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Called By God
enclosed. Anna had been given the sign that she had requested. Soon she received a
letter from church leadership requesting her to establish a strong work for black people
in Atlanta. Finding trained people to lead out in the project seemed nearly impossible. In
fact, church leaders thought that the vacancy in India could be filled more readily. After
praying once more, Miss Knight sent word that she would accept the call to Atlanta.
Within a few days’ time, she was there .
As a result of her two years’ work during furlough, Anna left a little company of
Sabbath keepers in Jasper County. Some of these converts had been strongly opposed to
her own Sabbath keeping at first.
When Anna arrived in Atlanta expecting to begin work at the new medical center,
she found the sanitarium in an embryonic state—nothing more than an unfinished,
unfurnished house. Furthermore, no one seemed to know where Miss Knight was
supposed to live while organizing the new center.
Having been a self-supporting missionary during much of her life, Anna had not accumulated many tangible assets. Just how or where she was to live at this point she did
not know. Therefore she prayed through this crisis, as she had others in the past. She
decided to sleep in an empty room of the sanitarium. The enterprising project director
found a few pieces of used furniture, gave them a healthy scrubbing, and moved in.
Just before Miss Knight’s arrival, neighbors had circulated a petition and had obtained
an injunction against the operation of a sanitarium in the house that the Adventists had
secured. It took time to work around this blockade. Meanwhile, the responsibility of
giving Bible studies in the area was turned over to her. She was also invited by many
groups to recount her work in India. This helped break down prejudice toward Seventhday Adventists.
When a sick neighbor failed to respond to all her doctor’s efforts, Anna asked permission to administer water treatments. Since the doctor had exhausted all the possibilities
he knew, he consented. In a few days the patient was sitting up, and before long she had
fully recovered. Favorable relationships with several people in the community resulted.
Anna hoped to save enough money for a coat by the time winter weather arrived,
because Atlanta would be colder than Mississippi had been. Meanwhile, she accepted
chairmanship of the board of the two-teacher church school in Atlanta. Because of Miss
Knight’s own experience with a struggling school, she was a sympathetic listener as the
school’s problems were enumerated to her.
The larger room needed several desks immediately in order to seat the students. A
more adequate stove was necessary to heat the room properly. Could the conference
provide the equipment? Miss Knight wrote to inquire.
She was told that since this was a mission school, the conference already paid 50
percent of the teachers’ salaries; the administrators did not think they could do more.
Then Anna requested permission to buy the much-needed equipment on the installment plan and make payments from the tuition. This plan was approved.
In a sacrificial act, the board chairman used her savings, earmarked for a winter coat,
as the down payments on the stove and school desks. Some members of the board,
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