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254 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
from America. Supervision was difficult, due to shortage of staff, nevertheless
the churches continued to grow both in numbers and membership.
There has been a new movement in Northern Nigeria toward evangelizing
the local tribes. Our Baptist constituency in that area is almost entirely made
up of transients from other tribes. The churches have set themselves to a
program of evangelism and have built a number of places of worship, and
furnished evangelists from among themselves. The results have been gratifying,
especially in the Plateau Province where considerable numbers of the local
people have become Christians. One association in the Oyo Province has set
itself the task of evangelizing the Ibarabas, a neighboring tribe, whose language
has not yet. been reduced to writing. Our Nigerian Baptist Convention is making
plans to start work on the Gold Coast, a neighboring protectorate. The evidences
of awakened interest in the spiritual welfare of others is a sign we have
been looking for during the past ten years. The next immediate step should
be the formation of a Home Mission Board. One hundred and eighty-eight of
our churches reporting to the Nigerian Baptist Convention give a total membership
of 12,583; the churches not reporting have an estimated membership of
2,500; making a total of about 15,000. The same churches reported 1,480
baptisms, a gain of 11.76% of the total membership. This shows that it takes
an average of 8.5 Baptists in Nigeria to gain one member. If our statistics
were more reliable, we feel that this number would probably be reduced to
slightly over half that percentage.
Before the steady advance of the forces of Christianity, idol worship is
breaking down. One can hardly find a good-sized village or town in the
southern provinces where there is not a meeting place for Christians to worship.
After an African becomes a Christian, he must be trained to live up to the
ideals of Christianity; his spiritual life must be strengthened, and worthy
standards of health and sanitation must be created. These, with many other
ideas must be changed, and this changing process gives rise to the need for
Christian schools.
EDUCATION
There is no compulsory, state-supported, schooj system in Nigeria. The
Government establishes and maintains very few schools. As a result, the
churches organize and support schools for the children of the Christians and
others in the villages. These schools are an added burden to the church, but
this burden may be a blessing in disguise. The church becomes the mother of
the school, and as a result religious training occupies a dominant position in the
course of study. Study of the Bible is compulsory. There is a greater demand
for trained Christian teachers than we are now able to fill. In most instances,
the pastor is the manager of the school, and his board of trustees is made up
of prominent members of the church. In our day schools there are great
numbers of children from heathen homes. Hence these children, taught by
our Baptist teachers under the direction of our pastors, become a very fertile
field for evangelism. Each year several hundred of the pupils become Christians.
In Iwo, a town with a large percentage of Mohammedans, there are
forty children from these homes in the enquirers' class of one of our Baptist
schools. Last year more than twenty-five such enquirers became Christians in
this same school. The schools become main avenues of approach to the
Mohammedans.
The training of teachers is a very important phase of our educational work.
Young women are trained in the Normal Department of the Baptist Girls'
School, Abeokuta. This School is staffed by Misses May Perry, SuSan Anderson,
Mary Elizabeth Truly, Willie Kate Baldwin, and Ada Lois Newman. This staff
is barely sufficient to carry on. Three additional missionaries are urgently
needed to insure continuity of work. From this one school have come hundreds
of Christian young women who are today leaders in our church life, and who
have helped their husbands establish Christian homes which have become
examples for others throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Our girls' school at Shaki, known as the Elam Memorial School, has been
established only a few years, but it is making itself felt in much the same way
in the northwestern part of the Yoruba country. Miss Hattie Gardner and
should Miss Margaret be at least Marchman two additional compose workers the missionary here.
staff of this school. There