Foreign Mission Board Rooms
April 8, 1947
The Foreign Mission Board met in semi-annual session at 7:30 P.M. on Tuesday, April
8, 1947, in the Tabernacle Baptist Church v,ith Mr. L. Howard Jenkins.
Present: STATE MEMBERS: F. C, Feezor, Texas; John L. Slaughter, Ala.; Earl
Heating, N. Hex.; W. A. Gray, Ill.; M. P, German, D.C.; Mrs. Geo. A. McWilliams ,Mo. ;
H. K. Fugate, Va.; J. E. Pawl in son, S.C.; R, C, Gresham, Ga.; H. Leo Eddleman, Ky. ;
M. 77, Egerton, Tenn.; Ralph A. herring,* i234'. C.
LOCAL MEMBERS: R. Hugh Rudd, J. G. Moving, Mrs. Simeon Atkinson, T. F. Adams, Clyde
V. Hickerson, Mrs. F. Earle Wood, John C. Eilliams, S. B. Cousins, T. Rupert
Coleman,
С.
C. Coleman, Mrs. J. J. Wicker, Jr.; J. Severing Evans,
В.
M. Gwathmey,
Mrs. T. Justin Moore, Hill Montague, E. Howard «Jenkins.
STAFF: M. T. Rankin, George W. Sadler, J. 77. Marshall, E. F. Buxton,
Ь.
C. Routh,
Marjorie E. Moore, Nan F. Weeks, Llary M. Hunter, Gene Newton.
After singing a hymn, the congregation was led in prayer by Dr. F. C. Feezor. A
motion picture, The Seeds of Destiny, was shown.
Dr. Rankin presented the -following report of the Executive Secretary:
REPGRT OF THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Objectives of the Foreign Mission Board's program for the year 1947 were outlined
at the January meeting of our Board. They were stated as follows :
1. Return to the field of the staff of personnel not on regular furlough who
have been held in the United States by conditions of war.
2. Appointment of 100 additional missionaries within the year, thus bringing
our list of active missionaries to a minimum of 625 by the end of December.
3. Financial support for current missionary operations in 21 countries of
approximately $4,000,000.
4. Relief and rehabilitation projects to carry through the program launched in
1946 by Southern Baptists which resulted in the contribution of approximately
$4,000,000 for this purpose. We are thus responsible for the disposition of
$8,000,000 during this year.
The present meeting of the Foreign Mission Board sees all of these objectives
well under way. une hundred and twenty missionaries have already returned to China,
one to Japan, two to Spain, and two to Italy. I venture to say that it is not
possible for anyone who has not been connected with the arrangements for the return
of these people to comprehend the difficult and serious problems which had to be met
in their going back. Despite the fact that both V-E Day and V-J Day occurred in
1945, conditions in Europe and Asia are still most confused and in many instances
are nothing less than chaotic. The arrangements and negotiations handled through
this office have been difficult and at times bewildering. Securing of passports,
booking of passages, arrangements for providing and shipping equipment and supplies
have all been carried through under conditions where nothing was certain except
uncertainty.
The problems we confronted, however, were small as compared with those confronted
by the missionaries themselves. The fact that most of them had been in America for
four or five years meant that they had to tear up roots which had been put down
during those years. They had to take with them practically e verything they expected
to have in their homes and for personal use on the field. They went back to live
under conditions of physical hardships and privation which have not existed in the
past fifty years. They have gone back to help reconstruct and rebuild missionary
undertakings in the face of frustrating difficulties. And yet, they have gone
back, not only will in gly -.but gladly.
The fact that Japan is still under the administration of an army of occupation,
that technically she is still in the status of an enemy nation, the severe shortage
of food, the lack of living quarters have all contributed to the delay in our getting
missionaries back to Japan. Thus far, only 65 Protestant missionaries have returned
to that country. Mr. Edwin B. Dozier is the only missionary of our Board who has
gone back. The regulations for entrace have recently been broadened but the fact
that children cannot be admitted is holding up a number of our missionaries who
would otherwise be able to return. There are indications that this restriction will
be lifted by summer and we are hoping that by fall we shall be able to have in
Japan most of the 17 missionaries of our Board who are under appointment for that
country.