10
January 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
been reached, for each year new ports are opened up, and Scriptures are supplied in new tongues. The story of the extension and the financial support of this mission to seamen is a continuous record of the grace of God. There has never been a single gift larger than $500.00, and that amount was received only once. The three extensive missionary trips were made with very little expense. Railroad and steamship companies, recognizing the value of the work, kindly granted free transportation. In no port were more than two weeks spent. Seldom was that much time needed to look over the field, to interest Christian workers in it, to gain access to the ships, to locate the suitable man to superintend the mission, to teach him hów he ought to go about the work, and to secure needed literature. In spite of the fact that much of the work had to be done in ports where the language was entirely unknown to Mr. Zimmerman, es pecially in the orient, God marvelously answered prayer and gave success. To be his coworkers, the Lord has called men from almost every walk in life, always finding the right man at the right time to: meet the need. Mrs. Zimmerman is also a1graduate of the Bible In stitute of Los Angeles and in;her! sphere has had a real partnership in the work. They began their new and en larged ministry in the confidence that God would supply every need. They took their stand upon such scriptures a s : “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in, glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19); and “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall: reap also bountifully . . .
E ncircling t h e G lobe w it h t h e G ospel Who would have imagined that from such a small and insignificant beginning there would result a gospel effort which would encircle the globe, by which seaman and passengers on ships are now reached in all the largest ports on the seven seas? Yet such is the case. It is an amazing record of the grace of God. For this service, God saw fit to choose one who was not learned or elo quent, but one who had been a poor, unlettered immigrant hoy. The work, begun so humbly in Los Angeles harbor, after a time became one of the evangelistic departments of the Bible Institute. The student who began the work served as its superintendent for eight years. This stu dent was Oscar S. Zimmerman. The only school in the United States which he attended was the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. His life story illustrates what God can do, in spite of handicaps, when there is a determination to serve Him fully. After leaving Los Angeles, Mr. Zimmerman was called to a similar but larger work in the port of San Francisco. There he founded the Immanuel Mission to Seamen on October 1, 1921. Soon after this, he was en abled to take his first missionary trip, calling at the har bors of the United States^ and Canada, and opening work in such ports as New York, Boston, Baltimore, Buffalo', Halifax, and New Orleans. A second trip, with similar results, took him to ports in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and Italy. On a third journey he visited Hawaii, Japan, China, and the Philippine Islands: In various in
direct ways, the work has spread also to Great Britain, Denmark, Spain, Africa, In dia, Ceylon, Australia, and New Zealand. In the course of nine years, since the found ing of Immanuel Mission, about forty sta tions have been opened from which the gos pel is going out daily in over a hundred dialects and languages. Nor has the limit
and God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, having all sufficiency in all things; may abound to every good work” (2 Cor. 9 :6 , 8). God has been faithful to His promises. The record of the work of the mission to seamen is a testimony to His faithfulness and to the truth and power of the Word of God in these days of apostasy.
There ty a s a
B y R obert M edill
Great Ca lm The sun was bright, the sea was slight, One shining summer's day; The sails were spread, the vessel sped To regions far away. But suddenly, the changing sky Assumed an aspect dread; Instead of blue, another hue Its features overspread.
He did not hear the waters sneer, They could not shake His calm, For He whose sway all things obey Could never feel alarm. The sailors wrought, they bravely fought, They did not want to drown; They could not think the Lord would sink, But what if they went down?,
The tempest moaned, the rigging groaned, The ship was drenched with spray; The billows said, and tossed their head, “You shall not pass this way." The thunder pealed, the vessel reeled, She tossed upon the deep; But in the stern, without concern, The Master lay asleep.
Amid the storm, the sleeping Form They summoned with a cry: “Dost Thou not heed our bitter need? Behold, Thy children die." The Master woke, one word He spoke, The billows to allay; Each watery crest was stilled to rest, And He did pass that way.
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