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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
February, 1933
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his ■will, he heareth us: And if we know that h'& hear Us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that •we desired of him.” gj flPf JoHirlikM, IS.
G O D __
B y R. CELESTIA CHURCHILL
Los Angeles, "Calif.
ello ! Mary Martha Home ? This is the Travelers’ Aid. I have a couple of girls down here who need a place to stay. We want to get in touch with our workers in Akron, Ohio, to see if their parents would like them re turned. Can you keep them?- They look like boys, but I guess they’re girls all right.” “ This is Mary Martha. Are they eligible ?” “ Yes, and xery nice appearing girls.” “ All right, send them out.” And so they come. One to stay ten days, when she goes to relatives in Nebraska. The other remains with us, and arrangements are made for her to finish that last semester of high school work that she had failed to complete in the East. Nice girls— but in need of a friend and a home at a critical time. The next call comes from the hospital. “ W e are dismissing a girl. She has been through an operation and needs a place for a few weeks to build up. Will you take her?”?- She, too, comes to the Home. Other calls come from Christian workers throughout the city, and from .organizations where perhaps at the time there is no available bed. One girl who has lived with us tells another or brings a sister, a cousin, or a friend. Young women missionaries home on furlough, others in Christian work in our own land, come to Mary Martha to rest and to regain their strength. Five hundred and fifty girls have made their home with us— some for only a short time, but many for three, four, and five years, until we have Mary Martha children in almost every state of the Union and in many countries o f the globe. And what is this Mary Martha Home? Just a work that the Lord began about ten years ago in one little down town room in Los Angeles. W e had no thought at the time of a permanent w ork .:The Lord directed in the care of the one girl who “ happened” along, alone and in need o f a friend. Then out o f the one little room, we grew into the five-room bungalow, the six-room flat, and the nine-room house, which has been remodelled twice, in which we now have twelve large rooms, and to which was added, nearly two years ago, the place adjoining-^^six-room house and a three-room bungalow, twenty-one rooms in all, with thirty available beds. The Mary Martha is a non-sectarian Christian home for any worthy girl in need. Frequently we have at the same time Jewish, Mormon, Catholic, and Protestant girls. Among these are the business girl who makes her home with us, the school girl with us throughout the school year, girls, who are. here to regain their health, and others looking for work. Then there is the transient, nonresident girl. Many from other sections of the country come to Los Angeles with barely enough to bring them here, They expect to find
work without any trouble, and fail, and many a girl in just such a crisis takes her first step downward. A thousand times more important than rescue work is the preventive work, and for that reason we have opened this emergency home. The plan at the beginning was to provide for the girl only through the emergency, to help her find work and a suitable place to stay, and to keep in touch with her as best we could afterward ; but as the work has grown, we are now able to keep many o f these girls for an indefinite period of time, providing a real home with all home privileges for the worthy girl who needs it, and who really wants to help herself. The Mary Martha Home is largely a work o f faith, for although we ask $5.00 per week from those who live with us, many are out o f work, without funds, and unable to pay for months at a time. Some never pay—-nevertheless the Home provides for them, and the girl is tided through an emergency and often kept from utter discouragement or desperation. The actual amount that the girls pay covers from one-third to one-half the amount needed to carry on the work. Through choice, we are not under the Commun ity Chest ; we have no endowment and no regular gifts. “ Our expectation is from Him.” W e have never asked for a cent o f money except through prayer, yet for ten years we have never owed pc bill, the rent has been paid in ad vance, and all needs supplied. T o be sure, God uses His other children to help supply those needs— sometimes only a dollar hère and a dollar there, provisions, bedding, etc.-#' but it is all under the Lord’s direction. He alone knows
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