Ellen G. White: The Progressive Years: 1862-1876 (vol. 2)

The Beginnings of the Work in California

It will be well to review the history of how the Adventist work began in California. At the General Conference session held in Battle Creek in May, 1868, in response to earnest pleas brought by M. G. Kellogg from the few Sabbathkeepers in California, J. N. Loughborough and D. T. Bourdeau were sent as missionaries to the West Coast. They began their work in Petaluma and from there worked northward. Soon they had established churches in Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Bloomfield, and other places. Loughborough reported: 2BIO 362.2

Shortly after our arrival in California we received a letter from Mrs. White, in which she related a vision given her in Battle Creek on Friday evening of June 12—a day that we had spent in Lancaster, New York, before starting for California. She had never been in California, and had no personal knowledge of the habits of the people. In fact, at that time she had never been west of the Missouri River. Any knowledge she possessed concerning things there was derived from what the Lord was pleased to reveal to her. 2BIO 362.3

In the instruction in her letter, she delineated the liberal ways of the people of California, and what would be the effect of labor among them on a close, “pennywise” plan. In preaching to the people in California, they must be approached in something of the liberal spirit in which they work, and yet not in a spendthrift manner.—GSAM, p. 385. 2BIO 362.4

Looking back years later, Loughborough testified: 2BIO 362.5

As I witness the results of following the instruction given, I can say that our cause advanced more in three months than it would have done in one year had we not been helped “in the work of the ministry” by the instruction received through the gift of prophecy. Up to the spring of 1871, as the result of the efforts in Sonoma County, five churches of Sabbathkeepers had been raised up.— Ibid., 386.