Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

us."ministers'Ministers'WivesNowadays when a congregation is consideringa pastor they send a committee to hear him preach,and if they like him and his preaching they may invite him to their own pulpit to preach. But their investigation does not stop with finding out about theminister and his work. In nearly every case they alsoinquire about the minister's wife. It is proper thatthey should do so. For the minister's wife may greatly help the pastoral work of her husband, or she maygreatly hinder it.The pastor's wife has many duties and manyprivileges. In many of our congregations she is loaded with duties and responsibilities which should becarried by another member of the Church; as forinstance, the president of the Woman's Society. Sooften she has to teach a class in the Sabbath School.Sometimes that is necessary, I know. But it shouldbe realized that she has many other things to dowhich take her strength and time, and that it iswell for another to do such tasks if at all possible.She is the advisor for her husband. She can tellhim as others can not some things which need to becorrected in his preaching, the little habits whichdetract, of which he is more often unaware. She cantell him when he really had a good sermon, and heusually knows when he had a poor one. She may suggest points which would make it a good one.She often has to stand between her husband andthe members of the Church. Perhaps he wants tokeep study hours without interruptions. She spendshours at the telephone, perhaps learning the factsthat the caller wanted to tell the minister. She informs the person kindly that she will tell the minister when he comes in for dinner, or when he getsback from calling.She spends much time making calls with herhusband. That is a part of her work. It usually makeshis call doubly effective. She is interested in thepeople and is sympathetic with their needs.Those who have special musical talents are expected to help with the choir. They take their turnin cooking for the various church suppers, and entertainments.It should be remembered that she has her ownfamily to care for, the cooking, washing, ironing,cleaning. Members often want to go over the wholehouse to see what she does there, and they are usually ready to criticize if there is something neglected,no matter what caused it to be neglected. Few of ourministers receive sufficient salary to employ help forthese things.She has to stretch the budget to cover manythings. The husband is always before the public andshould be well dressed. People also observe how thewife is dressed. She often has to make over clothesor change last year's hat to make it do anotherseason. She sees that her family has nourishing food,though she has to pinch pennies to give it to them.Much of the discipline and training of the family isher lot.September 28, 1955She must be able to talk, lead in prayer, conduct a meeting, give wise advice, and do it with allhumility and graciousness. Her time, as that of herhusband is not her own. She is on call day and night,and must often give up her own plans to adjust tothose of someone else, often on short notice.All honor to our wives. We often failto give them their due. They are the forgottenheroines, Christian leaders. Many a minister oweshis success to his fine wife.VINEYARD GLEANINGS . . . fromAssociate Reformed Presbyterianpage 196Mr. Potapovich warned that the translators assignedto tourists by the Government can not be trusted by theSoviet Baptists. He said an American Baptist asked themembers of the Moscow congregation :"What message shallI bring from you to your brethren in America?" After along silence an old man answered, "Tell them to pray forBenjamin P. Brown, executive director of the Divisionof Christian Publications of the American Baptist Church,on his return from the Baptist World Alliance Jubilee Congress in London, revealed a Communist trick he observed.Russian delegates attended the congress for the first timein 20 years. They spoke only through an interpreter who wasa Soviet government agent. Dr. Brown noted that the interpreter, an attractive woman, walked out of the sessionswhen a speech on totalitarianism was made, leaving theRussian church delegates ignorant of what was being said.U.S. Medical Team Using Helicopter in Africa SearchIn central Africa a seven-man medical expidition is enroute on the first helicopter crossing of the country, concentration area for some of the world's most serious diseases. The team will make on-the-spot medical surveys inthe Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, Kenya and Tanganyika.The five weeks expedition will work in cooperation withsome 30 Protestant and Roman Catholic missions. Theteam will gather soil samples from isolated jungle areas inthe search for new antibiotic molds. More than $100,000worth of modern drugs will be distributed to mission stations to help fight local diseases and infection.Color Filmstrips Released by Scripture PressA new series of filmstrips, featuring original paintingsreproduced in full color, has been released by ScripturePress of Chicago. The new 35-mm. strips fall into threeclassifications: Bible stories,gospel narratives and missionary stories. Scripts accompany each. All filmstrips are evangelistic in tone and are slanted primarily for use with children and young people.The six Bible narratives, taken from both Old and NewTestaments, adhere strictly to Scripture. The three gospelstories portray the plan of salvation in fiction about children,while the three missionary strips are authentic incidentsshowing how the gospel reaches individuals in other lands.No missionary organization is mentioned. New titles will beadded to each series yearly.Paintings for the filmstrips were specially designed by acommercial artist and filmed in Kodak color. Closing featureof each strip is an illustrated hymn correlated with themesage of the film.199