  This one made me think.  But just so I'm not ending on a depressing note, there was a really nice little poem in this issue that I totally thought should be shared.  Enjoy!

That's some good poetry right there.

Your missionaries three,

Sailed across the blue sea,

From the land of the free

As happy as can be.

On pleasure not bent,

By the Lord we are sent,

On a mission bent

To help the heathen to repent.

By faith we go down, 

With grace we abound,

Some day we'll wear a crown

When the trumpet shall sound.

Hold the ropes every day,

Never cease to pray

While we are far away

For we'll meet again some day.

             Dora Carpenter

             Myrtle Pelley

             Maude Cretors

Going There and Coming Back

                During the five years between the last issue I wrote about and the one about which I am writing today, both The Other Sheep and Nazarene missions as whole seem to have grown greatly. This issue was twice the size of the last issue, and recorded many more updates from more places. Though these issues do not have overall connecting themes, other than Nazarene missions, there were several articles that dealt with either missionaries who were just leaving, or those who had recently returned to their homeland.

                It was quite fascinating to read about how missionaries used to be sent out. Commercial flights not yet being a standard mode of cross continental transportation, they apparently took ships. Because of this, it appears that certain costal local churches would commonly host all the missionaries going to the same greater world area, before sending them off together. For example, the headline article speaks of the farewell dinner for eighteen missionaries who were bound for Japan, China, and India. Even just reading about such events gives one a taste of the energy that must have filled the room as these servants of God prepared to depart.

                Intercontinental travel being far more expensive then than in the present day, one commonly hears that when someone became a missionary in the past, that person would usually be going to live the remainder of his or her life in the other country, and would probably never see his or her family and friends from back home again. Therefore, it was with surprise that I continued reading and discovered that many missionaries were currently home on furlough, including the Tracys, whom I mentioned in my previous post.

                It was further interesting to note the various activities of these furloughed missionaries. Today, one normally thinks of missionaries who come home temporarily as going around to a number of churches and participating on deputation services, in order to both educate the general church on God’s work abroad, and to raise money to continue that work. However, not all of the missionaries covered in this issue of The Other Sheep did so. Rev. Tracy began to pastor a church in Oregon during the interim; meanwhile, Ida Vieg, who was serving in China, planned to spend only part of the time doing deputations, but also to take a college class. It is a marvel to me just how small the world has become in the past century. That now being able to return home is almost taken for granted, and one does not have to plan specifically to be able to further his or her education while at home, as he or she could just as easily takes any classes online.

Commitment

       This issue of "The Other Sheep" started off talking about how rapidly things were changing in China. China went from being ultra-conservative and very closed in, to building railroads, rapidly increasing telegraph lines, starting newspapers, and creating post offices. This was a very immense accomplishment for this country, a much needed change for its' people. For a while the article continued to talk about the major changes in the Chinese economy and government, and the impact those had on the country. One thing that interested me was to read that for many years prior, China was thought of as an impossible country to convert. The converts to Christianity were painstakingly low in 1834, only 3 converts. In 1842, a whopping 6 people became Christians, encouraging right? But as the article then said in that present time, there was what seemed like an unbelievable number of converts, nearly 70 years later there were 375,000 people that became Christians. It is obvious to me that God was doing alot of work there!
       A quote from this article that really encouraged me was this, "A little over a century ago it was said that it was impossible to translate the Bible into Chinese. In 1916 more than 2,500,000 copies of the Chinese Bible were sold by the British and Foreign Bible Society alone." A place man thought was unreachable was a place God was able to show Himself and how through Him all things are possible! This really encouraged me because many times in life we encounter things that we think are impossible to deal with, but God can help us through those times and work in ways we could never have imagined.
       The rest of the article was updates from missionaries around the world. Like in nearly every issue there are updates from different countries, but todays' reading in particular made me stop and think. It was not necessarily what they said that made me think, but it was the common theme among them. Each of those missionaries encountered tremendous hardships: famine, war, disease, and death are just a few of them. Yet through these times, they still had the strength to spread God's word and rely on Him alone. Many times Christians give up so easily on God because things dont go their way. God didnt give me that job I wanted, or God didnt let me do this or that particular thing.What if we had everything stripped away from us, family, friends, home, health? Would we have the spiritual strength to continue?

A Funeral in Cuba by J. L. Hinds

“Yes, she was dead. ‘Infant Mortality’, that cruel giant, how he revels in Cuban homes. He finds a ready entrance through the wide open doors of ‘nicotine’, ‘alcohol’, and other vices.”

Someone had a baby. She was a laughing, smiling baby, one of those really cheerful ones that everyone coos over and loves deeply. She died.

The author says he has nice neighbors but he was shocked at the lack of reverence for this little life now gone. The ‘cigarette fiends’ had skin pulled taught and their cheeks were sunken, and they laughed about trivial things that in an American context would be thoroughly discouraged at such a solemn time.

The baby girl lay in a cheap box with her eyes open, and two lighted candles, one on each side of the coffin, to lead her soul through the dark valley of death. The author then begins to mourn for both the living and the dead, because her parents cannot know that her soul has already found peace in paradise, simply because they refuse to accept Jesus into their hearts.

The mother of the child was not allowed to attend her daughter’s internment because of an unknown custom. I can’t even imagine the pain she must have felt as she watched her little girl’s coffin carried away by the pallbearers. It is in that moment that the author begins to ask questions.

“Would that innocent little tongue have been taught to speak the vulgar, obscene language of this wicked place?” Yep.

Would she learn to drink alcohol and smoke at a very young age? Most definitely, because the other children in this area do.

When she “became old enough to start learning modesty and virtue”, would she be allowed to go naked on the streets? Of course.

As disturbing and sad as this article was up to now, it gets worse. The author then begins to describe the way a Cuban cemetery works. Apparently, at this time at least, death was so common that they didn't have room for the amount of bodies that needed space in the cemetery. So they would dig up bodies and leave the bones out anywhere, sometimes even before all the flesh had decayed because they needed space for the new ones. He then says, “I attended one funeral where three skulls were dug up in preparing the grave. One was held up by the hair and recognized by the natives.”

Because I’m out of words, I’ll end quickly. This was so disturbing to me and I was amazed at the self-control the author had. He was a missionary in Cuba and he wouldn't interfere with the culture, though if this was to happen in the United States there would be a huge uproar. I feel like this blog post didn't do the article justice and I can’t clearly articulate all that I feel. I just know that I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever have to encounter something like that in the mission field.

Great Expectations and Cultural Misconceptions

      Expect much. That line was repeated over and over again within the January 1919 edition of The Other Sheep. The Nazarene missionaries who penned these various articles were filled with great expectation. The God they served was not one that could be held back by cultural barriers or financial struggles. Their expectations were grand because their God was mighty. While this expectation provided great motivation it also led to evangelical strategies that today might appear culturally insensitive. 

Holiness is an element Wesleyan branches of Protestantism focus on greatly. This emphasis on holiness is something Nazarenes believe is possible for all to achieve if they give their lives to Christ and allow Him to sanctify them. This “battle cry” for holiness and their expectation that God can bring holiness, is what drives their mission. However, bringing this message to various cultures often presents difficulties that can make cross-cultural evangelism quite hard. One issue that is addressed here is the concept of sin. The missionaries expressed their frustration with the idea that these seemingly educated people could not understand the Biblical truth that they were imprisoned to sin and needed to be saved. Their conclusion was that the idea of sin had been distorted in Japan, the area to which this story was focused. In order to amend this issue and present the message of holiness, Nazarene missionaries turned to fire and brimstone tactics. They believed that only this way would these people begin to understand their sin and turn to Christ. Though this method was in response to their desire to bring people to holiness and their expectation that God is able to redeem these people, it begs the question of what is a proper way to spread a gospel that is so foreign to many cultures. Is it helpful to use scare tactics, or does that show a lack of expectation in God? If they expected much from God, why did they assume that the only way convert people to Christianity was to scare them? It would seem however, through reading other articles from this edition, that it was not a lack of faith in God’s ability, but a construed perception of foreign cultures that led to this method of evangelism. Instead of taking time to understand how the Japanese viewed sin, they automatically proclaimed their view as distorted, and jumped to scare tactics. This misunderstanding is presented even by missionaries on the American home front. 

One article in this edition of The Other Sheep, spoke of missionaries in New Mexico who found that many of their neighbors were Japanese. When first reading this article I found myself taken aback by the phrase, “In our backyard are some heathen, idol-worshipping Japanese.” I had to read this section twice to realize that the author was not criticizing her neighbors but expressing excitement at the fact that even her backyard was a mission field. She had great expectations for God to work in the lives of these people and was excited to be a part of that movement. However, her perception of the Japanese culture was one that dubbed them “heathens.” This language seems very insensitive, yet it was not said out of hatred but out of great expectation. This response to the Japanese, both in New Mexico and in Japan, causes one to wonder, how do missionaries today find a balance between expecting much from God and embracing the cultures in which they find themselves? It would seem that the great expectations we have as Christians that God desires to redeem His people should cause us to expect His message to transcend cultures. We do not need to find a way to scare people out of their cultural mindsets, and we do not need to view other cultures as creating "heathens." Instead we can expect that the God who created these people has a way of reaching them even in their own cultures.

The Other Sheep: my introduction

                As I am sure that most people reading this blog will have already read the introductory post, I will not take the time to explain The Other Sheep, nor our project for the semester. Instead, I would like to begin with a statement of just how amazing it is to be able to read such a text. The issue I was assigned contained many stories and updates from missionaries around the world, many of whom seemed to be regular contributors. I was amazed at the age of these writings as I became privy to reading letters addressed to former general superintendent and missionary Hiram F. Reynolds, records about the “Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene,” and a short article mourning the passing of Phineas F. Bresee.

                Within the stories and reports that the missionaries sent in, it was interesting to note just how often illness and recent deaths were mentioned. Prayers were often asked for the sick Christians in the area. However, there was at least one case where a death was used as an opportunity to share the Gospel.  Mrs. R. G. Codding, who was serving in India, mentioned how she and her husband were having difficulty connecting with anyone in the area in which they lived. The adults all avoided them and the children were afraid of them. One day, however, a family down the road lost their baby. The Coddings went over and expressed their deepest sympathy and to express their belief that the child was now in heaven, and somehow managed to earn the respect and trust of the family. Following this, the Coddings were able to go visit quite often and began to share the Gospel message.

                A final thought, there was one other time death was mentioned that greatly struck me. A recent convert at the Hope School in India, run by L. S. Tracy, dies after only being a Christian for seven months. The next paragraph of the article started by expressing that “God has been good to us all.” At first I thought, “Why are they talking about how God has been good right after talking about death?” But then I realized, the boy who died was a Christian. He was in heaven now. There was no need to be upset. This would not be so if he had died just seven months earlier. God had been good to them all.

Working in India

I think I should start this by saying that I'm not sure how to start this. At the risk of sounding like a fool, I'll just jump right in. There articles in the May 1914 issue were all intriguing, but the one that that stood out to me the most was "In the Garo Hills" written by H. F. R. During the entirety of the article, he told of his journey in India, searching for the area's "other sheep." He told several stories of personal interactions that he had, including the 80 baptisms they had. R also spoke about a woman he met. She was over a hundred years old and had only been a Christian for 6 months when he met her. When describing her, one sentence stood out in particular. He said, "...and the old Grandma...clapped her hands and praised God like some American Nazarenes". I took this to be an expression of joy, seeing her praise the God that R also praises. I can imagine him being excited to see such love and devotion from someone who had probably spent her whole life worshiping other Gods. He also tells how several people came up to his group and ask questions. A man came up to them and explained that he had two wives. When he converted, one of them converted to Christianity as well. He was wondering how to "get rid of" his second wife, who had remained a follower of  her husband's previous religion. The second story was rather sad. A fourteen year old man married his wife, also fourteen. The young man was a Christian, and his wife desperately wanted to become one as well. However, for reasons unexplained, the couple lived with her parents and the young man was beaten by her parents for his beliefs. They came not seeking refuge, but seeking how to express the love of Christ to her parents. I found this to be the most inspiring part of the article. This couple, years younger than I, was able to do something that I don't think I ever could, and something that I doubt I could forgive so freely while it occurred. It was really an awesome story, and as far as this project goes it isn't so bad.

God's Still Working

        When I started to read "The Other Sheep" article from March 1915, I realized that it was much more interesting than I had expected it to be. The article started off with a section about the union of the Pentecostal Mission and the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. The author wrote in such a dramatic way, and from the author's writing one can tell it was a very big deal. The author even went as far as saying that all the inhabitants of Heaven, the Christians residing on earth, and all of the inhabitants of Hell had stopped in their tracks to watch this momentous occassion unfold. I enjoyed the enthusaism in the author's account of this event. The union of the Pentecostal Mission and the Pencostal Church of the Nazarene was also important in that it "bound" together 40,000 of God's servants, as well as brought atleast 50 foreign missionaries into this group. I could tell just from reading the author's writing that he had a zeal for seeing God's work unfold.
        The rest of the article was comprised of updates from Nazarene missionaries from many  countries across the globe. I really enjoyed reading the updates from each of the missionaries, and getting a glimpse of what the missionary efforts were like back in the early 1900's. Many of the updates were similar in structure in that they talked about the progress of their work in the country, what their relationships were like with the people there, and about any needs for resources/ monetary assistance. One thing I really liked was the updates they gave on how they use the money they were given. When a person gives money or resources to a missions work, they want to know if their contribution is being put to good use. From what the missionaries responses were, everything they were given was much needed, and was used help further their impact on their community. It was wonderful to see how God was working through missionaries in 1915, and to know He is still working through them nearly 100 years later in 2013.