Today the word “missionary” has been largely replaced by “interdivision worker,”“expatriate worker,” or other similar expressions. The spirit and sense of “missionary” is used to indicate those who teach others about Jesus and His love, whether they go to a foreign country, or into their own community.
(DG 133.1)
Women to Be Educated to Missionary Labor—There is hard work to be done in dislodging error and false doctrine from the head, that Bible truth and Bible religion may find a place in the heart. It was as a means ordained of God to educate young men and women for the various departments of missionary labor that colleges were established among us. It was God’s will that they send forth not merely a few, but many laborers. But Satan, determined to overthrow this purpose, has often secured the very ones whom God would qualify for places of usefulness in His work. There are many who would work if urged into service, and who would save their souls by thus working. The church should feel her great responsibility in shutting up the light of truth and restraining the grace of God within her own narrow limits, when money and influence should be freely employed in bringing competent persons into the missionary field.—The Review and Herald, July 17, 1883.
(DG 133.2)
Women of Different Nationalities to Be Educated—Missions are being established; and if the converting power of the truth comes to our youth, we shall see them pressing into the ranks of the workers. Had they been educated from the beginning of their religious experience to be true to their faith, fervent in piety, and in sympathy with Christ’s longing for the salvation of souls, we would have hundreds of missionaries where we have one today. In every mission established, there should be a school for the education of laborers. The very best German, French, and Scandinavian [Only three people groups are mentioned, but the principle would follow that all groups need to be represented.] talent should be enlisted in the work of educating promising young men and women of these different nationalities. This essential matter has been greatly neglected. In the office at Battle Creek, at Basel, and at Christiana [now Oslo], there is pressing need of translators in these different languages.... We want a hundred workers where there is one.
(DG 133.3)
The heavy responsibilities should not rest upon one man in any branch of the work. Two or three should be fitted to share the burden, so that if one should be called to another post of duty, another may come in to supply his place. Provision has not been made half as extensively as it should have been, against any and every emergency. A fund should be raised to educate for missionary work those who will give themselves unreservedly to God and the cause, and who will labor not for large wages, but for the love of Christ, to save souls for whom He died.—The Review and Herald, October 12, 1886.
(DG 134.1)
A Liberal Education to Be Provided—As a people who claim to have advanced light, we are to devise ways and means by which to bring forth a corps of educated workmen for the various departments of the work of God. We need a well-disciplined, cultivated class of young men and women in the sanitariums in the medical missionary work, in the office of publication, in the conferences of different states, and in the field at large. We need young men and women who have a high intellectual culture, in order that they may do the best work for the Lord. We have done something toward reaching this standard, but still we are far behind that which the Lord has designed.—The Review and Herald, April 28, 1896.
(DG 134.2)
Women to Work in the Great Cities of the World—London has been presented to me again and again as a place in which a great work is to be done, and I have tried to present this before our people. I spent two years in Europe, going over the field three times. And each time I went, I saw improvement in the work, and the last time a decided improvement was manifest. And oh, what a burning desire filled my heart to see this great field, London especially, worked as it should be. Why have not workers been sent there, men and women who could have planned for the advancement of the work? I have wondered why our people, those who are not ordained ministers, but who have a connection with God, who understand the Scriptures, do not open the Word to others. If they would engage in this work, great blessing would come to their own souls. God wants His people to work. To every man—and that means every woman, also—He has given His work, and this work each one is to perform according to his several ability.—The General Conference Bulletin, April 22, 1901.
(DG 134.3)
Literature Work
Literature Evangelism a Noble Work—Canvassing for our literature is a missionary work, and should be carried on from a missionary standpoint. Those selected as canvassers should be men and women who feel the burden of service, whose object is not to get gain, but to do the very work that needs to be done to enlighten the world. All our service is to be done to the glory of God, to give the light of truth to those who are in darkness. Selfish principles, love of gain, dignity, or position, should not be once named among us.—(Australasian) Union Conference Record, May 1, 1901.
(DG 135.1)
Important to Get Our Literature Before the Public—If there is one work more important than another, it is that of getting our publications before the public, thus leading them to search the Scriptures. Missionary work—introducing our publications into families, conversing, and praying with and for them—is a good work and one which will educate men and women to do pastoral labor.—Testimonies for the Church 4:390 (1880).
(DG 135.2)
Special Work For the Old and Neglected
About a mile and a half from the [Hinsdale] Sanitarium we saw the soldiers’ home, where there are located hundreds of veterans and their wives. Special missionary work should be carried forward at this home. Let men who fear the Lord seek to redeem the time, and take up a work that has been neglected for these old people. Christ has purchased their souls with the price of His own blood. For this field there should be selected discreet men and women who will not fail nor be discouraged. And let no one belittle their efforts, for the Lord will be with those who labor with Him in self-denial and self-sacrifice. This work is as important as is the work in the foreign countries.—Manuscript Releases 4:377 (1909).
(DG 135.3)
True Missionary Spirit Essential
The Steward family apparently left the church for a time, but were “reclaimed.” Mary steward became an efficient and valued proofreader and copy editor at the Review and Herald. After Ellen White returned from Australia, Mary was employed for several years as one of her helpers. She points out many character defects that kept Mary from becoming a missionary. Perhaps it was this letter, written in 1891, that helped Mary Steward to a closer walk with Jesus.
(DG 136.1)
Dear Sister Mary Steward,
(DG 136)
While I have been earnestly praying to the Lord to understand my duty in regard to going to Australia, and as to whom we shall take with us, the Lord has plainly made known to me that you are not the proper one to be that help to me that I need in the work He has given me to do. You cannot enter into the spirit of the work in a new and untried missionary field. These words were repeated, “Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.” The character of everyone brought in connection with the light that the Lord communicates to His people will be proved and tested. If there is not expansion and development, and an increase of faith and holiness consistent with the light shining upon their pathway ... there will be a blindness that will not see and discern the deep things of God. With those who appreciate the light God has given, there will be a freshness and power and growth in grace, and light will be diffused to others.
(DG 136.2)
There is need of a missionary, self-sacrificing, self-denying spirit with all who connect with the work God has given me to do, else my influence will not be what God designs it shall be. And unless you are advancing in the knowledge and love of God, you cannot maintain even the light that you now have. If the light does not shine more and more, it will grow dim and flicker away in darkness. Every work will be mingled and tainted with self. God will not accept it. It is impossible for myself, or any connected with me, to be channels of light and bear the duties and responsibilities that this work involves unless they are growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. All connected with me and the solemn work God has given me to do must represent the character of that work. [They must] be an example to others in humility and Christlike character, in faithfulness, in cross-bearing, in prompt and vigorous action, in unswerving fidelity to the sanctifying influence of truth, and in sacrifices and labors to bless others. In order to do this there must be an ever-growing Christian experience. Faith must be strong, consecration complete; sympathy, tenderness, and love must pervade the soul. They must be patient in tribulation and Christlike in conversation, and even the thoughts [must be] brought into captivity to Jesus Christ.
(DG 136.3)
You have an experience before you to gain. You cannot be self-centered and be prepared for whatever work or responsibility, however difficult or dangerous, which is in Christ’s line. Your eye must be single to the glory of God, and then your profiting [growth] will appear unto all. You need to employ every means of grace [so] that your love to God, and to all with whom you associate, may be pure and Christlike. Then you will approve the things that are excellent and be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Your Christian life must take on a different mold, else you will never see the kingdom of heaven.
(DG 137.1)
There are many represented to me in the church who seem just like drowning men engaged in a desperate struggle to keep their heads above water. They have not in their religious life ever died to self. Self is their idol; they worship at its shrine. Weakness and a fluctuating experience open the way for Satan’s temptations and they will be easily overcome. A faithful waiting upon the Lord will renew their strength. Trials of faith will come, but love, patience, and constancy will be weighed by the golden scales of the heavenly sanctuary.
(DG 137.2)
You must learn in the school of Christ meekness and lowliness of heart, and be trained, disciplined, and educated for usefulness and for immortality. May these words have the right effect upon your mind. I have an interest in you. Let nothing attract or amuse or divert your mind from the earnest work before you. It is for your present and eternal interest to see that this state of things does not continue. Let it not be said of you in the future, as it was of the Hebrew Christians, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that we teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Hebrews 5:12). You need good home religion. Bring all the pleasantness and sunlight into your home life, in every word, in every action. Use diligently all the gifts of heaven in precious light given of God, and put this light to a practical use. Then the Lord will make a larger display of His mercy and goodness. Achieve a destiny on earth worthy of heaven.—Letter 26a, 1891.
(DG 137.3)
Missionaries Must Be Committed to the Work
The following letter was written to Elder and Mrs. I. J. Van Horn, who had gone to Oregon as missionaries. Adelia Patton had lived in the White home for several years prior to her marriage to Isaac Van Horn, and was like a daughter to them. Elder and Mrs. White had high hopes and expectations that, working together, the Van Horns would make a mighty missionary team. Their hopes were short-lived.
(DG 138.1)
My Dear Children, ever near and dear to me: It is with pain I now address you. When you went to your field of labor in Oregon it was with the idea that your wife and yourself would work in the interest of the cause of God. This I was shown was the will of God concerning you.
(DG 138.2)
But you changed this order of things by your own course. God did not order it thus. Had you both devoted your powers, the ability that God had given you, to do the work with an eye single to His glory, you would have done only that which it was your duty to do. The importance of self-sacrificing labor in this cause and work of God should be ever felt in a higher sense than it is. If it was felt then there would be a self-sacrificing spirit manifested. The love and pity for souls for whom Christ has died would call the thoughts away from selfish desires and selfish plans.
(DG 138.3)
The love for Him who died for man will exercise a constraining power over our imagination, our purposes, and all our plans. We shall not plan for our pleasure, to gratify our wishes, but lay ourselves on the altar of God a willing sacrifice for the Lord to use us to His glory. The mind of Jesus Christ must be in us, controlling every thought, every purpose of our lives. This is the attitude in which we should ever keep our souls before God. This we will do if we realize the worth of souls and if the truth as it is in Jesus is stamped upon the soul. This work was given you—to be missionaries for God.
(DG 138.4)
Satan lays his plans to defeat the purpose of God. He helps you to plan for yourselves, which plan he knows will succeed in hedging you both about with difficulties, not only robbing God of the labors of Adelia, but in a large degree of Brother Van Horn also. The care of children will so preoccupy the mind that Christ and His work will be neglected. The strongest earthly affection would be awakened, the mother for her children, which would make the work of God all secondary; and thus Satan would obstruct the path of usefulness the Lord had pointed out.
(DG 139.1)
Oh, could you both have seen that the truth, the truth of God, the salvation of souls, is something stronger, deeper, and more constraining than even the love of a mother for her sons! No selfishness must come in to mar the work of God. Self-denial may be agonizing to the flesh, but the better portion, religion, must take the helm. Truth and love for Christ must occupy the citadel of the soul. There is God enthroned, there is conscience obeyed, and God would have given you a place in His house better than of sons and of daughters.
(DG 139.2)
The Lord has given Adelia superior talents. Exercised in the work of winning souls to Jesus, they would have been wholly successful. The plain, sweet, elevating manner of teaching would have brought many sons and daughters to Jesus Christ. The light would flash from the throne of God to her mind and be reflected upon others.
(DG 139.3)
But the enemy took the field and his suggestions were followed. You entered upon a work which God could not and did not approve. A way was contrived by the enemy to strike at you both and block your way. Adelia was a timid soul, feeling pain deeply, easily discouraged. That imagination which, if devoted to and exercised upon the truth, would have become a power for God, was now to be used as a hindrance, easily excited in a wrong direction to forebode evil, to see things in a distorted light, to feel that there is danger when there is none, to distrust God, to distrust her husband.
(DG 139.4)
She had her own ideas about managing her case. No one would be accepted but her husband. There was but little faith and but little trust in God. Satan could control her feelings so as to make it a necessity for her husband to be with her and for her to feel aggrieved if he was not a present help. Imagination made light sufferings seem at times very earnest and acute. The minds of both were preoccupied in their new experience. The work in the conference was woefully neglected. The minister’s labor was but little after the pulpit effort. Sometimes there was greater neglect than others, and Satan had things very much his own way. Neither of you have a sense of your neglect of duty. The very time you were so fully preoccupied with your own troubles, which you had brought about yourselves, was the time when the right kind of labor would have brought a harvest of souls to Jesus Christ.
(DG 140.1)
It is really not wise to have children now. Time is short, the perils of the last days are upon us, and the little children will be largely swept off before this. If men and women who can work for God would consider that while they are pleasing themselves in having little children and caring for them, they might be at work teaching the way of salvation to large numbers and bringing many sons and daughters to Christ, great would be their reward in the kingdom of God.
(DG 140.2)
Adelia, my heart is pained because you have made a failure, because you have robbed God. You are naturally fearful, borrowing trouble. You could not have rest or peace of mind separated from your children; and the worrying disposition you have closes up the way for your work. And this is not all: the work is greatly neglected.—Letter 48, 1876.
(DG 140.3)