The present arrangement, under the charge of the estimable Rev. Dr. Godden, seems to be solving the mission question better than any former plan. The mission owns a store where the Indians may buy or sell; the missionary in charge may meet and converse personally with the Indians; he wins their friendship and is able by degrees to instill religious thoughts into them. The Rev. Dr. Godden is working along industrial lines, and says, “We must fit these Seminoles by education and Christianity to meet the coming conditions, and teach them to become self-supporting by industrial pursuits and now is the time to do it.”
The work proposed is to erect suitable houses for the residence of the missionary and his family with sufficient room to entertain visiting Indians when in over night and a barrack or rest room for laborers employed in clearing land and working crops.
Writing in 1909 of the work and Mission, Dr. Gray says:
To Bishops, Clergy and Laity of
The American Church, Greeting:
I desire to commend most heartily my well-beloved in the Lord, Rev. Irenæus Trout, Missionary to the Seminole Indians in Southern Florida. I believe that God has in a marvelous way designated him as the very man to go forward with the work in which he has already been signally blessed, viz: that of leading the Seminoles into the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are now at the very crisis of opportunity.
Hear him and help him. Here is a cry, not from Europe, Asia or Africa, but from the Everglades, in your own Florida: “Come and help us!” A thousand prayers accompany him from this Missionary District.
God gives you the privilege of helping this poor Seminole remnant into the kingdom.
Faithfully,
For Christ and the Church,
(Seal)Wm. Crane Gray,
Bishop of Southern Fla.
The Cathedral Church
Of St. Luke,
Orlando, Fla., Jan. 15, 1909.