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Innovative Administrator
hitched the bullocks to the plow and took its handles herself. Working as hard as she
ever had worked in her life, she managed to prepare suitable rows and plant sweet potato
slips in them, persisting even in the rain until she finished. She was so exhausted that
after her bath and dinner she fainted and was weak for several days.
Using two girls as crutches, the determined missionary limped to a chair from which
she supervised school boys while they planted tomatoes, cauliflower, turnips, and beets.
Before long there was a vegetable harvest such as had never been seen at Karmatar. The
laborers from the village spread the word that the missionary had herself operated the
strange American plow and with it had worked wonders.
Of course the whole point of creating a successful garden, of being there at all, was to
introduce the students to the joys of the kingdom of heaven. Miss Knight wished to
hold up before them the future life while at the same time preparing them to share the
good news of salvation with others. Anna was overjoyed when she saw the girls begin to
take a deep interest in the Bible classes and nursing skills she taught them. The boys,
who had caused some problems before, behaved better when fully occupied physically
under Anna’s direction, busily digging holes for new fruit trees.
There was important work beyond the campus as well. One day Miss Knight and
Miss White is, another staff member, were traveling from the school to a neighboring
village to visit a sick woman. On the way people ran to greet them with deep bows,
urging the missionaries to help their sick friends. Anna Knight knew that she was
following her call and was content. She sometimes expressed a wish for more workers as
well as more of the Spirit’s power.
At the school Miss Knight began taking up an offering in Sabbath school. She was
delighted to see that the children cheerfully accepted the idea. Of course, the youngest
children had no income. To rectify this, Anna Knight sent the five youngest students
out to pick up manure to put under the new trees. They were paid one piece each. Thus
they had income from which to give to the Lord. One little boy proclaimed with enthusiasm, “We will earn a hundred piece.”(Anna Knight, “Karmatar Training-School,” Eastern
Tidings. March, 1904: 10-11.)
Anna believed the admonition, “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Proverbs
22:6. In Mississippi first, and now in India, she had accepted this responsibility. She was
in charge of training Indian workers to minister to their own people.
Community folk came to the campus for spiritual ministry. One Sabbath evening five
lovely Bengali women attended worship. A student read a chapter from the Bengali
Bible; prayers were offered in the native tongue as well as in English. At the close of the
service, the visiting women expressed their appreciation. They urged Anna and others to
visit them, to sing, and to tell them of Jesus; they promised to return.
“What more could we want?” Anna asked. Her long-time dream of ministering to the
women of India was coming true. (Anna Knight, “Karmatar,” Eastern Tidings. November,
1904: 42-43.)
Miss Knight helped her students in ways other than her formal work of teaching,
important as that was. She wanted the students to learn ways to earn income; she knew
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