SEND THEM THE L IGH T-NOW
By Anne Hazelton
L ARGE cut-out letters, strung on invisible wire across the audi torium of the Church of the Open Door, spelled out the theme of the 23rd Annual Missionary Conference which opened April 20, in Los Angeles, Cali fornia. All that week, whenever the lights came on, this message was silently repeated—projected in shadow across the bottom of the huge map of the world on the wall above the choir loft— a striking symbol of the urgency that was the keynote of the Conference: Send Them The Light — NOW. “The 23rd Annual Missionary Confer ence opens this year upon a world shrouded in spiritual darkness, political confusion, economic bankruptcy, and moral breakdown,” began Dr. McGee’s njessage at the start of the Conference. “The supreme objective of this year’s Conference is to alert us to the fact that ‘the night is far spent, the day is at hand’ ; that there are doors which re main open; that opportunities are great, and that NOW is the time to do something for the gospel’s sake. The purpose of this Annual Missionary Con ference of the Church of the Open Door is to make every Christian ‘ready to preach the gospel,’ believing the Holy Spirit will indicate the manner and method that each one is to follow if that believer comes to the place in his or her experience when the heart cries out, ‘I am ready.’ ” This tenor of sober, rugged reality that was to color the whole emphasis of the Conference was sounded in the very first service. In a moving and sobering ceremony, the lights dotted over the face of China on the missionary map at the front—lights which indicated where graduates of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and missionaries of the Church of the Open Door had been at work— were one by one extinguished. It took only a few minutes but the meaning be hind that sad ceremony was deep. Among the group of missionaries in that first service were not a few who had but recently left Communist China. One, whose husband is still there behind the iron curtain, had been interviewed by Dr. McGee earlier in the service. Others had behind them a life-time of missionary service in that land and many spiritual children dearly loved. While the fact could not be denied that
missionary service had come to an end in China, at least temporarily, never theless, the poignant ceremony, with its air of finality, was almost more than some could bear. As the lights blinked off in China, new lights came on in other lands of Southeast Asia, to indicate missionaries of many missions once serving in China now finding new fields of service. One China missionary reported that as he sat and looked at the map, the lights of mission stations in China blacked out, he suddenly noticed how bright was the perimeter of light extending all around China, like the corona of an eclipse! “The Communist forces of China,” Mr. Harris said later, “have passed over the land of China, blacking out the lights from view. But this blackness only tends to emphasize the lights in the corona of the eclipse, the crescent of lights from Japan, down through Formosa, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Indo-China, Malaya, Indonesia, and to India. But this crescent of light reminds us as well that back of the eclipse the sun is yet shining in the hearts of believers, in groups of Chi nese Christians, individual Moslems, Tibetans, Mongols and tribespeople; un known to the outside world, hut known to God. For them we must be faithful in prayer.” It would be impossible fully to report on a Missionary Conference so packed with stirring messages, challenging films, and informative material. But throughout the week we were made con scious of the great needs that still ex ist in the lands of the earth and the shortness of time we may have to meet those needs. Mission representatives told of the work, response, and still unmet needs in their fields; colored sound films and slides portrayed in graphic manner the people of these lands, their customs, the hopelessness of their religions, and their desperate need of Christ. In more than fifty missionary booths downstairs, in the Lyceum and Fishermen Club rooms, were to be found informative material in free literature, attractive costumes, interesting curios and answers to questions from booth attendants. Mis sionaries who manned these booths were encouraged by the number of young people, earnestly seeking to know God’s will for their lives, who stopped at in dividual booths for questions.
Though we cannot hope to visit all the fields represented at this one Con ference, let us look in for a moment on one or two of the major fields. “Africa has well deserved to be called the Dark Continent,” we were told. “ But through the years messengers of God have taken the light of the gospel into Africa and now the throbbing of the church drums breaks the stillness of the Lord’s Day morn on many an African plain and deep in the tropical forest. It calls the Christians to their worship in countless villages where, only a few short years ago, the name of Christ never had been heard. There is still a call and need for advance in Africa. Communism and other forces would hinder here, also. However, the pros-peet of successful ad vance in Africa in the immediate future is not nearly so dependent upon circum stances in Africa itself as upon un reached areas in the hearts of God’s own here at home.” “ The Christian church is facing in Japan her greatest opportunity since the first century A.D.,” came as a challenge from that land. “ Here are nearly 90 millions of intelligent and educated people. With Japan’s surrender in 1945, the door for the entrance of the gospel was flung wide open. But here lies the tragedy. The evangelical Chris tian church in the homelands and in Japan was not ready to enter the open door. Communists have seized the oppor tunity of freedom from police restraint to cover the country with their doctrine. Shinto priests, who for some time after the surrender were the most unpopular men in the country, have staged an ef fective come-back. Buddhism, with re newed vigor and a revision of plans and methods, is staking its claims to the soul of Japan; Roman Catholicism is busy, with its tremendous organiza tion. The need for evangelical mission aries to carry the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ while the door remains open is urgent. God’s time for presenting the gospel to Japan is NOW.” "India, subcontinent of Asia, land of antiquity, land of religions, is a land of startling contrasts that almost defy de scription. Mystery and monotony, fabu lous wealth and dire poverty, extreme cold and intense heat, ancient culture and modern sophistication, high educa tion and widespread illiteracy, religious fanaticism and appalling wickedness . . . T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Page Fourteen
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker