Over My Shoulder

Chapter 12—A Medical Mission at Avondale

The Avondale School for Christian Workers was formally opened on April 28, 1897. In the rush of finishing the building, every able-bodied person in the community was given the opportunity of helping. Iram James laid the floorboards while Mrs. Haskell and Miss McEnterfer pounded in the nails. We younger folk followed along after the builders, cleaning paint off the windows and removing plaster from the floors. OMS 92.1

Part of the dining room was divided by temporary partitions into two classrooms. In one of these small rooms Mrs. C. B. Hughes, the principal’s wife, instructed a class in grammar, using as her textbook Prof. G. H. Bell’s Natural Methods in English. Nearly the whole school met in the sawmill loft where she taught reading. Here chapel exercises and Sabbath meetings were also held. For a reading text, we used the Bible, articles from The Reviews and Herald and The Youth’s Instructor, Hymns and Tunes, Pilgrim’s Progress, and choice selected poems. The surrounding villages provided a laboratory for those who wished to gain an experience in giving Bible studies and conducting gospel services. OMS 92.2

The larger number of students in attendance at the school that first year were mature young people who, after a brief preparation, entered some branch of gospel service. There were also a number of children in the school. Mrs. Lacey taught the primary grades. She must have been a good teacher, for 9-year-old Mabel, who for health reasons had not attended school beyond kindergarten, entered the Australian equivalent of fifth grade the following year. OMS 92.3

Another first-grader who made remarkable progress under Mrs. Lacey’s tutelage was Robert Hare, son of Metcalf Hare, the business manager. Robert later became a physician and was for many years connected with the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital, nineteen years as medical director. OMS 92.4

A recitation hall and other buildings were soon added to the school plant, and a neat, commodious church was erected, with two large wings that were used as Sabbath school classrooms. On special occasions they could be opened to enlarge the main auditorium. Elder and Mrs. Haskell taught the Bible classes and trained students in evangelism. OMS 92.5

Gifts of money came in from abroad and capable workmen made valuable contributions of labor. Within three months of the time the decision was made to build a church, it was completed, free of debt. Those were the days when people “helped every one his neighbour,” and all were willing to give a helping hand whenever possible without thought of compensation. OMS 93.1

In the meantime appeals continued to come to Grandma from homes far and near, wherever there was illness. Miss McEnterfer was always ready to answer such calls. If they came by night she would saddle the riding horse and accompany the messenger to the home of the sick one; if in the daytime, Grandma would sometimes go with her in the carriage. At one such home Miss McEnterfer found an 8-year-old boy who had a deep cut in his ankle. While driving a calf out of the yard, he had stepped in a hole into which broken glass had been thrown. Lard had been applied to the cut and the foot bound up with a rag. After a few days it had become so swollen and painful that the boy’s father took him twenty-three miles by train to a physician in Newcastle. OMS 93.2

The doctor dressed the wound, gave the father a bottle of medicine to administer internally, and told him to apply bread-and-milk poultices, but he failed to tell him how to make the poultices. The foot grew worse and blood poisoning developed in the entire leg. The parents feared they would have to take the boy back to the doctor, who had intimated that it might be necessary to amputate in order to save the child’s life. OMS 93.3

Then the father heard about Mrs. White and the Battle Creek nurse who lived with her and immediately sent an appeal for help. When Miss McEnterfer reached the house, she found the wound black and showing signs of gangrene. The little fellow had cried day and night for a week. Sara administered hot and cold fomentations continuously for the first two hours, and by the time the wound was dressed the patient was fast asleep. The next morning when Miss McEnterfer called at the home, she found the mother in bed with a new baby and the aunt who had attempted to carry out the nurse’s instructions incapacitated. The woman had slipped with a kettle of boiling water in her hand and burned her leg and foot so badly that she could scarcely move. Now the nurse had two patients instead of one. OMS 93.4

Bundling them into the carriage she brought them to Grandma’s home. But her front room was occupied with overnight guests so the patients were brought to our house and beds made for them in Father’s study. Water was kept boiling on the kitchen stove, and the boy’s leg was treated every two or three hours. Besides fomentations and leg baths, charcoal poultices were applied to the wound at night. One morning when the poultice was removed, a piece of glass about the size of a grain of wheat was found in the dressing. After ten days’ care, the patients were taken home to astonish their neighbors with their accounts of the remarkable cures accomplished “just with hot and cold water and charcoal.” OMS 94.1

Grandma never accepted payment for such services. After that experience, calls for help came on so frequently that Miss McEnterfer could not answer them all. Mrs. Rodd, a Seventh-day Adventist sister who was a practical nurse, gave a helping hand. She also directed students in the nursing class at the school. They were glad not only to be of service but also to gain practical experience in caring for the sick, many of whom were cared for in Grandma’s home. OMS 94.2

“The Lord is in these things,” wrote Grandma at the time. “He is preparing the way before us for the entrance of truth. This is real medical missionary work. We shall take every case that comes, even if we have to make a hospital of our home.” OMS 94.3

This seemed an almost impossible situation. Each of Grandma’s helpers had her typewriter in her own bedroom, because there was no other space available for offices or workrooms. Grandma began to talk of the need for a hospital building where the sick could be cared for and instruction given in healthful living, and where students might gain nursing experience. OMS 94.4

She sent appeals for funds to our churches in America and to the believers throughout Australia; but she said that no money was to be solicited from the poor people who lived in and around Cooranbong. OMS 94.5

One day classes at the school were dismissed and nearly the entire Adventist community joined teachers and students in a combination picnic and workbee for the clearing of a twenty-acre plot of woodland donated by the school board to the hospital enterprise. The day turned out to be rainy, but work went on between showers. When a particularly heavy downpour came on, we went inside the church, which was close by, and had a praise meeting. Grandma spoke words of encouragement, and Father told stories of pioneer days in America and Europe. OMS 95.1

A twenty-five-bed hospital building was erected. Flower and vegetable gardens were set out, providing the patients with opportunity for physical therapy. Before the building was completed, applications began coming in from sick people. Although charges were low some were not able to pay them. To my knowledge, however, no one was ever refused help because he was too poor to pay. OMS 95.2

So the years slipped by. Our school in the wilderness flourished. But the time came when Grandma felt it imperative for her to return to the United States. In 1901 there was to be a General Conference session in Battle Creek, and she knew that vital principles were at stake. So on August 29, 1900 she left Australia, and her entire family of helpers returned with her to her homeland. OMS 95.3