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“I love Jesus, and He is my Saviour. He said He would be back to take us home to be with Him, and I believe what He said.” “We Study Jesus” A very small full blood Choctaw boy, about five years of age, had been at Goodland only one day. “What do we study in our class?” the Bible teacher asked him on the evening of that first day, wondering if he remem bered, expecting that, if he did, he would say, “We study Bible.” But that was not his reply. “We study Jesus,” the child said. And the teacher was glad that he grasped so soon some thing of the meaning of the motto which hangs above the entrance to our dining room, “The Aim Of This Home is to Glorify Christ.” Saved and Called Home She was at Goodland only a few months—the little eighth grade Anna; but during those months she learned to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and confessed Him publicly when she joined the Goodland Presby terian Church and was baptized. Then God took her home to Heaven. Her face had been sad—for one so young. She was shy, even fearful, lest a dark shadow that hung over her earlier years through no fault of her own might become an open secret. But. then she found in Christ a sym pathetic Saviour; and in the Goodland family, friends who loved her for Jesus’ sake. One day she was taken to the Choctaw-Chickasaw Hospital at Tali- hina, Oklahoma, to be treated for tu berculosis. In a few weeks more, she went to be with the Christ who in His mercy had sent her to Goodland to be saved for all eternity. Goodland Today With a plant of eighteen buildings, valued at $200,000; with a beautiful campus in a grove of great oaks and elms; with 600 acres of farm land under cultivation, 326 of which be long to Goodland; with a dairy herd, poultry, and livestock to meet a com plete live-at-home farm program on an institutional scale; with all in debtedness wiped out; with twelve grades, including a fully accredited high school; with some 200 Indian boys and girls and young people liv ing on the campus, helping in the home and on the farm; with some 65 to 70 more white students living in the rural community and attending the day school; with the eternal Word of God the daily text in class and out— with these tokens of service rewarded, the Goodland Indian Orphanage is a monument to what faith in the cruci fied and risen Lord Jesus can do. This is “what God hath wrought” by His grace.
“Why I Know That Jesus Is God” “I know that Jesus is God because He did not have an earthly father. Mary was His mother, but God was His Father. “I know that Jesus is God because He could not sin. He never disobeyed Mary and Joseph when He was a Boy. Satan tried to make Him sin, but Jesus could not sin, because He is God. I know that I have sinned. Every body has sinned but Jesus. He did not have any sin in Him. “Jesus did some miracles so we could believe that He is God. He made the lame walk. He made the sick well. He opened the eyes of the blind. He
but after a while things began to con flict; and I soon found that I had chosen the wrong road. It wasn’t long until I began to realize what was wrong, and to understand the real meaning of the school. “I began to ask questions and wasn’t long getting them answered, and the answers were correct. With help from the boys, I caught step, and we went down the same road together until the Sunday after Thanksgiving of ’34, when at another crossroad I stood, confessed Christ publicly, and was baptized in His name. There I took the right road, and also became a full member of the Goodland family. “Now, as I am far away, not a day goes by without my thanking God for placing me there; for that is where I found myself and my Saviour. The teaching of those little Bible verses back there has given me more comfort and courage to stand up and defy the enemy. I thank God that at Goodland I got my^start. I pray that God will keep Goodland open for that reason, so that other boys and girls may come to know Christ.” Zealous Missionaries The superintendent to whom this let ter was written, is the Reverend E. D. Miller, who for fifteen years has not only served in this capacity, but has also been the pastor of the Goodland Presbyterian Church. Under his lead ership, the work has prospered ma terially. A $30,000 debt has been wiped out; new buildings have been added; the school farm has been de veloped; only lack of space forbids the inclusion of many details with regard to answered prayer during these fif teen years. Always true to God’s eternal Word, loving our Lord’s ap pearing, and trusting Him through days of severe testings, Mr. Miller has seen much fruit of his “labor of love.” Since Mr. Miller’s health has failed, the Reverend G. Coleman Luck, a graduate of the Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, has been act ing superintendent and pastor for the past nine months. By the time this article is off the press, the Board of Directors, acting for the Synod of Oklahoma, Presbyterian Church, U. S., will have élected a successor to Mr. Miller. Studying God’s Word It has been the privilege of the writer of these lines to teach at the Goodland Home and School for the past ten years, the last nine of which she has taught only Bible six hours a day, five days a week. The Holy Spirit has taken the things of Christ, and written them on the hearts of these Indian boys and girls, as the following excerpts from classroom papers of fourth and fifth grade children, nine, ten and eleven years old, indicate;
THURMAN JEFFERSON Full blood Choctaw eleven years old; in the sixth grade. Good missionary material.
walked on the Galilee Sea. He made the storm die down. He raised the dead. He knew everything. He knew He was going to die on the cross, for He is God’s Son. “Jesus came down to die for our sins. He said He was going to die and rise again on the third day. He shed His blood for us. When He was nailed to the cross, it was dark a long time; and people should have known then that Jesus was God. They put a crown of thorns on His head. It was like a sword through Mary’s heart. He prayed for his enemies. “ I know that Jesus is God because He arose from the dead. He showed Himself to those who loved Him after He arose. “Jesus is in Heaven interceding for us. And He is preparing a place for us, so we may go there some day.
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