Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

eligion."
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The American Academy As a Missionary Project
By Wilbur W. Weir
(Excerpts from a paper read to the Board of Foreign Missions)
Why will the parents of 500 students send their
children to a Protestant school in the Bronx Let us
look to Cyprus They will send them because they
want for their children the results which they
have seen in the lives of other students who have
gone there. They see them efficient in English;
they see them getting better jobs which pay larger
salaries; they see them with ideas and character
traits which are above the average they don't
know how it happens, but there is just something
at the Academy which makes a young person bet
ter. So they bring their children and some of them
say to their children: "Get all you can, but don't
let them change your Others, not interest
ed in any religion, bring their children with no
strings attached. Still others come to the school of
fice and say: "This child is now yours; consider
him your son ; he is now entirely in your hands."
All know before they come that Bible is one
of the regular lessons; so all attend Bible classes
as they do other classes. Each morning there is a
chapel service at which a Psalm is sung, the Bible
is read, and prayer is offered. On Sabbath there
is Sabbath School at the church at 9:00 a.m. Stu
dents are not obliged to attend, but 15 to 20 do
attend. The Sabbath School enrolment is about 65
to 70. The boarding students are free to attend
their own church Sabbath morning, and some of
them go at about 8:00. At 10:00 a.m. there is a
service in Greek in the church, and this is attended
by the smaller boarding students who are not re
quired to attend the English worship service in
the evening. As a rule there are about 25 persons
at the Greek service. At 11:00 the Armenian serv
ice is held. About 80 attend. At the same hour a
meeting is held in the study-hall at the school for
all the boarding
students. Four or five Psalms are
sung, scripture is read, prayer is offered, then one
of the teachers talks to the group on some moral
or spiritual topic. Sometimes it is turned to a ques
tion period, or a panel discussion. At 3:00 p.m.
the Young People's Society meets at the church.
This is entirely voluntary and is sponsored by a
missionary. Usually 15 to 20 attend, and the meet
ing is conducted much as they are in the church in
America. At 7:00 p.m. there is a worship service in
students who know
English at the church. Boarding
English well are required to attend, and the aud
ience usually numbers about 125.
Thursday at 4:30 the Fellowship Clubs meet,
one for boys and one for girls, 10 to 15 in each
group. These young people are for the most part
recent converts or persons who want to know more
of the Bible, and have their questions answered.
A missionary teacher meets with each group;
there is a Bible study, prayer, praise. Here a num
ber pray for the first time as a member of a group.
There are other small groups as well, each spon
sored by a teacher, endeavoring to strengthen their
Christian life. One such group meets for prayer
at least once a week. Another
early in the morning
group stresses Scripture memory work.
212
An outstanding week of the school year is
one in May when evangelistic services are held
each evening in the church, and students as well as
others are invited. Usually about 100 attend these
meetings at which the challenge to accept Christ
as one's personal Saviour is given. Often the harvest
of earlier sowing is reaped at these meetings.
The Academy was founded in 1908. In 1909
New York Presbytery sent its last candidate to
the Seminary. Its congregations decreased from
17 to 9. In Cyprus the congregations increased from
0 to 3. Men have 'been put into Christian service.
Argos Zodhiates while a student in the Academy
became the president of the first C.Y.P.U. in Lar
naca in 1931. When he left the Academy he went
to Latakia, Syria, to take theological training un
der the Rev. A. J. McFarland of our mission; then
he completed his training in the United Presbyter
ian Seminary in Assuit, Egypt. He became an or
dained preacher in the Covenanter Church, work
ed in Cyprus, toured the Church in America. He
is no longer in our church; is pastor of the largest
Greek Evangelical Church in the Near East, the one
at Katarini, Macedonia. The Rev. C. Christou, who
has been for some years clerk of Synod's Commis
sion in Cyprus, after completing
certain courses of
study, was ordained to the Gospel ministry in 1953.
Mr. Barnabas Constantinopolos, who came out from
the Greek Orthodox Church and joined the R. P.
Church, has been engaged as colporteur for the
British and Foreign Bible Society since 1931. He
preaches most acceptably in the Greek worship
services. Mr. Hassan Memour, raised a Moslem, at
tended the Academy for six years, came out for
Christ, is in the European Bible Institute at Paris,
France. He is a member of the R. P. Church, and
plans to return to Cyprus in the summer of 1955
to teach part time in the Academy and to engage
in evangelistic work among both Mohammedans
and Greek Orthodox. These men have served in the
Covenanter Church in Cyprus.
An Academy graduate, the Rev. Dioran Kountrouni,
is pastor of an Armenian congregation in
Beirut, Lebanon. Another graduate, the Rev. K.
Sislian, is pastor of the Armenian Evangelical
Church in Paris, France. Theodore Koyzis, who came
to Christ when a student in the Academy, complet
ed his studies in Moody Bible Institute last June,
and is now in Wheaton College. He will enter fulltime
Christian service. There is today an Academy
graduate in each of the following Seminaries in
America: Biblical Seminary, New York City, Zenia
Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa., Faith Seminary, Phila
delphia. Two Academy students are in Bob Jones
University preparing for Christian service. Five are
in Geneva College ; one of them to graduate in 1955
will begin teaching in the Nicosia Academy in Sep
tember next. She is an out and out Christian, Miss
Aphrodite Trombettas. In the November 1954 issues
of the Bible Society Record, page 139, there is a
photograph of a conference of leaders of the two
Bible Societies serving in the Near East: the British
COVENANTER WITNESS