APRIL 1941 - No

VOL. XI1 - APRIL 1941 - No. 43 REPORT NUMBER

CONFERENCE GROUP 1941 Back row, left to ri9i.t: , Messrs. Mitchell. Dixon. Willfinger. Wiliiams. Dcibler. Morkcn and Meu-.

Cmir-. TOY: Mr. Harry Post. Mr. Walter Pad. Mra. Walter Part. Mrs. Dixon. Miss Dittrnar. Miss LEROY.Miss Mnnb. Mra. I)-ibler, Mila JsHmy. Miss Kcmp. Mr. KZoernann. Mr. Fbk. Front row: Mn. Harry Post. Mrs. Mouw. Mrs. Wiltiama. Mr3. Fkk. Mr.. Ja!fray. Mr. Jaffray. Mr. Snrid. Mr. Brili. Mrs. K6ncrn;m. Mire Eeely.

&eilands ~ 2-t in& >1;es;on 3t -1 "V-. . i he @hrl&a and I iissionary A!l;ance Addrcm: Z&jangiroewcg 77. Maka6sar. C&L X.E.1. THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL THE CONFERENCE The Conference of The Cliristian and Missionary Alliance in the Netherlands East Indies, which met at Benteng Tinggi, the mountain resort a little less than two hours drive by car from Makassar. from January sixth to twenty-third. was rather an exceptional one in more ways than one. In the first place. we had the honor ,and privilege of the presence of the Foreign Secretary of our Board, Rev. A. C. Snead. with us. The Conference was consequently a longer session than usual. When we 'meet, however. o'nly once in two years. we do not feel obliged to hurry the sessions as we might #doif we met regularly once a year. Another ,outstanding feature of our Conference was he international, political situation a,nd the presence OF war clouds in this neighborhood. As this work develops and enlarges the problams confronting us increase. There were many weighty and complex questions about which we sought a'dvice and counsel from our Foreign Secretary. I,t was with deep regret that we finally received word fron: Mr. and Mrs. Woerner ,that they were unable to leave British Malaya at the time owing to war conditions. The prolonged sessions were trying and taxing, but were interspersed continually with spiritual refreshing in the ministry From the Wond of God, vouchsafed to us through our good Brother Snead. In due course he left Makassar For the Philippine Islands, and after one more coaference held with the missionaries at Zamboa'nga. has journeyed on his home- ward way. As we write this editoriail. well on in March, we think of him as arriving in New York City and back at his home at Nyack. We ,trust that the future of the work may

L THE PIONEER be blessed in an untold measure through the visit of the Board's representative our Foreign Secretary. Rev. A. C. Snead. LITTLE MISS MARY JEAN POST Just before coriference convened, Rev. and Mrs. Harry Post welcomed to their midst a little daughter, Mary Jean. This young lady. if a little late for Conference. arrived in time so that ;she could c,ome to Benteng Tinggi and greet us all with smiles. On the last day of Conference she was dedicated to the Lord in a service conducted by Mr. Snead and Mr. ]affray. May the Lord's blessing, that maketh rich, be poured out abundantly qpon the parents and their little daughter. MR. AND MRS. ANDREW SANDE The whole Conference was held ,in rather a time of SUS- pense as to the arrival of Mr. ansd MIS. Sanae. They were announced to arrive a good dcal earlier. but war conditions. difficulty about passports, visas, etc.. delayed them, so thar they di,d not arrive at Makassar till everybody had left Con- ference to resume their work on their various stations. SO Mr. and Mrs. Sande m,issed seeing the N.E.I. missionaries and the N.E.I. missionaries missed ,the privilege of joining in the welcoming of our two new mis,sionaries on the field. Those of'us who are here in Makassar have extended to them our most hearty welcome as they join the N.E.I. family. They are already busy at the study of the Malay language. ASSISTANT CHAIRMAN One of the most important features of our Conference was the unanimous choice of our brother Rev. C. Russell Deibler as Assistant Chairman of the N.E.I. Mission. The

3 THE PIONEER

field being so large, the problems of the work so rapidly increasing, and the need of someone to help the Chairman shoulder the many detailed responsioilities. especially visiting the missionaries in the various parts of the field, made the appointment of an assistant chairman imperative. MI. Deibler is ad,mirably qualifiied in the judgment of us all for this new office. Special prayer is requested for the Chairman and the Assisiant Chairman and for the Executive Committee in the edministration of the work during the period between con- ferences. Until now the Committee has been composed 0: five members including the Chairman. This number is now increased to seven. THE WlSSEL LAKES FIELD The only regret in connection with the appointment of Mr. Deibler as Assistant Chairman is the fact that ii deprives the Wissel Lakes field in Netherlands New Guinea of the most important service of Mr. and MIS. Deibler in that nen work. The story of the opening of the work in this most primitive part cf the N.E.I. had been one of remarkable providential working of the Lord. Then suddenly. after a year and a half of missionary elfort by Mr. Deibler and Mr. Walter Post, war condiiions brought the work to a close. T,he circumsstances rnad,e it absolutely 'necessary fo,r our missionaries to retire. Much earnest prayer was made, and in a shorter time than wc dared to hope, the work in that most remote part of our fiold was reopened by the Government. W,e are gl+d to announce that on March 13th. MI. and Mrs. Walter Pqst arrived by plane at the Wissel Lakes. They are accompanied iback to their work by nine native workers, four of whom are Dyak student-evangelists. who will be a sreat help to them in building houses, boats. etc. We send forth this 4 THE PIbNEER appeal for prayer mast earnestly to all our friends in bchalf ol the interior of Netherlands New Guinea. Pray that God will bless Mr. and Mrs. Post very riohly ; that God will bless and fill with Hi,s Spirit each of the native evangelists ; that God will deeply mo've upon the hearts of these prtmitive Kzpauku adMoni tribes an,d many 0th- Ston,e Age, primitive tribes. people hitherto unknown and unheard of ; that they may realize their sin an:d their #needof a Saviour ; that their hearts may be illumined by the Spirit of God so that they will see and know the Lord Jesus as their only Redeemer. Furthermore, we request that spee'dily we may be able to reach the many still uncontacted tribes of the interior of Netherlands New Guinea, that the Gospel may indeed spread lik,e holy fire from heart to heart, from village to village. from race to race, until these hitherto unknown and unheard of peoples, perhaps the liast of the tribes of earth to hear the Gospel. may be brought to Christ.

You ,may wonder why The Pioneer does not come through more regularly. The .matter of fact is that without special help from friends we find it difficult to finance the publication of it oftener than we do. The present time, of course, has been unusually busy for all the missionaries on the field on account of the Conference in January, but we are getting down now to regular schedule again, and hmope that we may- be able to publish The Pioneer more often in the future. We sometimes have good articles and important news concerning the work that we are unable to send to you for lack of funds. During these war times it may be difficult to send us money in the regular way but international money orders can be abtained and American ,bills reach us without difficulty and little delay. We shall greatly appreciate your help. 5 THE PIONEER

"DAYS OF FEASTING AND JOY' (Esther 9 : 22) by Iirs. C. Russell Deibler Early ri,sing. 1oNng days, wearisome business sessions, tedious resolutions and mot,ions - to most minds .that spells 'conference'. However. our Eigihth Annuai Conference has not been all work and,no enjoyment. Conference days. despite the necessary business sessions, have really been ",days of feasting and joy." Time and 'space would not permit us to record in full the messages brought us during the morning devotional periods, but permit us to share with you a portion of them. The Lord was gracious in bringing ,to us our Foreign Sec-- retary, Rev. A. C. Snead, whose counsel was mosL helpful and whose messages were a source of much encouragement and inspiration. Our souls were biessed and refreshed as he opened to us God's Word and pointed out some of t::e precious truths found therein. His first message dealt with the 'Goal of Christian Service.' "Winning souls," said MI. Snead, "Is like bringing in the 'material to be used for the building, but budding the Church is the actual construction of the building." He ,poi,nted out that building of the Church is the real goal of Christian service and urged us to study more diligently the Word o'f God which is the blueprint for the buildi'ng. How privileged we are to be called of God to not only win souls but also to build those whom we have won into the Temple of God. It takes more skill to build the Temple than to go gather in the material. In our endeavor to reach farther and farther out to those who have not he.ara, we must not mininize this important task, that of building those we have brought to a knowledge of Christ into thc Temple of God. 6 THE 'PI0 N EE R

A very instructive message was b;ought on the Parable oi the Talents, Matt. 25 : 14-30. It is widely taught that the talents mentioned in this passage refer to our natural abilities or talents. It was brought to our attention that the talent spoken of refers to the thing to be invested, not to the ability to invest it. It could not be one's talents, silch as singing, for the Lord expects return in kind, "he that had received the five talents want and traded with the same, and made them other five ba!ents." Our attention was called to several passages of Scripture in John 17 and also in the book of Acts which would seem to indicate that the talent is the Word of God, not the pages of the Book but the entire Word, of God. In John 17. Christ gives His disciples the Word of God as a stewardship to give out to others. Frequently in the book of Acts. we read the phrase 'the Word of God grew and multi- plied imightly.' We should first invest the Word in our ow11 lives and then in the lives of others. Several precious and practical lessons were drawn from the words and phrases used in th,e description of thi New Jerusa- lem, Rev. 21. "Holy,", from God, being holy no unclean thing can enter ; "new'.. anything of value to God must be new ; "coming dow'n from God". so should our contacts with men be as coming from God ; "prepared as a bde", adornment of life ; "no more crying". there will be nothing to cause tears over there ; "no death" but a marvelous fulness of eternal lire : "no more sorrow", sin. failure, loss. privation, hard+ and separation, the causes of ,sorrow, will be removed; "hawing the glory of God". glory means unbroken fellowship. the unhindered display of His power. Another morning, Mr. Snead spoke on th? Holy Spirit from Ephesian.s. Twelve times the "Spirit" is mentioned in thc book of Ephesians. All our spiritual growth and relations witE

7 THE PIONEER

G,od are through the Holy Spirit. Revelation and knowledge of God's Word and Truth are by the Holy Spirit. Faith brings grace and the H,oly Spirit 'brings power. "Be filled with the Spiri,t." We were exhorted to take heed to the importance of o,eing "Overcomers". It is to the overco'mers that Christ makes all His promises and not ,to the Bride. In the instance of Gideon and the uhree hunsdred ,men with him who overcame the hosts of the Midianites. it was not a case of numbers but of their attitude toward God, which made them overcomers. Victory comes through battle. Christ o'vercommes Satan, death and the world for us. The paths of the ovwcomer are through God and HISWord abiding in us. keeping His commandments, the Blood cf the Lamb, the Word of our testimony and loving not our lives unto death. It was impressed upon us tha,t answers to prayer are not depmdcnt upon our own worthimss but upon our nced and God's p-wer and faith is dependent only on God's grace. "Little faith" is seeing one's circumstances more clearly than Christ. The prayer of faith is not based upon one's faith- fulness to God. Faith operates by love, and compassion is the result of love. Mr. Snead's closing message to the conference was a great blessing to tile missionaries. Speaking from I Cor. 3 : 9. "We are labcrers together with Go'd. Ye are God's husbandry", he sighted the tw3 principal things God has for us to do : firstly. to till the soil and secondly to bring forth the harvest. Here the field referred to is not the world but a lesson of the Lord's field to which we minister, that is, the hearts of men and women won to Christ. When a soul is won it is adding to God's soil where He ca,n grow the fruits for Hi,s glory. God wanis fruit and grain but also He wants flowers of His 8 HE PIONEER grace and beauty. Sowing an'd gathering a harvest of souls is only the beghning. Our real business is that of building a building in which the Lord God can dwell. May God make each one of us fsithful in bringing men out of the barren wastes of sin into the well wa,tered garden of salvation. "ln the language of men, there is a vacancy in heaven for the Holy Spirit is not up yonder but here and some day God wil! join His Son a'nd both of them will m,ove in with the Holy Spirit, that is. tabernacle among the Church which He pur- chased." Mr. Morken. a guest of the Conference. brought an impres- sive message on the "Precious Blood of Christ". Special emphasis was laid on the word "precious". The Blood of Christ is precious, it was pointed out, because it is incorrup- tible. It is also precious in what it means to man in freeing him fro,m sin. Also the Blood of Christ is the ransom price which frees man from sin and the reconciling price which reconciles us to God. The closing Sunday morning message was given hy Mr. Mitchell, an associate missionary. The theme of his talk was "Christ, the Great Creator and the Loving, Compassionate Saviour". Our attention was first drawn to Christ in His role as the great Creator, bringing into place the heavens and the earth a,nd forming from the dust of the earth a man in whom He breathed the breath of life. Then Christ was pictured as the compassionate Saviour of Luke 7. who healed the centurion's servant, raised the widow's son and spoke peace to the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears. Christ was moved with compassion by the needs of those who came to Him and He spoke words of peace, healing and forgiveness. What a precious truth, "He, by whom the worlds were made, is touched with the feeling of our in- ,, firmities." 9 THE PIONEER

It is sometimes difficult to realize how refreshing it is to the missionaries, who for two years have been alone on their stations giving, ever giving out to others the precious truths of Godk Wond. to hear from the lipis of others messages from Godk Word. Our conference closed with the observance of the Lords Supper. As we gathered around the Lord's table it was with a deep sense of our unworthiness and of Gods great good- ness to ea,ch me of us during the past conference year. The missionaries have now returned to ,their various fields knowing that God will do even greater things through and for them in the coming conference year. "Truly our souls have been fed on the good things of God's Word ! ! ''

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DIRECTORY OF MISSIONARIES Makrsar. Celebes. N.E.I. - Rev. 8. A. and Mrs. Taffray. Rev. I. W. Brill. Rev. C.R. and Mrs. Deibier. Rev. A. and Mrs. Sande. Miss Seely, Miss Marsh. Miss Kemp. Miss Jaffray. Wizselmecr. Via Ambon. Netherlands New Guinea - Rev. W. M. and Mrs. Post Ampenan. Lombok. N.E.1 - Rev. W. and Mrs. Kdnemann Melak. via Sarnarmda. East Borneo, N. E. 1. - Rev. H. W. and Mrs. Post Taandjongselor. Boelongan, East Borneo. N.E.I. - Rev. G. E. and Mrr. Fisk Long-Berang. via Malmau. East Borneo, N. E. i. - Rev. J. F. Willfinger Balai-Sepoeak. [via Ponrianak and Sekadau) West'Bor+o.N.E.I. - ~Rey.1. A. and Mrs Mouw ~ . . ,, Nanga-Pmoh [via Ponrianak and Sinrang) West Borneo. N. E. I. - Rev. H. A. and Mcs. Dixon (Continued on Page 47) 10 THE PIONEER

STATISTICAL REPORT FOR THE NETHER- LANDS EAST INDIES MISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE - 1940

Population for which this field is responsible 10,000,000 Centres under Alliance missionaries, Chinese missionaries, and native workers 139 Number of missionaries on the field 29 Number of Native Workers 141 Number of Chinese missionaries 20 Number of students attending the Makassar Bible School 209 Number of Sunday Schools 74 Number of scholars attending the Sunday Schools 3,292 Number of Primary Bible Schools 13 Number of students attending Primary Bible Schools 479 Number of baptisms during 1940 2,049 Number of inquirers 2S8b Number of Church members 13,093 Total amount of native offerings during the year Guilders 11,323.23

C & MA 5 THE PIOKEER

ANNUL mmw OF THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES AND BRITISH MALAYA ME25ION OF THE CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE 1940 by R. A. Ja[fray. Makassar

BEXITIF'LIL FEET "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth giad tidings, that publisheth peace : that bringeth good tidings of good, that (pu'hlisheth salvation ; that saith to Zion, Thy God reigneth." (Isaiah 52 : 7 ; Romans 10: 15). This Scripture of prophetic poetry is usually interpreted to set forth the release 0.f Israel from the Babylonish captivity. It foretells the sound ,of the feet of the messengers coming over the mountain to Terusalem and proclaiming that the periosd of ca,ptivity is a thing of the past. Last year w,e used as a setting for our Repo,rt the deliver- anc? of Israel from Egypt and God's oft repeated demand to Pharaoh, "Let my peaple go." This year we illustrate our missionary victories in the Netherlands East Indies by the second great deliverance of Israel, that of the deliverance from Babylon. Mksionary work may be likened to warfare. Egypt and Babylon were the great enemies of God's people Israel, and the two great illustrations of salvation in the Old Testament are the exodus from Egypt and the deliverance of the people from Babylonish captivity. The pro'phet's hilarious delight 12 THE PIONEER is well set forth in the poetical prophecy of Isaiah qcoted above. Even the feet of the.bearers of the good tidings o,i liberty and salvation from captivity are beautiful. He repeats : "Good tidings ...... good tidings of good ...... pu,blishers of peace and salvation,'' and sums it all up afte; the dark age of captivity is past. The message to Zion is : "Thy God reigneth." Satan, through the fall of man, succeeded in bringing the whole human race into captivity. Sin brought agony and et'ernal punishment. The Gos~pel,the Glad Tidings, brings peace and salvation. Missionar:es go out into all the world t3 relea'se captives. and what an unspeakable joy it is to go t3 new races, where Christ ha;never been named, to tribes held in the bondage of Satan and sin, and preach to them the Gospel of peace, the Glad Tidings of good things. The reference to the feet on the mountains may well be interpreted as setting forth the necessary sufferings involved in missionary work. The feet of the messenger proclaiming salvation are called beautimful. They represent the march, 'the sound of a going of the missionary army, and the toilsome travel uphill and ,down, through swamps and over rugged, treacherous, dangerous trails. Many a missionary has come at nightfall at the end of his day's tramp with sore. bleeding feet, but in His sight such feet are beautiful : beautiful because they bear the marks of suffer,ing in carrying the ,Glad Tidings of great joy to sin-sick, weary souls. One day it will all be finished and the weary feet, all scarred, bleeding, and sore., will cross the last mountain and tread the last trail. reach the last tribe, and win the last soul. and then He Himself will exclaim : "Well done. good and faithful servant! How beautiful the feet OF him that hat11 brought Good Tidings and proclaimed salvation to perishing 13 THE PIONEER

souls !" Then indeed it will be true that our Christ reigns. reigns over all the world. over every nation. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Him. He shall reign not over the material universe and over all the nations of this sin-cursed earth, but He shall reign in peace in the hearts of the people ; not only in the hearts of the white race, but in the hearts of the most ,degraded, debauched, sin-cursed savages from the jungles of the uttermost parts of the earth. Missionary work means a briaging in of these captives from afar. Some of them. as will be recorded in this Report, have only now been discovered. They have been hid,den in the mountains. in the dark lonely p1,aces of the earth, but they shall come to crown Him Lord of lords and King of kings. We sometimes marvel as we contemplate the vastness of the field that the Lord has comlmitted to us in the N.E.I. Some may say we have spread out too thinly, but in view of His soon coming we believe in the policy not of concentra- tion, but of wide diffusion of the Gospel. We have not tried to stress the local civilizing or even Christianizing of these people. The only education in which we believe is the Bible educatio'n. the preparation of heralds and witnesses who with swift feet will carry the Message to earth's remotest bounds, to the far scattered islmands o'f these southern seas. Where the Gospel ham$ already been proclaimed, we do not feel it encu'mbrant upon us to duplicate missionary work in these parts. There are great unreaGhed territories to be evangelized. We need not weep that there are no more world's to conquer. There are still islands with jungle inhabitants who never yet have heard that there be a Christ, and who cannot yet lisp the Name of Jesus. He has no feet to go to 'them but our teet. Our task is to teach them to sing the New Song.

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Thank Go'd for the thousan,ds who can sang it today, who tell or twelve years ago did not know the first note of that Song. Now they sing : "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," and fall prostrate in worship at His feet. We desire. in ,as concise a way as possiNble, to review the work of the whole field during t!ie past year. In most cases we have the manuscript of the missionary befor-e us and can quote from his report sufficiently to give a little picture of what has been done. We ,shall have to, wait for the leisure of the next world 'to listen to all the sto'ry, but surely we can say that Go,d hath wrought great things in these last closing days of our age! It is a time when we^ may expect the God of wonders to perfo'rm mighty acts by Hiss Holy Spirit and per- form great miracles to attest His Gospel Message. During the past year over two tho'usand new souls have been won to Christ. Probably mNany motre have been truly saved, but this number - 2,049 - have been baptized. This makes a total membership of more than 13,000. Let us begin in the extreme western section of our fie1,d. beyond the border,s of the N.E.I.'in Briti,sh Malaya. Rev. G. and Mrs. Woerner were the only members of our Mission on the fi,eld not vr0sent at our Conference in January. They were prevented from attendance because of was conditions. The progress of our comparatively new wo'rk in British Malayd has not been rapid. and it has been beset wivh many difficul- ties end dra,wbacks. We want, however, in a few words to lay before our readem the vision for the future of this part of our field, which we believe is given to us of the Lord. The great centre of British Malaya, of course, *i's the cosmo- politan city of Sngapore. Much missionary work is being well done in Singampore and also in many of the larger cen,tres in the interior of :he Malaya Peninsula. On ahe other hand, THE PIONEER there aie scores of good-sized towns where no real witness of the Gospel has been given. Therefore our first task seemed to be to organize ojpen-a,ir meet,ings and later Gospei Tent meetings in these neglected towns. In over fifty such p1ace:s series of meetings ol two weeks or more were held by cur missi,onaries during the pa,si few years. and especially among 'the Chinese there have been many converts. This wc'rk has been accomplished largely under the leadership of Rev. Paul W. Fleming and Mr. Willard Glaeser, and a number of experien'ced Chinese workers : Rev. T. H. Tsang. Rev. Paul Lyn, Rev. Paul Lenn and others. This open- air and tent work can only be carried on in certain seasons of the year, and we are hoping after the rains, with a new tent, more suitahle to our need, to continue the Gospel Tent campaign. A permanent result of the open-air and Gospel Tent work has been the establishment of a church in the town of Kuala Lipis with Pastor Tsang in charge. In writing of this work Rev. Paul Lyn says. "The work at Lispis was hard at first, but then ,the: Holy Spirit worked and we had to use logs for benches. I had already written appealing for fun'ds to buy benches, but got no re,sponse, but that is all providential for now the church has about 120 members already baptized and benches bought and paid for fill the church ! When the government grants us the land we shall he able to subscribe to build a new church. The first one to decide for Christ in the tent was a M'alay woman wifh several mixtures of blood in her veins. Her husband is Chinese and she speaks several dialects of Chinese and also Malay. It may he that she repnesents the peoples that will he saved through the tent work in Malaya. She was a notoriously wicked woman, drinking and smoking and oken brought before the police. She has now given up these bad habits 16 THE PIONEER and is bearing a good testimony for the Lord. Hadlelujah !" MI. Lyn gives many other interesting accounts of the work in the tent. but we can only give one or two other instances. He writes. "We had a wonderful time in Raub. The first night several hundred people came out. but then wild rumors were circulated among tile youn,g people. One rumor was that if they went into ,the tent they would not be allowed to come out ! This remark w,as believed by one old man who was seen several times in the meetings, but as soon as the service was over he would make a dash to get out. One night I made a dash for him and found that he knew friends of mine in Hongkong. Before he left he asked for prayer and gave in his name. In spire of the devil's working there was a harvest of souls in this town. Among those baptized were two government clerks, a foreman, who had been out of work for two years, but who got work right after his conver- sion, a contractor, a tailor. and so on from every walk in life." We ask the prayers of God's people that these tent meetings may be continued and the:se hungry souls fed on the Bread of Life. But the great incentive to the work in British Malaya is not such a ministry to the people of the plains. important as this may be, but our main object is to reach the jungle people of the intenior of thi,s ,peninsula, often hidden in the mountain jungles well off the beaten track, called the Sakais. A start has been made with sufficient progress to assure US of two things : first. the work is not easy an'd not without definite Satanic opposition : and secondly, the task i,s almost an endless one, for it is not only one Sakai tr,ibe. but many, that must be reached, and it is not only a Sakai race as such which we have in ,mind. but similar jungle tribesmen farther nortL- ward beyon,d the bonders of British Malaya up through 17 THE PIONEER

Rev. G Viomr.cr of thc C. ant M. A. ar Ri~elct.British Malaya. with a CRrirtiao Sakai chid

Southern Thailand, even to the great unreached regLon of Upper Burma. This great unknown and unevangelized area comprises one of the greatest unoccupied fields of the world. Beyond where the British Government has established its control stations lies a great mountainous region inhabjted by unknown tribes. More than any other the Chinese peddler with c,haracteristic persistence has carried his wares to this well-nigh unreached people. It is fair to argue that if the Chinese peddler can ;penetrate these mountain jungles, thc Chinese eva'ngelist can go proclaiming the Gospel of the only Saviour of the world. With the call of these unrmched peoples in mind, we have secured property in ,the Cameron Highlands at Ringlet with THE PIONEER

the idea of establishing a base and a Bible School for such future work. It may seem to some like a wild. impossible dream, but such 'dreams and visions, if given of God, become a reality. and sometimes in a remarkably short time. Mr. and Mrs. Woerner are located at Ringlet and government permission for the opening of a Bible School there Bas been grantad. This is all we need say, and we would request earnest intercession of God's people for the fulfillment of what we believe #isthe vision of the Lord. Towards the end of 1940 an interesting Bible Conference was held at Ringlet. Mr. Woerner and a number of able Chinese Bible teachers took part. About thirty attended. SOUTHERN SUMATRA. That pact of the Netherlands Colony lying next to Singa- pore and the Bri.tish Colony is the great island o,f Sumatra. Strange enough. northern Sumatra ha5 been comparatively well evangelized, and there has been a great ingathering at many tens OE thousands of souls from a,mong the Batak people and the ,inhabitants of the adjacent islands on the south- western coaNst, while the ex,treme north, the Atjeh people, and southern Sumatra have been almost entirely neglected. The Courier Mussion. under the direction of Dr. Paul Rader, did considerable work in several centres ,o'f Southern Sumatra, but more especlially among the degraded jungle people, the Kooboos. This work has now been taken over by the Alli,ance Missi'on. From the beginn,ing our Alliance Bible School at Makassar has been helping to supply native evan- geli'sts for this work. These native evangelists collaborating with Rev. Hubert Mitchell have penetrated the jungles of the Kooboo tribespeople with bhe resu1,t that during the past four or five years some 600 Kooboos h'ave been brought to 19 THE PlONEER

Christ. This jungle work is among the hardest. entailing a great deal of suffering on the part of the missionary and native worker. Theie are still thousan'ds of Kooboos to be reached and someone must 'travail in prayer till Christ will be brought to their jungle shacks and to their sin-burdened souls. It is with deep regret that we record the passing away oi Mrs. Hubert Mitchell. We do not sorrow for her. for with her "to depart and be wi'th Christ is far b,etter." We only pray in loving sympathy that He will give the "grace" to Brother Mitchell as He has given t,o her the "glory." (Psalm 84 : 11) God bless Brother Mitchell and his four children. The story of the trium'phs of the Gos'pel can best be recorded by giving one or two instances from Mr. Mitchell's report : Christ Crucified. One day in telling the story of the crucifixion of Christ 'to a group of Kooboos, one man asked what a "nail" was, for he and most of the others had never seen such a thing. It was difficult for the missionary to describe in the native tongue just exactly what a nail really was. After the story was finished, Mr. Mitchell being thirsty opened a can of oranges. In the bottom o'f the can was a ,two-inch nail ! He held it up to show the Kooboos. When the chief saw this, he stoo,d up an,d said : "If this is true, that this Man who is the Son of Go,d let nails such as this, be driven in,to His hands and feet, there is nothing that we ought not to be willing to do for Him." This chief oFfered at once to help Mr. Mi'tchell and to lead him to many other groups of Kooboo people, th,at they too might hear the Gospel. The Gospel taught on the frail. Mr. Mitchell narrated how he and one of his workers had met some Kooboos when on the trail. The worker fearing that he might never meet 20 THE PIONEEk these people again or SE able to witness again to them, started to teach them as he headed the trail and they followed alon,g in single file. In simple. short sentences he started reliing the Gospel Message. iie said, "God loves me." and the man b,ehind him repeated this sen,tence, and so on each man repeated it, till the last man in the line was reached. Then the worker began again : "I am a sinner," and this sentence was repeated over an,d over again by each one in turn till every man had heard and said the words. And again. "The Lor'd Jesus suffered and died for ,my sins.'' In this simple way thz wo,rker continued until 'the whole Gospel Message was told. He never seemed to grow weary although the may was long and toilsome. but he did not stop till he reached his destina- tion. He wanted to make the most of this opportunity. Who knows but that he mi,ght never have another chance to witness to these wandering people? Recently these same people were contacted again by another worker. They haNd not forgo;ten what they h,ad learned on the trail. They still remembered rhe Name of Jesus and how to pray to Him. This group has now been definitely located and they have promised not to go past a certain boundary line so that we can always find them. The leader wants to become a Christian. Pray for them. Bringing Good Tidings. Mr. Mitchell told of one tribc who were afraid of the white man because the Mohammedans had told them wil,d stories of how the white man would take them over the ocean. In their fright they fled overnight although their crops were about ready for harvesting. Later these same people were contacted again, and Mr. Mitchell was secretly told of theisr whereabo,uts by two of their number. After ,much persuasion the chief amnd his men htened with wonder to the Gospel Story. They heard the Good 21 THE PIONEER

Tidings, not tidings of evil. as they had been warned. Today some of these are amon,g our mast advanced Kooboo Chris- tians. Praise His holy Name ! The Lord has used Miss LeRoy ako in the work in Southern Sumatra, where she has a varied and fruitful ministry among Chinese school girls. Moslem women, and Ja- vanese children. She has been able to vkit some of the outstations every month and the Lord has given soulrj. BANGKA Among the islands lying off the northeastern coast of Sumatra, the largest are Bangka anid Billiton. The in- habitwm of these klands are abo,ut one-half Hakka-s,peaking Chinese anmdone-half Malay. Our work has been almost entirely among the Chinese populati,on. The little church in Bangka. numbering 143 members, has made steady progress. The past year h'as been phenominal so far a,s the number of converts is concerned. Pastor C. Y. Wong of Billiton was invited to visit the Island omf Bangka. and doing so baptized 91 converts while he was there, thu,s mone than doubling the member,ship. BILLITON The faithful work of Rev. C. Y. Wong has resulted in the steady .progress, first iNn the membership of the Billiton Church, and second, in the opening of new outstations in dif,ferent parts of the island. The activities of the work in Billiton may be judged from the following statements from Pastor Wong's report : Two Sunday Schools are being conducted whh an attendance of 100 pupil,s. There is no other work on the island save thsat of the Roman Catholic Church. In addition to the Chinese pastor there is a Malay-speaking 22 THE PIONEER evangellst and hrs wife located in Billiton, and working among the Malay and Sekak people. The Billiton Church contrib- uted towards the #support of their womrk in 1940 nearly Onc Thousand Guilders. This paid for the chapel rent, the electric lighting, water supply. casetaker, traveling expenses. and the opening of new outstations, etc. One important request for prayer concernin,g the Billiton work is that th? Spi,rit of God may definitely move upon the hearts of the aboriginal boat ,people, called the Sekaks, not only in Billiton but also in Bangka an,d +he surrounding i,slands. The present student-evangelkt in Billiton feelis a special burden for these people. WEST BORNEO . The work in West Borneo, whi,ch Mr. and MIS. Mouw commenced a few yeans a,go in the Bal'ai Sepoeak D,istrict where more than 3,000 souls were save,d, has spread east- ward. MI. anld MIS. Dixon have continued a new work commenced last year up .the Melawi River. Thiss part of West Borneo represents a great populati'on, and alrea,dy there are most encounaging sign's of the hearts of the people turning to the Lord. Mr. and MIS. Williams assisted in the Melawi Iieid and then traveled extensively ammong the Kayan Dyaks. The way did not open, however, for permianen,t establishment amon,g',these people who seem to be more strongly influenced by Mohammedanism than their neighboring Dyaks. The appointment of Mr. and Mrs. Williams by the January Con- ference wa8s to ,the Lower Kapoeas district of West Borneo, nearer the coast. The Conference ako felt that the time had come f'or the opening of a Bible School in West Borneo, and consequently Mr. and Mrs. Meltzer are appointed to take up 'that work on their return from furlough. In the Balai Sepoeak 23 THE PIONEER

District the work has #developed along seii-silpporting lines more than in any other of our fields. The story of the work in the W,est Borneo fields ISbest told by the missionaries them. selves. We therefore quote fmm thei,r reports. MI. Mouw gives 'some interesting items in hi5 report for the year 1940. Of ,the twelve native workers. all except one are now supported by the eleven native churches. Last year 312 new converts were baptized, forty of these being from three new tribes, and 'bringing the total membership up to 3,374. The total offering6 were Guilders 2,486.55. During the year there were four Preparatory Bible Schools with an enrollmen,t of 260 students. There are n'ine church buildings erected by the Dyaks themselves. A Church Boand of ten native brethren governs the church afhains. Besides these and the regular native workers, there are in every vill'age two or three elders to con- duct mi,d-week prayer meetings and to pray for the sick. Gospel team,s have been formed, composed for the mast part of older Dyak Christians who cannot read or write, and some younger ones who 'are able to read. They make weekly visits to heathen vcllages and God ha's given them many SOUIS. Thus the chu,rch mem,bers themselves are out in active service for the Lord and are learning to be soul-winners. Mr. Dixon tells of h,ow they were royally welcomed by the aged.chief of three willages one day, and says, "This chief had been crippled because, while still a young man, one leg was bmadly mangled by a crocodile. He testified that God bald prepared hos heart and related how he 'believed imrne- diately on hearing the Gospel. Such peace and joy filled his soul that he was impelled not only to witness to his own subjects but also to every v,isitor coming within his gates. Per- secution set in and one ,of his villages withdrew from his 24 THE PIONEER jurisdiction. Should he not renounce his faith, the iocal IMO- hammedan ofLici,sl threatened to dismiss him from government service. On that occasion he looked the official straight in the eye, slowly arose, hobbled into hi's r,oom, [hen within a few minutes returned bringing with him his official letter, also his most prized possession - the bronze star which the Governor General had awar,ded him for years oi fa,ithful service. He proffered these with the wads : "Tak,e them. What good are they to me, if my soul does not receive eternal life ?" The official backed d,own and stammered out the words: "Don't tell the white official please, don't tell him that I asked for you1 permission or star.'' As rzsult of this man's bold stand, many others have hzzn en couraged to believe.'' Mr. Dixon further writes : "l'n January 1940 three new native workers caime from Makassar, one o! whom could speak some Chin,ese. The f#irstthing he 'did was to visit all t,he Chinese shops and wi,tness to the shop-keepers. Last April there was a moving of the Spirit among these Chinese, and our front room warns no longer #big enough to accommo- date the Sunday evening cromds. Souls are coming to the Lord every meeting. A spirit of 'seeking after God has broken out amon,g the Chinese. One man. known as the worst charac,ter in all West Borneo.- a f,ighter. gambler, adulterer, murdeser, a notorious bad-'m8an.was saved through the healing of his ilittle boy. Then things began to stir. What a witness ,he has been ! First, his family and immediate relatives have been won to ,the Lord. His life is a daily witness ,to all with whNom he comes in contact. Recently. when we organized the church with 52 members, he was chosen to be one of the fimt ,deacons." Space forbids recountin,g many other interesting and stir- 25 THE PIONEER ring experiences in his di,strict. Suffice to 'say inquirers come in a stezdy stream to the missionary's home and God is doing rnigh,ty things. EAST BORNEO And now we go over to East Borceo and will try and tell the story of the progress OIthe work in the Mahakam. Boe- longan and Sesajap di,stricts.- MAHAKAM DISTRICT The Alliance missionaries have worked side by side in good fellowship with the Chinese missionaries of The Chinese Foreign Missionary Union. The latter in the beginning of the work preceded slightly #the Alliance m,issionaries inasmuch as they first preached the Gospel in the coast towns of Balikpapan and Samardnda, mostly among their own people. They soon felt, however, t'hat their call was not to the coast towns but to the Dyaks of the interior. In the earlier stages

A Dyak longhourc where a number oi familiea live together with a long scrindah in koat af tbc rooms. This vcrandah aftso makes a aplcodid rnectiq piacc. The lonehavrc is crrctcd on polea about .ight feet from the ground.

26 THE PIONEER of the Mahakam work, Alliance and Chine,se Foreign Miss sionary Union missionaries worked han,d in hand, covering a wide area with the use of the motor 'boat. The Chinese brethren finally located in the Lawa River District, while the Alliance Mission fiel,d covered pretty well the remainder of the lower M,ahakam field. The blessing of the Lord in answer to .persistent and vic- tonious prayer rested u,pon the Chinese missionary worker with the result that there 'is at the present time a membership of approxima,tely 1,300 'in th,is part of he Mahakam field. A few years ago 700 Dyaks were brought to Christ through the instrumentality of the Chinese brethren. but were afterwards claimed iby the Baisel Mission, inasmuch as they were located over the border line of the Kutai di,strict. a part of the Bao- djermasin field. Recent developments seem to indicate that these converts will, by their own express desire. be returned to the shepherding care of the Chinese workers. Under presenlt circumstances it is #difficult for the Basel Mission Lisrthren to ,shepherd thik flock. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Post have been in charge of the Ma- hakam field for two years and have done a great deal of traveling and evangelizing. The work, however. has been hard. and ehe great h,arvest for which we are praying has not yet ,been realized. The Alhance #part of the Mahakarr? field has atbout 200 .memlbers. There remain 'the upper reaches of the Maha'kam River, a greet gzpossessed area. w,hich, however. is hard of access. We have reason to believe it will be a frui,tful field if we can really undertake the re- sponsibility of evan'gelizing this population. This part of the Mahakam field lies in the very heart of the Island of Borneo. It is the taibleland from which a,ll the mighty rivers of the island flow to the ocean, to ,the south, to the west an,d to the 27 THE PIONEER east. Our recent conference o,utlined this new unoccup!ca area as a definite prospect for ,dhe future development of the Mahakam field. Again. we a,sk our friends to unite iI; definite prayer that ,this advance step may be realized during the coming year. We now quote from Mr. Harry Post's report : "Shortly after our return from Conference 1935 we had the joy of ba~ptizinya small group of Christian,s in a village in the Melak section of the field. Then again in the early part of 1940, we baptized a group oi new believers. The work in this village has met with strong and persistent ap- position. But praise God though the enemy has been fighting hard and It seemed sonetimes as though he future of the work was actually threatened, the Lord has given the victory. The meeting place is now tco small. and the number of inquirers is increasing. Many have been healed in answer to prayer, one from a bite of a deadly snake, another experiencing a rapid recovery from a sericas fall from a coconut tree, and so on. Because of the manifc .- tation of the power of God in healing, many of the people ;n the village are more receptive in their attitude to the Gospel. "One young .man came to me and said that for a long time he had wan'ted to become a Christian, but his parents had threatened him w,ith expuision from their home. Being verV young he would not 'be able t,o provide for himself. But he rema,rked to .me that now since he was able to make a rice field for himself. and was independent, he no longer feared the threats of hi's father, and thus he was ready to confess his Iaisth in Christ. Recent news tells cf a change in the atti,tude of his parents, and of their no longer being opposed to his becoming a Ghristian. "We are earnestly praying that this village may become 28 THE PIONEER the nucleus of a real work of God throughout that section and among that trlbe of Dyaks numbering about 12,000. -We want to praise God Ior the natlve worker now in charge there, for God has used him in the building up and prospering of the work. Hrs faith and fearlessness have been signally blesse,d of the Lord. "Another section where we are =orking is called the Ta- bang section, which is inhabited 1Sy Dysks of the Kenya trlbe. On one visit we baptlzed thirteen believers and on anothe; visit we #baptized six. One of the leading cni,efs of tha: group is the father of a former Dyak native worker. When we went the first ,time he was bitterly opposed, but on our second visit the iirvt thing he di8d was to ask our forgiveness for his former attitude. God had blessed the tes,timony of his son. His bather was very hungry tor the Word, ancl during our stay in his village he asked us again and again to remember him in pmyer. At this village one of those baptized was a former witch doctoa. She requested that the fe- tishes be 'destroyed. Prai,ses welled up within us to God at th'is display of bo1,dness in the renunciation of heathenism, There are fifteen Christians in this village now. and rather than co'me into conflicmt with the heathen element of the village. they are building a section for themselves, and the, heathen have agreed to their bei'ng free from any obligation to join even partially in the observance of heathen rites. "We are believing God for a real awakening in the Ma-. hakam district. Malmay influence is unusually strong here, but our God is greater than that of Mohammedan influence or any other obstacles. We look to God alone : our eyes are upon Him. Our prayer is tha't there may be hundreds and hundreds more Dyaks from the Mahakam district await- in9 His return." 29 THE PIONEER

BOELONGAN DISTRICT

The blessing of the Lord has certainly rested upon the ministry of our seaplane in this part of Borneo Nine trips were made by Mr. Fisk during the year, away to the head- waters of the Boelongan River, the district known as the Apo Kayan, visiting many parts of the field in between. Without the plane not more than two or three trips could possibly hav!

Here ii the Bcechcrafr Seaplane. ued for Gosprl work in Eaat Barnco. drawn up on the hrc flight. Rev. G. E. Fisk. thc pilot. nod Mrx. Firk are atanding oil tbr pootoona.

30 THE PIONEER been made. It is interesting also to know that not only does traveling 'by pl,ane save time - all the difference between two months and two hours - but the cost by plane has proven econamical as compared with the cost of coolies in a naltive boat snailing up the raging rapids. The dangers by the rapids are much more than hose incurre,d by air. It was in this part of Borneo that in our work a decade or more ago the Spirit of God first manifested His power, moving upon the hearts of the Dyak peop1,e and turning many from their heathen darkness to see the great Light of the Gospel. The present linernberslii'p of the 22 churches in the Boelongan Disstrict totaled at the close oi last );ear 3,717 members. Extracts from Mr. Fisk's report give the best picture of the work : "During the past three years the Dyaks of the Apo Kayan have been persecuted, turned out of their villages. and force6 to build new villages. But in spite of it all. men and women have turned to Christ. In the Poedjoengan area there are only two v,illages that have not come ou,t for the Lord. In one of these villa~geswe preached the Gospel but the leaders started to curse anmd blaspheme the Name of the Lord Jesus. I listened to so much, and then I tu ned to the native workers with me and said. 'We must go.' & We left being definitely led of the Lor,d to do so. It was not long before some of the people in this village started going to other villages to hear the Gospel, and some of them were saved. What hap- pened? They were put out of their own village. Thank God today families in three longhouses have turned to the Lrd, and have not been put ou,t. and now workers go there to witness for Chist. "Travelino is very difficult over the ra'pids. One day. years ago, having just ascended two long and dangerous

31 THE PIONEER rapids, 1 looked up at a clear sky, and the tinought came to me,- there is only oile way to travel here. Just then a horn- bill soared overhead, gracefully topping the rapids and high mountains with ease. I thou,ght a seaplane is the thing that will speed up the Lord's work. In 1939 the plane arrived and since that time the work has been progressing wonderfully. At first some of the Dyaks feared the plane and blamed it for the failures of their rice crops. In one village the chief ordered them not to go out of their village for ten days after they had seen the plane, as they thought a new spirit had come and was going to take them away, pullin$ them up into the sky with fishing hooks. A story was tol'd of one Christian woman, who when she saw the plane for the first time, tho,ught she must be in heaven ! Now the Dya!e are used to the plane and fear it no longer." Some of our readers will probably remember reading in The Pioneer of the moving of the S'pirit of GoNd on a group of 90 Dyaks, and hcw one of them, who was supposed to be crazy. was wonderfully saved through the mighty working of the Spirit in his heart, ,and finally how they all confessed the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. Some time later Mr. Fisk visited t!ieir village. He writes : "I found over 200 Chris- tians there. Not all the 90. who had previously confessed Christ, had stood true, but the leasder who before had appealed to )me for help with the man whom he thought was crazy, was now a Christian leader in their midst. I baptized those who were ready and a church was ,organized in that place, and this ,man became one of the 'deacons. Just recently I had a letter from one of the native workers, and he writes that this deacon has gone to a village in the heart of Borneo preaching the Gosipel, and over 90 more have accepted the Lord as their Saviour through his testimony." 32 THE PIONEER

SESAIAP DISTRICT The Sesajap field lies farthest north in Dutch Borneo, next to the borders of British North Borneo. During the first part of the year, Ivlessrs. Presswood and W-illfinger labored together in this field. MI. Presswood's health necessitated an early furlough. and for the remainder of the year Mr. Will- finger carried on alone. This year was a banner year in the Sesajap work. no less than 916 converts being baptized in the churches an,d a considerable measure of self-support has been attained. Six churches are partially self-supporting. which is the equivalent of three fully self-supporting churches. There are still vast sections of chis field to 'he possessed for the Lord. Traveling in the Sesajap district means more bhan incon- venience. It means sore feet and these mountain itinerancies of'ten result for the missionary in protracted times of illness. especially m'alaria. We do not want to refer particularly to the feet of our brethren in the Sesajap for the same is true to a greater or less extent of all our Borneo fields. but ere we leave OUT Report of the work in Borneo we want to say once again the Lord does not forget the physical tortures that are necessary to the spread of the Gospel in this part of the worl'd, and we think we hear Him exclaim, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet ot those who bring Good Tcdings of good things in Borneo !"

33 THE PIONEER

Mr. Willfinger reports : "With hearts full of joy and thankfulness to our Lord we bring this brief report of our activity in the Sesajap district of Borneo during bhe past year. In the first six months of the year Mr. Presswood ,an,d 1 labored together and in July my fellow-labourer left for America for a much needed furlough. "Altogether we made six itinerathg trips of an extended duration and three tri'ps to the coast. On these tri'ps we preached on the deeper wo'rk of the Holy Spiri't in most of our established churches a,nd found a ready response on the part of the Dyaks to seek for a deeper exNperience. We recall vividly one nigh,t the native worker coming to us and saying : "There is a young woman who wants to speak with you. Sir". When she came in she said she was in the service hst night and the Holy Spirit spoke to her. She had been living with the chief of the village for sosme time and had left her first hugband. So she said "Last night while you were speaking the Holy Spirit spojke to me and convicted me of the unclean- Eess of my life. Now I want to leave this chief with whom I have been living and return to my own husband." To this of course we heartily agreed, and she im'mediately kept her vow. We had other cases similar to this indicating that the Holy Spirit did honor ahe truth. "On one trip which we made to a village in the ..Poenan Krayan" area of our district, we had a beautiful experience. After the service one morning the chief of the village came and spoke to me thus, - "Sir, below our village here on the ban,k of the river is a tree which we and our ancestors have feared for generations. It is inhabited by a spirit of which we are mortally afraid. Nmow we have given our hearts to Jesus, can we defy that spiri,t an'd cut down that tree and still 34 THE PIONEER

live ?" I saw my opportunity to strike a blow for Christ, and 1 said, "Yes, in His Name who died for you, cut it down and do not fear." In a few more moments I heard the chon - chop - chopping of their axes, and in a short time a victorious bunch of Dyasks returned to the house with their faces glowing, to tell me of their colossal success. Another victory for Je,sus ! "In the early part of the year two native teachers were placed at the extremity of the Poenan Krayan river after prayer an,d consideration. Just nine mon,ths later, before the close of the year, it was my privilege to go aga,in to this district, and bury in baptism over one hundred born-again Dyaks and dedicate two new churches. built by them in that short time, Praise Gomd fo'r His working in ,this d,istrict and I know there will be many more who will follow their Lord this coming year. "We also had the joy of opening new territory this past year in what is known as the Seboekoe River district. These people are a distinct tri:be from the Dyaks we have been working a'mong. They are :known as the Tidoeng Dyaks, whereas the tribes among whom we do most of our work are Poetoek and Aba,i Dyaks. I found very hungry hearts among these people who in many ca,ses never knew there was a God, let alone His Son, the Redeemer of mankind. We had the privilege of praying with one of them right before he died. and we trust that he grasped the Message of Life before he expired alohough he could no longer make any audible sound. He simply assented 'by the nod of his head. How long until these poor benighted souls come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus ? "We are glad to report that God has blessed in our Primary Bible School at Long Sepajang this past year as never 35 THE PIONEER before. We had an enrolment of we!] over a hmdred and iron their ranks t-weive k3i.e gone on to our main 3ible School at iviakassar. This ma,kes a total of twenty-four students in the process ok training to ,become fulure workers and leaders of the Dyak Church. Pray foz them that God may fill them with all the fulness of His Spirit. Most of the food and supplies were provided by the Dyak Christians for this school. The school is conveniently located in the centre of our estabiished churches and It makes it possible for them to carry rice to the school for the students. This rice is often carried over many miles of rugged mountain trail : but by willing hands and feet. We have two new teachers in this school this year, who have just come from Makassar to take the place of the former two w;?o have 'been called back to Makassar for further training. T,hese two new men therefore do not as yet know the Uyak language. Take them on your heart so that they will quickly master this tongue." MAKASSAR Before proceeding with the remainder of our Re'port, covering the smaller islands to the south and east of Makassar and then on to New Guinea, we should pause for a moment to tell a little about the work in Makassar. the hea,dquarters of our field, the two churches, the two Bible Schools, and the work in the Celebes. We are apt to forget *hat there is a great deal of routine. hard, ex,acting work that must be done in the office at headquarters so as to make possi'ble the harvesting of many souls in the fie1,ds to the west and to the east. Full credit therefore should be given to the office staff attendhg to a hundred and one details as well as the finances of the whole work. The main features of the work in Makassar, apart from tht headquarters, are the two churches, the Kemah Indjil or the 36 THE PIONEER

Gospel Tabernacle, the Chinese Church, an,d the Bible Schools. In the Tabernacle there is a large congregation of Malay-speaking people, who meet regularly under the able pastorate of our good brother, Rev. P. H. Pouw. Last year there were 43 baptisms. The church building is well filled and has a seating capacity of over 500. The Chinese Church is smaller an'd ministers almost exclusively to the Chinesc people. It is ,a changing congregation but the testimony to the Chinese people in their various dialects is still sustainemd through the faithful labors of Rev. Y. K. Tse. There are some very choice Christian characters in the membership of the Chinese Church and new s,ouls are continually being won at the regular services of the Gospel Chapel. Regular prayer requests are sent out concerning all the Chinese work from Maka,ssar. and al,so in Malay to the whole N.E.I. field. The other all-important feature of the Makassar work i; !he Bible Schools. Steady increase has been maintained in both Schools, during the past year under the management of Rev. J. W. Brill and Miss M. E.Kemp. It is hard to overstate the amount of hard work that is accompli'shed by these workers. With ,an enrolment of over 200 something is almost sure . to be happening almost all the time among the students. re- ,quiring 'prompt and wise attention. The presence and power of 'God is distinctly felt as the Word is expounded in the class- room. There is a certain atmosphere of hunger for the blessed Word that inspires the teachers as day by day they give forth the Truth. A well planned course of study is out- lined so that in a period oE five years the whole Bible is pretty well covered. Mr. Brill and Miss Kemp have been ably supported by the following missionary teachers : Miss Seely, Miss Marsh. Miss Jaffray, Miss Dittmar. Mr. Pouw. Mr. laffray; also Mr. and Mrs. Deibler and Mr. and Mrs. Walter .37 THE PIONEER

Post assisted during their enforced stay in Makassar, while the New Guinea work was closed. Pn ad'dition to his duties as pastor of the Tabernacle in Ma- kassar, Mr. Pouw edits our monthly periodical the Kalam Hidoep. This Bible magazine has a wide circulation though the number of actual subscribers is only one thousand. Mr. Pouw's poetical and musical ability is also revealed in his translation of many of the best Gospel hymns into the Malay language. This is only a part of our publication program. The follow,ing expositions have been tr,anslated from Mr. Jaffray's Ch,inese books : Genesis, Numbers, The Parables, Ephesians ; Joshua and a translation of a Harmony of the Gospels are now on the press. Pamphlets expounding the Bible are also being published in Malay by Messrs. Post, Woerner an'd Pouw. These books have a ready sale and more such are being #prepared and plublis'hed. Another branch of the work, supported by the liberal con- trilbutions of The National Bible Society of Scotland, is our colportage work. Rev. M. Kandou not only takes a general supervision of the student-evangelists in soubhwestern Celebes where they are working among the Boegis and Makassar people, but over the co1,porteurs who are doing faithful work in the northern part of CeMbes, and also in Bangka. Sumatra, Lombok, Soemsbawa and Misool. LOMBOK Lombok was one of the earliest fields that we entered The number of converts in the case of Lombok is always so much smaller than that of the Borneo field that it has a tend- ency to di,scourage. Hu,manly speaking the cause of this is that Mohammedanism is so thoroughly entrenched in most of these islands that it has the effect of hardening the heart. THE PIONEER so that the good Seed of the Gospel falls into stony ground. This, however, is all rhe more reason why the readers of this Report should labor with us faithfully and should pay the more attention and give more earnest ,prayer in behalf of such fields. We thank God for the tireless lalbors of our good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Konemann. They bear testimony to the Ealinese population of Lombok, to the larger Sasak population, who are steeped in fanatical Mohammedanism, and also to the Dutch resi,dents of that islan'd. They have the advantage of being Dutch subjects. and we fir)mly believe thnt there will be albundant results from the faithful preaching of the Gospel. In reporting about the work for last year, Mr. Kone- mann writes : "The Balinese work has been a great care to us this year. There were 'all kinds of complications which caused a separation in the church, so that the attendance and activity suffered a great deal. But a revival came at Easter time during a Bible Conference. The little group of behevers was set on fire spiritually, causing us to start open air meetings. This was a blessed time in which we enjoyed the testimonies of the si'mple Balinese. After the tenth of May martial law went into effect and we stopped this open-air work for the time being. Another blessing was when four Christians were baptized. In spite of all this we felt that unseen powers were working against us. One of our elders became seriously ill. He began to doubt and because of this he became spiritually indifferent. Nevertheless, praise be to the Saviour's Name, our bmther's sick-bed became God's work-shop to prepare hi,m for greater glory. One day his wife came to our house and brought fifty guilders to be sent to Makassar. By intuition we felt that chis was a way of easing his conscience. However we received the money and 39 THE PIONEER sent it on to Makassar. The following Sunday we were very conscious of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Personally I had thought we would find an empty church because of the trouble making of our wandering brother, but instead of that we had several new visitors in our hall. God is mighty! After the meeting I went to the home of our sick brother. Hi,s room was dose to the hall and he had enjoyed the spon- taneous singing. Therefore his heart was made ready for a personal talk. When we asked if #perhapsthere was uncon- fessed sin in his life he began to weep and he tol,d me that he had previously promised the Lord to give a new church building. After the beams were all made he broke his promise. Some ti'me later he promised a gift to the work in another part of the island but eventually broke his promise again. It was a serious an'd heart-easing confession and together we sought God's face to confess this sin. Then he became happy in his soul and began a new life. He gave us a ,piece of land and four hundred guilders to build a new church. "In the meantime God #prepared our brother for greater glory and in December took him to Himself. He realized that he was going home. His home-going was a testimony and confirmation that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. About four hundred guests and members of the fatmily were at the house before the funeral. For us it was a unique opportunity to proclaim to them the glo- rious Gospel. True, ,there is an empty place in our midst, but we pray and believe that this death-bed will be the seed from which new life will come to the Balinese church. "In another village we found a f'amily that had formerly heard the Gospel Message from Mr. Brill, but had never come to a final decision saying that they wanted to wait till 40 THE PIONEER after the death of the mother. ,God took us to that village after her death, and now this family have come to Christ and are holding regular services in their home." In making a summary of the,work. Mr. Konemann reports the following : 1. Lombok has nine places where the Gospel is preached regularly each week. Four persons were baptized this year. 2. We sald Guilders 70.00 worth of Bbbles. Scripture por- tions, tracts, etc. As a result of war conditions we were able to place ten Bibles in little groups of Europeans in Lombok. 3. Mrs. Konemann conducted a Sunday School course for the wives of the native workers. She also had two Bible classes, one for older girls and one for younger ones in the Dutch language. As a result a correspondence Bible course was brought into existence. 4. At the beginning of the year we were privileged to send eight students from our Preparatory Bible School to Makas- sar. At present there are four others studying in our school. 5. We received over Guilders 465.00 from the native Christians this year, and we now own three church buildings in Lombok. SOEMBAWA The wonk on the island 06 Soembawa has from the beginning been #directed by Chinese missionaries, student-evan-, gelists from our Bible School taking also a prominent part in the work. Pastor S. W. Chuc has a faculty of persistent continuance of faithful labor. In the little coast town of Bima there is a small Chinese Church and the testimony is also given to the Malay speaking papulation. Our interest. however, is more directly centered in the work of the interior in the mountains among the Donggo people. These people 41 THE PIONEER h,ave not come muc'h in contact with the doctrines of the False Prophet and therefore their hearts are much more open to the Gospel Message. Not a large number of them have been saved, but the first-fruits have been gathered in. There is a small group o,f Chinese and Malay Christians at one of the other ports of this island as well as at Bima. Pastor Chue visits these churches regularly and also visits the work that is being done on the island of BOETON and MOENA. The first-fruits have also been gathered froim the island of Boeton and there are a number of inquirers awaiting baptism, On the island of Moena. so far as we know, no natives have ,been ibaptized and we make special request that God will take out His own people from this island. There is, however, in Raha. the capital of Moena, a little group of Chinese !believers. who carry on their own meetings And are visited periodically #byPastor Chue. the Christians paying all the expenses of such visitations. And right here we should also mention that there is such a group of Chinese believers at three other places on the east coast of Borneo, namely Tarakan. Samarinda and Balikpwpan.

Since writing our last year's Report concerning this island off the northern coast of Netherlands New Guinea, there have been imiportant developments. Our two student-evangelists, who left Makassar over a year ago, finally landed on the island of Misool. Misool has no regular port of call for the inter-island 'steamers. anad our brethren traveled in d native boat from the northern coast of the island of Ceram. where they had been conducting special meetings in several places with considerable success, to the island of Misool. It was in response to real conviction that they set sail for 42 THE PIONEER

Misool. The Spirit of the Lord had surely gone 'before them, and they fiound on reaching there that there were hungry hearts awaiting the Message. It is still true that ,the Holy Spirit prepares hearls f'or the Gospel even as the heart ,f Lydia was prepared in the days of Paul. The result was that ere long fifty-one people on this island had declared their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and were ready for baptism. Who 'knows but what this ',may be the beginning of a mighty movement OF the Spirit on this island. which because of its ultra-wickedness, has been called the "Devil's Island." It is not in a mere conventimonal way that we again ask for special prayer for Misool. Victory can only be hoped for if concerted earnest prayer is offered .up in His Holy Name. NEW GUINEA We started this Report referring to the work in the extreme west of our field, namely the conquPst of the Sakais in British Malaya and the prospect 'of extending the Gospel Message away u,p into Uspper Burma. We have come in our course of the Report a distance of over 3,000 miles and on reaching Netherlands New Guinea we come again to one of the great pioneer challenges of world missionary work in this age. In fact we make bold to say that here in the two extremes of our present misssion fiel'd we,have two of the great outstanding missionary challenges which today f,ace evangelical Chris- tians of the en,d of the age. If the world is to be evangelized before the Lord comes, these two great fields, comprising many new undiscovered races. must be reached wit11 the Gospel. There are other parts of the world where a hke challenge presents itself, but these two fields appeal to us because they are right at hand, and further. because we have actually reached their threshold and are on our way. We 43 THE PIONEER

Rev. and Mra. Walter Paat reating enroute on thc dangerous and rug- acd trail bctwvecn Oeta. on the muthen coast of New Guinea. and the Wiasel Lakea of the interior.

dare not turn back. We dare not falter or hesitate. Thc solemn call 'of God is upon us. We fear nothing except that we disappoint and fail our Master in this crisis hour. He has given the great commission to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Dare we trifle with the challenge of such unique openings ? As we approach the close of the age nothing else. not even the great war and the rumors of more wars, that rumble daily in our ears, seems to be of consequence. He is going ,out with rapid strides to complete h'is program and close up the dispensation, and what an honor He has lbestowed upon us to give us some little part in the accomplishment of His purpose. Let us~notbe disobedient to the heavenly vision. Since our last Report significant changes have taken place in connection with our missionary enterprise in New Guinea. In May of last year, when Holhnd was invaded, the Colonial Government felt that they must withdraw their station from 44 THE PIONEER the Wissel Lak,es, Netherlands New Guinea. This left no other course for our missionaries but to very reluctantly retire from the field also. It was with heavy hearts that the w'ork was temporarily closed. but the Lord heard the bitter cry that went up from many hearts, with the result that befor,e the end of the year the Government felt justified in making definite plans for the reopening of New Guinea, and we received special messages from [riendly Government officials urging us to take up our task again. Consequently, as we write our missionaries are about to leave for that far distant field again. Shortage of wo,rkers necessitates sending only one missionary couple, namely IvZr. and Mrs. Walter M. Post, back to New Guinea at the present time. Mr. and Mrs. Deibler will not he returning to this field on account of MI. Deibler's being unanimously nominated Assistant-'Chairman of the N.E.I. field. It was wit'h mingled feelings of joy and sorrow that we voted for fvlr. Deibler to take up this most important task. He too deeply regretted that they had ts relinquish the work in New Guinea. We are, however. making a special effort to appoizt 3 sufficient staff of native workers from among the best the Lord has given us. We have government permission for the opening of three schools in that part of New Guinea and our hope is th'at ere long new missionaries may be appointed. which will enable us n,ot only to ta,ke up the work where it was laid ,down six months ago, but to press on farther into the interior and reach new, still undiscovered tribes; learn their language, and bring the Gospel Message to them. In B providential way the Lord has arranged not only that our missionaries may travel to the Wissel Lakes region by plane, but that, in conjunction with the Government in ex- ploration and reconnoitering into new regions in the interior. 45 THE PIONEER

hired airplanes can be used. To us it seems very remarkable that the regions and races, which we felt so heavily laid upon our hearts in the interior, are the very places named by the Government as their objective also. It is possible, perhaps probable. that in the future of this great undertaking. we shall b,e obhged eventu,ally to own a plane of our own, suitable for the work in New Guinea.

A Kapavku matber and her chubby baby of the Wiasel Lakes diatrict. Netherlands Ncw Guinea. Note the bone quill through her nose. The native made net bae over her hcrd is uaually used ~IIP carrying bag.

Even if missionary work in tile last days is done by way of the air, ,it will never be that the plodding of the missionary with sore feet over the trail will 'be out of date. It has ;been well said $bout modern warfare th,at final con- quest cannot be made by air forces, eventually the feet of the infantry must treasd ,the soil to be conquered. So in the last analysis. wings cannot take the place in missionary toil of the feet of the 'missionary. When the work is done and these 46 THE PIONEER distant, unknown regions have eventually been evangelized, the Lord will grant His 'hearty approval to the missionary who has plodded with bleeding feet o'er the rugged and dangerous trails of New Guinea, But His one word, "How beautifu; are thc feet upon the mountains of him who bringetii good tidings of good", will be sufficient to repay for all eternity whatever sacri'fice and suffering have been endured. If even the feet of the poor, weak, imperfect missionary are beauti[ul. how much more when the whole Body is complete will it be more beautiful, and what should we say of the Head, when covered with glory and honor. He is the fairest of ten thousand, the altogether lovely 0,ne. the Lily of the Valley. the Bright and Morning Star. To Him ,be all the glory, world without end. Amen Let us ,keep our eyes steadily upon the goal ! Let us not look down at our feet ! For when we once hear the shout from the skies, all else will fad,e into utter insignificance. For the Lord shall ere long descend from heaven with a shout. Even so, come Lord Jesus !

DIRECTORY OF MISSIONARIES (Continued).

Soengai Dekan (via Pontxanak) West Borneo. N. E. I. - Rev. M. R. and Mrs. Williams Ringler, Cameron Highlands. British Malaya - Rev. G. and Mrs. Woerner Djambi. Sumatm. N. E. 1. - Rev. Hubert Mitchell Lahat. Sumatra. N. E. I. - Miss A. E. LeRoy. Miss G. M. Dittmar On furlough - Rev. J. C. and Mrs. Meltzer, Rev. E. H. and Mrs. Mickelson. Mrs.]. W. Bnil. Rev. W. E. Presswood Rev. P. W. and Mrs. Fleming.