Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

Ellen G. White Following the Session

The 1891 General Conference session over, Ellen White hoped fervently that there would be no invitation for her to go to Australia. She exclaimed, “I long for rest, for quietude and to get out the ‘Life of Christ.”’— MS 29 1891. In fact, in anticipation of a concerted program of writing, she had purchased a lot in Petoskey, in the resort area on Lake Michigan, where she had spent two months the summer before. She was having a home built there, where she and her staff could hide away and work. But meetings the brethren wished her to attend would involve several weeks. The last of these were at Grand Rapids, which she would attend en route to Petoskey. In her restlessness she wrote: 3BIO 490.1

I long to be in Petoskey and feel almost conscience-smitten in losing so much time. I do not know but that we will give up Grand Rapids and go on to Petoskey.—Letter 65, 1891. 3BIO 490.2

But she didn't, and finally she reached Petoskey on the evening of Monday, May 4. She stayed with friends for a few days until her home was completed and her household goods had arrived from Battle Creek (The Review and Herald, June 9, 1891). 3BIO 490.3

Her summer plans were to be affected by other actions taken at the recent General Conference session. One called for a Bible institute, to be followed by a summer normal institute from July 15 to August 25, in the vicinity of Petoskey. For some reason, perhaps because of her son's involvement, Ellen White and the two women with her, Sara McEnterfer and Marian Davis, were drawn into searching for appropriate sites for the planned summer institutes, even before getting settled in the new home, which was nearly ready for occupancy. 3BIO 490.4

It was just at this point the invitation from the Foreign Mission Board for her to go to Australia reached her. 3BIO 490.5