] 1 JEGENNINGS WORK :N C^OSTA RICA CENTRAL AMERICA WOMEN’S B’APTIST H'O’ME MISSION SOCIETY ' ^ I'l' i' BEGINNINGS OF WORK IN COSTA RICA CENTRAL AMERICA CHICAGO WOMEN’S BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 1904 SHIPPING BANANAS. COSTA RICA. Costa Rica is a republic and the most southern of the Cen- tral American states. It has an area of 23,000 miles and a population of 289,000. The majority of the people are of Spanish descent, but there are also Indians — some civilized, hut more uncivilized — negroes and Chinese. The climate varies with the elevation, from the tropical heat of the coast, which is often fever stricken, to the temperate and healthy air of the plateau and the cold of the mountain heights. Costa Rica is exceedingly fertile, its forests being filled with an immense variety of timber trees and useful dye-woods, such as mahogany, ebony, India rubber. Brazil-wood and oak. Almost all the fruits of the tropical and temperate zones are found to thrive and flowering plants are in rich profusion. Cofifee is a staple cultivated production of the country. In the forests the wild animals of Central America are numerous and a multitude of birds fill the woods. Reptiles include the alli- gator of the river, lizards and snakes. Costa Rica was one of the first discovered portions of the American continent. Columbus touched its shores on his third voyage, and it is probable that Spanish adventurers established themselves within it after the fourth voyage of Columbus in 1502. In 1824 Costa Rica joined the federation of Central American states, but on the dissolution of that union in 1839, became an independent republic. Internal disturbances and overturning of the government have been less common in Costa Rica than in other states of Central America, and its progress has been correspondingly greater. Of the cities and towns in Costa Rica the one in which we are just now most interested is Port Limon, a view of one sec- 3 VIEW OF A PORTION OF PORT LIMON, COSTA RICA. tion of which is seen in the cut with the location of the Baptist mission buildings, missionaries’ home, chapel, and school. With the exception of Colon and Panama, Limon is the most important port of Central America. It is a great shipping point. The chief exports are bananas and coffee, and some rfibber, cocoanuts, cocoa beans, pineapples and bides. There is a regular weekly fruit boat service from Limon to New Vork, Boston, Mobile and New Orleans, also to England and different points of the West India Islands. Limon has a population of six thousand. The largest per cent is Jamaican negroes, a few Spanish Costa Ricans, also quite a number of white people from the LMited States and England. Nearly all of the white men are employed by the United Fruit or railway companies. Limon is practically an English speaking town in a foreign country. It is a beautiful little place. The trees and the foliage are indeed grand. The most progressive industry is that of the banana grow- ing. This is carried on chiefly by an American company, the LTited Fruit Company. They have thousands of acres grow- ing in the rich valley of Costa Rica near Limon. 4 MR. AND MRS. WITT AND FAMILY. THE BAPTIST MISSION, The Baptist mission in Pont Limon is in charge of Rev. Stephen Witt, nobly assisted by his wife, who, in 1895, gradu- ated from the Baptist Missionary Training School as Edith Wooliams. The mission was inaugurated and is supported by the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society — to our view a remark- able organization whose aim is thus defined : " The objects of this Society are to provide for the spiritual destitution of various parts of the island, to support the Calabar Institution for the training of ministers and teachers, to assist day and Sunday schools, to send the gospel to Africa and Central America, and to the islands by which we are sur- S rounded, and to aid the Jamaica Baptist Union in its building operations.” \Miile INIrs. Witt is fully competent to do the work of a missionary, she is the mother of several small children, and must necessarily devote much time and strength to the care of her home and family, and both she and her husband had prayed and hoped for the aid of at least one lady missionary untram- meled by such duties. While in the United States and on their way back to Costa Rica, they attended the Saturday evening prayer meeting at the Training School, spoke of their field and need, and asked the }Oung women in the school to pray with them that the Lord would give them the helper they needed and provide means for her support, both of which were beyond the power of the Jamaica society to supply. MISS KATHERINE ELLIS. 6 The appeal so touched the heart of Miss Katherine Ellis, a student who was present, that she was led to offer herself for the service if she could receive an appointment and support. It was at first suggested that Central America was outside the territory in which the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society could operate, but that objection satisfied, after a most careful discussion of the matter, the Board voted to commission Miss Ellis and ask young ladies in our Baptist Churches to contribute toward her support. Miss Ellis graduated in June, 1903. Dur- ing the fall she attended associations, and visited churches, mainly in Iowa, speaking of her prospective work, and Novem- ber 1st reached Port Limon, ready for work. To Mrs. Witt we were indebted for much helpful information in regard to necessary preparations, time for sending the mis- sionary to the field, precautions looking to the preservation of her health, etc., and cjuote here a brief extract from one letter in which she says ; “ We always look forward to September as the beginning of our best season. From then on to April the weather is usually fine and healthful. That will be the best time to come, and then you will get partly acclimated before the trving part of the year. Of course there is more or less variation in the years, and sometimes we have a very hot spell after the coming of September, accompanied, it may be, with a few cases of yellow fever. '■ W e have no winter, but occasionally a few weeks of nice, cool breezes, and during the rainy season require one or more blankets on the bed, especially toward morning, when it gets cool and damp. As a rule the weather is hot, clear, and bright, with blue skies and flowers all the year round. I heard one remark, ‘ One can hardly imagine there can be malaria in this beautiful air.’ ” 7 THE BAPTIST MISSION HOUSE IN PORT LIMON, COSTA RICA. The Hume of the Missionaries. MISS ELLIS’ FIRST MESSAGE. In her first letter Miss Ellis wrote of her confirmed con- viction that she had obeyed the leading of the Lord in going to Port Limon, which she found to be a very needy field, and white for the harvest. She wrote : “As I call in the homes I am always greeted with loving appreciation, and sometimes with tears, by the Christians, who say: ‘ We have prayed so long for some one to come and help us.’ The women and children are all willing to work and help in any way they can. They only seem to need some one to suggest what to do, and to show them how to do it. “ Mrs. Witt had been going over to the day school to teach the girls sewing for a little while each day, but in that way wa; could not come in touch with them for the spiritual work as we wished to do, so we have organized a regular industrial school. One of the women came to help me, and w^e cleaned the old school building. W e put up some of the pictures from the rolls given me by a lady in Chicago, and we have cjuite a cheerful room. Last w^eek w^e had fifty-three children and four helpers, and w^e had such a nice time. I do feel that we are going to have great blessings in our work here. “ One woman on whom I called has been led to the Lord. Her daughter was in the choir, and the w^oman wdio calls wdth me had gone with me to the home. She is the mother of nine children, but has never been married, and oh, she had such an unhappy look. She realized, after some teaching, that she w'as a sinner — lost — and what a joy it was to point her to the One who could say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ AVe liad the as- surance that she w’as forgiven and saved before we left the house. She has come to the church and joined the Inquirer's Class, and we hope that she will be led on to baptism, church membership and pure Christian living. You have no idea how many of these women are living just such lives as she did. Please pray for the women. 9 “ I have organized a Junior Society, and have ten members; have also organized a Woman’s Sewing Society, and hope to soon have a What I can Society for the young girls. There are a number who have recently been converted, but have had no training. I think this will be a good way to teach them to study and to work.” Wages are low and rents are high, so the poor people literally huddle in their homes. iNIiss Ellis writes: “ One family I visit lives in a room thirteen feet square and without a window. The family consists of father, mother and four grown children — two sons and two daughters. Is it strange that among these people there is much sickness and a low standard of morality? By way of commendation it may be said that most of the women try to keep their rooms clean. “ The women are, commonly, vain, jealous and quarrelsome, and I often get almost discouraged in trying to work for the girls. But they are in their way very religious. My heart ached on Good F riday when I saw the women and girls coming out dressed in mourning, because, as they said. Jesus died for us. They have no true conception of what that death really means. In the afternoon I held a children's meeting and some of the children came in mourning. I pray God to bless the lesson I taught them. I am getting more and more children each week and their interest is growing. The work is hard but en- couraging in many ways. Alany of the young Christians are developing into good workers. The Sewing Schools are well attended and the girls are interested in the work given them to do. I pray for an associate in this work. There is so much to do.” lO SCENE ON BANANA FARM. XI JAMAICAN BAPTIST CHURCH, LIMON, COSTA RICA. LIGHT AND SHADE IN COSTA RICA. In the summer of 1904 Miss Ellis was stricken with yellow fever and for a time was quite ill. Recovering sufificiently to travel she reached Chicago, August 5th, for a season of recu- peration. She had already benefited by the sea voyage, and was sanguine that a few weeks’ rest would quite restore her. The Beard will probably send an associate worker with her when she shall return, as they do not think it well for a woman to be alone under the conditions in which the work must be done in Costa Rica. Miss Ellis came home with regret, as she felt that she was just getting to where results began to appear. The people were loath to see her leave, even for a time, and said they would pray for her return. Just before her illness. Miss Ellis wrote quite fully of her work as it had then developed. 12 ]\Iy work is among" the Jamaican negroes, in connection with the Baptist church here, and all is carried on in English. We have a splendid church building, all paid for, but it is not yet seated. We have only benches from the old church, and not enough of them to seat the congregation on special days. Nearly all of the Jamaican men work on the banana farms. Many of them live on the farms, but a large proportion of the families live in the towns. The average laborer receives about ijd colons, equal to seventy cents in gold, per week. You wonder how they manage to live on such a small sum when everything is so high. The tenant houses here are all low, flat buildings with galvanized iron roofs, divided into rooms about ten or twelve feet square, with board partitions which seldom extend more than half-way to the roof. These small rooms rent tor about ten or twelve colons ( $4.65 to $5.60). These are occu- pied by two or three men or families. I find sometimes families of from five to eight persons living in one of these rooms. BETTER CLASS TENANT HOMES IN TOWN. ’■3 They live very simply. Salt fish, rice, yam, and plantin is the staple diet, and a cocoaniit tree is to the Jamaican what the cow would be to the American family. Fruits could be grown in abundance, but they do not appreciate them as food. Most of the people are cleanly, and the women take pride in keeping their rooms clean. It is quite a sight to see a Sunday congrega- tion, many of the men with white coats and pants and stiffly starched shirts, and the women with their pure white starched dresses. The condition of the woman here is very sad, and should elicit the sympathy of all Christians, and Christian women especially. There is nothing a woman can do here but wash clothes, and this cannot support her respectably. Many come here with good intentions, but soon go wrong. It is very difficult to get married. Only the Priest or Governor of the Province can perform the ceremony, and this is very expensive. For this reason many live together in concubinage. Then many of them would prefer to live this way than to get married without making a great wedding, as is the custom among them. xA.nother great evil influence is the idea every woman has that it is a disgrace to do honest work of any kind, and their pride demands clothes respectable enough to get out, and the result is that so many are living in sin. There is a great deal of the grosser kind of immorality, but the prevailing form is that of concubinage. Hundreds of people are living this way, and only a few are ntarried. One of the things usually neces- sary before a person can join the church here, is to get married, or to be separated from her so-called “ husband.” Some of these live together for years, and have large families in this unmarried condition. Quarreling seems to have a peculiar charm for them. Some will quarrel a half-day over two cents. This seems to be a gen- eral thing, because the pastor is constantly having to act as judge to settle family or neighborhood quarrels among the members of the church. This and superstition are the greatest enemies to Gospel work here. iMany of the Christians are full 14 of it. One of our members was arrested and imprisoned for thirty days for “ obea ” practice. This is much the same as old-time witchcraft, and so many other things of the devil him- self. Our work here is hard in many ways, but on the other hand it is very encouraging'. Many of the young Christians are being developed into good workers, such as local preachers and Sunday School teachers. There is a day school held in the church for the children, with a good Christian man as teacher. And all the children’s work here is very encouraging. The sewing schools are well attended, and the girls are so pleased with piecing up the quilt blocks that some of the Circles are sending. 15 The school at Calcutta among the coolies from East India is growing in interest. We sew one week and read the next. Some of them did not know their letters, others could read words with two or three letters, and now I can see a great improvement in them all. They wanted to have Easter services, so we learned songs to sing, and some of the children learned pieces to speak. One little boy from a Christless home learned a piece about “ Jesus dying to save little children.” They all surprised me by learning them so quickly. We were to have it on Tuesday after Easter, but it rained, and we had to post- pone it, and I expected they would lose interest in it, but they did not. They came out and dressed up the mission with cocoanut boughs and flowers, and all the children were dressed up in their white frocks and ribbons. Many of the parents and friends came out, and I believe we had a profitable service. W e are trying to raise enough money to get a blackboard to use in our meetings there. In our children's meetings in Limon there seems to be a lively interest. In our temperance meetings we had about twenty to sign the pledge. In one of these meetings a large boy stood up and said he wanted to be a Christian, and said with God’s help he would never touch liquor of anv kind. In a few weeks he went back to Jamaica. Before he left, he came to me and asked me to have all the Juniors pray for him, that he might be a true Christian boy. All the Junior meetings are well at- tended. Our Sunday School is well organized. I have charge of the primary department, and we have an average of about forty- five in this department. Such bright little faces, and they are so interested in the life of Jesus. I have five teachers helping me, and sometimes they give the lesson to the whole school. We review every Sunday, and many of them know all the texts for the past quarter ; many can tell the stories, too. Besides, they have learned the 23d Psalm, and now they are learning the fifth chapter of Matthew. One little girl has attended very regularly, and the family were going on a visit to Jamaica. One day I met her in the market, and she wanted me to come 16 and see her mamma. As we were walking along, she said: “'Do 3'ou know why I want you to see mamma?” “No.” “ Well, I want you to tell her about Jesus, and get her to join the Baptist church, for I want to join when I get old enough, and I love Jesus now.” So I do feel encouraged with the chil- dren’s work. BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL PASSING CATHOLIC CHURCH, PORT LIMON, COSTA RICA. There is the bright and the dark side to the house-to-house visiting. There are usualh' so many sick members that it takes miost of my time visiting them. It is a joy to see how much the most of them appreciate a visit when they are sick. But the hot sun prevents us going out as much as we should like, and I feel I do so little in regard to making them decide for Christ, but it means a great deal to some of them. They have been accustomed all their lives to having the Inquirers’ Class, which 17 is a very good thing for these people, but I fear sometimes that they have looked upon it in the wrong light, because they seem tc think all that is needed to become a Christian is to attend the class, and then join the church, and it is almost impossible to persuade thean that they are saved by “ Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ." We have several awaiting baptism, who will be baptized as soon as the new baptistry is completed. Thirty-six have been received into the Limon Church since the new year, and quite a number in the churches up the line. Our pastor. Rev. Stephen Witt, is an Englishman. His wife is a graduate of our Train- ing School in Chicago. He has charge of six churches and some out-stations. He is doing a splendid work, and the churches are well organized. All of the building funds have been raised on the field here, and many of these people really love to give to help on God’s work. And to What I Can’s I wish to say that God is blessing your efforts put forth here, in many ways. There are many things that I wish your prayers especially for. First, that I may have the wisdom and the love and power of Christ to win the many young women of Limon that are living in sin. Second, that the children may be con- verted and raised in the fear and love of God. Third, that we may have an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the Christians, that we may see a revival that will tell for God. Fourth, that the Lord may send forth more men and women unto these darkened lands filled with the spirit of Christ. ]\Ir. Witt wrote, after Miss Ellis had left the field : “ First let me say how very much we appreciate having IMiss Ellis with us. She has proven herself just the right kind of worker wanted for this particular sphere. Of her work I cannot speak too highly. She has gained the confidence of women and chil- dren and several have testified that they have been led to the Saviour through her instrumentality, and in a host of ways that we cannot mention she has been an influence in the church and school. I do hope you will see your way clear to send Miss Ellis back to us, and another worker with her.’’ "■v - ii. . vj' '