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Show - 82 - portunity for some systematic instruction to the church members and inquirers there, and also to the boys in the primary school, though no class was formally organized. "On March 15lh, a deacon for each of the four Pure Spring churches was consecrated in a meeting at the Westvale church. On April 19th. Mr. Ch'ang Yun-ch'ing was consecrated as the deacon of the Shop Mound church, though his home is four miles distant. One of the chief tasks for the future will be to develop a feeling of responsibility for their local churches in the minds of these five deacons. "The greatest growth of the year has been in our northeast field. At Shop Mound Elder Yang has drawn about him a group of earnest inquirers from some of the most influential families of the neigborhood. Many of these men have been patients in the opium refuge. Sixty men were enrolled in that refuge in the first three months of this year. The Sabbath congregation at Shop Mound has increased fourfold in the last three years. At Eastern Sun Mr. Wang Hai-shen has done a remarkable work through the agency of his opium refuge and dispensary. Here as at Shop Mound the sympathy and interest of the leading men of the community are noteworthy." Miss Heebner's report contributes the following notes regarding this center: "In the outstation of Eastern Sun an opium refuge for women was opened in the winter. It is a splendid opening in this large market-town. On April 26th. Mrs. Jong, the Bible woman at present in charge, brought two women as inquirers into the church there, early ' first-fruits' of this youngest daughter of the Greatvale outstation w o r k . . . . . . .. Mrs. Jong hss constant opportunity to visit in the homes in the town. One of the leading families has offered to equip one of the rooms in the front of the court as a dayschool for girls if we will open one there. Not a few lassies are waiting to enter such a school, as there is none like it nearer than Greatvale, 12 miles away. Going through the town one day, and stopping in an inn at noon, a man whom we had not met before followed us to the inn and asked us when we were going to open the school, already taking for granted it was to be." The compilers are in despair at their inability to mention all the "open doors" reported by the workers of the Greatvale station. Nor can we even catalogue the "needs" set forth, in most cases with convincing succinctness, by these who are in fullest touch with the whole situation in the station. We have not even space to chronicle such events of importance as, for example, the formation of the station's Educational Committee. There is not the least bit of room for statistics, though some of those submitted are most fascinating. We can only, in closing, voice the prayers and aspirations of this band of busy •workers. We do this through a mosaic, made up of the closing sentences of the five reports, " The Master who has commissioned us is desirous that this part of the globe be filled with the teachings of His gospel." ''The central purpose of our work is to give the Bread of Life." "For certainly, machinery is simply an agent through which the Christian purpose acts, and it is only as we have the Power which is Love working through'us and it that we can hope to see success. It is vital, therefore, that we have a body of believers thoroughly linked up by prayer with the work, and watching over it with us through the years to come." |