May, 1937
THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
166
Jewish girls happi l y leaving Warsaw for a two-weeks' stay at Villa Bethel at Radosc, a re sort a few miles from Warsaw.
Children of Poland— For Christ By TORDIS CHRISTOFFERSEN Warsaw, Poland
F O L L O W me, if you will, on a day’s visitation in the ghetto of Warsaw. W e meet Jews almost exclusively. W e enter the home of Mrs. G -------, a true believer. Her little place is a dark cellar, and she has to live there with her husband and child, under most miserable conditions. In order to pay the rent, she must let four men sleep with the family in this one small room every night, on folding beds. Yet Mrs. G------- is happy. She has music and prayer in her heart, access to the Throne of God, and gratitude for everything. “ H ow good that I have even this!’ ’ she says, with a glance about the tiny place. Alas, not every sad little home in Poland has received the Light as this home has! W e pass into an old, dark house. A mother is sitting- on a bed with her sick baby in her arms. The room is cold and dirty, and the mother is weeping bitterly. She moans, “ M y child is dying! He needs help— now! An operation on his ear!” There is no hope; there is no money. No hospital will open its doors to a poor Jewish mother. In a corner of [“A fter my happy days of training at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, concluding in 1929,” writes Miss Christoffersen, “it was my privilege to teach Bible classes and join prayer groups in intercession for missions. The ministry of prayer drew me, for I believed it to be the greatest work of all— and I still do.” Arriving in Warsaw in the summer of 1933, she joined a mis sionary who had been working alone since the martyrdom of Miss Grace Mott, another Biola graduate who loved not her life “unto the death.” Weakened in strength, M iss Christoffersen’s fellow missionary was obliged to leave the field. Thus soon after her arrival in Poland, the new worker found herself alone in a strange land, confronted with a most difficult language and the responsibility for a work. In the accompanying article, which pre sents only one phase of the evangelistic activity in which Miss Christoffersen is engaged, there is insight not only into condi tions in Poland, but also into the heart of one to whom com munion with a Loved One, and intercession on behalf of other loved ones, is “the greatest work of all ."— E ditor .]
the room stand two boys whom we had with us last sum mer at the Mission’s home in Radosc. Today they have had nothing to eat, and they show it. The father has lost his mind and has wandered away, no one knows where. W e go a little farther, deep down in a dark cellar, to visit a family with six children. In the corner crouches a middle-aged man. “ Who is he?” we ask. The woman answers, “ M y brother. He has been sitting there for the last fifteen years. He is deaf and dumb, and not quite right, so we must keep him.” The father is out hunting for bread. At the next place are some .old friends whom I have not seen for six months. The father has changed so greatly that at first I did not recognize him. He is very low with tuberculosis. He speaks some English. “ I am dying,” he whispers. “ And I am afraid!” There are children in that home, too, and the mother worn out with sorrow and care. Everywhere is the same story— hunger and dirt, sickness and sorrow, children without shoes and coats. Everywhere, children! Chil dren! T o t h e F a m il y T h r o u g h t h e C h ild W e have found that work among Jewish youth will open gates which could not be unbarred by any other means— entrances into needy hearts and needy homes. In Poland, whatever kindness one shows to a destitute child is interpreted as being a kindness to the whole house. Ever afterwards, one may go in and out of the home freely, teaching and ministering to the family. In and about Warsaw, there are at least 150 families that-have received the witness in this way, and what a joy it is to enter these homes and hear the whole family sing and read the Bible together! Warsaw has a population of a million and a quarter souls, approximately 350,000 of them being Jews. About
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