PROCESSING

Question: How many would come to the services that your husband conducted? Bartel: Well, it would depend on what...where he was conducting, because at Tsaohsien,...in our area, the native pastors would generally take over, unless my husband would be asked by them. Question: Oh, so they were leaders from among the Chinese. Bartel: Yes, quite a few churches.... My husband wanted the natives to...to have charge, so the church would go on when the missionary would be gone. Like, it may interest you (or did I tell you this last time) when the last baptism, the pastor was baptizing, there were twelve dozen, 144, and the pastor - the native pastor - was far on in years, and he said to Loyal, he said: “Now, how are we going to do it?” He said “My strength is failing, and I am weak, and would you help?” And, “Sure,” he says, “I’ll help you baptize ‘til you feel that your legs are beginning to tremble, until you get weary, and you raise your hand, and I’ll step right in, and take your place.” And that’s the way they did it. I thought that was very precious. Question: That was, yeah. How often did you...would you have a baptism? Bartel: That’s the only time I remember such a large baptism. Yeah, that’s the only...and that was, if I’m correct, it was in the summer of ‘48.

Mitchell: Now, I was with him [Billy Sunday] for four years, singing in Indiana, in Illinois, in Iowa and in Ohio, and the...the last one that I remember.... See all of these were in tabernacles at that time. He...he used to...to have his meetings in a local church, and the church would organize with another group of churches and they would pool their choirs so that they would have a big choir, and then they would all attend those...those services. But the...the last service that I remember with him, the last year, and I believe it was the year of 1916 [actually 1918] he had a tabernacle on the lakefront, in Chicago, and his tabernacles, by the way, you’ve heard of the “sawdust trail.” Question: Uh-huh. Mitchell: Well, they had sawdust on the floor. And he...he felt that with that sawdust on the floor, it would take the...the marks of the...it was the noise of the people coming up to the...to the front, it would dull that noise, and so that’s why they called it “the sawdust trail.” And I sang on the lakefront in Chicago. That was an old...old wooden building, a tabernacle, and by the way, the lumber was donated by the lumber interests in Chicago. And that lumber then, after the tabernacle was torn down, was given away for charitable purposes. So it...it stood in its stead. [sic] But that was a wonderful group of meetings. Now, one thing that Billy Sunday did, was he divided his program into various sections so that he would hold group meetings of all kinds of people in all walks of life.

Hoover: Well, one of the outstanding revivals in my career was up on the frontier of Canada up in the far northwest. Up in the areas where the roads end and there’s nothing but unchartered wilderness. This was in 1939 following terrible devastations of the drought in the western United States and parts of Canada. Many people lost all their...all that they had practically in the horrible drought in our own western plains area and in Canada. But because they could homestead very cheap land up on the border a great many of them went up there and took up new land and started life over. [clears throat] Early on...I forget what year it was started we had missions up in that area and in the summer of 1939 I was asked to spend what eventually stretched out to be about three months in that far north country in a number of revivals most of them in tents, some of them in churches. And those people who were, of course, badly discouraged and demoralized because of the unfortunate circumstances they had been through. They were so recipient to a positive gospel that it was really thrilling. Along with the immigrants from the United States were some also from the old country from England and other European countries. Quite an interesting mix. And this was quite an educational experience for me as well as a...a great thrill and from the standpoint of evangelization to see the commingling of somewhat different cultures out there on the great plains. We...at the end of that summer we had a baptism and I don’t recall the number but it was a great crowd of candidates for baptism at the end of the summer.

Hoover: I think there may have been some misunderstanding regarding that whole unfortunate episode [the expulsion of foreign Christian missionaries from China after the Communists achieved power]. I say “unfortunate” and yet I say that with tongue-in-cheek because subsequent recent history has proved that the church in China under the extreme pressures and persecutions multiplied many times over during those awful years. But in the estimation of a great many people the evacuation of the missionaries from China seemed to be quite unfortunate. That’s quite understandable in our human view. First of all, let me remind you that all of us are still human. On several occasions knowingly, at least knowing in some part, the probable risks involved and feeling so much depended on what I was in position to do, I literally took my life in my hands. And yet let’s be realistic about it, we’re all human and we try to protect our lives, if we, can by the grace of God. I think that’s not only humanly speaking understandable, but I think it’s right, necessary. And so I do not feel that anyone should be critical of the missionaries for abandoning China at that period. There was in my estimation...there was not an element of retreat or giving up but it was chiefly in the field of concern for the best ongoing interests on the Chinese Christian church, Christian mission itself. Let me explain. One of the chief hazzards that not only my relief staffs but Christian missionaries were facing in China as it was being taken by the Communists was the sneering thrust that the Chinese Christian was the running dog of the foreigners, particularly the...particularly the American missionary. And this was one of the chief hazzards and stumbling blocks to any genuine work in China. In other words the Chinese Christians individually and at that juncture the Chinese Christian work in general was without any question better off without the foreigners. I know that some who listen to me may find it a bit difficult to accept that. But that is my firm inalterable conclusion.