Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 33, 15 December 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatfu

THEY FOUND THE CHURCH THERE

(From the "Missionary Monthly" of Canada..) All American soldiers are given by the Foreign Missions Conference of North America a little booklet entitled "If You Go Overseas." "If you go overseas " it says, "to Africa or Asia or the Islands of the Sea ■J you will find people with strange languages, strange customs, strange costumes and strange, religions, but you will also find Christians in these strange places. Remember that Christianity has had a long history —more than 2000 years of it. Today Christian churches to the number of hundreds of thousands arc scattered over the world. You cannot go far without crossing the trail of the disciples of Jesus. In regions far away lrom your own country you will find groups of Christians. "Christians in strange places!" The Allied soldiers during the war have gone to many strange places where they would not expect to lind Christians and yet w tie re. they are present—to China and the Philippine. Islands, to Burma India, Iraq, and Iran to the East Indies and tho ? Pacific Islands to the lands around the Mediterranean and to many parts of Africa. In all of these places there are Christians, the number of Christians in each area oC the world being indicated on the cover map. There were in Asia when the war began 4fi 000 Protests ant Churches in Africa 56,000 in 9 i Latin America 12 000 in the. Pacific Islands 7,800. Perhaps the discovery of Christians in the Islands of the Pacific has come as the most dramatic surprise to the armies of the Allies and their home folk. Yet Islands like. Samoa and the Fiji Ist* lands know no other religion than Christianity;. 98 per cent of the Fijians are Christians. Wherever the Allied soldiers have gone "They Have Found the Church There." A chaplain in a Pacific Island writes: "Out here, we find the Christian religion the closest tie we have with our strange neighbours." The Bishop of Central Tanganyika writes from North Africa: "I arrived in time to be present at a conciliation taken by Bishop Gwyne at tlie Cathedral at Cairo, There were nearly 300 candidates representing men and women of the ser-

t- eis' Association}.

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

■vices of every colour, and many languages. Barriers are being broken down misunderstandings are being cleared up and through closer fellowship with our Lord the way is being blazed lor greater days to come." The Bishop of Uganda tells of his visit to the troops in North Africa: "1 went by air to Cairo, and as we stopped at Khartoum on a Sunday night I had the great privilege of preaching in Khartoum Cathedral that night. 1 was nearly seven weeks in Egypt during which I confirmed 39 times; the candidates were almost 1200 African soldiers ... It filled me with great joy to remember that these men had been brought up in Church Missionary Society Missions, and that in all the strangeness and beastliness of war they were holding on to their religion. All else was difficulty but God was real. Nearly all of them have their Bibles and Prayer Books—no light matter for a soldier—and they meet in little groups each night for prayer." In the battle over the South Pacific Island of New Guinea the. native Papuans have tended the wound - ed sind acted as stretcher bearers, saving the lives of thousands of soldiers. These Christian boys *"and men whose people have so recently been won from paganism by foreign missionaries have called forth the admiration and respect of the Allied soldiers one of them wrote: * "Tho' they haven't any haloes, only holes slashed through the ear, And their faces marked with tattoos and with scratch pins in their hair % Bringing back the badly wounded just, as steady as a hearse, Using leaves to keep the rain off, and as gentle as a nurse; Slow and careful in bad places on the. awful mountain track f And the look upon their faces makes us think that Christ was black." The day when mother and grandmother had to "take" the tolerant jisting of their sons. They all agreed that they were "hipped" on missions. Now the tables are turned. Mothers and grandmothers have their innings. They are getting an extra and unexpected dividend in the comfort—even life-savimg—their sons are finding in mission fields at the hands of Christian Missionaries and native Christians'. In addition they have the joy of hearing tributes such as these to the work of missions.