Exodus 35:29 The children of Israel brought a willing offering to the LORD, every man and woman… About nine o'clock in the morning the people gathered together in the church. Fully five hundred natives were present, and the building seemed to be well filled. It is hard to say how many the Port Moresby church will hold. The people sit on the floor. They have a way of folding up their legs and then sitting on them, and this saves space by doing away with all need for chairs. They can stay seated in this cramped position for an hour or two. Upon this occasion the floor was almost entirely covered with people who listened well to what was said. I have never faced such a congregation before. Towards the front the people were simply but decently dressed. Many of them were young men and women who are being trained for native teachers in the Mission School. You had only to look a few yards behind them to see the naked savage sitting almost motionless, and looking just a little hideous in his grotesque ornamentation. To look from one man to another was to see what has been done, and what can be done for these people by the gospel of Christ. The collection was a very strange one. Very few of the people have any money, so, instead of silver and gold, they brought such as they have — viz., 325 spears, 65 shell armlets, 92 bows, 180 arrows, besides shields, drums, shell necklaces, feather and other ornaments. Altogether, counting money given by the missionaries and the native teachers, the collection was worth £30 1s. 6d. (Lewis, Missionary in New Guinea.) Parallel Verses KJV: The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses. |
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