taken a real interest in them. A coal dealer donated two tons and ten dollars; a man whom Mr. Brown had helped in a spiritual problem gave a two hundred-and-fifty-pound hog. The Sunday schools of Lucky Fork and Rock House, in distant Owsley County, sent Christmas love offerings and a shower of canned goods to the Children’s Home. Rev. and Mrs. Chester Ranck are the Christian workers there; and about two months later a young boy who chopped some wood for the school house was paid a dollar by Mrs. Ranck for his labor. He handed it back to her with this word, “When you-all made up something at Christmas for them there orphans at Bear Track, I didn’t have ary a thing to throw in, and I want you to send this to ’em.” The boy comes from a very poor, non- Christian home. The Broicns Themselves How Rev. and Mrs. Jack Brown landed in Kentucky and, under God, began this remarkable work is of itself an inter esting story. They were both trained for Christian service in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Graduating June 5th, 1941, they were married two days later! Their hearts were set on going to India, but the outbreak of World War II made their sailing impossible. So they looked around for a hard field at home, and they really found it! As missionaries of the Kentucky Mountain Mission, they founded two settlement churches, and the Bear Track Bible Camp, located on a hill overlooking the Children’s Home at Beattyville. This Bible Camp specializes in Scripture memori zation and has reached hundreds of mountain young people and children. One of the requirements for attendance is that thirty-five Bible verses be committed to memory. Naturally, the entire “ family” from the Children’s Home attend Sunday services in the chapel at the Bear Track Bible Camp. There is a regular church service for adults following Sunday school conducted by Mr. Brown who also preaches at other settlements Sunday afternoon and evenings. The Mission and the Need Equally consecrated are the fifteen other missionaries of the Kentucky Mountain Mission, which was founded in 1919 by Miss Anna Bethke, graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, at Stray Branch, Kentucky, in Bloody Breathitt County, notorious for its feuds. There are now seven flourish ing stations in five counties and God is blessing and reward ing all of these self-sacrificing missionaries for their labor of love for the mountain folk of Kentucky. They all make light of the hardships they endure for the gospel’s sake, but one has only to make a visit to that field to be convinced that it is as difficult, though perhaps not as glamorous, as many mission lands across the sea. “How can there be such need in civilized America?” the missionaries are often asked. Sometimes native Kentuckians resent what they consider derogatory references to their beautiful state when these conditions are described. It cer tainly is hard to believe that a state so famous for its wealth, race horses, and great universities should contain moun tain regions so full of misery, drunkenness, poverty and il literacy. So the only answer is, “ Come and see for yourself.” There is no innate inferiority in these mountain people. When given a chance for education and improvement, the Kentucky children prove to be above the average in intelligence. With out malice or fault-finding, or any attempt to explain how such conditions ever came to be, the Kentucky Mountain Mis sion is going forward to meet the spiritual needs, which after all, are the paramount needs of the mountain people. They have been exploited so often by religionists of the “lunatic fringe”—snake handlers, fire-walkers, salvation-by-baptism preachers—that they have become skeptical and have lost con fidence in “religion.” But when the gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God is taught in its simplicity, and men, women and children are loved and treated like the superior human beings they are, and can be, by God’s grace, there is real response, souls are saved, and lives are transformed. “ Love never faileth” in Kentucky any more than any other place where hearts are hungry for they know not what. But the Kentucky Mountain Mission missionaries know what it is they need—the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and they are there to make Him known. T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Little John Brown, son of Rev. and Mrs. Jack Brown. Many Mouths to Feed The Browns have been asked how they manage to cook enough food for so many. Mrs. Brown’s answer is, “Just make seven pies instead of one; cook a bucket of green beans instead of a few pounds; quadruple the cookie recipe; cook two big fat hens for one meal; use one hundred pounds of potatoes every two weeks, twenty-five pounds of flour each week, six gallons of milk a day, two to three dozen eggs a day; buy all supplies by the case, bushel and one-hundred pound quantities!” The way the Lord has supplied the necessary food reminds one of the amazing experiences of George Mueller of Bristol, Eng land, in the 19th century, who ran an orphanage for thousands by faith. Day School At first the school-age children were transported to Lee County schools by bus. But this proved very unsatisfactory because the nearest school was eight miles distant. Lunches had to be packed in the early dawn and the children bundled up in winter clothing for the trip. Theirs was the first bus load to leave in the morning and the last at night, so the children did not get home until after dark. Much sickness resulted from this strenuous routine. So Mr. Brown secured permission from the authorities, borrowed books from the Lee County System, and started his own day school in a small, concrete block building on the premises, half of which is used by Mrs. Trott for her living quarters. Desks abandoned by a public school in Clay County were secured, repaired and var nished. It is a very heartening sight to sit in on a session of this school, to observe the devotion of the teacher to her task and the earnestness of these children, all of whom are bright, and some of whom are brilliant. Support The Kentucky Mountain Mission Children’s Home, as well as the entire Mission, is really a work of faith. The Church of the Open Door of Los Angeles, of which the Browns are members, makes a monthly gift to the work, varying from $125.00 to $275.00. The State Welfare Department occasion ally provides surplus commodities under the federal school lunch program. But aside from this help, the entire support of the Home comes from free-will gifts of interested persons. The Browns do not solicit aid, but they are glad to receive whatever God lays upon the hearts of His people to send: clothing, (not necessarily new, but clean and durable), tools, toys, furniture, books, pencils, paper, staple foods, etc. In fact anything a normal family uses, they can use in large “ economy” sizes. They have acquired two cows and some pigs, and it is Mr. Brown’s cherished dream to own sufficient gar den space and livestock in order that they may raise all their own produce, and thus become to some degree self-sustaining. The soil in that area is so unproductive that full self-support could never be realized. Some people in the community have Page Sixteen
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