MISSIONS

m.b.i. guild

“It is a Sunday morning in 1837 in the little town of Westerlo. Along

the dusty roads come the farmers’ teams depositing their loads at the

old horse block before the church. The women are greeting each other

with sober Sabbath smiles. The children find seats in the rear of the

church and yet not beyond the ken of the white haired deacon before

the pulpit who faithfully scowls at them through his glasses. Nor yet

are they beyond the reach of the door keeper who taps them smartly

on the head when they grow restless. But there is no need for such

vigilance today, for above them in the high pulpit there stands a strang-

er. A returned missionary from Burma is there and before him on the

desk is a little white idol. The children look, their elders listen but one

little lass of nine years, Marilla Baker, with laughing eyes and long curls

fastens her eyes on the heathen god and looks and listens and does not

forget.

“Eating doughnuts and apples in the shade between services, she as-

sures her childish hearers if she were grown, she would go at once and

tell those people that their idol was no God.

“Happy the missionary who sowed the seed in a childish heart that day,

for surely it fell on good ground and yielded—who can say how many

hundredfold? Marilla continued to pray for Burma. She met and mar-

ried Lovell Ingalls, a missionary who had helped Adoniram Judson. They

went to Burma in 1850 where he lived only 5 years. She continued to

serve the Lord faithfully in Burma 51 years and was buried there. One

of her greatest accomplishments was the actual conversion of 100

Buddhist priests.”

In 1940, Ruth Bradt married Clayton Barber and moved to Westerlo. She asked Mrs. Clifford B. Hannay (Hazel) to start a missionary group for the younger women of the First Baptist Church in Westerlo, like the group Ruth had attended in her old church, Calvary Baptist of Schenectady, NY. The group was founded that year as a chapter of the World Wide Guild, and was designated the Sally Peck Westerlo Society in the 1941 minutes of the Rensselaerville Baptist Association with Mrs. George A. Hannay (Emma) as its first president. Some time before 1950, the name was changed to the Marilla Baker Ingalls (or MBI) Guild.

The Guild Covenant which is recited at the end of each meeting is exactly the

same as the one given in The Guild Book which was published in the 1930s—

EXCEPT for one letter: an “a” appears in the book that somehow was lost when the Westerlo group transcribed the covenant. Instead of “risen,” the original in the book has “arisen”:

Mindful of the millions who are still in darkness

For they know not that the Son of Righteousness

Has risen with healing in His wings;

Remembering the words of Christ Who said:

“I am the Light of the world,”

And again, “Ye are the light of the world,”

I gratefully pledge myself,

Working henceforth with Him,

Giving time, money, and prayer,

That upon such as sit in darkness

And the shadow of death

The Light of Life may shine.

The official World Wide Guild song (cleverly entitled “Song of the World Wide

Guild”) does not seem to have been used at Westerlo. Early members recall

singing “Follow the Gleam”; later the theme of our guild was “Living for Jesus.”

The OFFICIAL “Song of the World Wide Guild” is to be sung to the tune of

“Fling Out the Banner!” According to the internet, at least four tunes have been

connected with “Fling Out the Banner!” including DUKE STREET (“Jesus Shall

Reign”) and WALTHAM (“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”), so determining which tune the author of The Guild Book intended should be used is open to speculation, but the old brown hymnal (The Service Hymnal, 1959) which our church used to use attaches WALTHAM to “Fling Out the Banner!”, so we’ll go along with it.

From a composition-style notebook kept by the Westerlo Guild listing Hostesses and Program Leaders starting on November 6, 1940, we can tell that the following were at least some of the members during the period of 1940-1950: Ruth Waldron (Shaver), Ruth Barber, Vera Barber (Coffey), Betty Strevell (Lockwood), Florence Coffey, Ruth Coffey, Elsie Strevell, Delite Stewart, Dorothy Britton, Emma Hannay, Margaret Storm (Filkins), Mary Snyder (Tallman), Martha Gardiner, Margaretta Britton (Tozer), Vera Lockwood (Farkas), Hazel Hannay, Doris Hannay, Dorothy Rivenburg, Harriet Miller (Simpkins), Shirley Atkins, Mildred Swartout, Harriet LaGrange (Bernard), Jean Hannay (Kocsis), Lois Gardiner (Bray), Betty LaGrange,

Millie Atkins, Marge Dutton, Lee LaGrange, Edna Furman, Julia Donaldson,

Helen Flagler, Betty Guilzon, Phyllis Hannay, and Irene Gage. Our current president, Carol Barber Maslowsky, is the daughter of the Westerlo chapter’s founder, Ruth Barber.

The MBI Guild meets at 7 pm at the church on the first Monday of the months of February, March, April, May, June, and October. A picnic is also held at 6 pm in July or August (location and date to be announced), and there is a Christmas party in December. All women 18 years of age or older are welcome to attend.