05 Items of Interest

Selected

[10] AEGTM September 1944

Items of Interest

SEEKERS STILL "TARRY IN JERUSALEM."

In an airgraph letter from Pte. John Hennessey, of the New Zealand Forces, Middle East, comes the following:—

". . . I will be glad if you will kindly send copies of the Evangel to the following:—" (He here gives three names and addresses.)

"The first two I had the joy of interesting and instructing into the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Both first tarried at Jerusalem; the first receiving there, and Lettie, my fiancee, later at Cairo. Brig. Ross, named by the "boys" Oomie (Arabic for my mother) is now 70 years of age. She was retired some years ago by the S.A. as a Missionary in India. She told me the Lord has not yet retired her. She is an Australian, and has been the means of many souls saved through her military hospital and prison visiting —many have been healed and baptised in the spirit in dark Egypt . ."

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"SIGNS IN THE HEAVEN ABOVE."

A letter received on the 29th July from our dear Sister Rhoda Lammon, of Ayr, speaks of blessing in the Assembly under Pastor and Sister Frangos' ministry and many wandering souls having been quickened and brought back into a place of full surrender to God. Our Sister goes on to relate how about a week previously four members of the Assembly were returning home after a prayer meeting when one of the girls suddenly looked up and called to her saying: "Oh, Mother, look at the writing in the sky." Upon looking up, sure enough God's hand had been at work and had clearly outlined in stars the words: "JESUS COMING SOON." The sight deeply stirred the hearts of each one who saw the writing, and Sister Rhoda declares she felt like the virgin who had just enough oil for herself and no time to warn others. "I have never felt the presence of God so near in all my experience," she says. "The writing was there all through the night, and caused quite a stir in this place."

A more recent letter from the Pastor's wife (Sister Ivy Frangos) confirms the report. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established."

Surely, it is time for all to draw near to God and get their lamps trimmed and burning for Jesus IS coming soon.

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VISITORS TO PERTH ASSEMBLY.

We rejoice to hear from Sister Stott, Secretary of the Perth Assembly, of very real blessing in the midst. She reports on the visit of Sister H. A. Groves, Missionary from India, during whose stay seven children were baptised in the Holy Spirit one Sunday, and an eighth a week later. Sister Groves' ministry was much appreciated and owned of God. Pastor Eric Wilson, en route to South Africa with his wife and little son, was the next to visit this Assembly, and, though, he was only able to minister for one Sunday, rich blessing was recorded.

[11] AEGTM September 1944

DUTCH AND INDONESIANS ATTEND SUNDAY SERVICE WHILST GUNS ROAR.

Netherlands Indies Government information Service says that:—

"Amidst the roar of field batteries shelling Japanese positions in Hollandia, the fighters circling overhead, and bombers taking off on bombing missions, Sunday Church service is held in the open air by the Christian faithful among Dutch officials and Indonesian converts. Most of them are prisoners-of-war liberated from Japanese hands, under which they had suffered for more than two years. During this period they were never allowed to hold a Christian service."

This was cabled by the Netherlands War Correspondent, C. J. van Sluys, of the Netherlands Press Agency "Aneta," from Hollandia, adding: "The minister who officiated was one of the local 'gurus,' who combined the functions of parson and schoolmaster. Like most of such teachers in these parts, he is an Amboinese preaching in the Malay tongue. This was their first religious service for a long time, and made the deepest impression on the liberated Christian prisoners-of-war. Some of them were still so weak that they had to be carried on stretchers to the service."

PENTECOSTAL WORK IN CANADA.

A splendid report was given at the recent General Conference of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. The Canadian fellowship has in affiliation over 450 assemblies, with 232 ordained ministers, 71 probationers, and 312 lady workers and deaconesses. Membership totals over 23,000, so that the Canadian membership in proportion to the national Population is as large as our Assemblies of God fellowship in the United States.

EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF GERMAN ATROCITIES AGAINST DUTCH JEWS.

A special correspondent, who interviewed Jewish refugees exchanged for German nationals at Istanbul (Turkey) cables from Jerusalem a report of the grim eyewitness accounts of Nazi brutality towards the Jewish community of the Netherlands.

One man who left Amsterdam in December, 1943, stated that only a few hundred Jews were left alive in that city. The few survivors were working in Nazi war factories, or were members of the medical profession and experts in various occupations, so that their services were of value to the Nazis.

At the time of his departure there were also a few Jews left who were citizens of South American Republics or other neutral countries. Most of them had since been placed in camps to await either exchange or deportation to Poland.

Immediately after the German occupation of Holland, anti-Jewish laws followed in quick succession, starting with the confiscation of all radios, valuables, jewellery, and other Jewish property.

Movingly, one of these refugees described how Dutch Christians were utterly contemptuous of Nazi anti-Jewish measures and, at great risk to themselves, assisted the Jews in every way possible, such as assuming control or charge of Jewish firms or factories with the sole intention of returning them ultimately to their original owners or their heirs after the liberation of Holland.

Some Dutchmen, he said, actually gave their lives in the struggle against the enforcement of the anti-Jewish laws, whilst hundreds were sent to prisons and concentration camps for helping Jews.

All this, however, paled before what came later, after the registration of all Jews began in the spring of 1942.

[12] AEGTM September 1944

The refugee then described the ghastly features of the deportation of thousands of Jews to Poland in sealed cattle trucks in which most of the travellers, owing to crowding and lack of food and water, succumbed, so that only a fraction reached Poland, the remainder having died or become insane.

Many Dutch people did their best to hide Jews, assisting them to evade the man-hunters, and, according to the spokesman, it is believed that there are still a few thousand Jews surviving in Holland, hidden by their Dutch friends. The underground organisation, especially, has provided every shelter in some of the outlying rural areas for these hunted human beings.

Among the refugees who arrived in Palestine there was one Dutch Christian who was married to a Jewess. She stated during an interview that two important forms of activity of the Dutch underground movement were the publishing of underground papers to keep the people informed with what was transpiring throughout the world, thus maintaining the morale of the people, and assisting members of the Allied Forces to return to England. Many Allied airmen, making forced landings in Holland, in the Ruhr or the Rhine Valleys, are assisted, she said, to return to their bases in Britain. During the big raids on Cologne, when many Allied planes came down, hundreds of British and American airmen were helped to escape after being fed and given medical assistance.

A doctor living in the same street as this woman was shot by the Nazis when a bloodstained R.A.F. cap was found, in his house. The Germans are shooting many people found harbouring or suspected of harbouring members of the Allied Forces.

Some diseases cure themselves, but sin is not one of them.

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If you cannot go to the Foreign field across the sea, go to your neighbour across the street.