March of Missions
Missions Ministry Team
2010
Mrs. America Drennan was 50 years old when she first answered the call to be a missionary. She had doubts God was calling her because of her age. “I would trust God and go anyhow, for I knew he wanted me to go, and I felt I dare not spend another year in the homeland even if I wanted to do so.” See the testimony about her call and mission experience (link). Once in Japan she served 20 years as a missionary.
America M. Drennan
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Hearth and Chalice
“On my return home from the Convention, l was notified that l had been appointed vice-president of Missouri Synod. l accepted, hoping this would be the solution of this great question to me. Here was
work l could do for the cause, and thus help to send others, when l felt it was not possible for me to go. But it was not to be; my work did not advance, l still heard the call, yet l had not the courage to
offer myself to the Board because of my age. l again went into the schoolroom but the work was intolerably irksome to me, l could not throw interest enough into it to make it a success, either to myself or others, although it had formerly been a great pleasure to me to teach. Thus in various ways l was shown that my work was not in the homeland. l gave up teaching, determined to offer myself to the Board, but hesitated long before l did it, but after many conflicts l at last sent my application. After consideration it was accepted, no doubt with misgiving and anxiety. l had gone so far, however, that l expected to go whether they sent me or not; l preferred to be sent by them. but if not, l would trust God and go anyhow, for l knew he wanted me to go, and l felt l dare not spend another year in the homeland even if l wanted to do so.”
Despite the fact that Mrs. Drennan was past the age when most people go to the mission field, she was accepted because of her long experience in teaching and in church activities. Her consecration service was held at the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Evansville in March, 1883, and she sailed for Japan in April.
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Mrs. Drennan was appointed superintendent and principal of the school. In addition to all her other duties, Mrs. Drennan was soon faced with another challenge; she was asked to raise a Japanese baby and the baby’s seven-year-old brother. In a report to the Board several years later, she recalled the event.
“ I at first refused, said I could not know how to raise a Japanese baby, and so the matter passed out of my mind. In a few days again the request came: I said, ‘I will think about it' but passed it out of
my mind again. The next day, however, when the matter came to me a third time, I thought ‘Perhaps this is of the Lord. I have promised to take whatever work comes to my hand, and how dare I turn this
away`?' Immediately I went to Rev. J. B. Hail, told him my feelings, and asked him to come and talk to the man for me. I told him my impressions, and that I dare not turn away. He talked and prayed
with the man, the first prayer he had ever heard. The next day the two children were brought. This is my Daisy, and Shozo San. I am sure God often used these children to open the hearts of the Japanese
people to me,”
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Rev. Edmond Weir was the first CP missionary to serve overseas. Amazingly, our first missionary was black, ordained by a presbytery in Kentucky and supported by the CP Women’s Mission Board. He worked in Liberia, West Africa. Read a report about Weir’s impact visiting churches in the USA to raise support
Rev. Edmond Weir
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Cumberland Presbyterian History
In 1857 Edmond Weir came back from five years as a missionary in Africa and visited Cumberland Presbyterian Churches to raise support, history reports the following with respect to his USA visit.
The Board of Missions, through its president, the Rev. F. R. Cossitt, published a stirring appeal to the ministers and members of the church in behalf of this mission. In this appeal the board urged
upon our people the force of Christ’s command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel; ” and pointed out the crying need for missionary work in Africa, declaring that no church which neglected the Lord’s great commission could long live and prosper. It called attention to the providential circumstances which led the board to undertake this mission. On going to Liberia, Mr. Weir had found a number of people who had been Cumberland Presbyterians before their removal from the United States. While some of these had joined other churches, there were many who had preferred to wait for the providence of God to open the way for them to unite with a church of their own faith. This mission seemed to be God’s appointed means of opening the way. It was proposed to establish the mission at Cape Mount, a thriving sea-coast town, near which Weir had settled, and where there was no church. The board stated in its appeal that the missionary had already received six hundred dollars for his building, and that this was not quite half the sum needed.
He was finally successful in raising the money, but the board’s call asking those who owned colored Cumberland Presbyterian preachers to set them free so that they might be sent with Weir to Liberia, was not successful. Weir returned alone, and amid many discouragements, carried on his solitary work in Africa.
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Samuel King Gam succeeded his father Gam Sing Quah as a CP missionary in China. He worked in China during World War II. Our missionary to China engaged in a spiritual battle in the middle of a world war, read his account-
Samuel King Gam
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Hearth and Chalice
Excerpts from some of these [letters] reveal the difficulty under which he was laboring.
In Free China
April 2, 1944
lt must be a surprise to you to receive this letter from me after a long period of silence. Not that I do not want to write, but because of the Japanese prohibition which made my writing impossible from their control area like Canton. Yesterday, I arrived at Wuchow, after a ten days' hard journey which only took two days before the war. I come to “Free China” first of all to breathe “free air," to enjoy freedom as a Chinese citizen should enjoy, and secondly, to see my brother who is now arrived at Chungking.
When I left Canton ten days ago the condition was bad over there. Many friends of the church object to my going because of the Japanese blockade over the river which I had to cross secretly. They will shoot anybody who dares to cross. I knew in my heart that God would be with me and I was by no means scared. Now I am safe in Free China and thank the Lord that I can write a letter to you and say all I want to say.
First of all. I want to bring bad news. Our Canton church was completely torn by the Japanese army last November. They took away all the bricks as well as all wooden structures. What is left now is only a debris. I did my best to protest but in vain because they said it is "an enemy" property and therefore they deserve the right to do so. We are now renting a church building near the central part of the city to continue our work and services. I am glad to report that other churches, such as Honam, Fat Shan, Tai Won, Shek Won, Sha Kai and Shekki are all functioning as normal. Among these missions, the Shekki and Tai Won Churches have been robbed by the army. They took away all the furniture and even the organ…”
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Mrs. Johnie Massey Clay was never a missionary, she was an enabler. She was the first Board of Missions president of the reconstituted CP Church (1907). Her leadership led to the successful CP mission fields we celebrate today. She was, “perhaps the single most influential person in the work of world missions in the history of the church.” She challenged the CP Church to missions with these words in 1919 -
Mrs. Johnie Massey Clay
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Hearth and Chalice
…”Oh, has ever a Church in any country faced such opportunities, such obligations? Has ever a people been so Divinely appointed as the American Christian? Future generations will commend us for having done so nobly for civilization. Shall it be said of us that we were less in the grasp of a great purpose in behalf of Christianity? The power that urges us forward beckons from the very headland of eternity. It is not an invitation that confronts us today. It is a demand, an ultimatum. Failure at a time like this is defeat. I cannot but believe that the Church that has not the spiritual quickness to read the signs of the times about it and fails to swing into this great tide of God that is bearing on and out to the great missionary achievements which alone can save the world, is doomed. Oh, women, as we love our Church. let us center our prayers in the one petition, that we. as a Church, so lose ourselves in the will of God concerning us, that we shall not fail in any part of the task that is ours to do.”
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Rev. Summer Bacon was the first CP to evangelize Texas. In the early 1800’s Texas was a mission field. Bacon was not well received as an evangelist; actually there was an attempt to kill him, even when he was preaching. Read this amazing account -
Rev. Summer Bacon
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Cumberland Presbyterian History
Bacon was informed, before starting to an appointment to preach, that he would certainly be waylaid and killed if he went on that journey, and earnest efforts were made to dissuade him from going. Failing in that, the man who warned him against attempting the journey, and who some say was a Texas ruffian won over to be Bacon’s friend, armed himself, saddled his horse, and went along with the preacher. Passing a narrow ravine, in which it was necessary to ride single file, the armed friend saw two men rush upon Bacon and knock him from his horse at a single blow. His companion fled, and reported that Bacon was killed. It seems, however, that he was not dead. The assassins dragged him into the thicket for the purpose of concealing their bloody deed, when they discovered that their victim still lived. They were proceeding to complete the work, when Bacon asked them to allow him a few minutes for prayer. This was granted. The man of God knelt and poured forth a most earnest prayer for his murderers. When he rose, the assassins were in tears, and declared to him that they could not kill so good a man.
Sometime afterward Bacon was to hold a camp-meeting. His first camp-meeting,” and the first ever held in Texas, was in Sabine County, in 1833. It is not certain whether it was at this or some other camp-meeting in the same year that his life was again in jeopardy. Ruffians went to the meeting armed, declaring their purpose to kill him. On the appearance of these desperadoes, one of the men who had been prayed for in the former attempt on Bacon’s life, rose with his gun in his hands, and, planting himself in front of the preacher, told the people that he was there to defend Bacon. He stood guard while the minister delivered his sermon, and no violence was attempted. Amid scenes like these the Cumberland Presbyterian church, the first Protestant church of Texas, was planted.
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W.L. Swartz was a newly commissioned CP missionary in 1925 to South America. He was sent with no clear destination. Swartz is the father of our mission work in Colombia. See his account of how he arrived in Colombia -
W.L. Swartz
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Hearth and Chalice
W.L. Swartz explains how he started the mission work in Colombia:
“When Mr. Swartz sailed from New York, he knew, only, that he was going to South America. Before sailing he was impressed with the great need in Ecuador. But, remembering how the Spirit steered Paul away from the land of his own choosing, and conscious of the fact that the same God was over our missionaries, the Board urged Mr. Swartz that he keep an open mind and seek to follow where the Spirit led.”
In New York, where I spent several days before sailing, it was my privilege and pleasure to visit and counsel with the mission secretaries of several Mission Boards whose offices were located there. The fields represented by the various Boards covered all of Latin America. After much meditation and prayer, I believed, even before I left New York, that the way of the Lord was leading to Colombia.
The missionary journey plan called for my visiting the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In keeping with this, my transportation was purchased for Venezuela. I visited this great country, where after counseling with the leaders of several Missions active in that field all agreed that Colombia presented a greater need than any other country in all of South America. Leaving Venezuela, the next country on my agenda was Colombia. I had been told one could enter the Country on the west coast with greater ease, so my transportation was planned so that I went directly to Buenaventura.. On the journey from La Guaira to Cristobal, Canal Zone, I found that one of my fellow passengers was the General Secretary of an American Board of Missions with a great number of Mission Stations located all over Latin America. He reaffirmed the conviction that I was being led to the most needy section of South America and of Colombia as well…
On Monday, December 21, 1925, I arrived at the end of the way, Cali, Colombia. I soon learned the address of the Rev. C. P. Chapman, a missionary located there, who said, “Brother, at last, God is answering our prayers. We have been praying for workers and here you are looking for a field in which your church can labor." …
The Mission had its beginning on April 1, 1926, when we rented the house which was to be the home of our mission for a number of years. In the Fall of 1926 while speaking at a conference held under the
direction of the Gospel Missionary Union, at Palmira, I met Martiniano Fajardo who was later to become our first native preacher,
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Rev. Cleetis C Clemens was a military chaplain stationed in Japan after World War II. He reported to the CP Church in 1950 an amazing story that lead to the establishment of our work in Japan. See his story about Japanese people seeking Christians and begging to know Christ.
Rev. Cleetis C. Clemens
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Hearth and Chalice
On the 1st of February 1948, a Japanese pastor by the name of Tadao Yoshizaki came into my office and told me this story:
His people were eager to know about our Christ, and he thought that if an American Chaplain would tell them about Christ that it would help ....
The following Sunday afternoon an American soldier and I went over to the little village in which the pastor was living and preaching. We arrived at the little home and were asked to take off our shoes before we entered. This of course was strange to both of us, but we complied with the request and then went inside .... There were fifteen Japanese people in the room all seated on the floor around a Hibochi (Japanese stove). . . I would say a few words and then the pastor would interpret for me .... These people never moved as I spoke .... It is very difficult to speak through an interpreter ,... at this time I could not understand one word of Japanese.
We used this small room for about three Sundays and then the crowds became so large that another Japanese man in the community offered us two of his rooms .... [As] most of the houses are built in Japan [so] you can slide the middle partition back and make one room out of two small ones, this is what we did. But still there was not enough room. So we had a prayer meeting on the second Sunday in March, 1948, and the people prayed with me that God would help us erect a building for this community, a place in which they could worship together and teach their people about Christ ....
We began to work. The group at the Depot where I was stationed met together and pledged their support .... [They] were Jews, Catholics and Protestants . . . This was to be a Community Church, known as the “Koza Community Church."
The erecting of the building was begun on the 5th of September, 1948, and completed on the Saturday before Easter, 1949. The first person to be baptized in the new chapel was a Japanese boy that had
been my clerk at Zama ....
It was some time later that I was approached by the group, asking the question, “Is it possible for us to become a part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church?" I told them that I would write the Foreign Mission Board of your Church, which I did, and they responded, and the final arrangements were made before I left Japan and the land and building now belong to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. On the 24th May, 1950, I organized a congregation with 64 members and elected, ordained and installed three elders in the Church. The Church will be known as the “Koza Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Japan." The minister, Rev. Tadao Yoshizaki, has requested permission to come into our church as an ordained minister so he can continue his work there ....
Click on the name for the rest of the story
