S. S. No. 5 MISSIONS IN THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL Two Experiments with the Lenten Offering BOARD OF MISSIONS 281 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK PAY YOUR OWN APPROPRIATIONS! S OME time before Lent, in St. Paul’s Church School, Jeffer¬ sonville, diocese of Indian¬ apolis, one of the teachers came to the rector with the sugges¬ tion that a chart of some kind be used this year to record the offering of the school from week to week, as it was gathered for the mission work of the Church. As a result of this sugges¬ tion the following scheme was evolved which worked so beautifully that the rector is desirous of passing the idea along for use by others next Lent. In determining upon a plan the rec¬ tor felt that something more than the mere recording of the offering was necessary in order that any real good might be accomplished; the mission of the Church must be emphasized. Therefore he decided to introduce the children to the wide scope of our mis¬ sion, and put them into some closer touch with the mission fields. He drew a large map (shown in the ilr lustration) making the United States large enough for its depart¬ ment or provinces to be conspicuous; other fields were sketched in so far as possible in their relative positions, to the extent of the space available. This space was one by three yards. The provinces were then numbered and the various fields named. After this the amount of money that the school was to attempt to raise was fixed—at a higher figure than any amount ever raised before, except one year, when the school was much larger—and this amount was “appro¬ priated” for the various fields upon the basis on which th-e funds of the Board are appropriated. This in¬ volves much mathematical computa¬ tion from the actual figures of the . Board given in the report, reducing the million and more to $50, which was the amount decided on, and the appropriation to the various fields to the proper percentage of the total. But it is worth while for the man who does it, besides being useful for the end in view. These amounts were then “written in” in the fields to which each amount was “appropri¬ ated,” and we started in to “pay our own appropriations.” Of course, we paid the expenses of the Board of Missions first, else we would have no one to see that this side of the Church’s work was done, because we ourselves cannot attend to it. Then, with the picture of the Church Missions House pasted over material New York, we began send¬ ing out the money as fast as it came in to carry on the work of evangeliz¬ ing the world wherever we had sent missionaries to represent us. The field made no difference; wherever there was a need and we had the money, there the money went, and away went a “line’^ of cheer and good courage from the Board to the work¬ ers : “Go on; we’re with you.” At the end of two weeks we saw that at the rate we were going there would be a “deficit,” and some field would be left without its appropria¬ tion. What should we do? Give up in despair? No, indeed! we could not desert the work and our workers in that fashion. Redouble our efforts! that is the way to solve that problem. And so we did. With zeal the school planned and worked during the next two weeks and soon we saw the end— if we were faithful to the end. Palm Sunday saw all but a little over six dollars raised and sent on its way to bring the knowledge of God to those who need it as we need it. But what of the six dollars? Were we to sit •back and take it easy because we had so little to do to take care of the work that was already being done? No! else the world would never be won. There was new work and larger work waiting only the money to en¬ able it to be done. No! Let us see aHe Dov AMD cree orr I cJoV^rww^ c]orv(e>s j'lve- o\<^ eoo 3 U9'p^ee eet [\oe j )R. 5 t Suwde^y eJcl^ool 0|^6:P.mg r^aoc)& He c)5.^e (33 cGCMte tl^e Oj|epawg u)d.^ ^7^00 It R.&pixe'- SGnfe^ by' tl^e sbout bidcb bfNie above Jolgho/sij^’s t:oigl')t sboo\beix.. He IS Noc/O 42 yeesRe o\d, s\x jeet gvos ^100 foPL 3 b^ I^t ojjeR.\K(g PLGpaesewteb by tlge long \iK(e bt tbe mgbt, wd.s ^175,000 I| JolgrNwy b^ grLOWM evs yojbt as 5 tbe oj|ePLirvg , V)^ wovjlc) cn/ocx> be 75 peer HIGH) I how much we can raise for new work, over and above our regular appropria¬ tions, that the work may go forward. And so with a will we went towards Easter when, at the school service, $48.61 was presented, with twenty- four mite boxes to be heard from. These raised the total to $62.02. For next year we have already planned to increase our appropria¬ tions “because the work must nec¬ essarily grow,” and in addition to this we hope to have “visiting mission¬ aries” or “native Christians,” or per¬ haps “heathens” to tell us something of the needs of the fields and of the work that is being done, so that we may have a more intelligent idea of conditions and needs that must be met. A “Board of Missions” will also probably be duly organized. On the Sunday after Easter there was much enthusiasm when it was found that we had so far surpassed our expectations. And the rector was careful to explain that such a chart could be made by every parish and mission in the world, because all were doing the same thing which we had been doing, and that the little Esqui¬ maux, the little Chinese, the little Filipino would be saying, “Yes, we’ll send 70 cents of this $50 to the fifth province (and a lot of it comes to the diocese of Indianapolis) to help spread the knowledge of God among the Americans!” It might be mentioned that there was a little juggling of figures, partly in order that some money might be sent to the first province, because the government does not provide for sums under one cent; and partly that frac¬ tions might be evened up and the sum total made exactly $50; but the appro¬ priations correspond in general to the appropriations of the Board of Mis¬ sions. There is very much to commend the above plan to the interest and attention of Sunday School teachers. With necessary modifi¬ cations it could be used in almost any school. It presents large edu¬ cational opportunities in familiar¬ izing the children with the method and scope of the Church’s mission work. The second plan, set forth in the following pages, while it has not the educational features of the former one, is unique and effective from the point of view of promo¬ tion. HOW WE RAISED THE THOUSAND DOLLARS X ‘ ^ T OVE never asks how much I micst I do, but how much J j can I do?” This was a good slogan to help in¬ spire over five hundred pupils, teach¬ ers, assistants and officers of Calvary Church Sunday School, Pittsburgh, in their endeavor to double their pre¬ vious year’s Lenten Mite Box Offering for Foreign Missions. Yes, it did appear impossible as Ash Wednesday drew near. Wise teachers and clever treasurers had large hopes and a practical plan ready for the campaign. Perhaps some were fearful regarding the attempt, yet this was offset by the extra enthusi¬ asm of others. Will the pupils take readily to the plan and endeavor to work it out? Can we, once and for all time, give a real answer to the al¬ most eternal question, asked mainly by the Primary and Junior Depart¬ ments, “For what are our pennies used, and where do they go?” During the school year our Mission¬ ary Education Committee of teachers had set aside five Missionary Sundays occurring at the end of each school term: one in November (diocesan), one in December (domestic), one in February (foreign), one in April (local and parish), and a review of the whole missionary field in June. This scheme meant that Sunday, Feb¬ ruary 22, our foreign missionary Sun¬ day, would give us a splendid begin¬ ning before Ash Wednesday, Febru¬ ary 25. We had seven weeks with six Sundays before Easter Day. We had also six countries which contained our nine American foreign mission¬ ary districts: Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Africa, Japan and China. Splendid! We shall take the school on a foreign missionary tour visiting the six dif¬ ferent countries on the six respective Sundays so that on Easter Day we shall arrive back in the United States. Each department of the school can go on its own steamship, and for each ship our mite-box money shall be the imaginary coal; this will enable us to work the apportionment plan as a matter of education for the pupils. Is not our Diocese apportioned a cer¬ tain sum by the Board of Missions in New York, and our Parish by our Diocesan Missionary Board? Why should we not carry out the same plan for the school, and thoroughly under¬ stand how splendidly organized is our Board of Missions? Let us follow their good example. The treasurers sharpened their pen¬ cils and their wits, and setting- to work on last year’s offerings, by de¬ partments, found the proportion that each department gave of the total amount; then turning to our goal— $1,000—they worked out the same proportion. For example, we asked the beginners’ department (3-6 years of age) to raise $42.00 worth of coal for its steamer, which meant for seven weeks’ trip $6.00 a week; the primary department (6-8 years) had to raise $112.00, or seven times $16.00; the junior department (9-11 years), $182.00, or seven times $26.00; the main department (12-16 years), $217.00, or seven times $31.00; the Bible class department (16 years and over), $336.00, or seven times $48.00; the Men’s Bible class, $49.00, or seven times $7.00; the Offi¬ cers and Teachers, $63.00, seven times $9.00. We made a large picture chart for each department of the school, three feet six inches by two feet six inches, showing the seven island names: the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Africa, Japan and China. Between each “island” we marked the amount per week to be raised, then cutting out and modeling a cardboard steam¬ ship we placed, with the aid of brass paper fasteners, each ship at the United States island all ready to start. To be sure our geographical imagina¬ tion had to be very strong, but -we made it stretch for the occasion. One big picture-chart, similar to the de¬ partment picture, and showing the movement of the school as a whole, was placed in the vestibule of the parish house where all could see it. This ship needed $143.00 a week for seven weeks to round out the $1,000 trip. Each scholar was requested to re¬ port to his teacher the total amount in his mite-box each Sunday, and in turn the teacher reported to the treas¬ urer or his assistants. No amounts by scholar or class were made public. On Sunday, March 1, our fleet of department steamships moved off from the United States toward Cuba, and when the returns were handed in we found that we had enough coal to take the whole school to that first mis¬ sionary district. This was repeated every Sunday during Lent, the boat moving from island to island. To further visualize the whole scheme we placed on the walls of each Department Room a set of 22 x 28 white cardboard signs covering the entire foreign mission field. An ex¬ ample is as follows: (Diocese) TOKYO. (Country) JAPAN. (Bishop) McKIM. Over each motto we placed the na¬ tional flag of the particular country, with the Stars and Stripes. We are sure that every scholar knows each foreign missionary district, the coun¬ try in which it is situated and the name of the bishop. Other mottos read as follows: WHAT IS FOREIGN MISSION¬ ARY WORK? The founding and carrying on of Churches, Sunday Schools, Day Schools, Colleges, Hospitals, Dispensaries, Orphanages. WHO ARE THE WORKERS? American and Native: Clergymen, Laymen, Teachers, Doctors, Nurses. WHO SUPPORT THEM? WE DO! Through the gifts of the Men, Women and Children of our Church working through: Parish Societies, The Woman’s Auxiliary, The Junior Auxiliary AND THE LENTEN MITE BOX OF¬ FERINGS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. _ No prizes were offered to the pupils obtaining the largest amounts, or the class or department obtaining the highest sum. We used to very good advantage the Lenten Number of the Spirit of Missions. We announced each Sunday some of the methods that individuals were using in earning their “coal money.” Some of the methods meant hard work, as the fol¬ lowing extract from our rector s ser¬ mon on March 29th, regarding foreign missions, will show: “Last week I had occasion to send out 6,000 letters to the clergy of the Church, and all the work of directing the envelopes and folding the letters was done by four young men from the Sunday School. I paid them $20, which is what I would have paid elsewhere ^ for the work, and this is part of their gift to missions. I doubt if anyone in the parish will give as much proportion¬ ally as these boys.” The class in question raised $71.00. Our spirits rose and fell during those seven weeks. One Sunday would find us ahead of our schedule, another week our engines would have to slow down to “three-quarter speed” and sometimes “half-speed.” Some of the members of the Font Roll wanted to take the trip with us, and they were made welcome. Even a cat and a dog in the parish brought in $5.00 and $2.35 worth of coal, and dared to cross the ocean to the islands of the sea. We welcomed our own rector on board the officers’ and teachers’ ship, but he did not pay his coal bill until we landed him back, safe and sound, in the United States on Easter morn¬ ing. His contribution, however, was very welcome. We had an unnamed and unknown passenger on board one of the steamers. This individual, al¬ though not a member of the school, insisted on coming with us, and while the purser could not charge this per¬ son with passage money, yet the mys¬ terious traveler insisted on paying a proper share of “coal money.” So Easter Day drew near. “Land Hp!” was shouted at 9.30 a. m. Should we have enough fuel to make the dock? The associate rector (cap¬ tain) was on the bridge, and the first and second officers (department su- perintendents) were at his side. From below the engineer (treasurer) sig¬ nalled the captain through the speak¬ ing tube, “We need $56.00 more.” “Go half speed until 4 p. m.” (the Easter festival of the Sunday School), came the response from the bridge. Another signal from the engineer be¬ low: “We had forgotten the begin¬ ners' department ship’s reserve, with $53.00 worth of coal.” Closely fol¬ lowed an excited, hoarse cry from the first mate of the Mens’ Bible Class: “We have scraped from the bunkers $3.00 worth of green-backed nuggets; may we put the engines over at full speed ahead?” “Yes,” came the re¬ sponse from the captain. Promptly at 4 o’clock, with colors flying, the stars and stripes on the stern sheets, and the Chinese flag at the forepeak, the seven battleships of the Calvary Division of the Lenten Mite Box Fleet warped alongside the dock. The commodore of the fleet signaled to each captain: “STAND BY UNTIL LENT, 1915.” This pamphlet may he obtained from the Literature De¬ partment, Board of Missions, 28! Fourth Avenue, New York. Ask for S. S. No. 5. I ED. 6-14 10 M. F.