APPOINTMENT TO THE FIELD
Having made ready for return to Siam, Boon Itt met another severe test of his consecration in the question of appointment by the Foreign Board. Unfortunately the problem was made more difficult for him by the very kindly intentions of his friends in America who apparently did not recognise the fundamental principle involved. As the work in foreign lands had developed it had become the policy of mission Boards to magnify the native church, and to place upon it as rapidly as possible the increasing responsibility for managing its own affairs, as distinguished from the affairs of the missions. The development of a strong native church in each country necessitated that ordained natives should share, not the supposed advantages of foreign missionaries, but the actual conditions of their fellow native Christians. For this reason, along with others of a kindred nature, the Board had arrived at the policy not to commission as a missionary any native, however well qualified. Provision was made that the mission in the field might employ such workers according to their judgment.
While, therefore, the Board declined to issue a “commission” to Boon Itt they heartily recommended him to the mission in Siam for appointment on equality with his fellow Siamese Christian workers. That the principle involved is wise finds testimony in the words of Boon Itt himself who, when he reached a position of leadership, said: “To make Siam completely Christian must be ultimately the work of the Siamese Christian Church, self-supporting, self-directing and responsible to God—not dependent always on foreign missions.”