The following article appeared in the January 1930 WW- It tells about the decision by Bro. & Sis. Dewitt Garrett to answer the call for mission work in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Thus started 88 years of continuous mission work by this family.
THE GARRETTS FOR AFRICA
Brother and Sister DeWitt Garrett of the Ormsby Avenue congregation, Louisville, Ky., have answered the call of the Lord to take up the work with Brother Sherriff. And due to the urgency of the need and the advantage of traveling with Brother and Sister Short they are making preparations to sail about the first of March.
God’s Faithfulness in Answering Prayer. When the Ormsby Avenue congregation joined the Sherriff’s in their prayers for a helper we had no idea that the Lord would call from our midst our very best, but so He did. The Garretts have been one of the most faithful families in the Ormsby Avenue work for the past three years. Brother Garrett has taught a week-night Bible class, and the Men’s Bible Class Lord’s day morning, as well as doing most of the preaching when the regular man was away. Sister Garrett has been very faithful in the women’s work and classes. We are suffering a loss, but the Sherriff’s are gaining a priceless jewel.
Brother Garrett studied for four and one-half years under Brothers J. N. Armstrong, R. C. Bell and others, in Bible college at Harper, Kan., and Harding College, Morrilton, Ark. He is a Bible scholar of no mean ability, and an exceptional teacher of the Scriptures. His classes have been an inspiration to all who have attended and have influenced the entire congregation. His work at Ormsby Ave., will live forever.
His life is above reproach. Someone has remarked of him, “There is no dross there.” He is a printer by trade, at present being foreman in one of Louisville’s large publishing houses. How great a work will be accomplished in the printing of tracts and translations of the Scriptures eternity alone will reveal.
Sister Garrett studied five and a half years under Brothers Armstrong, Bell and others, and is an excellent teacher among the women and children. Surely, she is close akin to “the holy women of old, who hoped in God.” She is the mother of two fine boys eighteen and two months of age respectively.
To all who know them there is one conclusion: “they are capable, and they love the Lord.” Who but God could select a family so suited to the very work to which they have been called? “Let us magnify Him with thanksgiving.”
The Urgent Need. It is a very short time until the first of March. This means that travel funds and other needs must be raised on short notice, and calls for the earnest, prayerful effort of every child of God to have a part in this work.
“We are God’s Fellow-Workers.” We believe that God supplies the helpers, and that He will supply the funds—that He works through his people today. So, we are presenting the need of travel funds and other necessities to as many of God’s “fellow- workers” as we can reach, and we are confident God will move the hearts of sufficient number to “supply every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Pray to God, interest other Christians, and send gifts to Frank Mullins, 2329 Montgomery St., Louisville, Ky., preacher of Ormsby Ave. congregation, who is requested to handle the funds. The Lord wants you to have a part, and to receive a blessing for it.
Submitted to the 1930 W&W by Frank Mullins.