\V( ■3 C- l5o<\ Jri'slt Jarts iFrmn ®«r Jfamgtt EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOREIGN MISSIONS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, U. S. 154 FIFTH AVENUE, NORTH NASHVILLE, TENN. flrefare All the facts in this pamphlet have been re¬ ceived from the field within the last two and a half months, except the account of the work at Luebo, Africa. These facts are but specimens. They do not cover the immense field. But they convey a true idea of the general character and progress of our work abroad. For the information herein given we are in¬ debted to the following missionaries: Sutsien Station, China, Rev. W. F. Junkin. Hsuchoufu Station, China, Mrs. Geo.P. Stevens.. Kiangyin Station, China, Mr. Andrew Allison. Tsing Kiang Pu Station, China, Miss Sallie M. Lacy. Hwaianfu Station, China, Rev. Henry M. Woods. Taichow Station, China, Rev. C. N. CaldwelL Nagoya Station, Japan, Rev. R. E. McAlpine. Takamatsu Station, Japan, Mrs. S. M. Erick¬ son. Toyohashi Station, Japan, Rev. C. K. Cum- ming Okazaki Station, Japan, Miss Florence Patton. Itapetininga Station, Brazil, Rev. R. D. Daffin.. Pernambuco Station, Brazil, Miss Eliza M.Reed. Descalvado Station, Brazil, Rev. Alva Hardie. Tula Station, Mexico, Rev. J. O. Shelby. H. Matamoros Station, Mexico, Miss Alice L McClelland. C. Victoria Stat'on, Mexico, Miss E. V. Lee. Placetas Station, Cuba, Rev. H. F. Beaty. Calbarien Station, Cuba, Rev. R. L. Wharton. Chunju Station, Korea, Rev. S. Dwight Winn. Kunsan Station, Korea, Rev. W. F. Bull. (Further Korean Facts, Mr. C. A. Rowland.) Luebo Station, Africa, Bishop Lambuth. African Mission Summary, Dr. W. M. Morrison. Egbert W. Smith. Sept. 15, 1914, Nashville, Tenn. iFrmn (j)ur 9 iFomgn ifftrliiB g>utsunt Station, (China. At this station nine years ago there were eighty baptized communicants and only about three out-stations, an out-station being a point away from the central Station, where there are regular Sabbath gatherings for worship. Now, there are over four hundred baptized communicants, seven¬ teen different out-stations, a Boys’ Boarding High School with seventy odd boarders, a Girls’ Boarding and Day School with about fifty pupils, and twenty-six day schools in different parts of the field with between three and four hundred pupils. Nine years ago we had only two or three native preachers, poorly prepared, and, with one ex¬ ception, inefficient. Now we have fourteen native evangelistic helpers, several of them Theological Seminary graduates, with excellent training and very efficient. Two doctors have been given an eight-year course of hospital training. We have a fairly well equipped hospital containing about fifty beds. In hospital and clinic about twelve thousand patients are treated yearly. The whole attitude of the people toward us and toward our work has changed. The outlook is most bright. A few years ago the worst gambler in the neigh¬ borhood, a Mr. Meng, was converted. This man today is the recognized leader in good works in the whole community and is known for miles around the country as an earnest Christian. A 4 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. relative by marriage of the Mengs remarked to one of our missionaries recently: “Ah, you don’t know how this home of the Mengs’ used to be. I used to come over here and it was quarrel, quarrel, quarrel, all day long, and he used to beat her, too, But he never beats her now, and it is peaceful, peaceful, all the time.” One day last summer, Mr. Meng said to the missionary, “Well, I have decided to do it.” “Decided to do what?” “I have decided to give to the Lord’s work a tithe of all my income.” He explains to the people how they can keep the Sabbath. He says he has found that to keep Sunday as a rest and worship day, he and his family must begin Monday morning to plan for Sunday and plan for it by keeping the other part of the Fourth Commandment, “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” ffisurlumfu Station, (Uljiita. This year a new church, seating about eight hundred people, has taken the place of the old over-crowded house of worship, and nearly every Sunday it is crowded to its utmost capacity. The Sunday school has an average of four hundred attendance and daily Bible Classes are held for the men and women who desire to study. This field numbers two million people and with the exception of one small town, no other Church except the Southern Presbyterian is giving them the Gospel of Christ. Eighteen years ago the work was begun here in the face of bitter opposition and persecution. Now there are five hundred believers in this neighborhood. There are twenty-five places where there is preaching every Sunday. There 5 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. are hundreds of inquirers, many of whom are showing their earnestness by studying the Bible. We have a school for boys and a school for girls, both of which are full to the limit of their capacity. Also, we have a hospital for men and another for women. These schools and hospitals are educational and evangelistic agencies. Evangelistic bands from the Boys’ School and Orphanage go out every Sabbath to conduct services in some of the nearby villages. The Christian girls take an active part in the Sabbath school work. Of the nine boys who have gone out from the Hfuchoufu Boys’ High School, one is now preaching the Gospel, one is in the Theological Seminary, four are efficient teachers in our School, two are as¬ sisting in our hospital work, and one is an active layman. There are now seventeen volunteers for the Ministry in our schools who engage in voluntary evangelistic work. Many are brought to Christ through the hos¬ pital work. For example, Mr. Yang was very ill with asthma and came to the hospital for treat¬ ment. He went home improved in health, but it was not the doctor’s skill that impressed him most. He heard something from the doctor of the Saviour and for several years now he has been coming back to hear more. In his city, where he was the first Christian, there are several others now. A weekly service is held there every Sabbath and there is a flourishing school for boys. Mr. Hu first heard the Gospel from the lips of one of our native Evangelists. He went back to his home village to bear witness for Christ. Here ‘he had to face bitter opposition from his family and the ridicule of his friends. They said 6 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. he was beside himself. For a long time he was shunned as an outcast. But he lived before them in such a way that they were brought to confess that he had some new power in his life. One by one they turned to his Saviour. Now his village has an organized Church with the largest membership in the Hfuchoufu country field, and there are many earnest inquirers. Throughout our whole field the greatest friend¬ liness is taking the place of the former hatred and suspicion. These people receive us into their homes as never before. Many pupils are turned away from the schools on account of lack of room. The faith of the people in idols has been shaken and now is the time to tell them of the God not made with hands. But we have only eleven workers in this field. Six of these work largely in the hospitals and the schools, an essential part of our work. Three others are engaged in the great City work, leav¬ ing two ordained men for the enormous country field, that is, more than nine hundred thousand people for each of these two men. Calls are continually coming to us for preachers and Bible women to go to villages to teach the people the “Jesus Doctrine,” and many, many times the answer has to be sent back “There is no one to go to you.” One village, where we formerly had one Chris¬ tian woman, is full of inquirers now who have shown their earnestness in many ways. An old temple from which the idol has been removed has been converted into a school and the teacher invited the Evangelist to use it for his services, as the tiny church will not begin to hold the crowds who come. Many of the secular village i 7 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FORIEGN FIELDS. schools are exceedingly friendly and ask that our church give one man to go from school to school teaching the Bible. Shall we continue to turn a deaf ear to these calls for help for lack of workers? The Standard Oil Company has realized its opportunities and its agents are doing a thriving business everywhere. Dr. Lyon’s Tooth Powder is advertised extensively, and tobacco adver¬ tisements mar many ancient landmarks. Cigar¬ ettes are sold everywhere, especially among the women of the higher class. Often we are offered “ foreign tobacco” when we go into their homes. Cannot the Church of God learn a lesson from these business men, who are seeing their oppor¬ tunities and taking advantage of them? Ktangytn Station, (China. What sort of product are the schools turning out, anyway? Well, go with me to a country wedding—push your way into the crowd, and hear the new bridegroom, as he turns to you, beaming a welcome from the top of the table, and says, “We have had a great day—hundreds of people to preach to.” That’s what his wedding day meant to him, primarily an opportunity to preach. Omitting a meal is very difficult for a China¬ man, but an early start to the country one morn¬ ing deprived one old lady of her breakfast. She made no comment. Miss Jourolman finding it out spoke to her out of the overflowing sympathy of her heart, but she said, “What of that! My Lord ate more bitterness than that for me.” The hospital is doing a great work. At the end of last winter a scrap of a girl, not so young in years, but shrunken and blighted, was brought 8 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. to the hospital gate and left there. The fees are small certainly and theoretically should be paid but what are fees when hearts that know the Saviour see one crook-backed, half-starved, wretched, feet frozen and rotting off, lying at the door! We tried to save the poor feet but almost every day only dark pain marked the sallow little face and never a smile shone. One day they were given up as hopeless and removed, and im¬ mediately a mint of smiles from that day to this has been this little waif. Never thinking of her utter dependence, believing like a bird that there will be food and care, and happy,—in what? Oh, you children whose days are full of games and pleasures and delights—only in that she is not in agony. The woman’s ward in the hospital is going steadily up and great results are expected in this coming year. But the schools are badly over¬ crowded. For four years we have been unable to increase the number of boarders for lack of room. “How can we know,” said an old man sadly to Miss Jourolman. “We are far away from any church here in this out-of-the-way village. No one comes here to teach us. How can we know?” (Using-JCtattg-iPit Station, GUjttta. The old spirit of hostility against the foreigner is now broken down, and the people everywhere listen attentively to the message—a vast change from former conditions. The doors stand open on every hand now, but alas, we have not the workers to enter them. Our Boys’ school num¬ bered forty pupils last year and there were many applications that had to be refused for lack of room. 9 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. After working for twenty years in dark and contracted Chinese buildings, Dr. Woods is now rejoicing in the prospect of having a commodious up-to-date three-story building, accommodating eighty beds. This building will be ready for occupation by the first of September as will both the new dwelling houses for both the foreign and native doctors, and separate wards for both men and women. The number treated in the dispen¬ sary for the year was twenty-nine thousand, the average daily attendance at the Clinics being two hundred. Our present Chapel is entirely inadequate to seat the entire congregation. ihucrimifu Station, (Ehitta. There being as yet no hospital, the numbers in one day at the Clinic have gone as high as three hundred and twenty patients, or for the year easily averaging at the rate of fifteen thousand to twenty thousand. No field represents such an opportunity to reach the best youth of the city, if we had a school. We have every year constant inquiries made, “When are you going to open a High School?” “Will you not open an Academy for young wo¬ men? We wish to send our daughters. We trust Christian teachers, but do not trust the morals of our own teachers.” When will the Church at home permit us to give the glad answer, “We shall open these schools.” The minds of the Confucianists are open to the Gospel as never before. I have been amazed to see how fully the proud scholar of fifty years of age would acknowledge the error of his life-long belief, and the truth that Christ is the Divine Saviour and must be the Saviour of China. Remember that these 1,300,000 souls in the 10 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. Hwaian field are wholly dependent on us to giVe them the Gospel. Other fields have other Churches oftentimes, as well as our own, to work among them. In the Hwaian field our Southern Presbyterian Church is the only one working. uJatriimu, (tthina. To be conservative there are at least a million souls here who have no other opportunity to hear the Gospel than what our efforts may give them. When we opened here in 1908 there was very decided opposition to the preaching and it was with difficulty that we could get a few to come into our chapel to hear us preach. “Foreign Devil” was the most frequent sound heard, and crowds of children urged on by the older people followed us calling us by that name. An amazing change has taken place. We now have a convenient house, and a chapel where I am preaching the Gospel to crowded houses most of the time, often not having standing room. There is urgent need of an enlarged building now to accommodate the crowds that come night after night. We were once taunted by the better element of the people, with “You don’t seem to have any of the best people in your church.” Now, the largest part of our congregations are of that class and almost all of the additions to our church have been of that class. There are two women from what is probably the leading family of the city who are asking now to be admitted to the church. Some of the conversions here read like fresh chapters from the Book of Acts. In 1912 there came a man, who on account of his starving condition, was given work in clean¬ ing up the debris left after the building of our FRESH FACTS FROM OUR ^FOREIGN FIELDS. house. He turned out to be about the filthiest laziest creature that we had ever known. But his miserable, starving condition, appealed to us. He was here a few weeks before we went for the fourth time to help in the famine fields. We gave him some work that he might have something to eat, but with the determination to have him dis¬ missed before our return to the Station, as it was thought he could not be tolerated after the return of hot weather. This outward filth was only a faint type of the filthiness within. The writer returned after seven months in the famine fields and was met by the man whom he did not recognize, as he was so utterly changed. His clothes were new and clean. His face was clothed with a bright smile, and it was found that the old lazy ways had given place to industry and faithfulness. When asked what had made such a change in him, he replied that he had “come out of his skin and changed his bones,” and with a joy the writer will never forget, said, “He is my Jesus now.” He is now our Chapel keeper, and he spends all his spare time reading his Bible and trying to witness for his Master. He is literally a man of one book. Nagoya Station, .llapan. - The harvest in Japan is spoiling for lack of gatherers. It is dead ripe—rotten ripe. The moral corruption of the people is of world-wide fame. The financial corruption also of the busi¬ ness section has long been known. But till re¬ cently it was supposed that the chivalric fighting men of the nation maintained their ancient knightly contempt for coin and were proof against 12 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. bribery. But the recent scandals in navy and army have sadly shaken that confident spirit and have shocked the whole nation. But that was not the end. In the very midst of that investigation, money corruption was discovered in the official circle right in the Im¬ perial Household and the Emperor had to stop long enough to dismiss an officer of the Palace before dawn, as he was setting out to visit the dying Empress Dowager this spring. To top all, the same slimy rottenness has been laid bare among the higher circle of those who pose as the religious leaders of the nation, the chief pontiff and satellites in each of the two strongest sects of Buddhism in Japan; also among the priests in the chief Shinto temple in Nagoya, the Asuta Shrine, with a history running back two thousand years. In despair people now look to Christianity as never before. Police officers frankly confess that our work would vastly help theirs, for while theirs is only to catch and punish criminals, ours is to fundamentally remove the cause of crime, and they cordially welcome our efforts. The Educational Department, so long almost openly hostile, seems decidedly to have modified, or even reversed, its attitude regarding us. It has taken over to its care the Bureau of Religion, ostensibly to relieve the Home Department, but in reality, it looks, to quietly encourage real religious effort. Instead of the strong opposition of school teachers in the past, so that our Sunday schools had a steady struggle for existence, we now seem able to get all the children our places will hold. In our Second Church, Nagoya, which usually i3 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. has had some fifty children, a very slight effort caused the astonishing result of one hundred and fifty pupils. Last month, a worker moved to another field which had long been very difficult, and with a simple invitation obtained an atten¬ dance of some eighty children. Lately a conversation with a chance acquaint¬ ance on the trolley car gained an invitation to hold a meeting in his home. It proved to be a village entirely in charge of one of the most popu¬ lar sects of Buddhism. The people frankly told us that they had no expectation of accepting our doctrine. Yet they like to hear us and willingly provide a place for our meetings whenever we come, and welcome us in goodly numbers. Already we have held four meetings there and hope for a permanent work among the people. By this time there are perhaps a hundred of the graduates of our Girls’ School in Nagoya scattered throughout the land, living definite Christian lives. Those who are married are with their husbands, establishing Christian homes, that beautiful flower which blooms only from the root given of God and so absolutely unknown in this land hitherto. Beyond the circle of their homes, these wives of pastors, church officers, and private members, kelp to do a work in the church which is of untold value. At this moment one of them in Nagoya is helping her husband, the head teacher of our school, do a work in school, Sunday school, and Church, which is effecting more than any other one thing to advance the Kingdom there. In addition to all this the wife finds time to teach daily a large group of little children in a kinder¬ garten in a way whose efficiency looks almost 14 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. flawless to an outsider. It is a joy to watch her in her studious, dutiful life work. The graduates yet unmarried, as kindergartners, school teachers, clerks in offices, daughters at home, are leading lives in the community and the church, which are positive, strong, and trust¬ worthy, a stimulant to all around, whose value is beyond estimate. As to results from the churches, take for ex¬ ample the little Second Church in Nagoya. From these Christians have gone forth some six or eight heralds of the Cross, two of them at present being pastors of strong and important churches. These young preachers, not to mention the private members so faithful, are bearing fruit every month and their leaves are for the healing of the nation. Eternity alone can show their value. The twenty odd stations in the district are all supplied with preachers by our Mission, though their rents, etc., are largely met by the Christians in each place. (fDkasaki Station, dlapau. A beautiful welcome meeting and the kindness of the people soon made us feel at home when we moved to Okazaki two years ago. We found the church attendance ranged from six to twelve. It now ranges from thirty to fifty, praise God! We also have a lovely Sunday school divided into six classes, from Bible Class to the Infant Class. We felt we must open at least four more weekly children’s meetings in different parts of the city, —also a Bible Class for young women, one for High School girls, another for teachers, and one for lady teachers, a woman’s meeting, of course. At the request of the people in our neighbor- 15 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. hood, I have opened a Kindergarten, where I teach every morning and have my afternoons and evenings free for evangelistic work. The Kin¬ dergarten work is most charming and has been marvelously used of God to break through the strongholds of Buddhism into the hearts of the people. No one dared hope for more than five or six children for a year or so, but I asked God to give me forty and He did. It is wonderful what they have learned about God in these three months. One mother was so happy because her little boy who had always been so afraid of the dark, came back from an errand one night and said he was not a bit afraid, because Jesus was with him. Other parents come and tell how wonderfully their children have improved in conduct. On Fridays we all take lunch and sit together on the floor in a big circle. Lunch day gives us the opportunity to teach the children to say grace before their meals. We have crowds of visitors, and are getting to know the parents so well and can visit in all their homes. We invited two Evangelists to come and hold a five days meeting for us in February. It was a time of refreshing. One back-sliding school teacher who would not allow his wife to be bap¬ tized-, got such a blessing that he could hardly wait for Sunday to come to get his whole family baptized; and he himself has been preaching the best sermons ever since. Our pastor was taken ill at that time, so he has just filled the pulpit. One dear old lady said that going to those morning meetings was “just like going to heaven.” She has been doing definite work for God by inter¬ cessory prayer ever since. 16 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. We have a class of eight or ten blind boys, in whom we are deeply interested. One is a Chris¬ tian, I am sure, and I hope he can soon be bap¬ tized. We have a nice band of young men in the city bank where we deal. One of them was baptized a few weeks ago. We need three more good Evangelists and another teacher, and all your earnest prayers for God’s blessing upon this priest-ridden district, with its more than fifty heathen temples in the city, and only one little church spire pointing up to the true and living God who gave His only Son to die for Okazaki. ulakatnatHU Station, Japan. We are trying in this one province of Sanuki to reach eight hundred and fifty thousand people. It is not only one of the most densely populated but one of the most accessible of all our Mission fields. Trains run each way every hour to the westward, trolley lines and steamships run east¬ ward. In addition to its own population of eight hundred and fifty thousand people, almost a million more come to Sanuki Province every year as pilgrims, and among all these hundreds of thousands of people there are but two ordained missionaries. No other Mission is planning to send men here. This work is ours. Entering our village church at Takamatsu you will find it well filled with worshippers. The pulpit is occupied by the earnest young pastor from our Seminary in Kobe and by old Miki San, once a Shinto priest, but now for many years a Presbyterian elder. Among the worshipers is another old man, also an elder, who first heard 17 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. the Gospel when a boy, and who used to study a Chinese Bible behind locked doors, because he feared the edict proclaiming death to all Chris¬ tian converts. Across the church is Miyai San who is giving his life to the poor and needy of this city. Drunk¬ ards, insane people, released prisoners, broken down aristocrats, and blind paupers, have been members of his family and have added to his re¬ sponsibility, but he has succored them and looked to God only for his reward. Beside him is a young oculist, for many years in a Christian hospital in Tokyo, now one of the mainstays of the con¬ gregation. Among the women we notice a daughter of the old elder before mentioned. Though the mother of eight children, and an unusually frail, delicate woman, she never misses the service or the women’s meetings. “If I loved God less I might sometimes stay away,” she says, “But if I miss everything else, I cannot miss the meetings.” The service of the Church is much like our services at home, but from first to last it is con¬ ducted by the Japanese themselves. We have established meeting places at eight other towns. Remember that the $200 you might send for a Japanese Evangelist would mean the support of the Christian work in a whole town. The Japan¬ ese Bible Woman for whom you might send $12 a month, would probably have a total attendance of 6000 children a year at her children’s meetings. The chapels which rent for five dollars a month shelter hundreds of inquirers every month. Five hundred dollars would provide one cheap tract for every person in the province. 18 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. utogoljaaht, Kagan We have a good church building here, erected about two years ago. From Toyohashi as a center, we have country work in several places, one about forty-five miles distant in the mount¬ ains, and others nearer. During this last year from July 1913; to July, 1914, we have baptized thirty-four persons, chil¬ dren and adults. I baptized two persons on the last Sunday in June, one a young woman, and one a young man who has been attending the Uni¬ versity at Tokio and who, while there, has joined the Bible Class of a Missionary of the Presbyterian Church. This young man came to see me the day after his return from Tokio and told me about himself. Since baptizing him, I have received from him the following letter. He wrote it in English himself and though the style is quaint the thought is good: “I will do my best to feed my soul every day on God’s words. I am reading the Bible as the food of my soul and trying to satisfy the thirst of my thirsty soul every day with prayer.” Jlmtamlmro, Iraztl. The American Evangelical College was opened at Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, on July, 1904, with one pupil. The number has increased to an average of 80 pupils a year. About four hundred girls have been received since the school was organized. The children of the leading men of the country have been enrolled in our school since the day it was first opened. Our patrons are lawyers, doctors, merchants, teachers, con¬ gressmen, senators, and officers of the army and 19 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. navy. Lack of accommodation compels us to refuse many girls. This evangelical School is the only Christian school for girls in Northern Brazil. The cate¬ chism, hymns, and Bible are taught daily to every pupil. We should support this school in order to give the Bible to Brazilian girls. There is no open Bible in this land. “In the twenty-three years spent in Brazil,” says Miss Eliza M. Reed, “I have never met a man or woman who had ever seen a Bible except it had come from the direct influence of mission¬ ary work or that of the English and American Bible Societies.” Many of the pupils bring their Bibles along with their other text books. They carry their Bibles back and forth from the school to their homes. Some pupils borrow Bibles to show their parents at home. They often tell how their parents will read the Bible with them. . One morning one little girl came without her Bible and asked the loan of one for the day be¬ cause her mother had begun reading the Gospel of Luke the night before. She had read until late in the night and had begun again early in the morning but she could not finish in time for the child to have the book for school. Another little girl said her father helped her with all her lessons, but he liked the Bible lesson best of all. Another child, while memorizing several portions of the Gospel of John, said, “Won’t my father be surprised w T hen I tell him there is a God—that we are all sinners and that Jesus came to save us all?” Another little girl lay dying. She called her mother who thinks that she is an infidel, and said, “Sit by me, mother, hold my hand. I am going 20 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS away with Jesus to my home in Heaven.” That child’s Bible has been the only source of consola¬ tion to that mother during months of loneliness of heart, while she endured the censure of friends who believed the sickness and death of the child was God’s punishment because the mother had placed her in the Evangelical school. Some of our pupils are now teachers in our school. Some are living at home teaching their younger brothers and sisters, Some have mar¬ ried. Our greatest joy is to see the happy well- ordered homes of these forceful, cultured Christian women who accept responsibility bravely and take a helpful and firm stand on all social and religious questions. Others of our old pupils have opened small schools in other towns. In Brazil all education is backward. I know of no school or College for women in Northern Brazil. Out of every thousand inhabitants only twenty-eight can read. We are safe in calcu¬ lating that not more than one-fourth of these twenty-eight are women. iltaprttnuiga Station, Irazil. In the two years we have been here we have outgrown our quarters twice, and now we have the great problem of building a church capable of holding our congregations. Our Sunday school is large and flourishing and quite a number of children have recited the Shorter Catechism and received diplomas from the Christian Observer. Faxina is eighty miles from Itapetiriinga. There this August we dedicated a large new church. A building costing a little under four thousand dollars has been constructed at great 21 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. labor and sacrifice, as the members there are not rich in this world’s goods. At Sao Tiago we have a church of one hundred and twenty members on the roll and a large num¬ ber whose names will soon be on the roll, we hope. Last year this church built two buildings costing about seven hundred dollars each, and besides these there were two chapels in townships at a distance from the two centers. Two months ago I met a man who had been given a Bible 20 years ago. Later a priest took it away from him. Then he managed to get another, and has been following its teachings alone never having met a minister and never having had a chance to do so before we happened to get to a place near where he lives. Think of fol¬ lowing Christ 20 years, half in the dark and half in the light because there was no one to lead him into the full knowledge of the Gospel! 1 , Desraltmiio, Brazil. The people here are living in perfect ignorance of the Bible and the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for the Roman Catholic Church will not let them read the word of God, but teaches them to bow down to images made with their own hands. God is blessing the work at this station. For example, at Araras, when we began work in 1909 there was not a member of the Church. Now we. have a congregation there of over sixty persons in regular attendance. In Leme we have twenty, and when we commenced there five years ago, there was not a Protestant in the town. The same blessings have come to us in Limeira and Descalvado. We have been able to build a good 22 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. church building here to the honor of our blessed Master We wish you could see the bright, happy faces of our converts, and hear them sing the songs of Zion, and see them working for Christ. You would surely say it is well worth while. Plardas Station, (Cuba. A very important part of the work here and one that has done much in preparing the way for the church work is the day school. A majority of the best homes are represented in the school. The enrollment since last September has increased more than seventy per cent. Lately we have secured the best location possible and expect a large increase this coming September. It is impossible to overstate the neglected and needy condition of the Catholics here. Not one per cent of the people attend the Catholic services except on some special occasion. Of the one per cent not more than one-tenth or one- fifth attend regularly, and of these, perhaps, one half understand a small part of the services and get a crumb of the truth, and that so mixed with error that salvation is impossible to them unless they get the light and the truth from other sources. Morality is neither preached nor practiced unto them, but the opposite. As a rule, the priests are immoral and corrupters of society. (EatbartPtt Station, (Saba. Caibarien is the center of a wonderfully fer¬ tile and thickly populated section. Within a radius of twenty miles we have seven towns vary¬ ing in population from 1500 to 12,000inhabitants, while in the country between there are at least 23 I FRESH FACTS FROM OTJR FOREIGN FIELDS. 25,000 additional men, women, and children. All these towns and all this country section is pene¬ trated by railways and macadam roads, thus in¬ suring the rapid and permanent development of the section and making all points easy of access. In this great section of Cuba ours is the only Church at work. The other Churches have left the evangelization of this part of the island to us, so that if these people are ever to have the Gos¬ pel it must be given by our Church. We are absolutely responsible for their souls. Our school at Cardenas enjoys the distinction of being the largest evangelical school in Cuba. Without reducing in any way the efficiency of the Cardenas school, it has been decided to make Caibarien the center of our collegiate and theologi¬ cal work. In spite of the entire lack of equipment of any kind the school at Caibarien has matriculated this year more than one hundred and fifty pupils and a small theological class is preparing to begin work next year. The aggressive work carried on for many years here by Miss Edith Houston has left the seed in many hearts and the harvest is more rapid for that reason. Eight months ago when at last the number of our workers was reinforced to the point where we could really do efficient work, this was the first town to be strongly manned. During these eight months it has been a delight to see the remarkable way in which the town has re¬ sponded. The school enrollment has increased two hun¬ dred per cent; the Sunday school has grown until it now occupies a place among the half dozen largest schools of the island of Cuba; and the 24 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. membership of the church has been very consider¬ ably increased. The organized class work among the young people of the Sunday school has enabled us to increase the attendance in that department four¬ fold, and these young people upon their own ini¬ tiative have opened a Sunday school in one of the unoccupied sections of the town and manned it with teachers from the class. It is the first work of the kind they have ever done, yet the school has begun auspiciously, and the young people are getting the training and exercise in religious work which will insure their growth in spirituality. Financially the church is doing all that could be expected of it. A good building lot has been purchased at a cost of $3,000, and a little more than half of the price has been paid by the church. In addition, the church has subscribed one hun¬ dred and twenty dollars per year to the support of a native preacher besides paying all its own incidental expenses. Caibarien offers the opportunity of establishing one of the strongest evangelical centers in the whole island. Conditions are all propitious. The only thing needful is sufficient financial backing from our friends at home. May God open their hearts to make this a center from which shall flow streams of blessing into all this section of Cuba. ISj. HHatanunroa Station, fHpxirn. The purpose of the Presbyterian Industrial College of H. Matamoros is just this: To train these girls in all the branches of instruction which are useful to a womanly woman. Many of the 25 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. girls sew beautifully- They are all good laun¬ dresses. They are learning to cook. We have several organists and two pianists. All of the dormitory girls learn to play hymns. They sing by note. Many have a good working knowl¬ edge of English. They are taught to keep ac¬ counts of their personal expenditures. Each girl cares for a diminutive garden. When we separ¬ ated for the summer vacation, each girl went home with the purpose of making herself useful to her mother and already the missionary has noticed the service rendered by some. The spiritual atmosphere of the school is very pronounced. Nearly every girl in the dormitory is a member of the church. The few who are not have expressed their desire to join but are held back until they are better instructed. The great need of Mexico is intelligent Christian women to make Christian homes to be the fount¬ ains of purity and intelligence in the Mexico that is to be. (Jtula Station, iUwarn. This station is striving to reach and supply the spiritual needs of nearly fifty thousand Mexicans, distributed in five towns and surrounding plan¬ tations and ranches. The house to house canvass in Tula by the mis¬ sionary and his helper revealed the fact that only two Bibles were found in the first hundred homes that were visited. But suppose they had the Bibles, what good would they do, if not more than a possible five per cent could read them. All through this territory the illiteracy is appalling. Our one little Mission school has proven to be the most powerful means of breaking down preju- 26 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. dice. It is opening the eyes of the people to the fact that the Protestants are not, as the priests teach, the most ignorant and despised of earth. Last year this little Mission school had as many pupils as the public school and the teacher was offered the public school for the following year. Last year two towns asked us to send them Protes¬ tant graduates for the public schools, but the need •could not be supplied. Even now a rumor has been going about that in Tula there are to be Protestant teachers in the public schools. The door of opportunity is opening wide. Will the Church of Christ be ready? More than thirty Testaments and Bibles have been awarded pupils of our Mission School for reciting the Catechism and some have been received in the church. We have more than one hundred members in this field, the most of them having been received in the last two years. They have been won largely through the personal work of native helpers and teachers. Some of these have been led to Christ in truly Apostolic fashion and have shown a genuine Apostolic zeal. The field is ripe for the harvest and our church is the only Protestant Church that is at work here. Unless this genera¬ tion of people hear the Gospel through us, they will never hear it. (E. Uirtnrta Station, Jflextro. A visitor to C. Victoria, capital of the state of Tamaulipas, would find a new church. He would see the young Mexican pastor busy with the serv¬ ices, in the Sunday school, and Christian Endeavor Societies. He would remark the intelligent con¬ gregation and the bright faces of the girls. From many homes in which not one was a Christian, 27 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS we have seen one and another brought into the light and we have seen the changes in those homes. There are always new places asking for a visit from the workers. It is not possible to go to all and our hearts ache when we cannot. They are in darkness, pleading for the light, and we are so few that we cannot send workers to all. We are endeavoring to plant Evangelical schools in our out-stations around Victoria. In one of these schools, for example, the faithful work of the teacher became known and she was asked to take a larger school. She took it because she was permitted to teach the Bible in the school. She superintended a Sunday school and her peti¬ tion that the Evangelist should hold services there was granted. That has now become one of our most promising stations. The interest and attendance have grown and more than forty have been received into the membership of the church. Without the light of God’s word there is no knowledge of Christ. In these homes in Victoria and the surrounding country you will find the images of the Saints and the Virgin, you will hear them appealed to in time of sorrow and need, but they know nothing of faith in the Son of God, or the refuge that He is to His people. When I think of the many around Victoria who are living with absolutely no knowledge of Christ, and when I think how few are the workers in proportion to the needs, my heart aches with the longing to send more workers. (£bunju Station, IKnmt. In this city of thirty thousand people we have two churches with a total membership of between four and five hundred. The city is divided into 28 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. districts and a particular section assigned to each man and each woman, a section in which he or she is definitely responsible for evangelistic work. Already we have seen very encouraging results from this plan of city work. In round numbers there are seven hundred thousand souls to whom the members of our Station are to break the Bread of Life. The territory occupied by this population is divided into five fields with an ordained foreign mission¬ ary in charge of each. This, you see, will give an average of one hundred and forty thousand people to each man. Kunsati Station, KComt. Two large training classes one for men and one for women are held in the middle of the winter each year. They are attended by men and wo¬ men from all the churches throughout our entire field, generally from two to three hundred stu¬ dents being in attendance upon each. The classes run from ten days to two weeks and the men and women always go back home with fresh information and inspiration to impart to the local congregations. These clasess are a most effective means of building up the churches in faith and doctrine. Besides the large classes held at the Station, smaller classes are held in every church through¬ out our entire field of 360,000. The general program for these classes is: Daybreak prayer meeting, Bible Study from breakfast to dinner, afternoons devoted to preaching in neighboring villages and personal work, the evenings devoted to services of an evangelistic and revival nature. FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. These meetings have been held for a week in every church in our field. At our Mid-winter Leaders’ Conference it was suggested that, since the churches were having such a hard time raising the money for the salary of the four evangelists they were supporting, the number be reduced from four to two. The meet¬ ing went into a consideration of this subject and then decided that instead of reducing from four to two they w T ould increase from four to seven. So we have had during the past year seven native evangelists supported by the native church. Some of the churches are making rapid strides forward. For example, when I first visited the church at Yorai,in Mankyeng County, I was dis¬ couraged on account of its pitifully weak condi¬ tion. The last time I visited that church the building was packed to overflowing, a large num¬ ber having to sit on mats spread on the ground in the yard. Since then a good-sized congregation has separated from this one and built a nice new church of their own at quite a considerable cost. This new church is now one of the most promising that we have, being in a large town and composed of some of the leading citizens of the place. Our present school dormitory was comfortably filled the first year it was built, three years ago, and has been most uncomfortably filled ever since. Every year we have been more and more pushed to provide for the overflow, and this new term, w T e were at our wits’ end what to do with some twenty new boarders. The Y. M. C. A. organization in our School of 6 .’, boys is very active. Practically all of the % _ boys are members. Through this organization the boys have conducted three Sunday schools 3 ° FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. for heathen children, entirely on their own ini¬ tiative and with their own money, with a total attendance of over one hundred per Sunday. They have also supplied the bulk of the teaching force for several other similar Sunday schools. They have also paid one of their number to teach a day school two afternoons after school hours, the boy selected adding a third afternoon as his own contribution, this being done to gain en¬ trance to a heathen village for a Sunday school. During the winter vacation they raised a liberal collection among themselves, and sent one of the graduates of the year before, now a teacher in our schools, for a month’s preaching trip to the island of Quelpart, a piece of genuine Foreign Mission work. Our Mary Baldwin School for Girls has regis¬ tered eighty three, and we have eleven country schools distributed throughout the field. IPurtlm' KCurpatt jflarta. The following facts are contributed by Mr. Charles A. Rowland, who has just returned from the Orient. The village of Nong Hung is only fifteen miles away. For many years it was looked down upon as Nazareth of old. Now since Christianity has come every man is proud to say he is from there. Fifty-five houses in that village and not one that has not a Christian in it. In Syen Chun fully one half of the population are Christians. “ Chang” or market day comes every fifth day. When it happens to fall on Sun¬ day, by official act of the city, market day goes over to Monday. Where in America do Chris¬ tians wield such municipal influence? These are 3i FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. exceptions, it is true, but they show that God is at work. In talking with one of the missionaries in Pyeng Yang I was delighted to learn that the office of elder is magnified in Korea. All elders preach. All have to pass an examination on the shorter catechism and church government before the Presbytery, The elders actually take the oversight of the flock. To assist the elders leaders of ten are appointed who look after such groups and report to the elders when any are weak or falling away. This is not resented. All differences between believers are settled by the elders. “Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?” i Cor. 6-1 is literally car¬ ried out. A Christian can sue an unbeliever in court. Why they actually take God’s word to mean what it says and live accordingly. “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.’’ 2 Cor. 6-14 is a cause for discipline. No Chris¬ tian is allowed to marry his children to an un¬ believer. After learning all this, I was prepared for the following remark, from my missionary friend one Sunday afternoon, when a distinguished Korean gentleman passed us in his spotless white gown and shoes: “That man has just been made an elder al¬ though one of the very earliest believers. He is quite a prominent man. He was first made a deacon, then a leader, and only recently an elder. His trouble was stinginess. He did not give according to his means. In fact, we had him up before the session for his lack of liberality and it 32 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. was not until he had overcome at this point that he was elected an elder.” The Korean type of Christianity has many ob¬ ject lessons for us. The missionaries tell us it has been a hard pull to develop men of strong spiritual qualifications against human nature— the same there as here. God has likewise been at work and perhaps no church has been sifted as the Korean. First in silent and persistent persecutions by friends and relatives; then by Korean officials; then by Cath¬ olics; and last and most terrible of all by the Japanese officials in outright imprisonment, trial, and torture. I saw members who were imprisoned during 1911 and 1912. One elder described to me the excruciating torture he was subjected to by the Japanese in order to force him to testify falsely in their endeavor to convict innocent Christian men during the conspiracy trial. They told him they had 73 different kinds of torture and would put him through all of them if he did not say yes. How would you like to have your thumbs tied behind your back and be strung up by them from 9 A.M. until after dark? This is only a sample of the 73, but enough to give you some idea of what the followers of Jesus Christ in this land have been called upon to suffer for His sake. And how has the Korean church grown so rapidly? “One by one,” is the method. The Sunday services are not aimed to reach the heathen but the Christians, and these are to go out and train others one by one. And the Korean Christian is able to do this because he has studied his Bible. The Bible Study Class is a regular institution in every local 33 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS- church.. Then the best men are selected and sent up to the Annual Bible classes held at every sta¬ tion for ten days each year. Thus individual work for individuals is the accepted thing and the exception is when one does not work for the sal¬ vation of others. ICufbn Station, Afrtra. The following is part of a letter written from the Congo by Bishop Lambuth, Missionary Secretary of the Southern Methodist Church. It pictures some of the methods used in our Foreign Parish. It shows how our missionaries train the native % Christians to teach and evangelize their own people, which is the only way in which any land can be thoroughly and permanently Christian¬ ized: “ My soul rejoiced within me at this great piece of evangelism wrought out by the Southern Presbyterian missionaries in twenty-one years. “A mere handful of white and colored missionaries have gathered about them 8,000 earnest Christians, and out of this number 300 teachers and evangelists, who, while they them¬ selves are under training, have daily under instruction thous¬ ands of children and grown people. What is more, this is capable of indefinite extension. The only limitation is the number and strength of the working force. Do you wonder that my soul is stirred when I think of this being carried on for a nine days’ journey on foot in almost every direction from Luebo as the base or center, and by LAYMEN? Not one ordained preacher as yet, and 200 of the force of 300 self-sup¬ porting. In other words, the villagers, in addition to building the sheds or school houses and churches, support these men by building them houses and supplying cassava for bread, palm oil, yams, chickens, eggs, ants, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. “What a challenge to the Laymen of our Church? We have never fully utilized this great contingent at home. Here is an illustration of what can be done from the Foreign field. These men are not preachers. They do not pretend to be. They are Christian school teachers; they are expounders of the Word of God as they themselvse have been taught; they organize cottage prayer meetings, and establish and super¬ intend Sunday School. They know God. I rarely have heard such prayers. They have learned how to talk with God; and with a devoutness of spirit which is marvelous they are leading the people in the way of truth and right living. 34 FRESH FACTS FROM OUR FOREIGN FIELDS. “ The work of these men and that of their missionary lead¬ ers is rooted and grounded in faith and in prayer. Think of 300 turning out every morning in the year to 6 o’clock prayer meeting. Think of a semicircle of cottage prayer meetings at Luebo every Wednesday night extending for two miles. . I heard the singing from half a hundred different points while I was walking through the mission compound or campus, on my way to conduct the missionary prayer service in Eng¬ lish. Is there any wonder that we felt that night the presence of our Lord? I thank God for what I have seen and heard. The half had not been told me.” Since this first visit of Bishop Lambuth, two years ago, the work has grown rapidly. Said Dr. W. M. Morrison when in this country last year; “Twenty-two years ago, there was not a man in all the region of Luebo that had heard the name of Jesus. Now there are nearly ten thousand believers. Twenty-two years ago there was not a man that knew a letter in any alphabet. Today there are nearly seven thousand pupils in the different schools. Twenty-two years ago there was not a man, woman or child in all that great region that could utter a syllable of intelligent prayer. When Bishop Lambuth was there he estimated that at 6 o’clock every morning 20,000 people gather in the various villages for morning prayer. Does it pay?” ■ ; - ’ . ' • • •'/ ' ■ .