THE SANTAL l\t\ission

Transcription

1 CijIhe SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SANTAL l\t\ission OF TB.E NORTHERN CHURCH ES -(THE INDIAN HOME MISSION TO THE SANTALS) FOR THE YEAR 1940 DUMKA PUBLISHED DY THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN OHURCHES PRINTED AT THE MISSION PRESS. BENAGARIA. 1~41~

2 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES ~-- Jlttg. ~c.crctatl1: REV. J. GAUSDAL. ])umka, Santal Pa'rgana8, Bihat'. qjj':rustrc.s. REV. J. Go! USDAL, H. HORG: KSQR. Dumka., Santal Parganas, INDIA. OSLO,. NORWAY. REV. COUXT VIGGO MOL'J'KE, AsminderoJ, Fredensborg, DENMARK. R,I<:V. PROFESSOR A. HELLAND, Minneapolis, MINH, U.S. A. REV. R, ROSENLUND Kaerabani, San tal Parganas. REV' BERNHARD HELLAND do~ do. do. From America: JllissiolutricS. BJERKESTRAND,:MR. & MRS. O. S. (April 1925), Grahampur GlRTZ, REV. & MRS. J. M. (April 1925), on furl. HELLAND, REV. & MRS. B. A. (Oct. 19~6), on furl MILLER, MISS DAGMAR, (Nov. 1920), on fur~ OSTERGAARD, DR, E. & :MRS. A. (Nov & Nov. 1936) Bena.garia. PBDERSEN, DR. Miss D. (Oct. 1931\ Haraputa. Fro. Denmark: BAGGER, REV. & MRS. V. EIE, MR. & MRS. O..FISCHER, MISS BESSIE. HOLTEN, MISS GUDRUN, (Dec. 19~5 & June 1926), on furl. (Oct. 1920), M6rnai (Nov. 1934), on Ju~l. (Dec. 1927). Saldoha.,

3 H: 111 KAMPP, REV. & MR~., KROHN, Miss ELISABETH, KROHN, REV. & MRS. J. LOWE, MISS ERIKA, MALMSTROM, MISS I. NIELSEN, MRS. DINA, ROSEl\'LUND. REV. & MRS. R. PEDERSEN, MISS J. O. H. P. H. (Nov.l~15.&Ma~ch 1918), Nimasarai (Mrs.' Kampp in Denmark). (Oct. 1933), Benagaria (Dec. 1938). Kaerabani (Nov. 1924),.Chandkhnri, C. P. ( Dec 1937), Eklakhi (Nov. 1912), Maharo '(Febr. 1910),' Kaerabani. (Nov. 1935), Saldoha Fro'Tn Noru:ay : AASLAND, Miss MARIE, (Oct: 1933), on furl. BUTTEDAHL, MISS.MAGNHILD,. (Dec. 1927), on furl. DIESEN, MISS NANCY, (Dec. 1911), Maharo. FOSSLAND, REV. & MRS. G. (Nov. 1937), Santi para. G.AlrSDAL, REV. & MRS, J. (Nov & Jan. 1919), Dnmka GLAD, REV. & MRS. W. (Nov. 1931), on furl. HALVORSRUD, REv. & MRS. H. (Oct & Nov 1937), Bongaigaon JOHANSEN, J. ESQR. (Nov. 1930), Saldoha. JOHANSEN, REV. & MRS. 8. (Nov. 1935), Narainpnr. KIPPJl:NESS, REV. & MRS. H. (Dec. 193?), Basetknndi. LANDOY, REV. & MRS. M. (Oct Febr. 19:10), Joema. LOHNE, MISS LAURA, (Oct 1923), Koroya. MALME, REV. & MRS. A. (Nov. 1935), Gaorang. N EESET, MISS SOFIE, (March 1932), Eklakhi Oi'STAD, REV. & MRS. K. (Nov. 19) 5. & March 1918), cm furl. PEDERSEN, REV. & MRS. P. (Jan & Nov. 1935), Tilabani SIGURDSBN, :MIss EDLE (Nov. 1934), Mohnlpahari SOMMING, Miss SOLVEIG, (Feb. 1933), Haraputa. STRONSTAD REV.' & MRS. A. E. (Nov. 1934), Chondorpnra. TaOMRORG, REV. & MRS. K. (Sept & Oct. 1928), Benagaria.. :.

4 THE SWEDISH COOCH BEHAR MISSION Missionaries. BRAN'DT, REV. & MRS. A. W. MORTENSON, MISS STINA PlHLQUlST, MISS ELSE (1225) on furl. (Nov. 19:;9), Cooeb Behar (Dec. 1938) Cooch Behar ~ome!loarlls. THE NORWEGIAN BOARD FOR THE SANTAL MISSION Holbergs Gate 28, Oslo, Norwa!l. President: REV. H. E. WISLOFF. Vice President: B. RONSBERG, ESQ. Secretary: REV. E. HALLEN, HOLBKRGS GATE ~3, OSLO. Tr6aBw'er: MISS ASTA OPSAHL, HOLBEHGS GATE 2:3, OSLO. MISS S. LOKEN. HEV. M. JOllKE. OLBERG, ESQ. B. RorlSBERG, ESQ. A. G[MNES, ESQ. MISS M. KINNEROD. THE DANISH BOARD FOR THE SANTAL MISSION Valbygaardst'ej 76, Ootenhagen, Denmark. President: REV. MARlUS HANSKN D. D., Copenhagen Secretary: REV. VALD. CHR1STIANSEN, Aarhus. Treasurer: MR. RICH. HENRIKSEN, St. Strandstrade 9, K. Copenhagen Members:- Members:- REV. RORDAM el.a-ussen. REV. A. THELLE. REV. G. SCHIOLER. CARLSEN,SKIODT,. ESQ V. FIBIGER, ESQ. REV. H. WINDING.

5 THE AMERICAN BOARD FOR THE- SANTAL MISSION Augsburg $el1tinary, Minneapolis, ltlinn. U. S. A. President: REV. ODD GORNITZKA Vice-President and Ohairman, Ex. Com. RI V". T. C. AABERG. Secretary and Treasw'er: REV. M. C. DJXEN. Members:- DR. SILAS C. ANDI-:RSEN Ml~. C. P. HElI>E PROF. A. HELL~ND REV. NILS KLUNGTVEDl' REV. H. IRVING PETERSEN REV. ARTHUR H. RHOLL REV. S. 11. STENBY REV. HAAKON JORGENSEN MR. P. L. LUND REV. JI)H. RINGSTAD Ma. L. lj. ROROLT PIWF. C. 1\1. 'VESWIG The Committee of the American "Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. REV. J. C. AABERG, P'l'esident. REV'. H. PLAMBECK, Secretary. MISS S. OSTERGAARD, Minneapolis, Treasurer. Secretary: Kvinnliga Missions Arbetare Bigs1' larlsgatan 67, Stockholm. MIss M. JOSEPHSON.

6 \1i IND!AN PASTORS. Andreas MUI'mu 1924, 1)umk~. (Dumlca P.. ' 0) B... ij~l HasdaR 19:24, Gambarp~h~ri (Benaga?'ia P..0.) Bajun Murmu, 1939, Arngachi,nhgr9mpur.(Ku??~1 abad P. 0) nhikulal HasdJiK 1937, ChQndQrpura (Katik1l,nd P.O.) BhggQll Murmu 19:38, Sagra (Kae1:aban-i.P. 0.) Bosollto Kumal' Dutta 1940, (NarayanpU'l'. P.O.) nudhl'~i HasdaK19:37, Badhar, Rajshah.i (Talanda P.O.) Ch~ku.'TL1<;lu 1937, Ranga.,. Chgndgrpura (Katikund P.O.) Dhononjoy lha.l9~3, Dangalpara, (pmnka P. 0) Emanuel 1'U9u 19~5), B~setkuIJgi (Moheshp2t1' P.O., G~lu, Sgl'en 19:28, H~rjpur (Pokhuria P.O.) -Gulu Murmn, 1910, Phor.idpnr, (Habra P.O.) Jalpa SgJ'en, ISOl, (Reti?'ed) JQhQn HasdnR 1933, DhQ1'9mpUr 'KU1nmbad P.O.) Johon l\furmn, 1935, Dumhl'ia, Maharo (JO'J??1.undi P. 0) John Jot.adhal'i Das 19-10, Joseph HasdaR J91O, Tilabani (.Asanball/ P.O.) (Asanbani P.O.) Kl).lu Kisku, 19.n, Clglldgrpl1l'a (Kati/cund P.O.) Kanhu Tugu, 1939, Gl'shampur, (Dingdinga P.O.) Karan SQr~n 193t, Saldoha. (Mohulpahan: P.O.) Khudi~ :M~rl~gi 1931, (Mohulpahari P. O. f Kisun TUQu 1921, Rantzaupur (Dingdinga P.O.) LQdQ S9r~n 19~3, Sapadoha (Benaga1ria P.O.) LQkhQn H~mbrgm 1930, ManjadQ.bri (Dingdinga P.O.) Lopsa SQr~n 193:!, Khorib,ri, ("k[llchia P.O., MaZda.) Maharaj Bhandari 1937, (}.. T 1:masa, a P.O., MaZda) Mansin TUQu 1937, Koroya, (Dumlca P.O.) Modhu Sudon Kisku 1940, Rautnagar (Ranisankhail P.O.) )I~nigQl H~mbl'~m 193J, Bena~,ri, (Benagaria P.O.) '-,

7 vii MQoggl Kiskn 19:30, Chaksadula, (Bansihari P.O.) Naran 8gren 1934, Kaerabani, (Kaerabani P. 0) Olichoron Boro 1932, Gaorang, (Haltugaon P.O.). F\lln HisdaU 19i3, (Retired) P,-nl Mnrmn 1935, Joema (Gossaingaon P.O.) Pitor HembrQm 19~8, Joema,(Gossaingaon P.O.) Rl}.til}. BgrQ 1911, Harapnta (GbssaingaonP.O.) Ruben Mnrmn 1933, Maharo (Dumka P.O.) Simon Mnrmn 1929, Narainpur (Teor P.O.) Sibram M,r~Q.i 1939, Baromasia (Maheshpur P. 0.) Simon Baske Dnm (Dumka, P.O.) Sodanondo Baska 1939, Beldanga (Sagardighi P.O.) SorkaI' H~mbrQm 19.j8, Morna1 (Dingdinga P.O.) Srinath BisW8S 1930 Rampurhat. TikI}. Murmn 1924, Tl}.rui, (Kat-ileu.nd P.O.)

8 THE SEVENTY"';;FOURTH ANN'UAL REPORT 'I FOR THE YEAR EBENEZER Hithe1'to hfdh the Lm'd helped 1'8 ( 1 Sam. 7, 12) Belief in our Lord God the Almighty is bound to be severely tested at times. The chosen people of old carried this fa.ith as the priceless treasure of their -exist:. ence. But in guarding this they were constantly assailed in two different ways. In their life of faith they were sorely tempted to turn to the wo rship of the local god's which tended'to turn their hearts away from the Unseen to the created and visible. And the small nation of faith was a prey for neighbouring warring nations. For the sincere believers there were times when it looked as if the Bword wielded by brute force were permitted to challenge even the power of the Almighty. We read how Samuel as a chosen leader of his folk spoke to the house of Israel: "If you. are returning with all your heart to the Et~rnal, then put a way from yourselves the foreign gods-, set your hearts on the Eternal and worship him alone, and he WIll rescue Y0\l. U And they did confess tha.t they' had SInned against God, and Samuel cried to God for Isra~l, "and the Eternal answered him, for when the Philist'ine!J' approached to fight against Israel just as Samuel 'was~ffering up the burnt-offering, the Eternal thundered loudly that day against the Philistines and routed them." - '1 Then S~llluel took ~ stone alld erected it between -:Miz:pah' an~

9 ! THE SAN-TAL MisSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. 1"6shanah, naming it Helpstone. This is witness, he said, that the Eternal has helped us." The pioneers of this mission had for about two years been sorely tempted in their belief and ti"ust in our Lord God the Almighty. But when they in the year 1867 had been guided to the spot where they were to found their first mission station among the Santals, then they named it Ebenezer. So great was their experience of God ip. being permitted to start this work among this backward race and plant the Cross of Christ among their stony hills. At the close of the fateful year 1940 it is very proper that we should remember this, because the work thus started never saw such a crisis at any time before during the 74 years of its existence. When on the 9th of April the German forces invaded Denmark and Norway, the Santal Mission of the Northern Churches found itself suddenly cut off from its two strongest home Boards. And when we in spite of this fact, have rea.ched the end of the year with the work intact, we do right with the believers of old in stating: "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." In God's great mercy the home boards had been enabled to send more money than usual during the first quarter of the year. From America had come Rs. 20, , from Denma.rk Rs. 31, , and from Norway Rs 80, When the Executive Committee met on the 18th of April, the mission had a cash balance of Rs. 75,000/-, which was quite unusual at that time of the year. Certainly the Lord had mercifully remembered His work, even when we did not realize that any such catastrophic danger was approaching. It was, however, on that date clear to everyone that dra.stic action had to be taken at once should the work,be preserv~d for anr time, A gener~l ~qt qf ojl~-th.jrd

10 SEVENTY -FOUR'l'H ANNUAL REPORT. of all salaries to missionaries and Indian workers was ordered from the 1st of May. All building operations were stopped, and other curtailments were made. But the work was to be carried on One of our staff, the Rev. B. A. Helland, was selected to go to America and try to Recure more support for the work from that country. Rev. and Mrs. Helland had had a busy period as leaders of the Kaerabani School, and their furlough was approaching in a few more months' time. Thus it was felt to be the very right thing to send them off as s()on as possible with this special charge. The American Board had taken action at once, and it has splendidly stood by us in the crisis. It has sent to us during the year Rs. 61,631/-, an amount never reached before in a single year.. We are indeed very indebted to the American friends and supporters fot their very resolute action in this hour of peril. Here in India the Secretary of the Lutheran Federation sent at once a letter of sympathy and made enquiry about the finances of the mission. When it became evident that it was neces$ary to get additional funds from somewhere in order to carryon the work up to the end of, the year, such help was cheerfully given by the War Emergency Oommittee set up by the Federation. Rs. 19,t97/- have been received with great thanks. In the Santal world the closest friendship has been experienced between the Ohurch of Scotland Mission and our own. It.. date8 back to the year 1874 when Dr. Graham helped.- Skrefsrud back to the mission field and took the promise from him that he should be willing to give every help possible to the missionaries of their newly started mission work among the Santals. Now in our great anxiety the Scottish nlission sent in May Rs. 1,000/-, and further secured from their. home board the very substantia.l grants of Rs. 200/:':':' and Rs. 100/- a month.for the Kaerabani and Maharo schools from the

11 4: THE SANTAL MIssioN OF THE NORTHERN CHtJRCibts. beginning <?f October. This splendid help was to make sure that these two institutions should be kept on the sanie leve-l as before. Provst J. Dahl- on the English- occupied Freroe Islands responded to our call with 500 Danish Crowns. And from far off Argentine the.,danish pastor Axel Krebs has sent tis two cheques amounting to Rs For a number of years the Swedish mission at Cooch Behar has been affiliated to the Santal mission, and our Treasurer has received remittances from Sweden and and paid 'out the money to their missionaries. Even with Sweden the mail servvice has been very irregular, and money has mostly had to come by cable. We thankfully acknowledge the receipt of Rs. 1,500/-,which the Cooch Behar missionaries were instructed to pay to us as a loan. Messrs. G. Lochen and Co. and several other persons have shown their sympathy with us in giving donations to our funds, and we are indeed very grateful to: all and everyone for the help given, and we see in their action an obedience to the will of our Lord God the Almighty, wherefore we desire that this small annual report shall give testimony to the old truth: Ebenezer, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us 1 During the first quarter of the year 1940 we were in regular communication with our home countries. Our annual Conference was held in February, and for this gathering we had the pleasure to receive back from America the Bjerkestrand family and also Miss, Somming from Norway. They were very much needed, and according to the arrangments made by the Oonference we,also sent a cable that Miss Lowe from 'Denmark should' come at once. She managed to come, but the invasion brought a.bout such changes that the mission found that it could lend her service to the American Eva.ngelica.l Mission in the Oentral Provinces. She is superintending a

12 children's home in the Chankhuri Leper Home and. Hospital at Baitalpur. And to the home countries went Miss Miller to America,and Misses Buttedahl and Aasland to Norway. Along with these two the aged Miss Anna.T ens en also travelled. For about 16 months she had been on the field visiting her many old friends, and cheering the Christians as well as the missionaries wherever she went. Miss Martha Josephson of the Swedish Cooch Behar mission also travelled with this party. They had reached as far as Italy just when the German invasion of the Scandinavian countries occurred, and they were sent to Rowe and held up there for many weeks. Finally they managed to reach home. Our information from Norway and Denmark after the time of the invasion is very meagre. But the little we have heard should indicate that no attempt has been made to suppress the different missionary associations, and that the Santal mission also is able to continue its work. We are sure they are with us-as we are with themin this big fight of our Lord. We have heard that Mrs. Bodding has died in Denmark in the month of June, and that a son of Rev. J. J. Ofstad was among the casualties w hen the Germans treacherously opened fire on the Norwegian forces at Narvik. But what has to be recorded relating to our work must be written for a later report. It cannot be done thj s time. Here on the mission field the work has been carried on in the usual way. Miss Diesen took over the Maharo school when Miss Buttedahl left;' and Miss Somming took over Haraputa school from Miss Aasland. Both were well acquainted with the work in these im~tituition8 and the work there has quietly got through the months of cut and crisis. When the Hellands went on furlough Rev. & Mrs. K:rohn were sent to Kaerabani to take up the duties at this big educational institution. The High

13 School had just been recognized by the Patna University;.. but 'thereby new problems unexpectedly aljpeared. High scho~ls do not receive grj.nt from District Board, and wh~ther the Kaerabani school should be understood to be one institution or two or even three or four has been under discussion. The Dew elected District Board for Santal Parganas showed that it had other claims to ~espond to than to continue to give the ordinary grants to existing educational institutions. Consequently it ha~ been a time of considerable anxiety; but at the close of the year the outlook -is better, the whole institution having been transferred to the Central Government of the Province. Rev. & Mrs. Rosenlund had also planned to go on furlough. having had their full period for the fourth time in the trying Indian climate. They had, however, not made any definite. plans. - and so the invasion came and made any planning impossible. The documents from the home.trustees for appointing the present writer in his place had, however, got out of Denmark and Norway a few days before the invasion. The Executive committee desired that the Rosenlunds should try to get a well deserved change, and we were therefore made to exchange sta.tions and duties on the 1st of September. We have much pleasure in recording that Miss A~na N odtvedt became Mrs. Halvorsrud and moyed to Bongaigaon in the month of April. And along with the Bjerkestrands had come to India a sister of Mrs. Bjerkesttand, Miss Adelaide Alberts. Being a trained nurse she took up work a.t the Mt. Hermon School. But Rev. Landoy had during these years had sufficient time in the J oema bungalow to find out that a mission station without a Memsaheb is only 50% of what it Qught to be, and- in the month of~ November a happy marriage party in the old Gr.ahampur bungalow ended this. state of affairs. We w.elcome Mrs. Landoy into our, mission family.

14 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT.: 7,The year 1940 started with the work in all parts being carried on in the ordinary way. A new mission station was being founded at Eklakhi in the MaIda di~trict. This was to become a girls' school for our, comm:upity on the extensive pl~in of ;North. Bengal a,~~ also_ a eentral station for women's work. In the Goalpara district of Assam work was advancing on the new Lepe.r -Colony at Santipara, and plans for the medical work in our Assam field had been pre,pared. Missionaries, Indian workers, and the Christian community as a whole were enjoying the stability of an organisation buht up and borne by unflinching love and devotion to the holy cause of our Lord, - then came the 9th of April and the blow. Eklakhi could be made habitable, and.misses N esset and Malmstrom moved to that place and have courageously kept the work going under the primitive conditions on a compound where building operations had to be closed down abruptly. Santipara was started last year, but could. not in 1940 Sf\e a growth which had been planned and hoped for. Yet it has been growing, thank-s to the faithful service of those in charge. When all the newspapers in every language started to broadcast the news' that Norway and Denmark were invaded, it was only natural that a measure of anxiety took hold not only of the missionaries and the misbion stations, but also of the small congregations in the villages. Almost all workers took the cut bravely, and it was very touching to see how people suddenly felt an urge to make enquiry about old missionaries at home and those on furlough, arid to tell how bad they felt because no n~ws came through any more. It became evident to a good many also that this development of the war was going to force a new time upon them. As one pastor said in a prayer: "0 Lord, help us to respond to Thy call, now when the time has come to us." Not a ~ingle congregational leader laid down his work in this Qrisis; but ~~ {Btl:" ~s ~s lcnow~ '~9 U8 ther, au

15 8 THE SANTALMISSION OF TRENORTHERN : CHURCHES. tried to' -ehear their flbck. But people out in the villages had, to hear other voices. also. There were" some whis:' pering: "The war is 'going to destroy all "Europe and all mission work. -Make' friends with us. You may remain Christian; but no more 'are to be converted to Christianity.u Because we have been through such a time it is really marvellous that even this year 506 persons have been baptized from the non-christian faiths into. God'g holy church. This certainly testifies to the quality of ou.r Christian message even where the community is only 25%,)literate. This. c,ritical time, however, urged the mission to take np the :question of preparing a church constitution for its.commuj;lity. Not that this question is anything new to the :mi~.sion. It has been under discussion many.a time~ But it was felt that something ought to be done now, and a committee was therefore set up" and before the year pas~ed a draft proposal was sent out. As this wa.s only a draft we shall not enlarge upon it in the present report but merely mention that it is evident that church leaders are much interested in the proposal. Our mission activity is entirely rural. Last year it was stated that the Christian community in the Kaerabani area included 67 villages. This year the workers in the Dumka, Maharo and Koroya area have furnished me with the information that the Christians here are found in 96 villages. Judged from this it,. appears likely' that our whole community is found spread in more than 1000 villages in the districts of Santal Parganas, Birbhum, Mur.shidabad, MaIda. Rajshahi, DinaJPur, Goalpara, Darrang, and even'touching Bogra, Rangpur and Kamrup. What a tremendous opportunity the Lord of the Harvest has given to us through this extensive development of"the Santa.! mission, and what a setback if we fail to shephercl ~,,~ flock 1 "~:rethren, pray fo~ \ls."

16 SEYENTY-FOURTH.ANNU.At REPORT. One very devoted pastor died: in August, Mondol Murmu, in the Saldoha Leper Colony. When the Colony was in the beginning many were afraid to go to that place as workers, but he had both the courage and the devotion t~ offer himself. And there he was permitted to complete his service. The following new pastors were ordained the year: during At N arainpur on the 10th of March- Bosonto Kumar Dutta for Narainpur, and John J otadhari Das for Bengali work in Santal Parganas. At Nimasarai, MaIda, on the 28th of April Gulu Murmu for Phoridpur, and Modhu Sudon Kisku for Rautnagar. At Kaerabani on the 19th of May- Joseph Hasdak' for Eklakhi; but as he and his fam ily did not find that they could stand the climate there he was transferred to Tilabani at the close of the year. Before closing this introducion to the detailed reports from stations and institutions, it is a spec'ial joy to put on record that the Mornai Tea Estate in 1940 had reached an outturn of 418,444 lhs. of tea. On the final weekly return the Manager wrote these words! "The highest output ever reached at Mornai. In 1920 an output of 2000 mds. was considered quite satisfactory. In 20 years there is an increase of more than 150 %." We are indebted to the Manager, Rev. O. Eie, as well as to the Managing Agent, Messrs G. Lochen & Co. for this fine result which will give a fair income for the Lord's work for And it must be mentioned that the Tr~st papers ha ve proved their grea t v~l ue in this crisls, They :pla.ce 2

17 10 THE S~T.t\.L MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. ~ll the! prgperty on trust on behalf of the Christian community growing up in this area through the activity of the mi~sion, and thus the whole has in fact bec~me natiollal to this country... '." We -wish to tender OUA" grateful thanks to the Govern- I ment of Bihar and the local authorities for their conti- ".Jlued" libera.l grants to o~r training schools andhostel~ connected with them, to village schools and the :Industria,l school, and to our Leper Colony at Saldoha. We also wish to reco.rd our grateful thanks to the Government of Bengal for grants given to the N arayanpur school and to village schools in MaIda, Rajshahi and Dinajpur. Likewise we tender our thanks to the Government of Assam for continued grant to our educational institutions there. as well as to the new Leper Colony at Santipara. Though we are no longer in the previous c)o~e con 'nections with our friends and supporters in the home colintries and so our report cannot reach them until this storm is over, we wish to place on record our con ;.tinued indebtedness and thanks both to individuals and associations for their prayers and their offerings. In many different ways it has been most touching to see how the hooly fire is burning, and how the believers are standing by the Lord's work. J. GAUSDAL.

18 Work in B I H A R "

19 i2 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. KAERABANI DISTRICT. (Being some remarks about Kaerabani district regarding the time October-December, 1940.) It has been very interesting for my wife and myself to compare what we call the old-time-kaerabani (which we left 22 yea.rs ago) with the present-day-kaerabani where we have now again since October been stationed. Naturally, one expects to see some changes and under the present financial difficulties one especially locks out for some signs of progress as regards self-support and spontaneous activity in the congregation. Material progress is moving very slowly in this country. The greater part of the people in Kaerabani Mission district were so poor 22 years ago that we could not now expect to see much alteration in their condition Building work (the new church, completion of school buildings) now and then has given an opportunity to some Christians and non-christia)1s to eari.1 a bit; here and there a Santal house has gotten a tiled roof instead of the poor old straw-thatching. Some families have acquired buffaloes besides their bullocks. But taken as a whole, the poverty is still there. In every Santal village there are people of the permanently undernourished type. Even if they look sturdy. (that is their "framework" only). It struck us that begging is quite.the same nuisance here now as then. But it must be added that that is begging of a clumsy, childish sort showing that the Santals are, whether consciouely or not, ashamed of begging. There is a sudden occasion-the Missionary seeming to take interest in some special difficulty or in some bright little boy-and then they may fall for the temp.. tation to show off a bit more destitute than they really are. Or, a widow might have received a ChriRtmas gift and tries to improve the situation further.

20 We ought always, facing such situations, to ask ourselves the question, what we should feel if our life had to be lived under such conditions. And here comes the hard fact that progress in the congregation towards self-support and spontaneous efforts is on account of this very poverty almost impossible. It is not fair to blame the Christians for slow progress. We ought to be thankful for every little faltering step in the forward direction. The paid workers have bad their salaries cut one-third like the missionaries. It is 33. 1/3 i~ more difficult for them to advance now then it was before the cut. Still I am prepared to find, when reading the annual report for 1940, that the decrease is less than 33. 1/3 % as regards congregational contributions. In this connection I shall mention that it was a great joy for the congregation and the School that the annual "Mela" gave so good a result tbat a contribution of Rs. 100/- could be sent to the War Fund. A site for a Church in Dighari bas been given by a Christian family and we hope that in 1941 the Church will be built (by means of contributions from the congregations in this district). And a site for a school in J ambua has been offered. At a meeting over there to discuss the plan the local congregation gave good promises of contributions and labour. Things like that could not have happened 22 years ago. If in those days we tried to explain to the Christians that endeavours should be made in the direction of independance and self-support-and we some times tried to make them understand that they ought to consider the future-then they would, all of them, pastor, elders, teachers and everybody, look at us with a smile of the sort that advises you not to make a fool of yourself. But now all the leaders understand the necessity of such progress, and many others a.s well begin to understa.nd 13

21 14 THE SANTAL MissioN OF THE NORTHERN ~HUROaES. The efforts luade by the missionariefl who have been here have not been without fruit. And that is an encouragement. Furthermore, it is an encouragement that in this Western Field, in flpita of the poverty, we find so many individuals who want to, so to say, compete with the less poor districts as regards progress towards independance. May I just mention that the sum given as contributions does not include expenditure of a local and casual nature, (at the outstations) such as, for instance, help to poor people, buying bamboo mats for the churches, and the like. There is one thing more which I should like to mention. When we left Kaerabani 22 years ago, one pastor and 26 elders were employed in the congregational work and as village preachers. When we came back in October 1940, we found two pastors and 6 elders. That shows something: Namely, that in spite of shortcomings in the congregation, the life and influence oftha congregations must be felt in the country in a stronger degree than 22 years ago-if the number of present workers is sufficient. Who can tell what is sufficient in spiritual work? This much, however, could be said that, as far as we are able to understand, the work is being~! done-people are being told about our Saviour, a life is led by many individual Christians and families which influences neighbours-and so on-and that work seems to us to bear fruits. R. ROSENLUND.

22 SEVENTY -FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 15 KAERABANI SCHOOL. The 'yeal' 1940 was an eventful one in the history of the- school, full of suspense, joys and difficulties. The goal of establishing a 4 years' Hign School and its recognition by Government has been reached after many years of effort. In this connection we must thank the Director of Public Instruction in Bihar, Mr. J. S. Armour, for his valuable help to our school during these critical times. Besides the regular visits by Mr. S. M. Alam, Inspector of Schools, the school also recoived visits by Mr. ~rasad and Mr. Haffiz, who had been sent out by Patna Univer8ity for the express purpose of giving recognition to the High School. Thy were both entirely satisfied with the school and its work. In February 1941 we are to send the first group of boys up for the Matriculation examination in Dumka. We pray that God will bless them, our school and our work here. The crisis was felt at the school in other respects than merel)i financially. At a time when the school work in general had to be reorganized because of the recognition of the High School, expenses had to be curtailed, and the classes increased in size to over 50 each in order to get along with a smaller staff, just at such a period, when the services of an experienced man, older in the country and an expert in Eochool administration, were so very necessary, the Executive Committee of the Mission decided to send Rev. & Mrs. Helland home to America to present the mission cause there. They are much beloved here in the school; they laid the foundation of the High School, but they will not, then, be able to be present when the first group of boys goes up for their final (Matriculation), examination. The pays think of Rev. & Mrs. Helland with geat ~espect and love and we all look forward to the day when we can welcome them to Kaerabani again. In the meatime it will be our task to try- to carryon the wor~. ~s_ W~n ~s.:possible,.

23 16 THE SANTAL MISSION OE THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. In 1940 the Training School students finished their course. We do not yet know the results of their examinations After that it was decided that a new training class should not be started. When, however, this resolution was made known to the Government they decided to give us a grant so that the Training School ff)r Santals could be continued. So we have again begun the Training Course, with Mr. Minz as head pundit. In the beginning of 1940 all the classes were filled to overflowing but with the invasion of Denmark & Norway and the resulting one-third cut in salaries of mission employees many were unable to pay to keep their children in school, and the number of students decreased. At the end of the year there were 417 children in the school. Instruction in the High School was along somewhat :unsettled lines during 1940 because of changes that took place in the teaching staff. Before the hot season several teachers had left, and Rev. Helland was in correspondence II with others to take their places when he went to America. As it turned out, however, no one of these was willing to come because of our cut in salary. Later we obtained the temporary services of a graduate from Ranchi. The teachers have as a whole done good work in spite of the cut. The Middle School with its 215 boys has gone very well, as the result of the M. E. Examination shows. We sent 44 boys up for examination, out of which 38 passed, more than half with honours and distinction. Two boys received am. E. scholarship. In the Lower Primary classes there are 160 children. The work there is being continued as it was begun by Mrs. Helland. During the past year we have not had much illness. A small epedemic of mumps in the beginning of the year, ~nd two cases of pneuiiloni~ of a noll-severe type, who

24 SEVENTY.FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 17 long since have recovered, are all the cases of sickness we have had. When Dr. Ostergaard was here in the autumn he found the general health of the boys to be very good. We take this opportunity to thank Dr. Oster ~aard for his help in looking after the boys' health, as well as for his lectures on medical subjects delivered to the High School boys. In December Ram T. Ram left the school. He had served as a teacher for many years and had passed the age limit. Mr. C. C. Dutt also left after a long period of service. Two other teachers went a way to take Teache.rs ' training. Two Santal teachers have returned to us after taking a oouple of years' supplementary training. Another previous student has returned to help with the offioe work at the schools. During the last months of 1940 we were met with a very difficult situation in that the Distriot Board at Dumka cut down the grant of the school by 50%~ But when it came to the attention of the D. P. I. in Patna, he decided to amalgamate our High School and M. E. Sohool with effect from Jan. 1st Because of this amalgamation Government can give the grant to us direct and does not have to act through the District Board as before. Another result of the amalgamation is that we now have the authority to hold the M. E. examination here and do not have to send the boys to Dumka to sit for their examination. In closing we want to thank the Church of Scotland Mission for its generous gift of Rs. 200/- per month, which they are contributing to the maintenanace of the hostel. c - JOBS. KROHN.

25 18 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN ClItrRCHES. DHOROMPUR DISTRICT. This year has been one of crisis within the congregation, which has hindered its growth inward as well as outward. Only two rnell1bers have therefore been added to the congregation; they are fromsapha Dhorom. Two others are under instruction for baptism. But conditions can very likely not be otherwise as long as there is strife between several in the Christian flock. In the middle of the year there was a.day of settlement and many things were righted, but new n1atters, which spread bitterness round about, kept constantly coming up until the close of the year. Howet;er before the year ended the whole matter had been settled and we 'could face the new year with renewed hopes. In places the Word is received with joy, and when the day dawns that the people of the congregation recognize their missionary responsibility we may entertain the hope of a harvest. The young people of Amgachi congregation met gladly for instruction for confirmation, and the school attendance here in Dhorompur has been fairly good, as well as that of the women's meetings. Our wish is: "May God rna ke all things new!" P. R. PEDERSEN. DUMKA DISTRICT. Andreas pastor has now worked here since 1924 and throughly knows the locality. He states that the Christians who come to this church are from 17 villages, totalling 52 families. Of the 232 souls 77 have been admitted to the Lord's table.

26 The pastor is assisted by one elder, Raska, and two Biblewomen, and they have seen fruit of their work this year also, 16 having been baptized from the "bonga" worship. Eight children of Chri!:!tian parents have also been baptized. Ranga village, west of the Mar River, has an old Christian community of 15 families. N onda is the leader there; but for anum ber of years this community has not been able to win souls for Christ. The hopeful signs mentioned in last year's report have not matured. Across country we go about 5 miles to the east of Dumka to reach Dum, where Simon and Aeno are stationed. The Christian community now totals 214 in 13 villages. This last year they have also added 5 to the flock, and ) children of Christians have been baptized. At Dumka, Chukapani and Dum L. P. schools with fairly good attendance have been maintained even after the crisis. At Ranga there is a Government school with a Christian_ master. INGRID & JOHANNES GAUSDAL. 19 DUMKA BENGALI WORK. Though Dumka is a very small town it has the ability to draw together people from many quarters. When we use the word 'Bengali' for this community which gathers at Dangalpara, it is not because the 51 persons belonging to it are Bengalis but beca use they use this language for their worship. Most of them know some Santali as well. Besides Dhononjoy pastor one elder, Da.niel, has been working in thi~ place. He was, however, claimed by the

27 20 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTaERNCHURCHES. Benagaria Hospital for work among the patients there, and in the month of December transferred to that place. J. GAUSDAL. KOROYA: KOROYA MISSION & ORPHANAGE. The year 1940 commenced with the election of our.new pastor Mansing Tudu, who had been serving in Majdiha since The work has been carried on by him, one evangelist and two Biblewomen. It has been a difficult year in many ways, as there has been some opposition to the pastor's election. But God, who is faithful, has been working in their hearts, so that before the year ended full understanding aiid fellowship wa.s restored. Nine have been baptised from among the heathen. Orpkanage : In the orphanage there are at present 22 children. Two girls, one of them a widow, have been married and one girl is continuing her nurses' training. One girl passed her M. E. examination this year. The boy who passed his M. E. last year, is now going to begin teachers' training. Sckool: The children's health has been very good. The teaching filtaff has been reduced to 4 because of of.the war condition. Of the enrollment of 78, the average a.ttendance has been 59. Two passed their U. P. examination. MAJDIHA: After the pastor left for Koroya in February the work,. since May, has been carried on by the three :evan.:gelis1is a.nd only one teacher.

28 <" SEVENTY -FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. The new Church was. dedicated in May. We are so thankful for this nice,new Church, but as we have no pastor there now it has been difficult to carryon the Sunday services. We are praying that.. God will send us the right man to take charge of the work up there. One has been baptised from among the heathen. In closing I want to thank all who have been our faithful helpers both with gifts and in prayer. LAURA LOHNE. MAHARO DISTRICT. At the close of this year, 1940, we are full of thanksgiving to the Lord and to the friends who have made it possible for us to carryon the work in spite of the war and the isolation from two of our home countries- The work here at Maharo has therefore gone on as usual by the same workers, namely, Pastor Ruben Murmu and Pastor J ohon M urm u and their helpers, besides two Biblewomen. At Jalwae they had the joy this year of baptizing a family, a widow with her five children and her brother who stays with them. They are not poor people, so we hope that they really desire to be Christians. There is now hope for one more family in that village. Our Biblewoman here at Ma haro is again alone in her work, but I am glad to say that the pastor's wife has been helping her sometimes. She even accompanied us out camping once, for which N oha is not strong enough. She then looks after the work around here while we are out. Two yeung,girls from Babupara were baptized. We have the hope that some young people from their village will come this year also. The camping trips out in.the district are happy recurring events every cold season. Most.of the workers

29 22 THE S.ANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN OHUROHES. enjoy coming out though it entails some hardships, w.alking from village to village 5-6 or 7 hours every day. And in the evenings village people often come to our camp to listen to the singing and music for hours We continued the weekly meetings in different villages for the Christians except when people were in the fields. Also the monthly rice-offering meetings here, and a weekly Bible class for workers in the compound. Our Sunday School has grown. We have now the classes with about 70 children. But we need so much an awakening in the congregation I May that come in the coming year! DINA NIELSEN. MAHARO GIRL'S SCHOOL. The year 1940 will forever rel-pain in our memory as perhaps the hardest year we have ever lived through. But when we now look back we also see the faithfulness of God. He did not forsake us, and He gave us strength to carryon from day to day. The help and sympathy from our co-workers in the school was also a great help and encouragement. We started the year with 197 girls in the M. E. school and 22 girls in the training Class. We were afraid that owing to the great cut in all salaries many of our workers would not be able to send their girls back after the summer holiday, and so it proved to be. But we were glad that we could welcome back 152 girls. In the Training Class the number of students remained 22 the whole year. We felt it right to close the Practical Class and divide the girls around in other classes where they could fit in. One of our senior trained teachers (from another

30 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 23 mission) did not return after summer holiday, but with one of the teachers from the Practical Class we managed to carryon. Our Santal nurse left us and the other teacher from the Practical Class became Mrs. Nielsen's helper with the sick girls. There was considerable illness for a time, but we have had only one serious case. One of the 7th class girls developed brain malaria but she recovered and was able to pass the M., E. examination in N ovem ber. Mr. Carr and Mr. Das of the Ohildren Special Service Mission visited us during the year and brought help and encouragement to us all. We have continued our Sunday morning prayer meeting and have also sometimes had meetings for the girls in the afternoon or in the evening. We have had our teachers' Bible reading every Thursday afternoon. It was a great joy to prepare 22 girls for confirmation. They were confirmed on the 9th November and it was a blesed day for us all. The conduct of the girls has been very good during the past year. On account of the difficult financial situation we had to let most of the "housemothers" go and the girls haye managed their homes alone after the summer holiday. The result has been better than we dared to believe. In November we had a 'mela' to collect money for the Bihar War Fund. In all we were able to send Rs. 150/ to the fund. Eleven girls appeared at the M. E. examination in November. We first heard that all the girls had passed, but afterwards we received information that one had fa.iled. A s she was one of the best girls in the class we have made enquiry regarding her, but have not yet received anr re~ly,

31 24 THE SANTAL MISSION"OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Sixteen girls sat for the Junior Training Certificate examination but we have not yet received any information regarding the result. Mrs. Nielsen has supervised the homes and looked after the sick girls as in former years. We both feel thankful to all our fellow-workers in the school for their help and sympathy, and also to all friends in our homelands whom we know have remembered us in prayer as perhaps never before. It has been a great help to hear how our frjends here have remembered the people at home in their prayers. And God will answer in His own time. NANCY DIESEN. MOHULPAHARI & KARIKADOR. At about the middle of March when Miss Buttedahl went home on furlough Miss Diesen left us to take charge of the Girl~' School at Maharo. Just previous to her leaving a course of instruction for workers from several districts was held here. The purpose was to ma.ke people familiar with Dr. La.ubach's reading method. Miss Diesen herself has taught several to read by that method and it is a real joy to see how they now can read the Bible and the Hymn Book. In the latter part of March Miss Lowe returned from Denmark and took Miss Diesen's place. She a.nd Miss Lohne held a. Bible Course in April for the wives of pastors, teacllers and evangelists. It was very well attended and we believe it was of help to some. Likewise also this yea.r in May we held a. Bible course for Biblewomen and others interested. It was good to see so many day by day absorb~d in the study of God's Word. Practically. all could

32 SEVENTY.FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 25 read. But our thoughts go out to the many in our congregations who cannot read... they are even more in need of help. Miss Lowe's stay with us here in the district, however, became of short duration. She left us in August to take, up work in Chandkhuri Leper Home and Hospital in Central Provinces. She is missed in the district work. Our pastor and the eva.ngelists here and in Karikador, besides the teachers, compounders and Biblewomen took their salary cuts with understanding, and ha va continued in the work as before. It was a great encouragement to them to take part in a Bible study course at Benagaria in September together with workers from Tilabani, Basetkundi and Benagaria districts. At the same time we had a group of girls gathered here at the station, and twelve of these were confirmed in October. The attendance in the schools has been good, and we have the impression that through our schools the Gospel is brought to many heathen homes. It was an encouragement for both the teachers and the pupils that one of our boys in the 5th class received a scholarship. This means Rs. 4/- per month for two years, which will help him through the Middle School. It was also a joy to our congregation that the large meeting for women was held here in October. It is of great significance to meet in fellowship with Christians from other districts. Karikador has again this year been a difficult field of work and is particularly in need of intercession. EDLE SIGURDSEN.

33 26 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE 'NORTHERN CHUROHES. TILABANI DISTRICT. The tasks that have appeared and also have 'challenged us during our first year here have been interesting, though not always easy. In response to the challenge to teach, guide and inspire the workers we have earnestly tried. One realizes a tremendous need for this type work, and more systematically and intensively performed than we have been able to do this year. Our shortcomings at this point are very humiliating. CONGREGATIONAL WORK. The area round about Tilabani and south is still hard and dry land" though we should not loose hope that a change might come. The prophet Jeremiah gives us a word froid the Lord that contains wise and practical advice, "Break up your fallow-field and sow not among thorns". We realize that one great task for the new year is to concentrate upon further cultivation towards the east at Hirapur (nearest Birbhum frontier). The thorny field hereabout will still have our attention, and by continuous effort the work will bear fruit. But the main area of 'fallow-land' towards -the east is one with fertile soil and has already shown fruit. Our main effort has for some time been and shall by God's grace continue to be concentrated there. We now see hope of having a new centre at this place. There is already a small congregation thete and services are held every Sunday, with a number of heathens attending. At Christmas two people were baptized and some families are a pproaching, as far as we can judge.at present. At the three outstations~' Sarsa, Lotabani and Bagjobda been no visible result at all this year. ther~ha~ The Elders are now three in number, one having been dismissed. Instead of the pastor who was transferred to Saldoha there is anew one a ppointed and exp'ected here some time ill January.

34 SE'~ENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. As was the cu$tom previously the Elders have attended the weekly workers' meeting and last September they participated in a 2 weeks' Bible course at Benagaria. ~ The Womell's work has been carried out by Memsahel> together with the teacher's wife. For the weekly meetings the Chri~tian women have gathered in their own homes in the villages near here. From the whole district they have gathered for monthly meetings. Both have been fairly attended. A confirmation class for girls was finished before Christmas. EDUCATIONAL WORK: Regarding the schools we feel much encouragement. There is a growing response. And we feel ha.ppy about this work as it no doubt is a great means towards con.. gregational uplift-which is an obvious need in Tilabani district. But it demands much control and a regular gathering of the teachers for their personal inspiration and encouragement. They have attended their special meeting once a mf'nth, and a teachers' course was held here the week before Christmas. We hope that the Teachers' Refresher Course at Kaerabani may start again next year. The teaching staff now numbers seven, 4 in the district schools and 3 in the compound school. In two of the schools the teachers' wives are helping in the work. Execept for one of the district schools the average attend.. ance is really good. The compound school is not yet satisfactory. There has been made some effort towards an Adult Literacy Campaign. Two of the elders joined the course for this purpose oonducted by Miss Diesen at Mohulpahari in April. They both started at their outstations but no result was shown, as we failed to check them constantly. Still the Memsa.heb ha.s ha.d some success with the women; Borne of them have made very good progress.

35 We recongnize this method as a real means of help in the work of evangelisation and hope to be able to give more time and" energy to it. We are very thankful to the mission friends for their great example of courage shown us during this year. ASTRID & HALFDAN KIPPENES. OONDORPURA DISTRICT. Naturally the workers have been left much alone in the district work as I have been fully occupied in the Divinity school. But as far as I have been able to supervise the work I think I am justified in saying that they on the whole ha.ve done faithful work, even if the statistical result seems to be less than the previous years. We have been spared any special disappointments on the part of the workers or the Christians, but we f~el very strongly the need of a spiritual awakening in our congregations. The old passive resistance in the non Christian community is still there, but the good seed has been sown, and also this year a few have been added to the flock of believers. Seventeen non-christians and 34 children of Christian parents have been baptised. The Congregational Council has met quarterly a.nd it has been encouraging to notice the growing willingness of the lay members to take a leading pa.rt in thea.ffa.irs of the congregations and share the responsibiijty with the paid workers. The visits of both Re\t. Rosenlund and Rev. Gausdal have been much appreciated by the workers and the village Christians who gladly have gathered to -discuss the problems of the day and listen to their messages.

36 SltVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 29 Due to'the crisis we have made some rearrangements in the work. The teachers, Paul Murmu and Ramchoron Murmu, were advised to retire temporarily and they were on the worker's list only up to June. Singrai Murmu was moved to Chirapathor to become station leader there, and Joseph M urm u took his place at Tarni to assist pastor Tika Murmu. The teacher,,john Hasdak', is helping pastor Chaku Tudu with the Sunday services at Ranga and K uschira. At to the statistical returns it may be noted that there is a slight decrease from last year almost in all columns. I don't think that there is any special reason for that, except that it might be that the workers have had to do the work more of their own accord. The total number of Christians is found to be considerably less than reported last year. As indicated then, the explanation is simply, ar far as I have been able to trace, that some Christians have from time to time fallen back, some have temporarily or permanently moved away and a few have become Roman catholics, without this having been put on record. According to a careful counting in December the total number of baptised Lutherans in the district was The daily average attendance in the five L. P. schools has been 85, a decrease of 30 from last year, which probably is due to the reduced number of teachers. The annual examination wa.s held in Chondorpura in Dec. The result showed that both teachers and pupils had been doing their work fairly well, but much more might have been done. One encouraging thing may be noted from the statistical returns, and that is, that in spite of decrease a.ll along,the ohurch oolleotions have not only been kept up, but have be,en increased a trifle. It shows that the feeling of responsibility is growitlg with the difficulties. In December a mela was held for the first time" llerejt

37 30 THE SANTAL MisSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Some 500 gathered from all parts of the district, the women of the Divinity school and from the villages having been busy preparing :articles for sale, and the students of the Divinity school taking a leading part in the programme, the result was very satisfactory. The Lord told once a bout a fire 'he was going to kindle on earth. If only we had more of that fire, then we should see geater things happen. May that be so! A. E. STRONSTAD. THE DIVINITY SCHOOL. The school opened in January with the same 14 students who completed the first half year, but one (Bbola Hembrom) had to leave the school on account of illness, He went home to Assam in Oct., and we regret very much that he had to discontinue his studies, as he was a promising young man who made good progress during his short stay at the school. The pastor, Kalu Kisku, has shared the work with me. I ca.n't but feel that he is the right man for the great task. During the two terms of the year we ha ve gone through the rest of A. Thu's book on Introduction to The New Testament, The Acts of the Apostles from chapter 5, a.nd studied the life and work of St. Paul. We have also gone through European Church History in outline from the 2nd. century up to the modern time. Our Acting Secretary, Rev. Gausdal, has very kindly given a series of lectures on the history of Christianity in India.. In the Old Testament we have oompleted the History -of Isra.el from the time of Solomon, with special attention to the life a.nd writings of the prophets,' and the Religion

38 SF,VENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 31 of the Old Testament. Of other religionr we have studied the Traditions and Institutions of the Santals and Hinduism. During the first term we visited the villages near by once a week, preaching the Gospel and singing hymns, and during the second term instruction has been given in homiletics, mainly based on Macnair's "Village Preaching"'. The ~tudents have also in turn helped with the Sunday services round in the district. There has also been given instruction in English and Singing, and four of the students ba ve had to carryon with Copy-writing part of the year. The daily devotions and weekly prayer- meetingha ve been conducted by the students as previously, this year also the students have in turn been teaching Bible Stories and song at the Katikund M. E. School, where nearly all the boys-christians as well as non-christians-have. attended. Five times a week Mrs. Stronstad and Kalu pastor's wife have been teaching the wives of the students, Reading, Writing, Elementary Arithmetic, Bible Stories, Catechism, Singing and Sewing. The annual examination was held in Nov. and Dec., and the result may be said to be satisfactory as all the students passed. The Acting Secretary of Our Mission, Rev. Gausdal, visited us and acted as Censor. Of other visitors throughout the year I may mention Mr. Carr of C. S. S. M. His talk, with demonstration on work among children and young folk. and his lantern lecture were all just like a refreshing breeze from above. Our Secretary, Rev. Rosenlund, visited us twice during the first term, and gave two interesting lectures on "Resurrection" and "Personal assurance in the Christian faith". Rev~; Kampp stayed here for two days and gave 4 lectures on Islam and Hinduism..And the Rev. J. Z. Hodge of N. C. C. paid us a.short visit in February on his wa~ to the Santa,.IChristian Council in Benasaria,

39 32 THE SANTAL MISSION or THE NORTItERN OaUROliES. Instead of camping we all took part both in the S. C. C. in Benagaria and the local convention at Basetkundi in March, and we came back blessed and refreshed. During the first months of the year we were able to get a new bouse built, which has provided suitable rooms for the second teacher and one more family. We are glad to state that both the students and their wives have done their work whole-heartedly, and we have also this' year felt the spirit of Christian fellowship clearly in the school. In closing we want to share with our friends and supporters one little thing. Towards the end of the year the wives of the students brought Rs. 10/- to us and said, "This is for the Lord's work". They had started a. rice collection among themselves in order to do their little part to help in these critical times. It was a great surprise and a joy to us, because we know well that their stipends hardly suffice for their own needs. We took it as a promise for their future work. And so, looking forward, we hope and pray that they all may be taught and used by the Lord to great blessings for many. ALVHILD & A. E. STRONSTAD. SALDOHA LEPER COLONY AND DISTRICT. It is with our hearts full of praise to God that we look back over the past year. For amidst the turbulent events in the world around us He gave us another year of peaceful work amongst our leper friends, with a.mple opportunities to bring to them the gospel of His unfailing love for sinners and His power to fulfill his plan of salva.tion even with the whole world at war. Naturally tbe sudden news '8tbout the inv~sionof OUl"' home coulltries

40 filled Dur hearts and thdse Df Dur felldw-wdrke~s with anxiety fdr the future; and enemies Df the gospel were ndt SIDW to, prdphesy that all missidnaries wduld leav(i) and all Indian Christians wduld have to, ac.company them.. But Dur steady carrying Dn and, in SDme respects, enlargement Df Dur wdrk SDDn put a stdp to, idle rumors. It was with a sad heart that in order to adjust our economy to to, the crisis, we had to cut down the salaries of our faithfull fellow-wdrkers and also a slight cut in the diet of Dur patients. But they have all taken it splendidly, and often have they shown real concern for and. prayed for their fellow-christians in Europe and other troubled parts of the world. During the year 490 lepers were treated as inmates in the cdlony and 317 as out-door patients partly at the cdlony and partly at our leprosy clinic at Baromasia. Increased accomodation was provided for in the colony through the opening in March of Dur new hospital with 20 beds and a new women's ward for 12 patients, con. structed entirely by the -lepers themselves. Thirteen patients were discharged symptom-free and some improved cases were sent home to give rof)ll1 for new infectious applicants. Besides the ordinary routine work -in the hospitals a certain amount of experimental work has been carried out in the treatment of trophic ulcers and with a new treatment for hookworms, from which 90% of new patients. are suffering. A hduse-to-hduse survey was carried 9ut by the hospital staff in 28 villages of the nearby district. The patients were as usual employed in workshops and in farming, To meet the difficulties arising from the unusual rise in food rates a special effort was made by the patients to increase the area of paddy-land. For the Rame reason a partial diet of maize was introduced with no, apparent detrimental effect in their health, E;

41 34 THE SAN"TAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Turning, then, to the spiritual work it is with deep sorrow we have to report the passing away of our faithful pastor and fellow-worker, Mondol Murmu, who died from typhoid in August. When the work at Saldoha had just been started and helpers were difficult to obtain Mondol just out of Bible school volunteered to help serving the lepers and did so whole-heartedly to his last day. By all who heard him he will be remembered as a happy servant of God and a fearless preacher on His judgment over sin and His grace for a repentant sinner. He is succeeded by Karan pastor, who had already helped him at Saldoha as an elder some years back. At M usnia Bhim has carried on his pioneer work in an area, where the Hinduistic "Sadhu" movement has taken root amongst the Santals, and he has seen some fruit of his work. In the colony and district 25 were baptised from heathen and 4 children of Christians. V. BAGGER, BASETKUNDI DISTRICT. The work in Basetkundi District does not tell of any outstanding events in the year past. Pastors, elders and teachers have gone about their work much in the same way as before. To a certain extent the work has been hampered on account of the difficulty that befell the greater part of the people in Sultan'abad due to the capriciousness of the monsoon rain. In many places they did not get sufficient water even for the low-lying paddy fields, and the country-side has been con8picuo~s in its dry and barren emptiness.

42 SEVENTY -FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT~ Most of the Santals live from hand to mouth and evep in ordinary years eke out a living with considerable difficulty, so when the rains fail, they are entirely left in the lurch. The cash they used to get from their usurpers, the moneylenders, to tide over this season immediately stopped and as they were refused advances, a lot of the people had to look solnewhere else for the necessities of life. Hundreds, both Christians and non-christians, have gone to adjacent districts of Bengal. Some _people under instruction for baptism also left, so the number baptised is not as high as last year. 32 from the 'heathen have joined the Christian community, and these are fairly evenly divided between the different congregations. With three pastors working we have been better staffed this year. One elder, Bajo Murmu, who has been working for many years, died this rainy season. The elders and pastors met with the Nankar, Tilabani Mohulpahari workers for a two weeks' Bible course, and, I think, there can be no two opinions as to the pertinence of the enterprise. We had a very profitable time together. If this could he a yearly undertaking with lecture courses continued from year to year on the same or related subjects it would, in my opinion, be very much worth while. The village teachers have carried out their daily duties in the schools as in previous years. One new school has been opened in Rajpakur, and in June the School at Patpahari was closed down, due to the waning interest of the villagers. The plans intimated in last years' report, to start a. U. P. school at Basetkundi, had to be discarded for the time being, owing to the financial stringency imposed upon the Mission by the sudden and unexpected invasion of

43 36 THE SANrAL MISSION OF THE NORrHERN CHURCHES. our homeland~. One teacher was discharged and work on the new schoolhouse limited to the absolute necessary. In this connection it may be mentioned that the bungalow at Basetkundi was re-roofed during the hot season. This work was overdue, having been budgeted for in 1938, but had been kept in suspense, pending someone to reside in the station. The work was undertaken by the Benagaria Industrial School boys, who with their teachers stayed at Basetkundi for a couple of months, and did a good job. * * What the future has in ~tore for us we do not know. Many times in the year past the outlook has been rather gloomy, and the days fraught with forebodings, but He who is with his people all the time was found to be "a very present help in trouble". JOH. JOHAN~EN. The news to be found in our annual reports for the last two decades about our paper "Pera Hor" is indeed very scant. Except the casual mentioning of it in the Press report, scarcely anything has been recorded. It might therefore be pertinent to give certain facts also about this branch of our Mission activities, and to put on record that Pera Hor is still alive, yes, very much alive at that. The pioneers had an open eye to the value of the printed word in spreading the Gospel and building up a Christian community. As far back as 1890 a monthly paper called "Hor -Hoponren Pera" appeared amongst the

44 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 37 Santals, and was for many years a factor in building up the,. infant church. Unfortunately, owing to pressure of work, the publication was di'3continued in It was, however, resuscitated in 1920 under the name of "Pera Hor", and has since that year come regularly. In 1934 it was made a bi-weekly paper, and in 1940 it became the official organ of the the Santal Christian Council. To make people cognisant of the rapid development of this work, it may not be out of place to mention that in 1931 the subscriptions amounted to about Rs. 200/-, and this year it has come to Rs. 1,000/- roughly. This means that the number of subscribers has been' doubled many times in the last decade. The subsidy from the Mission has been Rs. 400{- throughout. Thus Pera Hor is 72% self-supporting, an unusual figure for any Mission work amongst Santals. It may also be of interest to some that the paper goes into four provinces, (stray copies to places in South India and Europe), and has at present more than 1800 subscribers. An impression of 2000 has been decided on for 1941, as quite a few new subscribers use to come in at the beginning of a new year. Pera Hor winds its way to Santals everywhere, even to the remotest places. To the border of China in Upper Assam it brings its message, and the teagarden coolies of Jalpaiguri and Assam give it an increasing welcome. Even non-christians do not refrain from subscribing, and to receive a letter requesting one to send the paper to a certain address, and this signature underneath: "I a111 your non-christian brother", brings home to one anew the conviction that Pera Hor may become a silent witness for truth round about in the heathen villages of four Indian provinces.

45 38 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. To implement this, Pera Hor should be made a weekly paper. What the non-ohristians and even Christians primarily ask for is, of course, news, both provincial and world news, and as a newspaper, Pera Hor cannot in its present state fulfill its mission. To make Pera Hor the paper of the Santals should be our future goal. Much more could and should be done to improve the paper. Nobody is more keenly aware of this than the editor, but even in its present state, it is my firm conviction that it serves a yery useful purpose. It is customary to count five readers to every newspaper. This gives Pera Hor an audience of more than 8000 people each fortnight. After all, who else can boast of such a hearing? The printed word had a great place in the labour of our pioneers in this Mission. The continued espousal of this cause should be the pride of a Mission with such antecessors. BENAGARIA DISTRICT. We thought we had realized to a certain extent earlier, too, what war means. But the sudden invasion of Norway and Denmark brought it home to us with new force and nearly dumfounded us for a while. What would happen to our dear ones? Our homes? What about the work here on the field without support from home? What would our own future be like?

46 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 39 Now, as we look back upon the year, we say with grateful hearts, "Eben-ezer, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 Sam. 7, 12), and we continue to remember this name given to the station by the pioneers. One-third cut in all the expenses, salaries included, was, of course, a hard stroke, both for the work and the workers. But on the whole the effect has not been as bad as might' have been expected. Our workers, all of them with low salaries before, have accepted the reduced pay in good spirit and with very little complaint, although it has become still harder to find the wherewithal of existence for all of them. The 100th Anniversary of Rev. L. O. SkreL;;rud's birth was celebrated on the 4th of February. Many Christians from the outstations had accepted the invitation and joined the congregation at Ebenezer where we had a festival' day with many Christians present that Sunday. CONGREGATIONAL WORK. We have no grea t progress to report. On the contrary the work has seemed hard in many places. Not that we have noticed any new or special resistance to the Gospel, but rather a general indifference to the Word of God and preoccupation in hearts and thoughts with the things of this world. "Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up, and choked them." On the other hand we are thankful for the freedonl and privilege of proclaiming the "Good Tidings" in any village near and far, of having regular Sunday gatherings in ten places for Christians and non-christians around the same "Good Tidings", to tell in our schools to a great number of girls and boys about our best friend, J esul',

47 40. THE S.ANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. The old outstation, Matiajuri, has given us some encouragement. The work had waned. for a long time and the Christians seem,ed lost. During the year regular Sunday services have started, attended by some families who have "come back". A small school has a)so been begun. A Bible-course for workers from the districts of Basetkundi, Mohulpahari, Tilabani and Benagaria which gathered at Benagaria for some two weeks in September was very much appreciated and made us all wish to repeat and extend it next year. Some special meetings and Bible readings for women, extending for nearly three weeks was very encouraging and showed sign of some spiritual awakening among Christians. We WIsh and pray for more of it. The staff has had a few changes. Pastor Baijal Hasdak' of Gamharpahari has retired on pension. as far as his salary is concerned. But he continues as before in his 'work, for which we are very thankful as his Christian work and personality mean a great deal for the Gamharpahari congregation. Kerap Hembrom, elder at Jithia, has retired on pension. He, too, continues nearly as before as an elder. To reduce expenses and hoping to develop voluntary work among women, salaries for Biblewomen have been discontinued with the exception of two or three who need their little amount to escape starvation. The staff and congregations at present are as follows :- I

48 SF.VENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 4:1 No.ot Station Workers Christians BA PTISMS Child. of No.lJ,- Christ. Christians. Belbuni Khela Kisku Beldanga Past. Sodanondo Baskey Durga Hembrom Benagaria: Past. Mongol Hem brom Buru-Amcua Taken care of by Benagria workers Dimbadoha Anta Murmu Gamharpahari; Past. B~ijal Hasdak' Premanondo Baskey Itor Lutu Tudu & Jadu Hasdak' Jithia Joseph Murmu & Mongol Hembrom Narayanpur Munshi Hembrom Sapadoha: Pastor Lodo Soren sta.tions: 13 workers U. P. SCHOOLS. For the sake of an experililent and especially for the purpose of reducing expenses the U. P. Schools for Boys and Girls have been united since the reduced budget came into force. Combining the classes made it possible to reduce the number of teachers to six, about half the number of the previous staff. The result so far has been good. At the annual examination 158 appeared and 105 passed. VILLAGE SCHOOLS. Lack of funds made us reduce the number of teachers at Sapadoha from three to two. In other places, too, some changes have been made on account of the difficult financial situation. We hope the Government will take care of some of the village schools in the near future. As a great number of people, on account of the fa.ilure F

49 42 THE SA.NTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCn:mS. of crops, go out to other areas to find work, some of our village schools have been nearly emptied. At present there are: 12 village schools with 14 teachers and 256 pupils enrolled. THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. The contribution from the Mission towards the Industrial school was reduced Rs j- (from Rs. 2800/- annualy to Ra. 1633/-) this year. The number of students was not reduced, though this may have to be done in the new year. Many young men are coming during the year asking for admittance. We tender our thanks to Government for grants received for the schools. THE PRINTING PRESS: The outlook was rather dark for a while when the war news came from Scandinavia. But the situation has changed for the better. We had many orders from other Mission societies. Besides this our own Mission has been able to continue some printings. For the last months we have had more work than we were able to finish and the accounts were closed with a good balance at the end of the year. The Manager, Mr. K. R. Ghose, gives the following statement:- "Besides the regular issues of the periodicals, "PE~A H9~" in Santali, with the special Christmas number in December, and "Bongo-Bondhu" in Bengali, the following books ect. were printed in whole or in part: For tke Mission. Completion of the reprinting of Seren Puthi Baha Dalwak' Girj a. Dhara Baibel Biboron 2,000 copies. 1,000,. 1,000 tt 4,000 "

50 Printing in whole of Chandra Lela Apostol Kami Puthi Panji for 1941 Girja Dhara in Boroni Bancaok' reak' katha 43 1,000 " New work 1,000 " Reprint 2,200 " 500 " 5,000 " Tract For tke Joint Literature Board Tam baram Puthi... Lesson Sheets (Adult Reading) Beacon Primer Part I Akil Dahar "II... For Otkers Thado Kuki Gospel of Luke Mikir Romans-Corinthiaus C. M. S. Panji for " 5,000 " Reprint 1,000",. 3,000 " In progress 500 " 1,000 " 1,400 " Besides the above a number of small books and pamphlets and annual reports for the Mission and for others has been printed during the year. We were also fortunate in receiving an order for printing of a small part of the Census literature for Bihar for which our thanks are due to Mr. W. G. Archer, 1. C. S., the Census Superintendent of Bihar." BOOK-SALES DEPT. We are happy to be able to report that in spite of the difficult situation with funds it has been possible for the Mission to give its usua.l grant of Rs. 1,000/- to the Literature Committee. This ena.bled us to contineu with the printing and publication of books. Besides the reprinting of some of the older ones, three new publications. "Haridasi", "Baha Dalwak' & "Chandra Lela," were added ~o the stock of books during the year. The sale proceeds of the yea.r which amounted to Rs. 1620/- (Increase of over Rs. 100/- from bst year) shows that the Book-Sales Dept. has continued to progress in its miss ion of supplying the needed Christian literature for our paople. A contri-

51 44.;.:; THE SANTAL MISsioN OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. bution of Rs. 50/- was also given to the Joint Literature BQ&.rd from our funds. ZEMINDAR. The collection of rents and other works in connection with the Zemindary has proc eded well..-the statement of income ani exenditure will be found in the Accounts Appendices under the heading, "Indian Home Mission Zemindary Estate. In closing we send our greetings and cordial thanks to those who have been with us in prayer and supplications with thanksgiving. We trust you will continue with us in the new year. LOLLY & K. TROMBORG. BENAGARIA CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL. The calamity which overtook Norway and Denmark on April 9, 1940, the results of which were felt so strongly out here, also affected the hospital work to a great extent. Because of the cut in salary about one half of the compounders took their leave. Fortunately most of the older compounders remained, so the work was kept going, especially as we took in new students for training to fill the places of those who left. It has been most difficult to keep up the work in the opera.ting room as most of our workers in that department took their leave and the special training required there cannot be finished in a short time. But with the help of Miss Krohn and Mrs. Ostergaard that branch of work has also been kept open. A bout this time Dr. Banerjee left the Benagaria Hospital to ta.ke up private practice in Rampur Hat. Dr. Banerjee had been here for 21 years and had won for himself a large circle of friends as well as an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon. That this repu'l tation has been justified is shown by the large number

52 of patients which have sought his advice and skill since he has moved to Rampur Hat. We extend to him our sincere wishes for continued success in the work there' and we also desire to express our heartfelt thanks for faithful service rendered here in Benagaria, as well as our thanks to him and his family for many years of friendship and plea~ant association. It happened that our hill leave came at about the time that all this occurred, and as a consequence I was away from the work for six weeks. So the rumor went about that I had gone back to America, or even that I had been interned, and that the hospital had been closed down. Later on, patients even came and said that they had hard that the hospital had been taken by the Germans. In any case, the result was that for some months the number of patients decreased considerably..as time went on and it be came known that the work was being kept going the patients started to come again, until now the number is about up to the old level. Sta.tistics for the year are as follows: In-patients 1,112 Out-patients 25,015 Opera tions : Major: 372 Minor: 1,178 Confinements: Normal 40 Abnormal 13 Total 1550 Total 53 The crop failure in this part of the country, which ranges in severity from no crop at all in some places to about of a normal yield around Benagaria, will undoubtedly cause much suffering. We expect a great decrease in income from patients' fees because they will be unable to pay, and we shall also have to give food to a much la.rger number of patients in order to enable them to stay at the hospital. At the same time the price of

53 46 THE SANTAL MissioN OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. medicines has increased enormously, so it will mean that the budget will have to be stretched as far as possible in order to make both ends meet. This past year we have had no Santali evangelist working among the patients. The work has been partially taken care of by some of the compounders, especially Nimbai, but the need for a full time worker is keenly felt. The Bengali work has been carried on a~ before by.at~l Babu. Here, however, a change is to be made at the beginning of the year, as Atul Babu with his family will move to Nalhati tc'l take up the work there. We extend to them our heartfelt thanks for their work here and for plea~ant associations during these past years and wish them success and happiness in their new sphere of work. Daniel Babu, with his family, has already come to take up the work here. We extend to them our welcome. We wish to express our thanks to the District Committee, Santal Parganas for the gift of 10 pounds of quinine sulphate, as well as to the Govermeht- for the dona.tion of two Fowler position beds received the past year. Above all we want to express our sincere thanks to God, who has so wenderfully provided so that the work has not had to be curtailed, in spite of the dark clouds of foreboding which looked so threathening for a time. He will also help in the coming years. We also extend our thanks to friends at Home who have been with us in their prayers and with their gifts, thus enabling us to keep the work going. E. OSTERGAARD. P. S. Since this was written we have received a grant of Rs 2,500/- to the hospital from Goverment. We thank them sincerely for the' gift. E. O.

54 Work in BENGAL

55 48 'rhe SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. NARAINPUR BENGALI WORK. "I will lift ttp mitze eyes U1Zto the hills, /room wllence cometk my help, My help cometh from the Lord, which ',Iade lzeave11 and eartlt" PSt 127, 1-2. Also this year we have been in the Lord's hand and He has sent the necessary help in due time. During our Bible conrse in the hot season, He touched the hearts of the people in a way I have never seen in India before. The conventions in Suri, Benagaria and Saldoha have also been helpful to many of us. It struck me what one of the Bengalis said when facing the future of our Mission and Church: "What we need now is Revival". One of the fruits of this a. wakening has been more unity among our Christians and more co-operation with other Christians. Thus the old independent Church in Suri has been gladly received as an affiliated Church. The movement among Mahlis and other more or less Hinduized aborigines is progressing satisfactorily. In Latakandor the new Christians have already built their own Church and in Mohulbona a village school has been opened. N una Mahali has passed the first junior exa mination and gone to Karudi to instruct new Christians and inquirers. Dudhnath Prasad has been transferred to Talwa where, too, the work is promising. Two of our workers, Bosonto Kumar Dutta and John Jatadhari Das, have been ordained as pastors. They have already more than enough work to do in our vast district. We are sorry to say that one of our helper!'! in the work h~s hf\.d to be dismissed because of misconduct.

56 S~VENTY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT~ 49 The baptisms of the year are as follows:- COtJ.gregations From Heatken Ckildren of Ckristians Muraroi 3 Nalhati 7 1 Rampurhat... 4 Narainpur Benagaria 1 Asanbani 20 1 Saldoha 6 1 Total It may also be mentioned that 3 Roman Catholics have become Protestants, and 7 persons, who had been converted many years ago, have been received back in the church. THE BOARDING SCHOOL The Girls' School has been carried on with an increas 'ing number of girls up to the summer vacation, after which not all of them have come back because the crisis of our Mission has compelled us to be more strict in realizing the fees. Our teachers, Miss S. Baroi and Miss A. Biswas, have done the teaching work to everybody's satisfaction. Mrs. Sirkar, who was looking after the boarding and helping in the school, has been taken seriously ill and Mrs. Jha has had to take her place. Consequently, we have no Biblewoman working in the district at present. This has been a grea.t loss to the work among women. S. JOHANSEN. a

57 ,! ~.' - NTNfASA""RAI BENGALI WORX. Lookihg back on 194:0 it feels like a time of trial, and it seems we have not passed the trial very well. When the conn~ction with Denmark a~d N~r~ay'~as cut off and in consequenc~ the wo'rk of the mission severely curtailed, it had the effect of a stunning blow on our Indian workers and on the congregations, Bengalis as well as Santals. Some of the workers we had to dismiss and the others were c~t down by ~ or ~ of their pay. As their salary was in most cases already before less than they needed to live on, they had to find other sources of income in addition to their pay from the mission. And so. they have been able to do.very little besides holding Sunday servic~s and giving a little teaching and advice to those who are already Christians. Still these have felt themselves somewhat deserted and not yet able to stand on their own legs. So there has been little increase this year, only 32 baptisms in all, and half of these children of Christians. Moreover.some have left the Christian congregation. Thus a family of. former Muslims in the south. They were transferred to the Presbyterian Mission at Rajshahi, but instead allowed.themselves to be taken back into Islam. The latest news fro"m them is a letter saying they. want to come back in to the Christian Ohurch with two more families in the same village. The Ghasis baptised near Gajol have fallen into the hands of a "Hindu Mission", which arranges Sunday services for them instead of their Ohristian service. We hope this may last for a time only..,~~ old' pastor, Haru Banjuria, had to be dismissed on account of the most offensive conduct of his sons, which also tended to lead others astray. The new work in English Bazar has failed to show any progress so fa.r. The work among the Santals in North Bengal looked very promising by the beginning of

58 the year and received further impetus wh~n a, missionary was tran~ferred' here to take charge of it by the Conference. But after the 9th April he wa~ again transferred elsewhere, and many other difficulties occurred during the year to hamper the Santali work which again reacted unfavourably on the Bengali work. Much of my time thus had to be spent in trying to assist the Santals. Also tours to Cooch Behar and the Swedish Mission there took some time. During the first half of the year I spent much time in looking after the building of the new station for the lady missionaries at Eklakhi. Still it has to be counted among the encouragements of the year that we were enabled to finish this new stat jon-although in a much curtailed and simplified shape-so far that it is possible to live and work there. Altogether we feel it a great cause for thanksgiving that we are still able to continue our mission work at all in spite of what has happened to our home countries. We have some hope of a more independent spirit in the Church. Thus the Bengali congregations are now making a ~erious effort to provide the salary of their pastor, Moharaj Bhandary, during the coming year. Five new churches were consecrated during 1940 at the following places: Mlanpukur, Dhoromdanga, Mirdhakundi, Ghaksol and Bagdighi. These were either new buildings or rebuilt, the work being done by the Christians themselves. In November we had a "witness week" when several volunteers joined the workers in preaching round about their own villages. In March a successful convention was held at Bordighi, and another at Nimasari in February, which was a joint enterprise of Santals and Bengalis. In October the usual "congregational school" for Bengalis was held at Nimasarai. Afterwards four of our workers joined the school of Islamics held at the Rajshahi mission. H. P. H. KAMfP.

59 52 THE SANTAL MISsioN OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. MALDA BENGALI WOMEN'S WORK. T'here isn't much to be said about the work actually done among the Bengali speaking women in Maida; more could be' said about what ought and can be done. The first half of this year while still in Nimasarai my time was mostly taken up with language study, and as the Bengali Biblewoman wa.s helping Miss N esset in the school the evangelistic work was carried on only occasionally. Since moving to Eklakhi we have tried to concentrate upon village work. We have taken part in the one month's Bible-course at Nimasarai in Sept-Oct., and have been out camping a little. One cannot stay long in MaIda without keenly feeling that here is a field of work with rich opportunities. The work here is, of cour8e, as everywhere else a two sided one; one facing "inwards" towards the Christi~n community, and one facing "outwards" towards the non Christians. The first part of it is to give much needed help, teaching and encouragement to the women who be~r the name of Christ but know so pitiably little about Him. This applies also to some of the preachers' wives. But the eagerness to learn which was shown by those who attended the Bible-course promised well for the future. And we are hoping to do more along this line, especially for the preachers' wives for whom we will try to have a special course. The other part of the work, that of facing outwards towards the non-christians, seems to have great opportunities. We find people everywhere who show a. real interest a.nd willingness to think matters over when confronted with the Gospel. In the work I have had a most willing and untiring helper in Mrs. Phulmoni Mondol, who is a very able and keen evangelistic worker. And it was a great joy to see the willingness with which all the Christians here, Santa Is and Bengalis, men and WOll1 en, grown-ups and chi1dren

60 joined in the one week's evangelistic campaign propoaed by the Bengal Christian Council and which was held in Nov. Some of the men have since then occasionally been out preaching. It is indeed with great thankfulness to God that we look back on the year that is gone, and forwards to the years to come. He has made us His co-workers in this field of His and we pray tha.t He will make us able to use the opportunities given, that His Kingdom may come to all in this district also. 1. MALMSTROM. 53 EKLAKHI GIRLS' SCHOOL. We opened the school at Nimasarai on the 5th of January. The staff then consisted of only two teachers, Sara Murmu (Santal) and Santi Biswas (Bengali). Beside them the Bengali Biblewoman helped in the classes, as Miss Malmstrom was not yet back in the work. As,\ye had only limited place in the boarding, we could not receive all the girls who wanted to come to school. We took 42 boarders, but then the place was very crowded. On the roll we had 52 children, reading in four classes In March we obtained Surendro Kumar Mondol as a teacher instead of the Bengali Biblewoman. He is an elderly Bengali teacher. BesideA the school work he has also been been taking the Bengali Sunday services as we have no Bengali preacher here. The teachers took the cut in their salaries in a very fine spirit. They all decided to work on and share with us our diffiicultiest On the 7th of J'une we moved to our new station Eklakhi and on the 30th we had the dedication. We had

61 54 THE SAN?L MISsio~ OF THE. NORriiE~ C~URCHES. a great crowd of about 300 people, mostly, heathens, on the verandah of the new bungalow. Th~n and ther~ we had a glimpse of our opportunities and a hope for the future which brightened the. gloom cast upon us by the war and the invasion of our home countries, Denm~rk and Norway. After the holiday there we,re 39 children in the boarding, but we had only six day scholars. It has been the worst season with malaria for many years. We have al~o had our share both in the boarding and amongst our helpers. But in spite of malaria, whooping cough and other diffiiculties, we have felt the presence and help of God and the joy in going forward, spreading t_he light of the Gospel. As the year comes to a close we have hopes for the future realization of the aims of our school and evangelistic work. SOFIE NESSET. SANTAL WORK IN NORTH BENGAL. On the plain of North Bengal the San tal work of our mission has grown and extended during the forty years since its beginning in It started in the lfarayanpur village because a stray Christian had taken so much of the living faith with him that he started to i~struct some heathens and asked the missionaries at Benagaria to corne and baptize them. The missionaries sent a Santal pastor to investigate the movement, and in a very special sense this has been the field of the Santal pastors all this time. Many a gain has been won, and many a setback has had to be Buffered.d,uring these forty years; but a total Christian community of nearly 2,500 is no sm~,ll harvest.

62 Tli'~~e :ire "about 50 widely scattered 'village congregations organized under 7 Santal pastors, and crossing the big Ganges river at Godagari the first pastor we reach is at BAD HAIR in the Rajsahi district. His nanie is Budhrai Hasdak'. There have been special difficulties during the past year in his charge due to strife and dissention among the Ohristians. KHORIBARI: Travelling to the north ~e get into the MaIda district, and at Khoribari we find Lopsa Soren as the pastor of the congregations in the Sikarpur area. EKLAKHI: The country west of the Tangan river the Santals call the Pandua forest and in that area we have had a pastor at a place called J otmuni. Last year's report silently omitted his name. This year saw the opening up of the educational work at the new station close to Eklakhi railway station and it was decided that the Santal pastor should be placed there. Joseph Hasdak', a person well known at Kaerabani, was found for this charge, and he was ordained and sent over there. But the family as a whole became discouraged by frequent attacks of fever and at the end of the year he asked to be transferred to Tilabani. OHOKSADULA: Moving further to the north we get into the Dinajpur district. Pastor Mongol Kisku at Choksadula has during the year baptized 29 from the heathen, more than any other of the pastors over there, and there is hope of more coming in that area. RAUTNAGAR: When we get as far north as Rautnagar the Santal population is more sparse than further south. On clear days the Himalaya range is visible, and closer in towards this range the Santals find more work in and around tea gardens. But also here are two congre~a tions. A new

63 56 THE SANTALMiSSl0N OF THl!: NOR'rHERN CHtlRCltltS. postor was ordained for this charge during the year, Madhu Sudon Kisku. PHORIDPUR: Only a few miles south-west from the big Parbatipur railway junction lies a small Santal village called Phoridpur. 'For a num"ber of years the work there was carried on by a pastor named KunjaI. The year under review he was asked to resign because his wife of a second marriage did not follow Christian standard and made it impossible for him to continue as a pastor. Gulu Murmu, the new pastor has not been as settled in his charge as was expected; but he has promh~ed that he will move from his own lands to the place and take the work up in earnest. N.A.RAYANPUR: At this, the first and oldest place, we find this year pastor Simeon Murmu. Jalpa Soren, the founder of this work, is now some years beyond the age limit as laid down in our rules, and though he still is a strong and able man, and at present Vice-ChairmaD of the Santal Christian Council, it was found to be the best to let him retire on pension. Regarding all the Santa I work on the expansive plain of North Bengal it must be said that it is a work of a special type. It is carried on among a poor immigrant population, which has come in small groups and is slowly settling down among all the other tribes and ra.ces. They have up to the present very little land of their OWD, but find the means of existence by tilling the land for others. Life is very hard for many. "We have suffered much from fever and other. ailments", I read in one report, "and nine of our community have gone to sleep in the Lord". But that very short report als:> quotes this well known passage from the Bible: "Though I walk through the valley of the Rha.dow of death, I will fear no evil;. for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". Our misslon llctivity in this tlrell htls seen IlO centr~l

64 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 57 Santa I station erected up to the pres.ent; but it has borne rich fruit as it has been able to impart such a living faith. The annual Conference of the mlssion decided in February 1940 that a missionary should be placed in North Bengal in the Santal work, and Rev. J. Krohn was voted to take up this charge. But H would ultimately mean to build a new station somewhere. The extension of the war to the Scandinavian countries shelved this proposal for the time being, and Rev. Krohn had to step in at Kaerabani. J. GAUSDAL. COOCH-BEHAR. " The 11m vest truly is pjae'lteom but the l~bourers are few.' Matk. 9, 37." During the past year these words of our Lord Jesus have again and again sounded within me. Concerning the evangelistic work we have found that the willingness to listen is great but because we are so few we cannot visit the different places as often as is needed in order to obtain any result. Here in Cooch Behar town we have worked amongst the poor as well as the wellto-do people and everywhere we find open doors for the Gospel. We get to learn the same regarding the work in the villages. In Oc.tober we stayed a week at Mekligunj in the work there amongst the women and were very much encouraged. Perhaps it is a fact worth mentioning that we at Mela time here in Cooch Behar sold more than 500 Gospels. The work amongst the Garos is steadily growing, through mingled encoura.gement and disa.ppointment. The settlement of a Garo-colony has been discussed for a long H

65 58 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. time. The State ha$ now consented to give the Gal'Ol~ land in the neighbourhood of Dinhata. Twent:V:five fatnilies are going to move o... ~er there in the very nea:r future" and we hope for a rapid and satisfactgry extension of the Colony., The High school has had 430 boys on the roll and the fees from the students have amounted to Rs The Headmaster, Mr. N. Banerjee, who joined his post on Jan. 1st 1940, has worked hard and eagerly for the improvement of the school. In this he ha.~ been very successful. To increase the Bible knowledge of our workers we arranged a Bible week in the beginning of November. The leaders were Mr. S. K. Mondol from Calcutta and Rev. H. P. H. Kampp from MaIda. I know that all the workers went home enriched and strengthened in spirit and mind. In Ma.rch Miss Josephson. the Secretary of the Home Board, left for Sweden, giving over the charge of the Mission to the undersigned. We had hoped that Rev. Brandt should be able to come out in October but the way was and is still closed due to the war. During his absence Rev. H. P. H. Kampp renders us valuable help by his supervision of the work. E. PIHLQUIST. The statistics are as followf;: Total Christians 300 BAPTISMS, children 41 Evangelists 8 adultt' 21 Biblewom en 2 Confirmed 5 Married couple 6 H. E. School 1 with 420 students Primary school 7 with 219 pupils Teachers 22

66 Work in ASSAM

67 60 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. SANTAL COLONY. "And of His fulness have all we received, a1zd grace for grace". Our purpose has continued to be to present Christ to the Santals, our desire that they "may know Him and the power of his resurrection." With this aim in view the usual activities have taken place: Regular Sunday services, meetings for prayer and discussion, weekly meetings for the women, monthly meetings with ordained as well as with lay workers, Sunday schools, Confirmation classes and devotions have been conducted. Church attendance has been quite good, and we know there are many earnest and devout Christians in the congregations. It is a matter for regret, however, that in the Colony as a whole the spiritual condition is far from satisfactory. We need revival and new life, and we would ask our friends to join us in praying God that He may bring this about. Rev. M. Landoy was in charge of the work here until after the annual conference held in February. Shortly after our arrival he returned to J oema. Early in January His Excellency, The Governor of Assam, and Lady Reid honoured the people of the Santal Colony by a visit to Grahampur. The thousands of Santals who gathered to greet them will long remember the event. A few changes have taken place in the congregations during the year. Paster Lokhon Hembrom who had been appointed to take Khela Pastor's place at Manjadabri moved to the house which had been built for him near Phaelaodi village. The new place is called Bilanpur. As the old church at Manjadabri was beyond repair, and since access to it had become difficult due to a

68 river changing its course, the people of the congregations, under Lokhon Pastor's leadership. have built a temporary church at Bilanpur. It was dedicated in June. It ir;: hoped that funds for erecting a more substantial and suitable building may soon be available. Pastor Kanhu Tudu has moved to Grahampur, and Pastors Ratia Bora and Kisun Tudu have continued their work at Haraputa and Rantzaupur respectively. Womens' meetings have been conducted in the villages od Friday of each week. Many of the Bible women have been faithful. There are, however, a few villages where it has not been possible to find women capable of leading the meetings. Sunday Schools have been well attended. 107 of olir young people have been confirmed, and large groups are being instructed for confirmation. There are now six village primary ~chools in the Colony. We should have many more. At. Matiajhuri the village people have built a new gchool house this year. In the Boys M. E. School our regular Headmaster has been absent most of the year. Mr. P. Roy of Gauripur served for sev'eral months the first part of the year, and during the latter months Mr. H. S. Chatterjee, also of Gauripur, has been acting Headmaster. There have been no other changes in the staff. We had an enrollment of 168 boys during the first months of the year. Later, due to the necessity of charging additional boarding fees the enrollment decreased to 152. On the whole the progress made has been good. The health of the boys has also been good. Much interest was shown in the Bible Course held here in November. Plans are being nlade for a longer course early in the year

69 62 THE S.A.N'rAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN OaURCHES. The people of the Colony have responded well to Government's appeal for War Funds. Over 800 Rupees have been contributed since August On November 27th Miss Adelaide Alberts and Rev. M. Landoy were united in marriage at Grahampur Church. This was the first "Sabeb" wedding to take place at Grahampur and a large number of the local people and several missionaries from other stations were present to witness the ceremony. We wish the happy couple God's blessing in their borne and in their work. During May we experienced a very severe wind storm which caused much damage to houses and trees in many villages and on the mission stations. A considerable amount of repair work had to be done after the storm. As our friends know, the invasion of Denmark and Norway brought about the necessity of reducing salaries of all mission workers. This has meant real hard ship for many, but the spirit in which they are facing the situation is one of faith an.i courage. Most of our workers have accepted the cut cheerfully and have worked on faithfully. We feel th:1.t through these difficulties we have reaped rich experiences. God has wonderfully provided and His blessings have been bountiful. In bringing this report to a conclusion we want to a.cknowledge HHim" as the giver of all good and perfect gifts; and to all our friends and supporters we extend our hea.rtfelt thanks. O. S. BJERXESTRAND.

70 S1r.VENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 63 HAR.APUTA GiRLS' M. E. SOHOOL. I took over the work in Haraputa School by March 1st after Miss Aasland, who went to Norway on furlough. In spite ot long days and nights of anxiety for my country and my people it has been a happy year of work. It was encouraging to see all the big girls' response to the Scripture teaching and also their interest in the situation and how to make the best olit of it. The children have had to be without many little extras and to do work that the workmen have had been doing for them before. But they have done it all cheerfully, On the roll in the school we had 141, with an a.verage daily attendance of 109. The total number of residents in the boarding was 91. Two girls appeared for the Middle English examination a.nd 5 for the Primary. All passed. The same girls also recei ved their needle work diplomas with honours. We have unfortunately had many changes in the staff this year. Chita M urmu and Balke Marndi left in the first part of the ~chool year to get married. In their place we obtained only one teacher. Miss Maloti Hasdak' from the C. M. S. She is doing very good work and is a great help to us. In February the school obtained a new Bengali head pundit. He did not return after the summer holidays because of the reduction in salary. The Headmaster's wife, Mrs. Baroi, has been kind enough to help us and take the pundit's place. When Chita Kisku also left, we secured the services of an Assa.mese senior tr~in~d teacher, Miss Gogoi.

71 64 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Mando Soren who went to Gauhati for a two years' Nurses' tra.ining course had to come back before the first year was finished because of a weakness in her lungs. She has now sufficiently recovered to be able to do the nurse's work in the school. The health of the children has been quite good. But one of our nicest big girls ~uddenly died from malignant malaria. It happened just one week after her confirmation. The other cases have been ~light attacks of malaria. and dysentery. Beside the school work I have. tried to do some work among the women but I am sorry to say that the visits in the villages have been very few. At the Friday women's meetings and the weekly confirmation classes for girls I have received very great help from Thakran Marndi, a former teacher in the school. At these meetings and classes we are also teaching reading and we have seen some very encouraging results. Some of the women have learned to read in a very s10rt time. When I look back on the past yeal' my heart is full of thanks to God Who allowed me to come out here again, and I am thankful for every day He will let us work here in India, We do not know what the future may bring, but we know that "The Lord is good, His Loving kindness Emdureth for ever and His faithfulness unto all generations ", SOL VEIG SOMMING.

72 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 65 JOEMA. When I came back from Grahampur on the 25th of February I was met by a man who had come from Sindrijhora to ask us to baptize some people there. It was a great joy for me to be able to lend a helping hand to the people of J oema aga.in. We chose Sunday the 3rd' of March for the baptism and that day became very memorable for of all.of us who were lucky enough to be present. I had not been in a~ close contact with the work for a while on account of the stay at Grahampur so it was rather a. great surprise for me when I found 29 persons ready for the holy baptism. People gathered at the river side by hundreds when Paul Pastor stepped into the water to baptize the new brothers in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. A few weeks later the sad news from Scandinavia reached us here in Joema too. Instantly we tried to take steps to carryon the work on a more selfsupporting basis. Gathered for elders meetings, we had discussed what to do in case we met with a situation like the present one. Consequently we were prepared to some extent and the people took their cut of ': salaries with great loyalty. Several village schools have been closed on account of lack of funds, but the congregational work seems to be carried on as before, thanks to a couple of voluntary workers who are giving us very faithful help. In spite of all new problems and all great difficulties the new situation has brought, there is much to be thankful for. A new spirit that does not depend on money, has come to many of the leaders. That spirit wants to spread the Gospel at any cost and it wants to do it now. The congregations of Darrang have been good examples for many. They ~re ~ll self-su:pporting and their l

73 66 THE SANTAL MI5SION OF THE. NORTHERN. CHURCHES. collections have more than covered the pastor's travelling expenses. At present the Hingaon congregation is erecting a church at the cost of Rs. 500/-. Most of the money has been collected among themselves. This year many people have moved to Darrang and we must try to do more for our friends there. TNe will get our fourth congregation shortly so it is urgent for us to try to give them their own pastor. The harvest of the District will be rich for the Mis~doll that is to collect it. 1'his year also we have spoken about a Bible School but the goal still seems to be very far a way. The line we had to follow is the old one of having sholt courses. The workers feel they need more education but at present it seems to be of no use to plan anything that means expense. But the Lord will do His work among us in spite of all difficulties. Praying for His help and trusting on His promises we will go into the new year with confidence. The sad year that passed should not hamper us but moreover it should be an encouragement to work more faithfully and t() go more often to our Lord in prayer. (:th~nds In closing this report, I should like to thank all for their appreciated help. M. LANDOY.

74 MORNAI. On the 1st of January 1940 it was fifty years since the Mornai Tea garden became Mission property. In celebration of this Golden Jubilee the year was commenced with a three days' leave for all employees. A special church service was held and various sports and amusements for the workers were arranged du,ring these days. A. tree was planted in front of the church by our Deputy Commissioner to commemorate the jubile~ On the 14th of J enuary His Excellency the Governor of Assam and Lady Reid honoured the Garden with their visit. The year with regard to the working of the Tea Garden has been a successful one and a large labour force has been employed. There ha~le been no epidemics among the workers. The day school was attended by 118 children a.nd the night schools by 63 children. Pastor Sorkar Hembrom did faithful work in the Santa I congregation and Johon Topno has as usual been the leader of the Mundo. congregation. In both congregations some have been baptized. The Bengali speaking people have had regular services and meetings in their church built at Pauspur in November Also in this congregation a few ha.ve been baptized and it is no doubt an advantage tha.t we now have a church where the Bengali speaking (workers and others have an opportunity to hear the gospel in their own tongue. Satsoron Sen is the leader of thi$ work with' the help of Jacob Biswas. Women's meetings on Fridays have been held regularly and not a small portion of the church collections have been derived from the rice offerings given at these meetings.

75 68 THE SANTAL MISSION OF 'l'he NORTHERN CHURCHES. The children attending our Sunday schools number 135. When looking back upon the past year there is every reason to be thankful that it has been possible to carry on the Garden work as usual, and that the tea market has in no way been upset by the world situation. As for the congregational work there is als() reason for thanking God because the Gospel of salvation has been brought near to the people living here and we are confident that the word of God has born fruit and will continue te bear more in due course. We are grateful to our many friends who, we are sure, have also during this past year remembered the work in Mornai in their prayers. O. ErE. ASSAM MEDICAL WORK. I came back to Harapnta the first of March this year and aga.in took over the medical work after Dagmar Miller left on furlough. I was very glad to get back to myoid station again. It was a great dissappointment when on account of the war we had to give up the hospital and the automobile. However we were glad that we were permitted to stay and go on with the work. We had to cut down the expanses of course, and I let two compounders go. But des pite all this the work has been going on very well. There has been much sickness so I have made more village calls than usual. The number of patients attending the dispensary this year was 8980, not including the lepers. The lepers averaged about 25 per week, this was not as many as we could wish but it ir hard to get them to come regularly.

76 . SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 69 Then 9 miles north of us in the village of Sindrijhora we have opened a new outstation for leper work. There have been baptised quite a number of new Christians, and among these are many lepers. They asked if we could not come and help them. So the two compounders and myself and the one compounder from J oema take our turn about going out there. It is not so easy to get there as we have 8 streams to cross and three of them are so deep that we have to carry the cycles across. The others we can wade across this season of the year. But we enjoy the work. About the work among the village women, I have only made u. few calls, but Mi~s Somming has made a few more. The Biblewomen me~t once a month and we have good meetings. On Sundays one of the compounders and myself have the small boys of village for Sunday School. About 20 to 25 meet every Sunday. The other compounder teaches the boys of the confirmation class. God has been good to us, that He has enabled us to carryon the work despite the war. Special thanks are due this year to Him and also to our friends here and at home for their prayers and help. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with the wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isa. 40; 31. DAGMAR PEDERSEN.

77 THE BOnO WOHK. GAORANG DISTRICT. " But Jesus answered them, AfJl Falhe?' worketll hitherto, Q1zd I work." Jolt. 5, 11. The year under review has in great contrast to last year been a quiet year with steady work in this district. There is nothing specially to show forth, but we believe the Spirit of God has been working in the hearts of His people and that the Bora Church has been founded a bit stronger on the rock which is J e~us Christ. I. CONGREGATIONAL WORK. There has this year been no great addition from the heathen to the church. The number baptized is 33 and some of them, I regret to say, are already back in the great fold of unbelievers. The number of catechumens at the end of the year is about 60. It seems as the time of great ingathering is for the time being over in the Bora work. But surely the time will come when the Boros again will come forth in numbers to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the meanwhile we believe we would be wise in trying to concentrate on enriching the Christian community in the knowledge of God and in fostering church leadership. The number of children of Christian parents baptized is 83. The small beginning of a church organisation introduced last year ha~ been working well. The Boros have taken to it with keenness. Rs. 597/13/3 was collected for the self-support. Though it has fallen far short of what we budgetted in the beginning of the year, we were wi th the help of a grant -from the Mission of RSf 600/- able to come through the year and have a small cash balance left to start the new year with. The reason for that is that fewer preachers than originally intended were

78 SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 71 appointed and that we also were without a pastor the first 4 months of the year. But besides the amount mentioned above a considerable amount of money (excluding work and materials given) were collected and spent in building 2 quite large new churches at Gothaibari and Pokalagi where several small congregations were united into two larger congregations. Some money was also collected for repair and maintenance of the small Christian hostel at Kokrajhar High School. At the end of April Alichoron Bosumatari again took up pastoral work. After having asked forgiveness of the congregations in Bongaigaon District for hi~ misdoings he was placed in Jambuguri village ani given charge of the westernmost congregations in Gaorang District, and I am glad to report that he has worked faithfully there since. Of full time preachers we have had only four, three of them are in charge of congregations and one is giving his whole time to the preaching to the heathens. Besides that we have had eight part-time preachers who for a small rem uneration are conducting Sunday services and taking care of the many small flocks \'~e have scattered over the whole area from the Sankos River in west to the Campamattl River in east. Some of them are not very well fitted for their work, but they are the best we were able to find who were willing to do the work. A two days' convention which was held in Gaorang in March was very encouraging. Four Sunday schools have been at work throughout the year. II. EDUCATIONAL WORK. The educational work ib not in a very satisfactory ~t4te. One of the re~son.s for it is th~t there is too

79 72 THE SANT.A.LMISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. little response to and too little interest for education among our people. Many, themselves being illiterate, do not see the desirability, and much less the necessity, of their children becoming literate. At the end of the year we therefore made a drive for making primary education compulsory for all children of Christian parents. A. vote for or agaim~t it was taken and it turned out to be unanimous for it. We therefore hope that from the beginning March 1941 an Christian children will be attending school. May our hopes be fulfilled I Five village schools have been working in 1940, but two of them without any support from the Mission. In 1941 three more will probably be added. III. LITERARY WORK. In the sphere of literature not much have been done Hince Rev. A. Kristiansen left for home last year. The only work added to the Boro literature this year is the first edition of CHURCH RITUALS. Bhobendro Nath N arjary and I are responsible for the translation. Besides that some manuscript are about to be ready for print, among them a translation of V. Vogfs Bible Stories. There is a great need for more literature in Boro, especially as regards school-book$. A small church magazine would also be a great help in our work and is eagerly looked forward to by many. I wirh it would materialize in The year 1940 will be remembered as the year when the young Boro Church learned that God's work does not depend upon the amount of money you have to spend on it but upon God's blessing on whatever little you have. Among the Boros, as probably everywhere in our Mission field, anxieties ran high for a while, but God stilled th(;)m all ~nd th~t which w~s bitter turned out to

80 SEvENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 73 be a blessing in disguise. And we know that we also for times to come can trust that He will provide for His work to be carried on "until He cometh". GAORANG GIRLS' SCHOOL. The work of the school has proceeded as in the previous year though with reduced staff and a smaller number of pupils. Five of the girls appeared for the Primary Examination and were passed. As already mentioned in the report for Gaorang District many of our Boro Christians are not a wake to the necessity of their children's education. That m~y be the principal reason for the further decrease this year in the number of pupils. But we have the hope that the present drive to get all children of Christian parents into school will be to the advantage also of our Girls' School in Gaorang. In order to get the expenses down one teacher was discharged and two transferred to other work. By now we therefore have only three teachers left, all of them trained. But in case we are to go on with the Middle English classes we will ha ve to appoint a headmistress or a headmaster very soon. The temporary schoolhouses put up in a hurry in 1936 have never been in a very satisfactory condition although a lot of money has been_ spent on repair every year. The hope was at that time that a better and more suitable school building could be erected in the course of 2-3 years. As that is impossible now and as the houses are beyond repair we have had to make arrangement for classrooms under the superintendent's bunglow. Of course that will also be only a temporary arra.ngement. Miss A. Nodtvedt left us in April upon her marriage to Rev. H. Halvorsrud, 4s no one eh~e Wa.A avpointed J

81 74 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. to take care of the school we have lj.a.,d to Carryon as well as we could. But the school needs a mis~iona,l'y who can give her whole time to it. Looking back on the year we feel that the short. comings as regards the working of the school were many. But with all shortcomings we believe it has served a purpose in God's work in the Christian Boro community -to His glory. ELSE & ANDERS MALME. BONGAIGAQ;N DISTRICT. Looking back on the past year we first want to thank God for his mercy and help. bringing us through the year and its difficulties in spite of all human weakness and inadequacy. The fir~t time w~ spent in district work was a difficult one, and the work suffered from the inexperience of the beginner, not least because we had no ordained helper. We want to thank Rev. & Mrs. Malme as seniors in the Boro work for help and advice at the different occasions. Th~ different activities ha ve gone on without any big disturbances. The new organisation of the district, with a. District Board chosen by the Christians to be r8sponsihle together with the missionary, has worked well during this first year and seems to be a step in the right direction. The elders are going on steadily in spite of reduced sala.ries. Some of them, though, have given some trouble, and one had to be suspended from work and later excommunicated.

82 shows the need of pastors for the congregational work. It will be a great help when Maguram Moshary is ordained, as we hope he will be in the near future. There seems still to be open doors among the heathen Boros. Very few have been baptized this year, partly because of laxity on behalf of some of the elders as regards instruction. Some 67 people are waiting for baptism. Quarrelling among the Christians seems to be a hindrance in the self-propagation of the church, and some are beset with a spirit ::>f defeatism, opposing the task of witnessing among the heathen. As is the case in Gaorang district, ~o also in Bongaigaon the Christian Boros have bound themselves to compulsory primary education, and in connection with that village schools are being contemplated in almost every village. -The Boarding school at Bongaigaon has not shown growth during the year, but the time for expansion seems to have come at last and we have good hopes for the new year. The. usual contribution this year seems to reach a total of about Rs. 480 only. But beside that some Rs. 152 have been collected for the boarding school, giving a tota.l for contributions of Rs. 632/l4/6. ANNA & HAKON HALVORSRUD.

83 ,.., THE SANT'AL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. SANTIPARA LEPER COLONY. "Cleanse the lepers" (Matt ) was the clear command of our Lord to His disciples, singling them out for special mention because of their special need. When we in April had to stop the building work because of the invitstion of Denmark and Norway it was a great disappointment to us because we had hoped that we should be able to accomodate at least one hundred patients after the rainy season of But He who gave the command "cleanse the lepers " gave us new courage and faith to carryon the work for the few patients the Mission would be able to provide medicines and food for. The patients have bee~ more eager to work this year than the first year. They were engaged in different kinds of occupations such as farming, house building, road making, keeping animals, carting, etc. Altogether 65 in-door patients wertl treated during the year, and 40 patients at Santi para oqt-clinic. The Leper Clinic work at Gaorang (started by Dr. D. Pedersen before she was transferred to Haraputa) was taken over by us and we have had 46 patients under treatment there. The Clinic is open on Tuesday, the market day at Haltugaon. On the 8th of May we opened a new Leper Clinic near Gurubhasa market place. At Gurubhasa we were giving treatment on Wednesdays. Number of patients: 121. To the North of the rail way line from Kokrajhar to Bijni, the staff of Santipara and some of the workers in Bongaigaon and Gaorang Districts have surveyed 160 villa.ges where 606 lepers were found, there being 1 to 30 cases in different villages. The authorities have been in.. formed of the result of the survey.

84 j '....., SF.VENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. In November the Colony and the out-clinic were inspected by the Propaganda Officer of The British Empire Leprosy Relief Association, Dr. Santra. He gave us much advise regarding the development of the work. Dr. D. P. Banerji said he was willing to continue His work after the one-third cut of his salary, but in spite of that he ran away in the beginning of June without giving us any notice. A new medical officer was appointed, Dr. S. M. Ganguly, L. M. P., L. T. M. We had some difficulty in getting a Bora teacher for our school, the Christian Boros seem to be afraid to work among the lepers, but fortunately we obtained one. He is al~o taking the church service on Sundays in Boro. Our elder, Nimbai Murmu, has done faithful work in the Colony. and also in the nearby villager. The first fruit of the spiritual work at Santi para was seen when 5 of our patients were baptised this year. BERGLIJOT & GUNNAR FOSSLAND.

85 THE CONGREGATIONAL RETURNS In the introduction to this collection of reports it has been mentioned that a committee has been at work trying to draw up a Church Constitution for the Christian community growing up from the activity of the mission, and that the work of this committee is to be continued. Particular care has' therefore this year been taken in collecting the statistic's, hoping that the figures may be found to be of value in understanding the nature of our work and the task ahead. Our mission p.as collected and published the Congregational Statistics in this form for nearly 20 yearh, and though some changes might be desirable, nothing ha51 been altered in the system this year. It will be noticed that we lack information about the total number of congregations. But it will not be so very far off when it is said to be about 200. Our present staff of about 40 Indian pastors may be regarded as adequ'1te, if they 'were justly distributed. That. however, has been found to be a difficult question. Neither do our statistics give the number of confirmed persons. It has only the total number baptized. The figure given under "average communicants" has by some, who read our report, been mifmnderstood to mean "Communicant membership" and by others "communicants during the year". It is neither. In many places communion services are held as often as once a month. The figure given for each area is the average attendance for all th~ communion services held during the year. It will be seen that the average church attendance at Sunday services amounts to about 40% of the Christian community. It is a remarkable fact that the percentage is best in village comnlunities, and less good where we htlve big churche~ requiring a wide area to fill its space,

86 80 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCa:ruS. About 45% of the 'church going population. attends holy communion. One of the most important informations set forth by the congregational returns is the baptism of children of Christian parents. When that falls below 25 pro mille there js usually some defect in the life of the church, either in the community 9r in the - service of the pastol'. The average should in ~r village community's life be about 30 pro mille. When the average this year is as high as 32, it is because during the year 1939 there were SOlue difficulties with the pastoral supervision of the Boro community so that very many children had to wait until 1940 for baptism. The Santal work in Sanal Parganas is as low down as 22, and the Santal work in North Bengal 19 ; The poverty question is a major problem for the Santal population as a whole, and consequently also for the church establishing itself among them. In the statistics this finds its expression in the columns "moved away" and "moved in ". Looking at the church collections one notices that it is as a whole very low, but it has not fallen lower because of the present crisis up to the end of the year under review. With these few remarks I invite every reader to ponder a good while over the returns. J. GAUSDAL.

87 C6NGREGATIONAL RETURNS FOR THE "EAR ~ ~------~----~ ~----~--~----~----~------~-- WOI'kers ~" ~ Baptism. ~ I I ' ~.!: '0 Sunday Village Contributions, ~chool$ ~chools eo: i 0 ~ i-:: rp.: i"" -8 ~ rjj Dh,tl'ict or ~ I I!'= ~l] I ~c S '0 ~ ~ ~!.; -2. ~ I ~ ~.~ ~ ~ S.~, ~';. Q) I Congl'egat ion. ; I ] : ~ ~ ~ ~; I E. E ~ ~ ~ r~!~ r~ ~ ~ ~ e I ~ ~ ~.~ ~] ~ ~ ~] ~ ~ R ;. A. p. _ c: 2!, ~._ ~.~ ':-' d ~ '-' 10> a e>.c.-..c:..c ;.. "0.c ;.. "0 r::;,...':;:'_~o :...~' " '_' _'"' ~Q., 0::;;; 0 Q)e>,.:. ~:.; zoo Cl>l>d zoo ~~CI> '.- -= "0 00 e> I -----i.-..;.i--..;.!--,.,-;--~-::;.; ; :--_;w-!,.,. ~ ~ E-i < ~ < ~ I - i, Kllerabani... 2 Ii 4 I (i 06() UR : lr 24 ~;J 15 4(1 I 1672 I II ()4 I \ 10 H: Dhorompur... 2 a! If!, I S~ \ 3 Dumka ~ I!'. 235 s: I 2 1 IS 14 :'31 3 ' 27 ;~ 90 32fl 1;; 4!- M aharo () 7 I R t- 10 2;)! (j 8 17 I Koroya ;;! 140 P7 J.j. 10 ~ I 10 I:~ 11 ] 5 A ] Cbondol'pura...,l 7 ~ 1' ;H 17 20, '; L 25 5 R Sal<loha n?;"io t~. 5: 3 ;, () Bnsetkun,di a ;{:) at 1 I 20 Hi R ~ Hi 6 Mohulpa1filri... 1.j 2 7, l()~ 76 7 ]5 12 I :2 10 '; i (;3 j 59" ?, Tilabani... a 71' H;j I 1 fi 7':2 1 flo l' Benagal'ia... 4 k 3 20 :> :-l4 25 ~ 11:1 20 I '\ \ \ \ 2:! TOTAL 'OR AREA ;S-\83,3504-, 1423 i2;-1~, 193 I :~, 86 \~ I~ \ !43s S; 1m , Hadhair '.. ~ --;1-1--;-1-;;- --;;----;-'In !' 1 \ -!, 22 I I : Khorilll~ri... l.j :: I }f19 1:!1i 1 a 8:2 3 I 1 \ ' I! j 27 I l-l 4 Eklakhi l 1, 175 I H ) '"'!:!' :! ~ 11,17 I'! 18 i I! lot Choksadula I 2 179; ;j;~ :i I 29 Hi 11 I a I 1)Ii ;) \ 16. :)4Ii i Uautuagar '~1:i ~ -l- J 2' \ I I'horidpur ! z 1-!-2 I 00 4 i 1 :~ 0) l :1 '\ I') fl I 29 9 : ~a.rayanpllr \ ~4.j' 17 k 18 I 24 :! 1;; 9, j,;. 1\11, 65() _1_~1-2- 2,.0 ~. 3.r;;:r, FORARK.\ :~"48: --;! --;; i~i--; 37\ ;-!-;;-\-;;\ ~-; ~r47' 23$ 5, , \ 9 lot ~~t:o~dy_:~11 ~,- +~ I I~ I :r~r J"{ '~S ;~ I'H h~ I \ \ \ I,~r i i ~~ I, ~ \1 ~~i I~ Ii i Tum,oua"!~-I" 30 53, 30 i-it;) l-;ru 295,110 i 220', , \ i 15\ S02'/ f9 Ga.orang... ' 1 I ]., 1- ~! Z~)(~' tlli-t \ 83:--;; -I-i-;--:;;,-;\-;-l-\ --; ;--;:-!--;; ;; --:;;-7a"", \~ BOl\gaignon~... J Hi.';) /,,(/ 4811 I 114 :-) \ '; ~L~\ 2~_~_~ 1664 '--=-:~:-.:!~ ~_ ~ ~, 'I'OTAL. OR ABEA i : 1500 i 1044! 197, 38 I '27 71 ISO ~ 58 9 I , ~ I 119: 6 I ~ DumkaBengftli... I-;-,-j-- ---'--;-~ --2-; I oj I I iii ' '( ! Xatayaupor.. ' al l01 2 1\ :.?HH lioi 12 ();) 4- S Hl13 HI,: 4-124' 40 Ii ~ Nimasari ill ~HH ->00 I lfj 16 I ti 8 31: ~8 1 i _ Coach Behar '.', Hi:!!;, loll -50 I -It 21 I r. H I I aoo , 205 TOTAL BES(;ALI..,--s'l28! j-ii 20 \ 21 ; 30,21 40 i-;ii~78 II 80-;~ -;;nrlo 1~ ~~":.~ ~= :::1: ~~ Ii :~ I :: i\:: :m =' = m lii~ ~ '~I:i i\ ~ ~ : \' ~~ =-. \1l: :=: I~ 7t TOTAL 1938 "'j _ 51 I I \242 \179, ~ \ 12 1~