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VOLUME 21. :-:
KEENE, TEXAS, (JOHNSON COUNTY), TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1922. =:
NO. 20
'S.W Union Conf.
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LI Oklahoma City, Okla
HE 411 Baum Blag.
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Elder M. Lukens
C. E, Smith -
President -
Sec.-Treas. -
PN. LD
A FOREIGN MISSIONARY EXPER:
1ENCE IN SOUTH TEXAS
‘Having heard of an interest among
sonie Mexican people at a place called
La Reforma in the Rio Grande valley,
the writer hastened to answer the
call, These people are agriculturists
who live ahout forty miles in from the
railroad. Most of them own
their own rhnches and are situated
very favorably if they had more rain
in those parts, bunt when we visited
themi they had not had any rain yet
this season and so‘ they were *disoc-
cupied for they cpnnot do anything in
the line of putting in the;r crops unt
til they get their first rains. Ewvery-
‘thing wias very dry and the poor cattle
were dying off on every hand for the
lack of food, for even the cactus, their
food, was drying up.
Notwithstanding these perverse
conditions, these neople were very
optimistic and” told me that they
thought it ‘was providential that 1
came when I d;d for they had nothing
grecial to do except to listen to the
miessage that I brought them.
-'T found’ that these people had never
seen one of our ministers, and had
become interested in the truth in this
way:— T+ hannened that about a vepr
or 80 ago p. eolnorteur passed thronch
that nart of +he state selling Gnis
Practica (Practicdl Guide) and he left
some ‘rhects inh one home which wera
read and becoming interested, an or-
der was sent to the tract society for
nwrs ‘reading matter and by the time
we arrived ;these dear. people had been
keeping the Sabbath for over a year.
Each evening we gathered in the
country school house for a service
and there were always between 75
and 85 present, and most of them
would arrive a ‘half hour early and
would be waiting for us when we
arrived, so eager were they to catch
every word of instruction that we had
for them. One dear man said, “Why
Brother, we are so thirsty to hear the
whole truth,”
A request was miade for baptism and
‘Word, Every one found that it meant
a cross to bear but they cheerfully
took up their cross and bore it for the
Master. All were accustomed to.the
free use of swine’s flesh and lard,
but whan they were shown that these
things are an abomination to the Lord
they «aid, “We will use them no
more.” We found that some of the
young people as well as the old were
given to the wearing of jewelry, but
when we read to them what the Lord
has told us about the outward adorn-
A GROUP OF MEXICAN BELIEVERS
so early in our stay with them, we
organized a special class for giving
specific instruction to the candidates.
Every morning for the five days that
we were with them we met and studied
~darefully as to what the Christian's
duty is, and how they drank in the
truth! We had no sleepy members
in our meetings even though some of
these studies were held for over two
hours at a time. It would have done
you iall good to see how these dear
people accepted every ray of light as
it was presented to them from. God's
ing of our persons, these things all
disappeared. The tithing system, ap-
pealed to them and they immediately
began returning to the Lord His own.
After studying with them and seeing’
their willingness to accept the whole
Bible as their guide book, the writer
felt justified in grjinting their request
for baptism, and Sabbath morning it
was our happy lot to see 18 of these
denr people follow their Lord in this
sacred rite, and how happy they were!
It was the swedest experience of
"their lives and their faces bdamed