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Show Lintsing,Shantung China June ? .1921 Mrs L.O.Lee Room 1315 ,19 S.LaSalle Street, Chicago,111. U.S.A. My dear Mrs Lee, Two letters have come from you this spring,thoee of March 2nd and March 23th. It is always a pleasure to have word from you. I feel when Mission Studies comes too,as though I had had a glimpse of you all and of the Big things you are doing. We are especially glad to know of the building funds yet on hand. Miss Long will have told you before this that we are using the new school building,the assembly room,office and three recitation rooms. When the work was going on exchange was so low that it was not possible to build one of the wings,that intended for the firat primary classes. There is no furnact Since |our letter came llr Wolfe ,Mission Builder, lias written that news of fyi " this I 1400 iiad reached him from Miss Long and that he was ordering from America a furnace which ought to be here for next winter. This year we did not spoil the new rooms by putting in stoves,but we "hy be mated* oygoing back to the old rooms and crowding into the dining room for soa: classes and into the old school room for others during the very cold weather. We can neve do it again however, for then we had less than fiftjr girls. This spring our numbers are nearly eighty. The room jthat was once school-room has become a most useful dormitory,and aalf the floor space is filled with big brick-beds. So the furnace is a very pressing need,and we are so glad for it. Without it school would have to close and the girls be sent home for thp cold winter. This spring we have been in toe new building again and it has been such a help and satisfaction, i wish all whose gifts helped to make it possible might see the girls at work there. The pictures of some have been an inspiration and a reminder of the many others to whom we are grateful. We dad a group picture taken in front of the new building,and although it does not show the building well you can see what a growing school we have become. We do need very much the east wing of the school,which io as yet only a plan on paper. And we are still borrowing ,as we Have done for years,the woman1s work court for kitchen,dining-room and dormitories. One ££r part of this winterlis famine relief work was the paying poor church men to carry earth from the river bank and fill in the north end of the school yard to make a higher firmer place for the building of the new dormitories. We fZ^ think the basement room under the assembly room would make an excellent dinin room, for it has windows on three sides, and even when a place is given for th«? furnace it will bo larger and lighterthan the present dining-room. I could say quite a lot aDout how the women need their yard. This winter the stress of Famine conditions made it seem wise to turn over % the other yard which they have used to the Industrial work and so the only ' place for the women8• classes has been in the country chapels. That is not a bad plan for beginners if only we had a worker who could give her time to being there when classes are held. This year there has been no one who could do that. But even if country classes were the usual alan a central court for more advanced Bible classes and training of workers is an essential of growth for our women's work. We are trying to be patient,but we are not progressing much and our church women are not able to read much nost able to tell others very much about their religion. We are asking for trained evangelistic workers again. There is a readiness to listen and a kindly interest that is quite challenging. The value of all the famine relief work watch baa touched Io many depends upon these months of follow-up work. This is a time of rejoicing,for the wheat is beina harvested A generous rain has fallen ana means a good start fajtjkfli for autumn crops. So it surely seems that the famine in broken in this region. But the poverty and hardship are by no means over.It will be years bafore people get back to the place they were in a year ago. Household things are sold,some have disposed 0 of their land, ana have nothing to start on, some with land have sold animals a ana farm implements,and oh how many nave torn roofs from their buildings to |
