Rubber and Prisoner-of-War Camps. Stoves, public toilets and laundries were provided. Families jammed into rows of small garage-sized cabins. Jobs were announced over P. A. sys tems; private Camps mushroomed on huge farms (one 45 miles long.) By 1937, material facilities were provided, but spiritually these people were in a desperate condition. A Pas adena nurse made a bargain with God: “ Lord, if you’ll send me that $2,000 I loaned, I’ll give it back for this work. He did, and she did. Two years later, Rev. Paul Pietsch organ ized Missionary Gospel Fellowship. California and Arizona missionar ies usually “work” one Camp as their “ parish” comes and goes (reportedly 60% remain.) Florida missionaries may reach several “ Island men” Camps weekly. With over 2,000 Camps on the west coast; innumerable ones in Florida; ‘forgotten people’ in several other states, — reaching these laborers re mains a gigantic, unfinished task, even after twenty hard years of labor. Sixty Camps near Homestead, Florida need Spanish-speaking workers; over 500 camps in Fresno county are large ly untouched with the Gospel and
ca, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, the Barbados, British Guiana, the Bermu das, Guatemala, and the Leeward Is lands, 90,000 strong. Although vir tually forgotten by most churches, these people are indispensable in Am erica’s harvests. At Miami Lock Sugar Camp recre ation hall, missionaries announced a service, first telling the men to finish a television program and a game of dominoes. But immediately the men turned off the program and stopped playing to listen to the Gospel. It is not difficult to round up a hundred such “ Island men” on short notice. Near Homestead, Florida, two hund red and fifty Puerto Ricans responded to an invitation for Bible study. In 1930, during “ dust bowl” days of national depression, thousands were forced from their homes and farms. They sought jobs in heavy har vest areas where warm winters added to the demand for laborers. Popula tions swelled in the southwest and Florida where areas were unable to accommodate them, the migrants were forced to move on. Our govern ment, under Farm Security Adminis tration, rushed to help, building 28 Camps in California, later adding
Missionaries make announcements and sometimes give special music or Scripture > over camp’s P.A. sys tem. there are 100 men in the Brawley, California area. The sixty Missionary Gospel Fel lowship missionaries are forging ahead with full-scale schedules, open ing new fields as God sends workers and raises up churches to support them. Christian America must reach these forgotten indispensable people at our doors. They are forgotten by millions, but not by the subversives and cults who constantly infiltrate their ranks. But they are remembered by our wonderful Lord who gave His life for their salvation.
Mexican braceros receive the Gospel at Brawley, Calif.
M issionary “ Jeff” Jefferson and his w ife m inister to migrants near Phoen ix, A riz.
JANUARY, 1962
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