Ellen White: Woman of Vision

Growing Stronger

Beginning with July 10, the entries in Ellen White's diary began to take a new turn. On that day she wrote the words “I praise the Lord with heart and soul and voice that I am growing stronger” (Manuscript 34, 1892). By the end of the school year she wrote jubilantly to the president of the General Conference: “The school has been a success!” WV 284.8

She had just attended the closing exercises of the Australasian Bible School, a simple service held in the chapel room. For almost three months she had been away, working in Adelaide and Ballarat, and had returned to Melbourne for this significant event. She had not forgotten that one of the basic reasons she and her son had been urged to spend a couple years in Australia was to aid in starting an educational work there. Despite indifference, financial depression in the country, and prolonged, debilitating illness, her persistence had won out. WV 284.9

Most of the students left immediately to enter the literature ministry in several of the Australian colonies. Church leaders turned briefly to planning for the next term of school, setting the time for opening as June 6. Then the ministers, including the president, scattered to the principal churches to lead out in the newly instituted Week of Prayer. WV 284.10