Evening star., 1941-03-16
Foreign Missions
OF Europe Continue
Work Despite War
American Funds Help
Dutch, Belgian, English
And German Groups
BY IRA WOLFERT.


a Cain-andAbel level, Adolf Hitler
proving able to raise Cain with it,
there is another, less known, in
f1nltely more warming side to the
plcture-aS Dr. A. L. WarnshuiS
of the International Missionary
Council disclosed today
It's another side, as different as
day is to night. For the fact is,
summed up, the foreign missions
of Europes churches continue to
function. This means French mis-
sions as well as Dutch, Belgian,
Norwegian, Danish and German
miSsions-a total of 1863.
With their homelands blacked
out, their supplies cut off and war
ring armies athWart their veins,
these foreign missions in Africa,
India and Asia. stated by about $500
missionaries, are very much like
helping hands amputated even as
they were stretched out. But the
helping hands continue to help.
Hearts pump life to them. Largely,
but not entirely, DR.. Warnshuis
pointed out, because of American as
sistance, for the United States has
become not only the arsenal Of
democracy" but also the fountain
head of the brotherhood of man.
Too Busy to Tell.
These $500 men and women in
168 missions are an intense drama.
Having been a missionary himself
for 25 years, DR.. Warnshuis can
feel the drama, but he can only
hint at its details for the present.
1t seems that people struggling for
their life works, as well as lives.
can't take time off to tell about it,
In outline, the picture is as fol-
lows:
On April 9. last year, Scandinavia
missionaries in the African Congo.
in India and China listened to
radios that told, between excited
lines, of their fate. No more mail
from Norway and Denmark, no more
freight, no more money. On May 10,
German guns began blowing holes
IN the hearts of Belgian and Dutch
missionaries in far-off exasperated
places of the earth. In June, it was
the turn of French men and women
and their charges in Togoland,
Tahiti, Madagascar. Then, through
the long, horrible summer that fol-
lowed, with its wave of fifth column
fears, German missionaries-long
since cut off by armies and navies
began to go into prison camps in
the Netherlands Indies and in
Africa.
Something on what April 9 meant
can be told by Indian lepers of the
province of Assam, who had
Numbered down around the mission
to the santals. There are g.
Scandinavian missionaries and
about $4,000 Christians there, and
the lepers waited patiently for a
promised colony to take care of
them. After the news of April 9
the lepers went back to begging
along the jungle trails.
No Mail to Norway.
And something more is indicated
IN a message from a couple now
out for their fourth term as mis-
sionaries who have been trying to
get word of their two 'teen-age
daughters in Norway:
THE mail comes at sundoVn, but
1t is only our own letters returned,
one after the other, stamped re-
turned from Bombay returned
from London (my, that was close;
that was nearly thereD no mail
accepted for Norway Fortunately
for us there is so much work here
to do there is hardly time to think -
This is the dark part of the story.
Then small lights began to burn in
it. News came that the Bermen
mission in Togoland was still func-
tioning. All except one of the mis-
sionaries had been interned as
enemy aliens. This one was an
American from New Jersey. A
neighboring mission from the
Church of Scotland was supporting
his work because funds could not
be got through from Germany. So
here was a case of a German mis-
sion supported with Scottish money
and directed by an American.
Interned in Spy Scare.
After that came a brief deScrip-
ton of the career of Deaconess Won
WaldoW. For five months she
struggled without money from the
German Home Society to keep the
mission work in Maneromango
Tanganyika Territory, East Africa,
alive. On July her struggle ended
She became engulfed in a wave of
spy fear and seemed to have
drowned in it, along with her mis-
sion. But the British c. M. S. mis-
sion at Mvumi had her interned
there and got permission for her
to teach English girls, thus releas-
ing two British teachers at that
station. The British teachers are
carrying on the German deaconess'
mission at Maneromango.
God is the answer" the mission
aries continue to say, and God
seems still to live in man. In July,
with the German Army feeding off
them, the people of Holland con-
tributed more money to the sup
port of their missions than they
had contributed the previons July
when they had no conquering war
riors to feed. The money can't get
out and get to work until the Ger
mans get out, but it is there waiting
for that day.
The record of financial support,
going like light across all battle
fields, is as follows, according to
compilation by DR.. Warnshuis.
Since September, 1889, when the war
began, American churches have
sent to the European missions that
are temporarily orphaned"-as the
gentle missionary saying goes-a
total of $493,0O0, the British
churches have sent more than $780,
900 and other countries have sent
$4,000. "It's tremendous" the doc
tor says, '1but not enough. What
this aid has meant is story that
will take long to tell" But what it
must mean to thoughtful people
now is expressed by pr. Warnshuis
in this manner:
s'This aid has heen piver, without