a, jit “ it ( us | WM ia ry ( ie / I 1} Le wd BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK =~ 2) ye ; id ‘ ey: ; Christian Meeting, Thaziabad Serving 173,000 Indian Christians NE hundred seventy-three thousand Indian Christians are enrolled in the Christian community of the North- west India Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. ‘That means that of every three Christians ministered to by the Methodist Episcopal Church in India, one is in the North- west India Conference; that of every six Christians enrolled within the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout the foreign mission field, one is within the bounds of this Conference. There are more members of the Methodist Episcopal Church within the Northwest India Conference than there are in China, Japan and Korea combined; or in Europe, Africa and South 8 America combined. And the number of Christians in this ter- ritory is growing as perhaps nowhere else in non-Christian countries. A ScHOOL FOR LEADERS When one visualizes this Conference territory with its hun- dreds of Christian communities, churches, schools and_ clinics, and with its other hundreds of villages and thousands of people ready to listen to the Gospel message, one begins to realize some- thing of the importance of The Ingraham ‘Training Institute opened in 1926 at Ghaziabad, in the very heart of the Con- ference. It is to become the outstanding school in the Conference definitely training boys and young men for places of leadership, lay and ministerial, in the life of this growing Christian popula- tion. Selected boys from the many central primary schools pass through the Community Middle School of The Ingraham ‘Train- ing Institute. Graduates of the Middle School may continue in any one of four departments: the High School, preparing for college; the Vocational School, training men and boys in the handicrafts useful in development of the country’s natural resources, especially cabinet makers, iron workers, leather workers, and mechanics; the ‘Teacher Training School, RELIGIOUS POPULATION preparing others to go NORTHWEST INDIA out into the towns and Hindus ae ae ee 15,720 520 villages and gather other Mohammedans ................ 2,845,251 scores of the neglected rawr eevee ee aera Stine children into classes; the Fa LE AGRE. | Preacher ‘Training School preparing pastors and evangelists for the shep- Mass Movement Scene herding of the Christian flock and for the gathering in and instructing of other thousands now awaiting baptism. Perhaps few other schools in Methodism have open to them so great an opportunity as has The Ingraham ‘Training Institute to touch and raise the everyday life of thousands of people depressed and held in subjection through the centuries. In “Mass MoveMentT”’ AREA This Institute and this Conference are in the very heart of the great “mass movement” area of India, the area that has shown to the world one of the most remarkable religious-social miracles of modern times. For the past thirty years large groups in a population cf more than 60,000,000 low caste and outcaste peoples—the poorest of India’s poor—have turned away from the old religions and the old social customs of India, have accepted 5 Christianity, and have been taught some of the principles of life exemplified by Christ. Almost all of the 173,000 Christians enrolled in the Northwest India Conference to-day came from these outcaste villages and from the Christian homes of former outcastes. And the process of forsaking Hinduism and accepting Christianity en masse 1s still going on; each month whole villages are being baptized, and trained Indian pastors and teachers are being sent out to preach and to teach in these new Christian communities. ‘The pity of it is that the supply of trained pastors and teachers is never adequate to meet the demands of the villages clamoring for the “new light.” THE TRAINED INDIAN LEADER The desire of the missionary is not to build up in India an organization of which he is the head, but rather to train up a body of Indian leaders to develop their own indigenous church, able and eager to spread the Gospel to the “uttermost parts.” The national preacher has the advantages of knowing India’s languages and customs and points of view and social inheritances. The Indian Christian trained in The Ingraham Training In- stitute faces none of the handicaps that beset the missionary and he can at once take a place of leadership in the community to which he has been sent to minister. Wuat A Beogusest MADE PossIBLE For many years the need of such a central training institution has been apparent to missionaries and Indians of the Northwest India Conference. Some attempts have been made in various cities to provide instruction in one or more of the departments now offered in the Institute. Fifteen years ago plans were made for the school. But it was not started until 1925, when under 6 the will of the Rev. . High Vocational Teacher Preacher eae i) Ee ham, D.D., a mem- ber of the Wiscon- Th sin Conference, a generous bequest to the Board of For- eign Missions of the Methodist Epis- copal Church was designated by Mrs. Ingraham for this Centra lomtrainine school. It has been erected and named as a memorial to Dr. Ingraham. Before the be- quest was made about 40 acres of land had been purchased at Ghaziabad for the proposed Institute. There are to-day dormitory and classroom accommodations com- pleted for about one hundred and fifty students, a home for the missionary-in-charge, and quarters for the Indian teachers. “The first students were admitted to its schools in the early fall of 1926. Boys of the age of ten years are being admitted to the Com- munity Middle School of Ingraham Institute. “They have been taught in the primary schools. “Chey will remain in the Institute until they have reached the age of eighteen to twenty. Some will then go on to college, while others will be ready to com- mence their life work as teachers, pastors, industrial workers, or 7 A Ghaziabad Madonna Pastor ani Layman Confer A Leader-to-be One Year’s Ministerial Recruits 8 INDIA’S NEED FOR EDUCATION “India is the largest country thus far to be launched on a serious, definite, progressive plan for responsible self-government. She is in the midst of the experiment—and experiment it is, for her divisions of race, caste, religion, and language are wider and deeper than those of any other land. Only eighteen millions out of her three hundred and seventeen millions can read, and the present electorate includes only six millions. From the standpoint of nationalism, education manifestly is one of India’s greatest needs. “But from the standpoint of the Kingdom, Christian education is of central importance. If India is to become a life-center through which God can express Himself in creative ways, Christian leadership and a Christian society are primary essentials. Both of these necess:tate the Christian school. Through it Christiars are trained to take their places as leaders with the Christian ideal in political, social, and moral betterment of India. Upon it largely rests the development of an educated Christian Church able to support the Christian cause by its money and efforts.’’—Dr. D. J. Fleming. business and professional men. It is expected to develop an agricultural farm in connection with the Institute and thus to add to India’s scientific knowledge of farming. For farming has for centuries been the fundamental basis of her economic life. Primarily, however, the Institute aims at the training of young men as preachers and teachers in the Christian communities and in those villages seeking to learn the Christian way of life. ILLITERACY AND POVERTY Only ten per cent of India’s population is literate. Illiteracy is always found in the greatest proportion among the poorest people; that means, in India, among the outcastes and low castes. And it has been from these groups that most of the Christians in the Northwest India Conference have been received. Consequently, if the Indian Christian community is to be literate—and history points on many pages to the dangers ahead for Christian teach- ings when left in the care of illiterate peoples—the church must not only preach but it must teach, beginning with the A B C. No SCHOOLS FOR 25,000 In the Northwest India Conference there are thirty thousand Christian children of school age; less than five thousand of them are enrolled in regular classes. Unless they are taught to read, how can they have their full measure of the more abundant life? How can they for themselves “search the Scriptures’—the right of every Chris- tian? The graduate of The Ingraham Training Institute who goes into some interior village and gathers into classes the neglected boys and girls, Christian or 2 oO IO . otherwise, is more than “teacher” in our American sense. He is the spiritual leader of the community, the advisor of adults as well as of youth; he conducts Sunday school as well as day school; he has weekly evening meetings with men, where Bible stories are told and Chris- tian songs are sung. He truly “ministers” to the community, though he is not ordained. Twenty VIL- LAGES PER PASTOR The need for preachers in the villages is as great as the need for teachers. To- day one man is ministering to the people of from fifteen to twenty villages scattered over an area of ten to twenty square miles. “Che present force is entirely too small to minister ade- quately even to the Christian community. “They cannot hope to visit, much less instruct, the many thousands who could be gathered into the fold were shepherds sent to them. ‘The Ingra- ham Training Institute is dedicated to the task of training min- ister-leaders for the village communities of the Northwest India Conference. This it will do through its Preacher Training School. “We've Come to School”’ Tt There should have been during all of 1926 from thirty-five to fifty men in training for this Conference. In January, 1925, the district training schools for village workers were closed because of the great reductions in mission funds. ‘The step was taken as a temporary measure. “This condition will be remedied by the opening of the Preacher ‘Training School in The Ingraham ‘Training Institute, if necessary funds are provided through scholarships. In addition to providing classes and trained instructors for these pastors-to-be, it will be necessary to grant scholarships for many of them, if they are to have adequate time and opportunity for study. Coming as they do from large and poor families, they are without funds to finance an eight or ten year course of study. Without scholarships many of these potential leaders will have to remain in or return to their old village surroundings and occupations. I2 SCHOLARSHIPS . S has been indicated, scholarships are being sought—they may be made as a memorial to some loved one—to provide for the training as Christian leaders of young men in ‘The Ingraham Training Institute. Other funds providing the salaries of instructors in the Institute are also urgently needed. $600 will provide the salary of a department head for one year. $400 will provide the salary of one teacher for one year. $50 will provide a scholarship for a boy in the Middle School for one year. $70 will provide a scholarship for a boy in the Teacher Train- ing School for one year. $70 will provide a scholarship for a boy in the Preacher ‘Training School for one year. If it is at all possible, the donor should plan to continue the scholarship during a period of years—thus providing the full training for one or more boys. Gifts may also be made in halt scholarships. » Die ee (deboveny: Wehr! TeXcasthecieiwoy Se we ear Aly ve cane Board of Foreign Missions, Methodist Episcopal, Church, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Gentlemen: For the work of Ingraham ‘Training Institute, liGiammeievallecivesthe sum: Of)... .... a. s% 0 ss dollars, payable as oe ae MORO ee SE ree cree OG, eas cg uaeld boaters Gente i aeiey= dageare FEAL CM CME RE gts Veta) Riley: Rie wire heat ave Sow oie, agoseseheye muds [Please indicate also if this is a single or an annual gift. | Name Address 13 EDUCATION FOR LIFE By BisHop JOHN W. RoBiNsoNn HE task of giving to the boys and young men of India an education that will really relate them to the kind of a life that opens before them is a difficult one. “The caste system that binds the land with shackles of a rigorous custom makes manual labor of less dignity than the labor of the clerk or the professional man. As a result it is the natural ambition of every young man or boy who gets into a school to pass out into a professional life. As a result of this condition the professions are full, and minor city, state and national offices over-crowded. ‘The absolute necessity of relating all our boys, except the very brightest, to the industrial and agricultural walks of life is a continual problem to us. In our attempts to do this we are maintaining vocational schools of various kinds. Perhaps the largest plan we have in this direction is The Ingraham Training Institute, at Ghaziabad, India, made possible by the benefactor whose name it bears. While the plant is new, indeed hardly yet completed, and while equipment is as yet scant, we are planning to open it this year, and from it expect magnif- icent results. (Ghaziabad is situated in the very center of the great Mass Movement area of the Delhi Area, where we have a quarter of a million converts. It is an ideal place. On the plant we have about twenty-five acres of agricultural land where the boys taught will be given, along with their other studies, such instruction as will definitely relate them to the land where their ancestors have subsisted for generations. In this institution we plan, with such support as we can secure, to care for scores of India’s boys and give them those elements of a true education that will induce their hearts to feel, their minds to think, and their hands to act. 14 BEQUESTS A bequest in the will of Dr. Robert S. Ingraham made possible the establishment of the Training Institute bearing his name and now ministering to the needs of 173,000 Christians among 18,000,000 people in India. A bequest in YOUR WILL can provide scholarships, a memorial school, chapel or hospital, or provide some other needed institution in India or in any other mission field where the Methodist Episcopal Church is at work. For further information write BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Morris W. Ehnes, Treasurer 150 Fifth Avenue New York City wert , y > Py ean payee’ tate , a0 a 1 ‘ es ‘J re ‘5 a P j ; } rare , iS. Ne t : “ Yom.” a (2 ve em & 5 oy) i) ov L , ¥ . « , “ Bae le a t \ f weet oe Pa yo Oe ohio . ? 7 ae | e u 4 Fs ’ as ; ‘* Wer Lee oT" ‘ ‘ ees tie Yeo oy 4; 40 al ‘ hd ye 4 * vs ‘ a om ik ; : a Py ¢ ~ ' : P n ay 4d A 1 - « Ky ¥ es e > a . , 7 Fl ‘ 8 . ’ ' ry 5 + j K a és 4 ; r 7 q ” ud - * - t ‘ : - ‘ ay : \ , ¥ é H 4 ' ' 4 4 7 e “- i “ ‘ : b } , 4 é ® 8 . J ’ { A “ : 4 1 * y) a ‘~ * . te 5 ‘ ¥ 4 be * , . " Sy , on 4. . i. % ; ; . . } re ye ee | ~ ‘ gs . . ' ‘ 4 “/ 1