Ellen White: Woman of Vision

A New Approach In Gisborne

As the little worker group counseled together, they decided to try a new approach to arrest the attention of the public. In letters to her son W. C. White and to her niece Addie Walling, Ellen White described what took place: WV 298.5

We thought we would strike out on a new line. We would have Sunday-afternoon services in an open-air meeting. We did not know how it would come out.... Brother Wilson and Brother Alfred Wade secured the paddock just back of the post office. There was one large willow tree. Under this a platform was made and the organ and stand placed on the platform. Lumber for seats was right in the yard, costing nothing for their use (Letter 140, 1893). WV 298.6

There were seats without backs in abundance, and a dozen taken from the church with backs.... The weather was favorable, and we had an excellent congregation. The mayor and some of the first people in Gisborne were in attendance. WV 298.7

I spoke upon temperance, and this is a living question here at this time. Hundreds were out to hear, and there was perfect order.... Mothers and any number of children were present. You would have supposed that the children had had an opiate, for there was not a whimper from them. My voice reached all over the enclosure (paddock is the name they give it here). WV 298.8

Some of the hearers were very enthusiastic over the matter. The mayor, the policeman, and several others said it was by far the best gospel temperance discourse that they had ever heard. We pronounced it a success and decided that we would have a similar meeting the next Sunday afternoon (Letter 68, 1893). WV 299.1

They did hold just such a meeting the next Sunday afternoon. It, too, was a decided success. Ellen White commented: “One thing we have learned, and that is that we can gather the people in the open air, and there are no sleepy ones. Our meetings were conducted just as orderly as if in a meetinghouse” (Ibid.). A church member declared, “It is altogether the best advertisement of our people they have ever had in Gisborne” (Letter 140, 1893). WV 299.2

Prejudice was broken down, and from that time on the meetings in the church and the Theatre Royal were well attended. At last they had witnessed a breakthrough. WV 299.3