This listing is for a 120-page, softcover cookbook titled, Favorite Recipes of Good Cooks - Cookbook of the Susan Bauernfeind Society of World Services. Published sometime in the early 1950s or even late 1940s. See pictures for Table of Contents. Names of recipe contributors included with recipes. Below is some interesting information on Susan Bauernfeind (1870 - 1945). Book in good condition.
The Story of Dr. Susan Bauernfeind
by L. ETHEL SPRENG
It was the time of the great Tokyo earthquake in September, 1923. In the midst of raging fires and constantly recurring shocks, among thousands killed or injured and homeless, two American women and one Japanese were seen carefully guiding a group of some forty little orphan girls on foot through the ruins. The group found refuge for the night in a school of correction, in charge of a Japanese Christian. Early the next morning, they started for a station outside the city, hoping to get a train there for the mission station at Koriyama. All day they walked, without anything to eat. The next morning they again rose early, and reached the station by night. None of them had a seat in the crowded train, but all arrived safely at their destination late that night, where each child received food and a bed, away from the horrors of Tokyo. One of these three brave women was Dr. Susan Bauernfeind.
Susan Bauernfeind was born November 25, 1870, in Holden, Minnesota. With her five brothers and three sisters, Susan was reared in a home that was deeply religious. One of her brothers was the late Reverend J. H. Bauernfeind, for many years superintendent of the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Chicago, and at one time president of the American Protestant Hospital Association.
Miss Bauernfeind recalls: "I had a sudden and definite call when I consecrated myself to God." It was while reading some of Dr. Charles H. Spurgeon's sermons that she made the decision. This was in 1891, and in the same year she entered North Western College at Naperville, Illinois (now North Central College), to learn stenography and thus prepare herself for wider usefulness. "But once inside the college walls, she was caught in the current of holy enthusiasm for missions, and believing the Christ who called would also open the way, she volunteered for foreign work." She was graduated in June, 1899, having completed the courses in German and in philosophy. In response to her application, she was appointed missionary to Japan by the Board of Missions of the Evangelical Church in the fall of 1899, and sailed for Japan in September, 1900.
This marked an adventure, not only for Miss Bauernfeind, but likewise for the Woman's Missionary Society, which as yet had not undertaken the responsibility of woman's work in any foreign field. It was cause for much rejoicing on the part of the women when their request to take more active part in the foreign-missionary work of the Church was granted by the Board of Missions in the appointment of Miss Bauernfeind and another young woman, Miss Anna Kammerer, of Superior, Nebraska, to serve in Japan. The Woman's Missionary Society was to "bear their expenses by special contribution."
Both young women spent the months before sailing for Japan doing deputation work throughout the Church, becoming acquainted with the members in a number of states, and even organizing several branch or state Woman's Missionary Societies. This experience proved very helpful in their future work, and it inspired the home societies to pray for and support this new undertaking.
Upon their arrival in Japan on October 10, 1900, the two young missionaries rented a house in pure Japanese style, with paper doors and windows, about four miles from the homes of the other missionaries in a part of Tokyo where the people were very poor and where there were no other missionary workers. Their immediate aim was to become acquainted with both the language and the customs of the people.
Of their first months in Japan, Miss Bauernfeind writes in her book, Wayside Sowing: "There was no definite form of work prescribed, which gave liberty to follow the Spirit's guidance. Although every possible effort was made while still in the homeland to prepare for service, there was a training necessary after reaching the field of labor which only the Master himself could give. Filled with enthusiasm and anxious to work, one is obliged to sit still and study the language and customs of the people. While doing this, there was an occasional opportunity for telling the story of the Cross. The English Bible class for young men gave me an insight into the minds of the educated classes. The thought that I was hindered from helping because of the language barrier often troubled me. Today, the truth that it was the best way by which to become really prepared for service is fixed. The Master has great patience with his workers and knows what is needed to make each one fit to tell the story of salvation to others. Although language study is by no means Bible study when pursued with but one purpose in mind—that of speaking directly to those one longs to see saved—it has the tendency of making the heart humble and prayerful. One learns the lesson of divine help even in this, and finds that nothing done earnestly is lost sight of by the Master."
The first year was truly pioneering, the young women doing as much as possible toward organizing Sunday-school work, holding an occasional women's meeting, and teaching an English Bible class in a little church located in one of the poorer districts of the city. With transportation facilities limited as they were in those days, distances of many miles each day were covered on foot, at great cost of time and strength. As Miss Bauernfeind says: "For seven years it was to be the place the Master chose to train one of his handmaidens, and regardless of the unpleasant experiences she remembers in connection with the work of those years, the blessed fact that souls were saved and that lessons so necessary in order to become fixed in one's work were learned are reward enough for all the difficulties and discouragements met during that time."
In 1902, the Mission Board authorized the erection in Koishikawa, Tokyo, of a foreign-built house for a dwelling and a chapel for the work of the two missionaries. In November of that year, Miss Bauernfeind and Miss Kammerer moved into their new home, and from that day to this the house has been a home for workers who have since gone out to Japan.
From this time forward, the work took form and developed. Just one year after coming to Japan, Miss Bauernfeind made her first contact with the big spinning mill in Mukojima, a suburb of Tokyo, which was to prove one of the most fruitful pieces of work in her whole career in Japan. In Leaves from My Diary, she writes: "The pastor of the church in which I worked met the manager of this big company, Mr. M. Fuji. In talking about the mill one day, this manager heard of my being here and asked the pastor to bring me over. He would arrange for a meeting of the employees so that I could speak to them. When the pastor told me about it and said there were about four thousand girls and women employed, I hesitated greatly because I could not speak in the Japanese language and did not know how my interpreter would get along. But the opportunity seemed so great that I dared not refuse; so I went. What a burden for souls came over me as I stood before several hundred women and girls and tried to tell them of Jesus and his salvation! Most of them were uneducated, ignorant country girls who knew absolutely nothing of the true God and had never been told the story of the Cross. When I spoke in English, the sound of the language made them all giggle, and it was most difficult to speak. When, however, the interpreter began to speak, there was perfect quiet, and I knew they were getting the message. Just one year after coming to this land, and such a wonderful opening for work among girls and women! What encouragement, what joy filled my heart! The distance from my home was about four miles, and in those days traveling was not easy; but nothing seemed hard in the face of such an opportunity. Plans were at once made for a meeting once a week, whenever the large mill was closed down for cleaning."
Out of this beginning, a permanent work was established in which Miss Bauernfeind continued as leader during the entire forty-one years of her service in Japan. Many were the women and girls, and through them entire families, who accepted Christianity as a result of the messages she brought regularly to these workers.
These meetings proved the beginning of the regular evangelistic work in that suburb, and resulted later in the present congregation in Mukojima. The story of how a lot was secured for a church building in Mukojima, as authorized by the Board of Missions, is one of faith tried by fire. Continued disappointments and several years' delay tested the souls of the missionaries. Finally, however, a contract was made between the spinning-mill company and the Evangelical Church for the use of a tract on which were to be erected a church and kindergarten building, free of rent. The tract of land donated by the company was far more desirable than any that had been under consideration or even dreamed of. This piece of good fortune caused Miss Bauernfeind to write: "How little we know or realize God's overruling Providence in all that is done If only people would wait to know his will! While it seemed that our whole plans would fail to last and the delay was difficult to understand, he was providing a far more convenient and beautiful spot for us."
It was 1912, however, before the buildings were completed, the dedication taking place in July of that year. The first day nursery to care for the children of parents who worked in the mill was started in connection with the new kindergarten, and today this work in Mukojima is practically self-supporting.
After six years of efficient and faithful service, Miss Anna Kammerer left Japan to become the bride of the Reverend C. E. Ranck, an Evangelical missionary in China, leaving Miss Bauernfeind alone, for several months the only single woman missionary in this field. However, reinforcements soon arrived, and the working force was from that time constantly increased as the work developed.
The launching of the Tokyo Bible School in 1904 was the realization of a cherished dream of Miss Bauernfeind, and was an important step in the progress of the work of the mission. This school was designed to train Japanese Christian young women for practical evangelistic work. The beginning was small, there being no building and no native teachers. It was another venture of faith. The school opened with six students. Miss Bauernfeind was appointed principal, and continued in that office until 1934. Today the Tokyo Bible School has its own beautiful building and dormitory, and has a sizable endowment. It is now under Christian Japanese management. There have been more than two hundred graduates, and many others have studied there for a longer or shorter period. The Tokyo Bible School became the outstanding school of its kind in Japan.
Miss Bauernfeind had her first furlough after nine years of untiring service on the field. She wrote: "While very busy during my furlough year, I returned with great courage and faith, believing that greater things were to be done than heretofore."
An "open door" of subsequent importance and fruitage far beyond any expectation was the appeal in 1910 to provide a home for little girls who were orphans or whose only future was to be sold for profit. Eventually, a home was built for these little ones, with a capacity for fifty or more children. Miss Bauernfeind was head of the Aisenryo, or orphanage, until 1940, when she resigned in favor of a Japanese leader because of her permanent return to the United States. It was in appreciation of her humanitarian service for these needy children of Japan, and because she sent them to the public schools in Tokyo, that in 1917 she was presented, at the royal palace, with a silver cup and a gift of 200 yen from the imperial household.
When the present Emperor was crowned, she was again specially honored for her outstanding service in caring for the poor and neglected, and presented with a silver medal, and on still another occasion received a pin from the imperial household for services rendered the Japanese people. For all of these high honors, rarely accorded to foreigners, Susan Bauernfeind has been most humble, rejoicing only that through her the Church has been honored.
On her second furlough in America, in 1916, Miss Bauernfeind raised more than $24,000 for new buildings in Japan authorized by the Mission Board, including a church and kindergarten in Koishikawa, Tokyo. The construction of the church building, under her supervision, was well under way when a typhoon struck the city, completely demolishing the structure. It was more than a year later before it was rebuilt and dedicated. "In this church," Dr. Bauernfeind tells us, "no less than two thousand people have found Jesus Christ as their Lord." The congregation has been financially independent for many years.
Miss Bauernfeind was sympathetic toward all phases of suffering, and in 1918 became interested in a leper hospital. She was chosen a member of the board of trustees of the Christian Leper Hospital Committee, a position she held for twenty-seven years; she also acted as treasurer for a number of years. She helped to start a Christian Tuberculosis Hospital in 1931, which today is doing fine work among both adults and children. She was very active in the W.C.T.U. of Japan, having charge of the evangelistic department there. Until recently, when new congregations were being rapidly added, there was a local woman's missionary society in every church, and a Japan branch was organized and carried on entirely by Japanese women.
Space does not permit a complete account of the many fields in which this gifted and consecrated woman has spent herself in her beloved Japan. Of the many souls who have been brought into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, of the joy brought into countless lives through the ministry of Susan Bauernfeind, one may not venture to write She served longer as foreign missionary than any other missionary of the Evangelical Church in any field. God has blessed her richly with splendid health. Her consecration to her Lord and consequently to her task has been supreme; her faith and courage have been simple, heroic, and victorious.
Owing to changed conditions, Dr. Bauernfeind—she received the degree of Doctor of Humanities from Western Union College, Le Mars, Iowa, in 1935—left her loved Japan after forty-one years. But the service of love she rendered will never die. Regardless of the present situation in that country, her teaching of the word of God and her beautiful example of Christian living will live on in the hearts of all those whom her life touched. To quote her own words: "A Christian's outlook is always bright, for with faith in Christ and his power it cannot be otherwise. What a grand portion he has given us! How dare we neglect to do faithfully what he has entrusted to us! Victory is assured, but strong faith in our leader, earnest prayer, and a never-giving-up spirit are absolutely necessary to claim the promises of God."
Dr. Bauernfeind is back in America spending much time telling the story of her work in Japan throughout the Evangelical Church. And everywhere people hear her gladly.
Original pamphlet Copyright, 1942, by
the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations