SOUTH AMERICA

In view of the increased activity on the part of Rome to regain some of the ground lost in South America, and the forthcoming Eucharistic Conference at Buenos Aires, definite prayer is requested for all the Lord's servants laboring in South America that they may "with all boldness speak the Word," and that the native Christians may not be stumbled or carried away by the outward show and religious pomp.

Our brother Stacey writes the following from Catamarca, Argentine:

Since last writing I have taken a long journey north to within a few miles of the Bolivian border. I had meetings every night for some two months, and in every place I visited precious souls professed to find the Saviour. I visited all the groups of believers known to us for some 500 miles north. Life and customs seemed very different in those parts,, and in some places the congregations were mostly Indians. It was amusing to see men with long hair down to their waists, and young Indian women who are eligible for marriage with bobbed hair. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish which are men and which are women. Some have their hair done up in a ball on top of their head and covered with a tiny round black hat which just fits the hair. In the lower lip some have a blue stone about an inch across let into the flesh, to indicate the tribe to which they belong. Tribes of these Indians come south from the northern forests to work in the great sugar-growing regions, where for miles and miles nothing but sugar-cane can be seen.

Some of the Indian encampments visited in the forests were sad sights. There was much sickness amongst them, and with none to care for them, many had died and others were dying. Their poverty was distressing. Some were just skin and bone, and had lived on koko leaves for months with hardly any thing else. These leaves contain a kind of narcotic from which cocaine is extracted, which acts as a drug to allay the pangs of hunger. Those who were able to get down to the districts to work in the sugar crops almost live on sugar-cane and get fat on it, but the poor women-folk and children who stay in the forest have very hard times, and are much oppressed. But there is a nice work of God going on amongst them in several places and they become very honorable Christians when they are saved.

I received a letter today from Tartagal, away in the north, telling me nine more had just been baptized. Some forty-one persons there professed to trust Christ when I was there some months ago, and they are now erecting a Gospel Hall, each one adding what he can every week. In their first love and out of their great poverty they give freely to the Lord. One brother is a dust-man, but a good part of his wages goes to the Lord's work. Another brother has a field of tomatoes, and he gives one-tenth of his gams to the Lord. Back in September when the plants were young they had several degrees of frost, and many market-gardeners lost all their plants, but all that this brother had were graciously preserved. About 100 came together every) evening while I was with them for about ten days, and as I left them their last word was, "You'll come back soon; won't you?" I trust the Lord may open my way to repeat the journey later on. Please pray for these many isolated groups in all the northern parts of this Republic, and also that the Lord may raise up gifted brethren from amongst them to be a help in the churches. Also pray for the elder scholars of the Sunday School. One girl of 16 confessed Christ a few weeks ago. There are others we are anxious about before they go out into the world. My wife is still continuing the treatment for her sight in England, but so far there is no improvement. Let us pray on, believing, till the answer comes.

AFRICA

Our brother William Deans and his wife, after returning from the Language Conference at Stanleyville, started out immediately for a month's journey, visiting the hitherto unreached villages. Before our next issue we hope to have an account of their journey. The following extract from a letter tells of their journey to the Language Conference.

From Nyangkundi we had followed the old slave trail, once whitened with the bones of human derelicts, past historic (in a bad sense) Avokobi, on to Stanleyville, doing by motor in three days that which would have taken forty-two days five years ago. Through dense jungle, past forest clearings spotted with fuzzy cotton balls, ripe for the picking, we traveled, often encountering natives with huge loads of cotton en route to the gin. One caravan of a near hundred carriers, men and women, startled by our approach, dropped their tremendous burdens and fled into the forest. Coaxed out, they shouldered their loads and staggered under their weight while we took pictures. Then, casting them off again, they willingly listened for a mere half-hour to the strange, before-unheard-of Gospel tale. It pleased us to perceive a language unity which made our preaching understandable. On the return journey we preached to more than three hundred at a point two hundred miles from Stanleyville.

As we thirteen translators sat around the table, translating, we could not but remark upon God's goodness in giving us a widely understood trade language. Brought in by the slavers, Kingwana has so gripped the land that God uses this tongue, a relic of the bloody slave-days, as a medium in the evangelization of many thousands. There, twelve miles down the Congo from Stanleyville, the mighty river flowing by a hundred feet away, we sought with the help of the Lord to unify this lingua franca! into which the Living Word shall be translated. Again God has made the wrath of man to praise Him, for the slavers' tongue is to become a mighty blessing and boon. The result of the meeting was a new edition of Matthew to be followed by Mark and Luke, as we translate on our respective stations, looking forward to the completion of the entire New Testament in; the course of a very few years, should the Lord permit. Thus, not only will the Kingwana Version of the Word provide a means for reaching people over an extended area, but it will give to all Christian people in this large section a common spiritual language, encouraging unity among believers.

WORK AMONG THE INDIANS-U. S. A.

Miss Rose L. Olson writes as follows:

Just a word from our little work here in Kingman, Arizona. Two weeks ago we had the happy privilege of having Mr. Buchenau with us for five days' meetings. We had two meetings daily with a good attendance. The Lord gave much help and rich blessing. There is a hearty interest among quite a number who love the Lord and the study of the Word and are earnestly reaching out to interest others.
The two weekly Women’s Bible Classes are well attended, and the interest is very encouraging, but we long to see many others reached who are wholly indifferent. We are looking to the Lord for this. He is able.

The children's Sunday School is keeping up very well, and nine of the older boys and girls who are saved are showing real interest in Bible Study and growing in grace, for which we thank and praise Him.

Our brother J. P. Anderson, from Valentine, comes every two weeks for preaching. We covet prayer for ourselves and this ungodly and indifferent desert mining town. There is much to discourage, but we have also much to praise and thank the Lord for. Some souls have been saved, others; established and built up hi the Word. May the "joy of the Lord be our strength" in these dark., difficult days.

HARBOR WORK-PORT OF NEW YORK

Brother West reports a young man from Curacoa, Dutch West Indies, as being definitely helped through literature given to him during the past six or eight months. He is a steward on a small Dutch freighter which comes to Brooklyn every three weeks. He has found the Lord, and is rejoicing in the truth of salvation, and while he is more or less troubled by the ungodliness around him is determined to go on for the Lord. Prayer for this young man is requested.

One of the encouraging sides of the work among seamen is that a good number of the men on ships who are known to the workers as believers are gathered out to the Lord's Name and are connected with assemblies in different parts of the world.

The several large packages of kit-bags received in New York recently from different sewing-circles have proved a very real help in the work.