A Moving Account of a great new American mission field.
lem locally, even though their pres ence was due only to their honest and worthy desire to make a living for themselves, and very greatly mis understood, many of these worth while families were not treated as fairly as they deserved. Gradually a barrier grew between them and the permanent citizens more real than it appeared at first sight. Many of these people have a re ligious background, but few have ever heard understanding^ the sim ple gospel message of God’s love and the grace that brought Jesus Christ to redeem them through His shed blood. The migrants have gradually developed a society of their own, and can be reached only by someone called by God to this special field. Such a worker must have a sympa thetic heart, filled with a God-given love for these particular people. Early in this emergency, the Lord laid upon my heart the desire to minister among migrants. Peculiar ly the way had been prepared. With experience in every phase of testi mony that would be needed, a back ground that was valuable in success ful approach to the people, neces sary equipment available, employ ment that afforded many consecu tive free days a month, the door opened wide, and we entered this work. Now, after the years, we have been in every type of camp or gathering and in nearly every district where these people live. With camping equipment, tent and trailer, we li%’e T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
The migrants live in tents, trailers, shacks and often under the stars without any shelter; they make their homes in labor camps, ranch, govern ment and county camps, auto camp grounds and as squatters among the oil wells, in the hills, orchards or on the river banks, as they travel from one harvest to another. From cotton to peas and other garden crops, cher ries to apricots, peaches to grapes they go, seldom earning enough for their needs, rarely accumulating suf ficient to re-establish themselves — misunderstood souls for whom Christ died. Here in our Judea, as I like to call it, at our very door, is a challeng ing missionary field that should en gage more of our attention. While some very worth-while Christian work has been done among these people, especially among those who have been somewhat permanently located, it is still sadly inadequate. This is particularly true of the need among the adults. Here is probably the largest population of unreached peo ple in our country. Circumstances of life have been more unkind to these neighbors of ours than to the average American. As they came to the harvests (many more of them than could well be em ployed) with meager equipment at first, and scarcely sufficient money to complete the journey, they created a sensation in our states that was capitalized by unscrupulous or mis informed writers. Very often a prob
V \ 1 - ELL TRAVELED high- \ l 1 / ways are US 99 and ^ * 1 1 / us 101 in California Q Q and Oregon as well as US 60 and US 80 in California and Arizona/ Yet just off these highways and over much of their length, there are many strangers — wounded, robbed, dying spiritually. Literally, they are our neighbors, to whom Christ would have us go with the healing message of His grace. We have been diligent at our home bases with the healing touch of salvation to our sin-burdened neighbor. We have traveled these very highways to our Samaritan foreign field, and to the uttermost part of the world, with the Good News of eternal life. But, too frequently, as in the case of the priest and the Levite of the Jericho road, we have passed by these, just outside of our gates, on what we might well call our own Jericho road. Former farm families they are, having migrated from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and neighboring states. For the most part they are good, wholesome, average American pioneer folk, but due to circum stances of weather and economics beyond their control, they have been forced to leave their farms and homes. Many, many thousands of families have come through the years to our states in answer to ap peals for itinerant farm labor in our seasonable harvests.
PAGE TWELVE
Made with FlippingBook Annual report