Careers Changed

James and Ellen White could now see that regardless of home comforts, pleasures, and responsibilities, their life was to be a life of dedicated service involving travel, suffering, and earnest labor for others.1BIO 136.3

They soon received an earnest invitation to attend a conference of the Sabbathkeeping Adventists in Connecticut. They would go, taking their 7-month-old Henry with them in their arms. James White had received $10 in settlement for his work in cutting wood. They used half of the money in preparation for the trip south and kept the other half for transportation. With all their earthly possessions half filling a trunk, they went to Boston, where they stayed with the Nichols family. They did not make known their penniless plight to the family, but as they left, Mrs. Nichols handed James $5. With all but 50 cents of this they purchased tickets to Middletown, Connecticut, the closest rail point to Rocky Hill and the Albert Belden home, where the conference was to begin on Thursday night, April 20.1BIO 136.4