Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

pleased."old."tion of Cyprus and the establishment of His Churchthere hence our desire to serve your Mission inwhatever way possible.Personally, I am grateful for the fellowship ofindividual members of the Mission. Rev. Clark Copeland and his wife especially have been a real blessingto my life during the past two years. Their homewas always open to me, and I was always assured ofan enthusiastic welcome by their children,who werea constant delight. Rev. Copeland, by advice andencouragement, helped me over several rough spots.Space doesn't permit me to tell of the tokens ofChristian fellowship which came my way from theHutchesons, Miss McCrae, Mr. Edgar, Rose Munnell,Ruth Reade and, during my first year, the Weirsand Eleanor Faris.May God grant more years of effective serviceto your Mission in Cyprus. I look forward to the daywhen Cyprus will be sending its own missionaries toall the countries of the Middle East. "And in verydeed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shewin thee My power; and that My Name may 'be deearth."clared throughout all theSincerely, in ChristWaldron ScottSome Phases of School Work in 1953By Marjorie Allen SandersonHow often this year the Bible verse, "As thyday, so shall thy strength be" has come to my mind,for it was with a feeling of utter inadequacy that Ifinally agreed to take over Miss McClurMn's place ashead of the Girls' School while she would be home onfurlough, but our kind Heavenly Father has answered our daily prayer for wisdom and guidance andgiven us cause to rejoice as we see so many younglives coming daily under the influence of the gospelin our school.The first activity in the school following theclose of the '52-'53 school year was the Workers' Conference, for the meetings were held in the Girls'School. The main speaker was Mr. Fahme Hanoweeof Egypt who brought inspiring messages at leasttwice daily. The evening meetings were held in thechurch in order that a larger group might benefit.The first part of July a Daily Vacation BibleSchool was held in the Girls' Dormitory with nearlyone hundred in attendance, a large percentage ofthese being from other schools as well as havingquite a lot of non-Christians. The teachers weremainly ones from our intermediate group or olderstudents who had a chance to put their study intopractice and did so very acceptably. It thrills ourhearts to see these young people developing andreaching the place where they can take responsibilitythemselves. Two of these same D.V.B.S. teachers became full-time teachers in our school this year forthe first time and are doing well too.School began on October 12 with the largest enrollment for a good many years. The two main reasons for this were the fact that the government decided not to accept any children this year less thaneight years of age, and in the sixth grade only students with more than 410 out of 600 for their finalscore in the Certificate Examination, given at theAugust 4, 1954close of the fifth year. This brought us many students who as the popular song goes were "either tooyoung or too or we might add, had too lowgrades. Of course, we had many old students returning also. So far this year our enrollment is nearly 400,but at the present writing in February the attendance is a little less than 350. It has been the meansof making the school come quite close to self-support.Another change this year has been to have mostof the high school classes in the Girls' School, withthe boys of the high school taking nearly all theirEnglish classes here except the Arabic ones whichare in the Boys' School and the 9-10th girls taking allclasses here. There are no girls in the eleventh andhighest class this year.Last year it was reported that our schools hadbeen directed by the government to apply for officialpermits to function but after waiting for more than ayear they had not been received. We were verythankful this fall to receive permits for both schoolsas well as to have co-education in the high school. Notime limit was placed on this permit, which is anothercause for thanksgiving.All our teachers this year are members of theCovenanter Church and most of them received atleast part of their education in our schools. We havefound the staff most cooperative on the whole. Bothteachers and students miss the pastor's daughter,Miss Adeebeh Awad, who has been a teacher in theGirl's School for several years, but we are glad thatshe is getting the opportunity to go on with her education in Geneva.Syria's young people are demanding educationto a degree as never before in its history and we trulyfeel that the need for a Christian school is as greathere as ever. We thank our home church for her support and ask your prayers that we may faithfullyguide and direct the work here for God's glory andthe spread of Christianity in this land.Covenanter Book Room HighlightsBy Rose A. HustonMiss Hirakawa, Japanese manager, resigned theday after Miss Lynn sailed, to be married.After we despaired of finding a helper, finally,about March 20, a young man was recommended forthe position, and was hired. He is Mr. Mita, a memberof the Reformed Church; completed a Businesscourse in college. He was an officer in the Japanesearmy in Manchuria; was captured by the Russians,and was a Prisoner of War in Russia for two years.He was converted while at the front through theinfluence of a friend and a Bible. After repatriation,he was in Hospital with TB for a year, and for a yearhad been working in a factory making Neon light fixtures.In every way, he seems well fitted for the work,and has taken hold with earnestness and vigor; hischief difficulty is in using the English language, butwith a mixture of English, Japanese and the sign language, we have managed very well. After ten days inthe Book Room, I asked if he were satisfied in thisdesu,"work. He replied, "Dai suki or "GreatlyWe too, are greatly pleased, and thank Godfor sending him to us.69