This Is the Day

W. E. MURRAY, President
South American Division
The Record
KEENE, TEXAS, JUNE 20, 1956 NUMBER 24

IN THE TIME of the judges of

Israel the people of God were confronted
on one occasion by a great
enemy. The prophetess, Deborah, was
giving guidance to the offensive of
God's people and on a certain day
she told Barak, "Up, for this is the
day in which the Lord hath delivered
Sisera into thine hands." (Judges
4:14.) There is a day for doing the
Lord's work. It is a day when His
people are ready and He is ready in
a special way for a particular service.
Many activities are to be done today,
and not yesterday, or tomorrow. God
has a plan. He impresses His people
by the Spirit to do the special work.
We in South America believe that
this is the day in which the Lord
plans for us to build for God. This
is the day to step into new projects.
This is the day to preach the gospel
to the millions in our territory.
On the Thirteenth Sabbath of this
quarter the Sabbath schools of the
world will be helping South America
to build for God. We have decided
to build four church buildings and
enlarge the administration building
of one of our training schools with
the funds of the Thirteenth Sabbath
overflow. This is possible only because
our churches and conference
leaders are raising money in the field
to complement what will be raised
through the overflow on the Thirteenth
Sabbath.
One of the interesting places in
which we will build a church is Campina
Grande in Northeast Brazil,
State of Parahiba. This state is located
in that part of Brazil which
juts out toward the extreme east,
into the Atlantic Ocean. Campina
Grande is a city of some 60,000 inhabitants.
At the present time we have
there, fifteen baptized church members
and a Sabbath school of thirty.
This city is right in the center of a
great agricultural district. Cotton,
corn, beans, and jute are the principal
products.
About ten smaller cities of from
eight to fifteen thousand inhabitants
lie within a radius of eighty to a
hundred miles of Campina Grande.
There is a still larger number of
towns and villas. It is our plan to
build a church with a capacity of
probably three to four hundred people
and hold evangelistic meetings to
raise up a congregation from the city
as our first move. Then we expect
to branch out and raise up groups
and congregations in the surrounding
towns. We already have four colporteurs
working in this city preparing
for the evangelistic effort the last
part of 1956. These colporteurs have
a good number of interested people
already.
Another place where a church
building will be built from the Thirteenth
Sabbath offering funds and the
funds being raised in the territory
is Itabuna in the State of Bahia,
Eastern Brazil. Itabuna is an Indian
word meaning "Black Stone." This
city is indeed an interesting center,
being surrounded also by a large
number of smaller towns on the six
or seven main roads leading out of
the city. Itabuna is the largest single
section in Brazil for the production
of cacao, the bean from which chocolate
is made. The tree on which
cacao grows has its peculiar characteristics.
It must grow in an atmosphere
with high humidity, in a
humid soil, well loaded with minerals,
near the sea level. Itabuna is
especially suited for the raising of
cacao. This center produces about
500,000 sacks of cacao each year
which are sent to different parts of
the world to make chocolate to satisfy
the taste of millions.
It is in this city that we have a
project of another church building
to house the congregation which will
be enlarged and raised up in this city
of 50,000 people. This church center
will also serve as an evangelistic
lighthouse for the surrounding country.
There are a large number of
cities around Itabuna having from
2,000 to 7,000 inhabitants. Our evangelist
is now preparing the ground
in Itabuna for an evangelistic effort
during the last part of 1955.
Our laymen in Brazil are joining
with our people around the world in
the great work of evangelization of
which these projects are a part. Not
long ago I was traveling in the
northern part of Brazil and was very
much interested in the missionary activities
of the director of one of our
congregations. He told me that five
years ago there were no Adventists in
his community. Then he told me how
the laymen of his congregation were
working. He, himself, had a group
to which he was giving Bible studies.
He made his periodic visit to them
in a canoe. Recently three of his
group had been baptized and he had
two more ready for baptism. Then
another of his church members had
gone for a missionary venture up the
river twelve motorboat hours.. He is
a carpenter. He had at the time of
my visit, a Sabbath school of eight
members in the new town. They were
all ready for baptism.
Another story comes from Brazil about the zeal and enthusiasm of one
of our recently converted brethren.
He picked out a little town about 80
miles from where he lives in which
to do his missionary work. He travels
by bicycle these 80 miles each week
to hold a meeting with these people.
He has in all, 80 people studying the
message with him, of which 20 are
already prepared for baptism, awaiting
the visit of an ordained minister.
We shall take this opportunity to
thank the Sabbath school members
all around the world for their interest
in South American missions, and
for their generous gifts in the Sabbath
school. We appeal to them also,
today, to help us have a generous
overflow this quarter so that we can
build up our four church buildings
and enlarge our administration building
in the East Brazil Union Academy.
This is the day!