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Show I had visited Ku Hsien three times before, so I was able to call some of the people there by name when they came to see me. It pleased them immensely to find that I remembered their names; though many times the Chinese quote to me one of their sayings, to the effect that it is easy for a group of people to recognize one stranger, but not easy for one person to recall the names of each one in a group of strangers. At the time I went to Ku Hsien a year ago, there was a Mr. Ma who was living with Mr. Sung, the worker in charge of the Ku Hsien field. Mr. Ma had been an opium addict; and Mr. Sung asked him to live with him for a number of months, in order to help him through the difficult stage of breaking the opium habit. When I went to Ku Hsien in May of this year, I found Mr. Ma still living on the church premises with Mr. Sung. Mr. Sung doesn't yet feel entirely confident that Mr. Ma will not go back to the habit if he returns too soon to his own village where old friends might tempt him. A few weeks ago Mr. Ma's daughter-in-law gave birth to twin boys. There had been an interval of eight years with no children, and the older children were both girls; so there was great rejoicing in the Ma household when the twins arrived. Mr. Sung composed a song of congratulation for Mr. Ma to the tune of ''Jesus loves me, this I know.'' The first verse of the song, literally translated, is this: God has been doubly gracious to Mr. Ma,- He has sent two grandsons to this household; We extend congratulations to all the family, And we exhort Mr. Ma to break permanently with the opium habit, I found this song hung on the wall of the home of a church member in a nearby village, when I was visiting in the Ku Hsien district. I inquired how it came to be there; and was told that though Mr. Ma appreciated the congratulations of his friends, on account of the exhortation at the close of each verse regarding the use of opium, he felt ashamed to have it hanging on the wall in Ku Hsien; so a neighboring church member had taken it away to decorate the wall of his own house. My love and greetings to all of you. When you pray for missions, please don't forget the work and workers here in Lintsing. Very sincerely, ^ ^ >. JA^^i |