Winnipeg Bible Institute - Kings Herald Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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WINNIPEG BIBLE INSTITUTE Page 32 How the Light Came to Madagascar 1N the year 1505 Portuguese first struck the shores of this great uncharted island, and cen¬ turies later English sailors anchored their ships oil its shores, filled their barrels with fresh water from its springs, and left the people as dark as they found them. Arabs visited the island also, all too frequently. The villagers would finish their evening meal, and stretch out on their sleeping mats for the night then suddenly pierc¬ ing screams would rend the quiet. The men would rush out of their huts with their spears to face the slave raiders. Their oxen would be driven off and the village reduced to ashes. Still no one brought the light to these dark island people ! Far away in a little Cardiganshire village in Wales, an old man prayed for the dark island of Madagascar. He saw as in a dream, a man with outstretched arms, crying, “Come over, and bring the light.” Dr. Phillips had been teaching a class of youths who had offered their lives for the min¬ istry, and the next day he told his students of this vision, challenging someone to answer the call. The result was that two young men, David Jones and Thomas Bevan volunteered to go. On February 9, 1818, these two men, wdth their wives, sailed away to the distant island of Mada¬ gascar where no missionary had ever gone before. They left their wives on the neighboring island of Mauritius, which was under British control, and sailed on till they reached the harbour of Tam- atave, on the east coast of Madagascar. They be¬ gan to study the Malagasy language and made friends particularly with the boys and girls. After a few weeks they returned to Mauritius to fetch their wives and children, promising their new friends that they would return and settle down there. The natives awaited their return and were eager to take up the lessons Mr. Jones had started before he left. But the rainy season had set in. The house was damp and unhealthy, and soon the Jones family were taken ill with fever. On Decem¬ ber 13 the baby died, and a few days later was followed by Mrs. Jones. Before long the Bevan family was stricken and all three of them claimed by the fever. David Jones slowly recovered and returned to Mauritius, the sole survivor of a party of six.. In September 1820, David Jones returned to Madagascar accompanied by a representative of the British Government, who had come to try to put down the slave traffic. They set out for the capital, Atananarivo—-a hundred and fifty miles to be covered on foot. It was a long, difficult journey, saddened by the pitiful sight of slave gangs being driven to the coast for shipment. When they reached the capital the king received them cordially and with great ceremony. He gave them the best hut in the city and allowed David Jones to start his first school with sixteen little boys from the royal household. Soon several other Britishers came to help David Jones in the work of training these Mal¬ agasy lads. After five years the number of pupils had grown to three thousand, and one Sabbath the missionaries had the joy of hearing twenty-eight Malagasy confess Christ publicly. This made up for all their sacrifices and gave them zeal to press on with the work of Bible translation. The king who had befriended the missionaries died and was succeeded by a queen, who had murdered the rightful heir to the throne. As the missionaries watched the procession from a dis¬ tance, they saw with dismay that the new Queen was bringing back the idols. Not knowing what she might do next, they hastened their work of translating and printing the Scriptures. Then one morning a messenger came with this message from the Queen. “You have done good in this country and I wish to know if there is anything else you can teach ' us. Can you make soap ? If not you must leave the country at once.” Within a week, James Cameron was able, with the aid of books and encyclopaedias, to produce two small cakes of white soap, which they sept to the Queen. On June 21, 1835, the complete Bible was in the hands of the Malagasy Christians, but the Queen soon drove every missionary out of the land and commanded that every Christian should be slain. Her soldiers raided the houses, brought all the Bibles they could find into the city and burned them, but that did not put an end to the worship of God. Some Bibles had been hidden and were now cut up into sections and shared out. The believers gathered for prayer in lonely huts, in caves, or away in the forest, but many of them were captured, thrown into prison at Am- batonankanga and tortured. More than two hun¬ dred Malagasy Christians were brutally put to death for Christ’s sake, but the praying still went on and the wicked Queen was completely baffled. A short distance from her palace, prayer meetings were held at midnight in secret, and the young- princess, Ramomo, who was destined one day to become queen, began to meet with these Christians to pray. The persecution continued throughout the reign of Queen Ranavalona I. She will always be remembered as the one who tried to put out the Light that cannot be quenched. Her death came as a great relief to the country, and immediately a band of missionaries left Eng¬ land to recommence the work they had to leave, ' they expected to find the church blotted out. but to their joy discovered that the number of believers had multiplied ten times. The new Queen Raso- herina was not a Christian, but very good to her people and allowed the missionaries perfect free¬ dom. Within four years ninety-eight churches were built and five thousand names were written on the church membership records. Rasoherina received a letter from Queen Victoria one day, asking as a personal favour that there be no further per¬ secution of the Christians. The promise was given and faithfully kept. And so the Light shone brightly again. (Continued on Page 33)

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rage 31 WINNIPEG BIBLE INSTITUTE School Activities The New Year finds the students of the W.B.I. very enthusiastic and desirous to do better than the previous year. Everyone is preparing for the writing of exams. They delve into notebooks to see what they have forgotten, and try to bring last term ' s lessons to memory again in order to acquire the one hundred percent mark. Exams, being over, the students relax, and have “a social” or two. They go on a hiking, skating or toboggan¬ ing party, then come back to the school to play games and satisfy their hunger. When the last day of April rolls around the students are seen shaking hands and calling “Gor.d-bye!” The graduates think, “Will we ever be back to visit that place again where we have spent so many happy days?” These graduates are going out to serve the Master in His vine¬ yard knowing that He is going to reward them for their laljor. The rest intend to come back and finish their course to be better fitted fox- leading souls to Christ. Many take the oppor¬ tunities open to them of teaching Summer Bible Schools. Every child of God enjoys this work of teaching the little ones to know more of God and their purpose here in the world. The children love to hear the Old and New Testament stories. They learn to love their Saviour because He bids them come to Him. Other students do their wit¬ nessing among the people of their own commu¬ nities by teaching in Sunday Schools, visiting the aged and sick. Summer passes quickly. Fall finds the stu¬ dents eager to begin a new term in Bible School. Once more the building is filled with laughter and singing. The teachers greet us witli cheerful words and pleasant smiles. The new term is a busy one and soon Christmas comes again. Thus another year has passed bringing us all who acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Saviour, closer to His Home in glory. —Sam Rapko. It Seemed Funny at the Time Mac placed two cans of condensed milk on the counter of a grocery store one day and proceeded to pay for it. “No”, said the clerk, “You can’t have that. It’s rationed.” Mac: “Oh, I am sorry madam, Here is my ration book.” Clerk (grinning) “You need more than coupons, You have to have a baby and a doctor’s prescrip¬ tion.” Miss Moody, in English class. “Now give me several English words derived from the Latin ‘centum’, meaning a hundred”. Mabel, “ ‘Century’, ‘Per-cent’. I can’t think of any more.” Miss M. “Oh, come on now. A hundred of what coins make a dollar?” Mable. “Oh yes I know—coppers.” Mary B. in Public Speaking Class, “When he finished Bible School he went to study in a cemetery.” One day when Emil had been sweeping the dust from the basement floors, he was Beard to remark, “I went into the girls’ cloakroom and came out with an armful.” Then there was the seriously minded little girl wh o said, “Mama, I was a good girl all day wasn’t I?” “Yes, dear, you have been very good lately.” “Mama, I will soon be good enough to be put into a tract, won’t I?” “How many apples did Adam and Eve eat?” “One” “No, more than that. Eve 8 1 and Adam 8 12, that makes 893.” “No you are wrong, Eve 8 14 herself and Adam 8 12 4 himself. Total 8938.” “No, it’s more than that. Eve 8 14 2 know how it tasted and Adam 2 8 1 4 2 find out the same thing. That makes the total 36242.” We are glad that the students of W. B. I. are better than the furnace, which not only smokes, but goes out at night And that reminds us of hearing Mr. Cunningham say as he stood near the radiator, enveloped in smoke. “Well, I only hope you people don’t think I am smoking.” (Hurry, hurry and catch it) Evelyn Bottrell (at the lunch table) “Oh dear, I will have to run after some milk.” Emil, “Why? There is a little here.” Evelyn, “Yes but it is running out. It is nearly gone.” APOLOGIES! Page 6—Mr. and Mrs. Dugard’s name was in¬ correctly spelled. Page 13—Under Wesley Klassen, “boss” should read “bass”. Pages 16 and 19—Bernhard Kehler should be spelled Bernard.

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Page 33 WINNIPEG BIBLE INSTITUTE How the Light Came to Madagascar (Continued from Page 33) Then Ramomo, the princess who had been a secret believer, came to the throne. Great crowds gathered for her coronation, watching in vain for the royal idols, which had always been given a prominent place in the processions. This time, texts of Scripture were emblazoned around the Royal canopy. The idol-keepers in great anger threatened the Queen’s life, so then she and her counsellors decided to put an end forever to the worship of wood and stone. Her officers raided the sacred village and burned the great idol “Rakelimalaga” with all his charms. Fires were lit all over the province as many followed the Queen’s example and burned their idols. Yes, the Light was spreading. A hundred years after the work began there ' were two thousand five hundred churches, and hundreds of thousands of Christians. But what about the others who are still waiting for the Light? This story has been mainly about the province of Imerina in the centre of this vast island; but there are tens of thousands of people in the other provinces still sitting in darkness, waiting for the Light. Agnes Dueclc Asia and tke TNfeat? East (Continued from Page 33) India we find to be one of the most religious of all lands, and yet those religions are the basis of great wickedness and degradation. Few have any conception of the true God. The idolaters, in their anxiety to please their gods are driven to commit cruel crime and make deplorable sacrifices. The present war has greatly increased the temporal and spiritual need of the people of India. One of the greatest unevangelized regions of the world lies in central Asia north of India, including the vast territories of Afghanistan, Tibet, and Turkestan. The people of these lands have long been neglected by Christian missions because they closed their frontiers to outsiders and neither welcomed nor respected white men. Moreover, great geographical barriers make travel very difficult. Racial jealousy between these Asian peoples is so prominent that the few mis¬ sionaries who have got into the country find it very difficult to maintain a friendly relationship toward all. A few individuals have heard the gospel message or received Christian literature when visiting Northern India or a far-of f Chinese mission station, but the mass of the people are in dense spiritual darkness. Anyone preparing to serve the Lord in this needy field should have a good medical knowledge and be able to endure privations and loneliness. Christ’s command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” is being obeyed and the work is being carried on, but the need is still very great and God’s promise will not fail. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Icy “Dalstcom South America (Alumni News continued from Page 35) In two weeks we are going to start a school, which is mainly for the believers’ children. We thank God for your prayers in regard to our house. At first it seemed impossible to find one, as we were the first two respectable single girls to live alone in a house in this province. We are making history! Just before Christmas two young girls in the children’s class gave their hearts to the Lord. We pray that to these two and many more, Christmas in its true meaning was made clear. Extracts (com Letters (Continued from Page 7) Thief River Palls, Minn., U. S. A. “ I am en¬ joying your Bible study messages over CJRC immensely. I am sending you a small donation which I hope will help to keep you on the air a little longer. I am very thankful that CJRC has so many fine Christian programs. Your Prayer Warrior Friend,” A. 13. S. —•— Steinbach, Man. “ I praise the Lord for open¬ ing another service over the air to send out His precious Word. I may not be able to listen to your programs every time, but I will surely pray for you just the same. I would appreciate the mimeographed messages.” Yours because of Calvary. A. A. T. —• - Winnipeg. “ When visiting some shut-ins in St.Boniface recently, I was told how much they enjoy your broadcasts. They said the messages were comforting and that the singing cheered them greatly. Please find enclosed my monthly contribution.”