. . . OUR . . . 
 
 School Work at Lavras 
 
 BY 
 
 B. H. HUNNICUTT 
 
 Industrial School, Lavras, Brazil 
 
 Executive Committee Foreign Missions 
 Presbyterian Church, U. S. 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archiye.org/details/ourschoolworkatlOOhunn 
 
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 Our School Work at Lavras 
 
 B. H. HUNNICUTT. 
 
 More than twenty years ago (1892) the mis- 
 sion station of Lavras in the State of Minas 
 Geraes in Brazil was established by Dr. Gammon 
 and Miss Charlotte Kemper together with sev- 
 eral others. The school that had been in opera- 
 tion at Campinas was brought by them to Lavras, 
 and established anew as the Evangelical Insti- 
 tute. The pioneer work of the missionary — the 
 evangelistic — occupied the time of the missiona- 
 ries almost completely for about the first ten 
 years. Then a boys’ school was established which 
 later grew into the Gymnasium of Lavras, and 
 the girls’ school was given the name, and most 
 deservedly so, the Charlotte Kemper Seminary. 
 The latest addition to the schools forming the 
 Evangelical Institute is the Lavras Agricultural 
 School, the preliminary organization of which 
 was begun in 1908. 
 
 OUR IDEALS. 
 
 We have a fair amount of equipment at Lavras, 
 and it is our purpose in that work to strengthen 
 the native church as much as possible. Referring 
 to the work in the slums of one of our great 
 cities, some has said : “It is of little use to preach 
 the Gospel to a famishing man and then turn 
 him loose again before the temptations of the 
 underworld and at the very door of the free 
 lunch saloon with an empty stomach.” And so 
 
it is in Brazil. To convert the Brazilians and 
 turn them loose with famishing minds on the 
 dreary intellectual waste of the country, with its 
 eighty per cent of illiterates and small literature, 
 mostly skeptical and atheistic, is a parallel case. 
 So we try to offer a broad education to the peo- 
 ple of our Church, that they may better serve 
 the Master and find more comfort in the study 
 of His word. A large part of our membership 
 is among the rural people, the only real middle 
 class in Brazil. And instead of trying to educate 
 their sons so as to unfit them for life on the 
 farm, we endeavor in the agricultural school to 
 fit them for that noble life, and to equip them 
 for leadership in this line of development, so 
 essential in a new country. 
 
 And what about the native ministry? We 
 try to do our largest share of work for them. 
 We never turn away a bona fide candidate for 
 the ministry. We have on the average twelve 
 candidates, and do require them to manage 
 some way to furnish themseles with clothes, but 
 their board and schooling is given them in return 
 for their work for fourteen hours a week. In 
 this way we are doing all in our power to train 
 the native ministry and furnish the native laity 
 with an education that will enable them to pro- 
 vide better livelihood and more bodily comforts, 
 but primarily to give them greater efficiency as 
 Christian workers. 
 
 OUR METHODS OF WORK. 
 
 Just a few words about our general methods 
 of work. It will be of interest to know how we 
 use this educational and industrial work as an 
 
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 evangelistic agency. Every student in any of our 
 schools, without exception, whether day scholar 
 or boarder, is required to take a systematic course 
 of Bible study from the time that he or she enters 
 one of our schools. Not all of our students are 
 Protestants, so you can easily see how far reach- 
 ing such a training is for the Christian student 
 and for Roman Catholic or otherwise non-Chris- 
 tian student. In our agricultural school we have 
 arrangements with both the Federal and State 
 Governments by which they maintain a dozen 
 scholarships in our school. But these pupils are 
 not in the least exempt from that Bible course, 
 and the government understands that fully. You 
 may say, “suppose some day the government 
 should say that the pupils sent there by them 
 were not obliged to take such w T ork.” Then we 
 would immediately give up those scholarships, no 
 matter how advantageous they were for us. And 
 what more besides this study of the Bible? The 
 boarding pupils are required to attend the serv- 
 ices of the church, to attend prayers morning and 
 evening, and all pupils are required to attend the 
 devotional exercises at the opening of the schools. 
 The boarders live in small dormitories under the 
 direct influences of the family life of the mis- 
 sionary in charge. So no stone is left unturned 
 to give them the opportunity of knowing and un- 
 derstanding and accepting the Gospel. 
 
 SOME RESULTS. 
 
 And with what results have these efforts to 
 apply this conception of our missionary duty in 
 our Lavras work been attended? Last June 
 three young Brazilian men that had received their 
 
foundation training in our school finished the 
 Theological Seminary at Campinas, and one is 
 today the native pastor of the church at Lavras. 
 About eight of our teachers in the Lavras insti- 
 tute have received their training with us and are 
 all Christian men and women. Many of the good 
 wives of our members have received training in 
 our schools that fitted them for being not only 
 better home makers and mothers but also better 
 Christians. And our graduates, both of the Gym- 
 nasium, the Seminary, and the Agricultural 
 School are going out. into the various parts of 
 the country in many capacities to become centers 
 of Christian activity and influence. And many 
 of the non-Christian students who may not have 
 accepted the Gospel nevertheless have lost their 
 prejudices against the Portestant religion, and 
 go forth to help in that necessary work of over- 
 coming the open opposition to our work. And 
 all through their lives they are more open and 
 susceptible to the Gospel. Since our connection 
 with the school never has a year passed that we 
 have not had several conversions among the stu- 
 dents, and as they come from many States no 
 doubt much new work is to be expected from 
 them. With the medical work and in our schools, 
 we are trying to embody the teachings of Christ 
 in striving for the uplift of the whole man and 
 helping prepare the native church to carry on 
 the work of its establishment and development 
 that the evangelization of Brazil may be more 
 speedily realized.