Private Point Four

When he was a U.S. Army chaplain in World War II, John L. Peters watched teen-age G.I.s die in his arms. He saw other kinds of suffering too. He never forgot the hungry Filipinos who picked food from his regiment's garbage pails. Back in his job as professor of religion at Oklahoma City University, Methodist Peters read with profound attention how the misery that he had glimpsed in Asia was being exploited by Communism.

As a guest preacher at Oklahoma City's St. Luke's Methodist Church last spring, Peters offered a plan of his own. Over & above U.S. Government aid to underdeveloped countries, he said, there ought to be a voluntary, Christian Point Four program. It would express the charitable love of Christians as no government program ever could. Said Peters: "The only way to defeat Communism is to outlive, out-love, out-serve and out-die it . . . This is the hour when we need to rise and show what we can do."

St. Luke's parishioners rose almost immediately. Next day, a laymen's committee pledged full support for any private Point Four that Dr. Peters wanted to start. A group of Protestant businessmen speedily raised $14,000. Said Dr. Peters, a little surprised by the quick response: "There's no use wasting that kind of enthusiasm." He hurried to New York and Washington, to talk over the project with U.S. Government specialists, foreign embassies and church mission leaders. Back in Oklahoma, his idea got a name--World Assistance, Inc.

The goal of World Assistance, Inc. is to support teams of U.S. experts in underdeveloped areas. Dr. Peters concentrates on three fields: literacy, medical care and better farming. Team members will preach Christianity only by example. The first team is scheduled to work in. the south Indian town of Kappadi.

In Manhattan this week, Dr. Peters is beginning a national campaign to get other U.S. churches interested, either as part of World Assistance, Inc. or on their own: "If we are just a step toward something bigger, that will be fine."

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