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 Essential Facts 
 
 REGARDING THE 
 AMERICAN FRIENDS 
 BOARD OF FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS 
 
I. HOW IT IS CONSTITUTED 
 
 HE American Friends Board of Foreign 
 Missions is one of the Boards of the 
 Five Years Meeting of Friends in Amer¬ 
 ica. Each Yearly Meeting has at least two 
 representatives on the membership of the 
 Board. There are thirty-seven members in 
 all. The home office of the Board is in Rich¬ 
 mond, Indiana. 
 
 II. ITS ORGANIZATION 
 
 The Board is organized with the usual 
 officers and two executive secretaries. The 
 Chairman is George H. Moore, pastor of the 
 Friends Meeting at Bloomingdale, Indiana. 
 The Vice-chairman is E. Gurney Hill, presi¬ 
 dent of the E. G. Hill Company of Richmond, 
 Indiana. The Treasurer is Edgar F. Hiatt, 
 president of the Dickinson Trust Company 
 of Richmond. The two executive officers em¬ 
 ploying a large part of their time in the work 
 of the Board are Charles E. Tebbetts, the 
 General Secretary, who gives attention princi¬ 
 pally to the holding of conferences and de¬ 
 livering addresses and is responsible for the 
 general oversight of the work; and Ross A. 
 Hadley, the Assistant Secretary, who is in 
 charge of the office and most of the corre¬ 
 spondence of the Board and who assists the 
 General Secretary. 
 
The Board has seven standing committees: 
 one on Finance, one on Candidates, one on 
 Home Office, and four Field Committees, one 
 for each of its Mission Fields. 
 
 III. ITS DUTIES 
 
 The main functions of the Board are: 
 (1) To administer the Foreign Mission work 
 of Friends in Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba and 
 Africa, planning the work and determining 
 the policies to be followed, as well as receiv¬ 
 ing and expending the funds required for its 
 support; (2) To establish and maintain close 
 interest and sympathy between the home 
 churches and the foreign fields; (3) To ex¬ 
 amine, prepare and appoint candidates for 
 service in the fields under its control. 
 
 IV. WORK OF THE BOARD IN 
 
 1915-1916 
 
 1. The sum of $45,000 has been received 
 and expended for missionary purposes. 
 
 2. Month by month these funds were for¬ 
 warded to the field as required for the support 
 of the missionaries and for the running ex¬ 
 penses of the Missions. 
 
 3. Applications have been received from 
 twelve Friends desiring to become mission¬ 
 aries. The Board has accepted the applica¬ 
 tions of eight Friends, who are in training or 
 are gaining practical experience and will be 
 sent out as the way opens. 
 
4. Full and accurate account has been 
 kept of all money received and expended and 
 of work done at home and on the field. 
 
 5. More than 5000 letters have been sent 
 out from the Board office to Friends and 
 others at home and abroad. 
 
 6. In Mexico, in spite of unsettled con¬ 
 ditions, 450 pupils have attended our Mission 
 Schools. At Matamoros, missionaries have 
 been constantly at work except for a few days 
 in June, 1916. At Victoria, schools and other 
 work were kept up by Mexican workers under 
 the supervision of one American. At Mate- 
 huala, with no American worker in residence, 
 school and church work has gone forward 
 without interruption under the care of the 
 members of the Mexican congregation. 
 
 7. In Jamaica, twelve missionaries have 
 been at work. There were 1066 pupils in the 
 Mission Sunday Schools and 419 in day 
 schools. Ninety-two were received into 
 church membership during the year. Thirty- 
 two young men and women received high 
 school and industrial training in the two 
 Mission boarding schools. 
 
 8. In Cuba, there have been nineteen mis¬ 
 sionaries — three of them transferred from 
 Mexico. Twenty-three Sunday Schools have 
 enrolled' 1384 pupils. Evangelistic work and 
 week-day religious schools have been con¬ 
 ducted in the territory round about the five 
 main stations. Five native preachers and eight 
 native teachers have been at work. In the 
 five Friends meetings in the island, there are 
 269 members. 
 
 9. In Africa, there are four main stations. 
 
Seventeen missionaries have been on the staff. 
 The work is many-sided, including evangelis¬ 
 tic, educational and medical, as well as in¬ 
 dustrial activities. Over 4000 pupils have been 
 in the schools, mostly under native teachers. 
 Portions of Scripture have been translated and 
 published on the printing press of the Mission. 
 The saw mill and Mission farm have afforded 
 occupation and instruction to more than one 
 hundred of the African people. Thousands 
 have heard the Gospel each week. 
 
 V. FACING THE FUTURE 
 , Immediate Requirements for 1916-1917 
 
 Sixty thousand dollars from Friends in 
 North America will be required to provide for 
 current expenses upon these four Mission 
 Fields. 
 
 “Current expenses” includes the support of 
 our fifty-eight missionaries, taxes, repairs, in¬ 
 surance on Mission property, expenses of 
 evangelistic work and of Mission schools, be¬ 
 side the general Mission expenses such as 
 printing, postage, Mission meetings, et cetera. 
 For these items, the Board has authorized the 
 expenditure of $71,697.96 this year.. Over 
 $11,000 is to be raised on the field from native 
 contributions, tuition fees, et cetera, leaving 
 $60,641.44 to be raised by Friends at home. 
 
 The Board has studied with great care the 
 needs of each mission and the estimated cost 
 of all work proposed for this year. After al¬ 
 lowing for the necessary expense of adminis- 
 
tration, it has authorized spending the follow¬ 
 ing amounts on the field: 
 
 Mexico 
 Jamaica 
 Cuba . 
 Africa 
 
 $16,181.00 
 
 15,047.97 
 
 18,006.84 
 
 17,462.16 
 
 Eighteen thousand dollars more is urgently 
 needed for buildings and other equipment this 
 year, as follows: 
 
 Traction engine and trailer for Africa 
 
 industrial work .$3,000 
 
 Purchase and equipment of school prop¬ 
 erty at Holguin, Cuba. 7,500 
 
 Dwelling house for missionaries at Ki- 
 
 tosh Station, Africa. 1,600 
 
 School building for missionaries’ chil¬ 
 dren in Africa. 3,500 
 
 Boarding school for training native 
 
 workers in Africa. 2,700 
 
 VI. WORKERS 
 
 Within the next two years, the Board ought 
 to send to the field not fewer than twelve, and 
 if possible fifteen, new missionaries. 
 
 VJI. SUMMING IT ALL UP 
 
 Fifty-eight missionaries at work 
 
 On four Mission Fields 
 
 Embracing an area of 20,000 square miles 
 
 With a native population of 1,000,000. 
 
MEXICO 
 
 In Mexico, church members and former pupils 
 of our Mission schools are now carrying 
 Christian ideals into business and govern¬ 
 ment service. 
 
 Mexican workers trained in the Mission are 
 carrying on work at several centers during 
 the absence of the missionaries. 
 
 JAMAICA 
 
 In Jamaica, ours the only work for 15,000 East 
 Indians 
 
 Ours the first industrial school in the island. 
 Thirteen hundred seventy-six church members. 
 
 CUBA 
 
 In Cuba, work in twenty-one towns and vil¬ 
 lages. 
 
 With six organized churches and 269 members. 
 
 AFRICA 
 
 In Africa, 4,000 boys and girls in Mission 
 Schools 
 
 Under forty native teachers. 
 
 Forty-seven church members 
 With 165 applicants for membership. 
 
 Sixty thousand dollars from Friends in North 
 
 America will support this work during the 
 
 coming year. 
 
 If each Friend gave the price of a single post¬ 
 
 age stamp each week to Foreign Missions, 
 the income of the Board this year would be 
 
 over $70,00,0 . 
 
VIII. PRAYER THE GREATEST 
 
 NEED 
 
 Knowing as it does somewhat intimately 
 the difficulties, temptations and discourage¬ 
 ments, as well as the multiplying opportuni¬ 
 ties for service which confront the missiona¬ 
 ries in each field, the Board urges upon Friends 
 everywhere the necessity of persistent prayer 
 on behalf of these, their representatives in 
 other lands. The missionaries regard prayer 
 as their greatest need. They expect our help 
 and are counting on it. 
 
 AMERICAN FRIENDS BOARD 
 OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 Second National Bank Building 
 
 RICHMOND, INDIANA