Christian missions in the Telugu country - Uecf.net

ii6 MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY
Surely it was no time to ' enlarge the place of the tent,'
and ' lengthen the cords.' But not so reasoned the new
leaders of the Mission. On the one side everything
seemed ripe for advance, the movement in the villages
was still in full flood and petitions for teachers came from
every quarter. On the other side the three missionaries
knew well by experience with what painful slowness the
Church at home would respond to the call for men,
though they knew, too, that the stirring in the valleys
on either side of the Nallamalla hUls was of God. The
crisis was faith's opportunity. The leaders of the
Mission looked to the future, not to the mere exigencies
The of the present. They selected men from among the
training
people themselves, who might be trained to exercise
Indian pastoral oversight over the village congregations. In
c ergy. ,.,
^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^.j^^g^ ^^^ ^f ^j^g ^qq scanty band of three was
deliberately set apart to undertake the task of organising
and building up a Training College for mission teachers.
What it cost those who had the spiritual needs of their
people at heart to give up one of their number, may be
gathered from the fact that for four years almost con-
tinuously one or the other of the remaining two was
away on sick leave ; and thus the ludicrously impossible
task of ministering to over one hundred congregations, in
as many scattered villages, with more than six thousand
Christians and catechumens, was during those years
attempted by one priest
Mr. Britten was selected for the task of starting the
new institution, and the necessary money was forth-
coming through the generosity of a member of the
Madras CivU Service, Mr. James Andrew. Nandyal, a