Dios es Amor It seems your publication isn't ready to go worldw | Page 41

Farmer’s Wife Becomes Evangelist
decided to take on the assignment. This seemed a suitable way to meet some of her
expenses while providing material that could be used by God to help others. Before the
end of 1912 her book was ready to distribute. She wrote it while continuing all her
regular work; she missed only one appointment because of it, when a deadline was
pressing. The title of the book is Life Sketches and Experiences in Missionary Work. (Taken
from Minnie Sype, Life Sketches and Experiences in Missionary Work Cedar Rapids,
Iowa: The Torch Press, 1912). Conference employees recommended it as an excellent
means of teaching members how to do missionary work. The income from Mrs. Sype’s
book enabled Ross to take advanced work at South Lancaster Academy and Anna to
study at Oak Park Academy again for the 1912-13 school year. In 1916 Mrs. Sype
revised the book. (Minnie Sype, Life Sketches in Missionary Work; Hutchinson,
Minnesota: Seminary Press, 1916.)
After the major effort in Cedar Rapids, Mrs. Sype was left in charge of the follow-up.
She organized the staff and layworkers to distribute Christian literature, give Bible
studies, and conduct medical work; baptisms resulted. J. W. McComas, who like Minnie
Sype had been a licensed minister when he had assisted her in a series of meetings, by
this time was ordained; he baptized the converts. Minnie Sype, being a woman, could
not participate in the progression toward ordination as she engaged productively in
God’s service year after year.
The Iowa Workers’ Bulletin for July 30, 1912, contains accounts of two funerals
conducted by Minnie Sype. The obituaries that she sent to the Bulletin are well written.
She had been called back to conduct the funeral for a Mr. Booton at Fairfield, where she
had been pastor. The other person, Mary Greer, had been a convert in a series of meetings that the evangelist had conducted. Mrs. Sype’s preaching these two funeral sermons
indicates the general nature of her ministry in the conference.
As a result of simply having been given the name of an interested person in Marion,
Iowa, Minnie Sype had a Sabbath school going there by October 1912. The way this
came about was that as Mrs. Sype went weekly to give Bible studies, the interested
woman invited in her neighbors and friends. A Sabbath school with 28 people present at
its first meeting resulted. At the same time, Mrs. Sype was holding Sunday morning
meetings in the Marion jail, providing articles for the daily papers in Cedar Rapids, and
getting ready to launch the Harvest Ingathering campaign. Mrs. Sype made trips around
the Iowa Conference, strengthening the churches.
When Elder Schopbach became ill, Mrs. Sype was sent across the state to Carroll,
Iowa, to continue his series of meetings. Under her ministry a company of believers was
formed at Carroll, and Mrs. Sype began working on providing a suitable place of
worship. She helped the membership to institute local Home Missionary and Young
People’s Societies. By March 1914 a church was organized and a church building dedicated in Carroll.
Evelyn Robeson Faust, who as a child attended the meetings in Carroll, has written
concerning the impact that Mrs. Sype’s preaching had on her entire family. Her father
not only accepted Adventism as a result of Mrs. Sype’s preaching, but also became thor41