| OCR Text |
Show river. Then the twelfth of Jury, the rains carne and carne in floods. They say a third of the houses in Lintsing collapsed in the storm t>n August 4th and 5th. Half of Lintsing county wais still under water in October. Some few places got small crops of dwarf corn and turnips. $6,000,000 worth of cotton is annually marketed in Lintsing, this year none, so more then half the shops md businesses in the cit-y have had to cióse. Land is sellirig for three to ten dollars a mu, instead of ñfty to la hundred. There is no fuel in an área that depends jm cotton and grain stalks, grass, and leaves for he^ting and cooking. And, just when they need 't most, there is no credit. It is impossible to borrow money; due to the silver policy of Únele Sam which made njecessary the recent curreney reform. It makes me wish I were far, far away. It is so much easier to hear of millions starving than it is to see your own friends, with whom you have lived and worshipped, worked and played, hungry and cold and discouraged, and be so helpless to do anything. How we need an alphabet! The other day a woman brought her ijttle girl in to the free clinic at the hospital saying j;hat. the child was getting lumps on her feet. When Alma examined her she found it was just the bonds sticking out, the wee kiddie was getting so thin. When I was in Peiping at Chinese New Years time, Maryette Lum and Mrs. Brewster Bingham and several others arranged a splendid concert by which was cleared $186.50 for famine relief. This sum, with some more, we are using to keep some sixteen or seventeen "teen" age boys in our industrial school. There we can give them their food as cheaply as food can be had and at the same time a chance to study and learn a trade. This industrial school is, to me, the biggest thrill of the year. For years we have talked of the need of an industrial school for boys and girls who could not go on to middle school and college. We have talked but had no funds or personnel to run it. Then with the depression, our funds from home were cut off and even our primary school and two years of middle school had to be closed. This brought an immediate drop in the number of Christian children in school, until now there are but two girls and one boy in our Porter Middle School, instead of the twenty to thirty formerly. Where will the Christian leaders for church and society come from in the future? To keep the story short, at ljjfast, after much prayer, Mr. Chang decided to just go ahead on faith, without the money. Mr. Chang P'eng Ling one of our evangelists is a man in a million. He had been running a primary school for boys in Fu Jen Chai, so he decided to move that to Lintsing to the empty boys school buildings. Just the day it was all decided we got word that the government was sending 14,500 Yellow-River-flood refugees to Lintsing to be cared for and our share was six hundred, to be quartered in our empty school buildings. So we crowded the thirty-four boys into the guest rooms and they are having classes in the oíd kindergarten buildings. In the mornings they have regular school work and in the afternoons work in bamboo, tin and iron, stocking knitting, shoe making and carpentry. As soon as the ground thaws they will start gardening and learn to raise vegetables and help keep their expenses low. The school is being run on almost nothing, just what Mr. Chang has been able io raise. All his own salary goes into it and part of his wife's. The teachers are working for their board and very little more. This spring there are over forty boys and he plans to take in some girls as soon as the refugees leave and there is room. There is a wonderfully fine spirit and they are getting real religious education. Two weeks ago I had a trip out to Fu Jen Chai and You Fang and Lou Chuang, which left me heartsick over the suffering from the famine, but very, very happy over the way the lay men and women have carried on since our school was there and over the many new Christians that are coming in. Their spirit was such a real inspiration that, tho it was cold, I was glad I had gone. There are heaps more things I would like to tell you, of our "Children's Health and Happiness" Exhibit and Campaign at Pi Hsueh Tien, of what moving all the missionaries away from Lintsing has meant there in problems, heartaches, losses and gains, but I must remember that the bank failed last summer and postage has gone up again, so I spare you. Hoping to hear from each of you, I am Yours, always, CALAAAA^ £. rK^^ya-X^ P.S.-Those of you who knew my Big Sister, Miss Sun, will be interested to know that she has recently accepted the position as General Secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in Tientsin. |
