AUGUST, 1949
PO EE CE Cy ny ry.
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PP TE Ce Pa pa.
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La a a a
NEW ADVANCES IN INTER-AMERICA
By E. F. HACKMAN, President
Inter-American Division
Late in 1948 the General Conference Sabbath
School Department passed on to us the welcome
news that the Inter-American Division had been
chosen as the recipient of the Thirteenth Sabbath
Offering overflow for the third quarter of 1949.
Furthermore, they requested us to select specific
projects to be benefitted by this particular offering,
and to provide appropriate promotion material
as early as possible.
While this two-fold duty was a pleasant one,
it was by no means an easy task; for we could
see glaring needs all over the Division, and our
hearts have been stirred for many months with
the desire to see definite help provided in many
places. Some projects have been delayed for years
because of the shortage of funds with which to
proceed. However, after prayerful and careful
consideration, the Inter-American Division Com-
mittee finally voted to assign the “overflow offer-
ing” to three important enterprises; namely, Indian
work in southern Mexico and Guatemala; a san-
itarium-hospital at Mayagiiez, Puerto Rico; and
chapels in the French West Indies Mission. If
each of these projects could receive as much as
$10,000, this would bring great rejoicing to our
people, and would be the means of opening up
the work in new places in a number of instances.
For many years the Division Committee has
felt the necessity of doing more for the millions of
Indians within our territory. Many years ago a
small beginning was made among the Arekuna and
Akawaio Indians of British Guiana. We have also
many Indian believers in southern Mexico, Ni-
caragua, Panama, and Guatemala. In the spring
of this year we opened our first Indian training
school at Momostenango, Guatemala; and it is
our plan to place the graduates of this school
in charge of small A. B. C. schools in various
parts of that country. We believe this small be-
ginning will develop into a large and important
work for the Indian populations of interior
Guatemala.
Our leaders, and the church membership of
Puerto Rico, have long looked forward to the
time when they would have a sanirarium of their
own. The way has providentially opened up, funds
have been raised, and the doctors are on the
ground, ready to connect with a denominationally
owned and operated medical center; but additional
funds will be needed for equipment. We are look-
ing forward in faith to the time when the Thir-
teenth Sabbath Offering will be raken in all the
churches around the circle of the world, at the
close of the third quarter of this year, believing
that the necessary funds for the Puerto Rico med-
ical unit will be forthcoming because of the
sympathetic interest in this good work, which is
shared by the entire church membership, and
especially by the constituency of the Inter-Ameri-
can Division.
Then again, one of our very most pressing
needs in all the Division is the need to provide
chapels for our believers on the islands of Mar-
tinique and Guadeloupe, in the French West la-
dian Mission of the Caribbean Union. In these two
islands we own but one church building; and in
some instances the congregations have been or-
dered out of the rented quarters which they have
occupied in the past, and have absolutely nowhere
to go for the holding of regular church services.
This need still exists, after plans and appeals have
been reviewed year after year; and it cheers our
hearts greatly to learn of the possibility that defi-
nite help can be provided through the co-opera-
tion of our Sabbath school members, in Septem-
ber of this year.
It is my earnest hope that all our Sabbath schools
in this Division will rally to these three special
appeals for help within our own field, and that
we shall make the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering
to be received at the close of this present quarter,
the very largest Sabbath school offering in all our
history. Since we are to be the beneficiaries of the
overflow from this offering, surely we should
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