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Show : inteiiiQ, Shantung, July 24, 1922* n \ihe fi ur e n t i re ixrvestlgn , r e l i ef r s t of 0c> force of .tin; to bobe- 2 and l i s lot t o s e 1110 S' Dear Friends:- • ' It has been yoar3 since I l a s t wrote a Station l e t t e r . Moreover, as a Station, we have f a i l e d to send you, as we used to do in the 300a old days before Mr. and Mrs* E l l i s l e ft Lints ins, any New Year fs Greetings „ All I can plead in ext en-uation is that the Famine Relief work of 1920 and 1921, and th e • varied and pressing duties of \922 ha.ve kept the few of us who are here so "busy t h a t we simply have not t.ake n time for h these l e t t e rs and greetings. We humbly confess our short comings in this regard a as in others} and cm only ask that you t.ake the will for the deed, and r e a l i s e t hat we have th ought of ycu a l l many times and air vr.ays with gratitude for your g i f t s , mid hopes that you would not e n t i r e l y forget us, even though by our silence we seemed to have f o r g o t t en you, , , - , , "-' <, gi*$t .then l e t „uie, . aere t hank you one aid a l l both for ourselves and. in behalf of th3 multitudes who were helped, for your n money -aid your prayers* bl have estimat ed that >s a church we helped in coring for some seventy thousand differ out men women aid children in the' region round about Lintsing, Money •came to us from Relief Societies in Tientsin and Peking, from • t h i e h a i t u i g Society of Tsinanfu 3 from the American Red Cross ( who isked us to recruit laborers for road' building raid furnished grain "aJ pay to the l a b o r e r ' s f m i l i e s ) , rnd from many of you individually d i r e c t to, us, or thro the Am e r i c on Boards Fa 1920 u n t i l well into April \9%\ pr ,,-cticaiIy \ . e v a n g e l i s t i c workers was busy with the ':rork of i n g oho |DOor and starving, and in d i s t r i b u t i ng needing help* I-Iaiy too .of the school teachers were helping e i t h e r by. Opening c h i l d ren's refuges, .or a&df&gg on more pupils who in return ;for 'some sort of i n d u s t r i a l T'ork were given t h e i r food and allowed to studyy- I c nnot give you a dot,-died reioort of t h i s strenuous s i n t e r s t a r v a, t.ibount wthhei chr ehsaudl t s staatltkaeiun.e da,t wbheere not small nor i n s i g° n i f i c e n t. dcor of so many homes was driven •' aw?y, -nd with the coming of the spring wheat-harvest, ..direct r e l i ef e f f o r t s could, be l a r g e l y stepped. Thro the e f f o r t s of the American Rod dross hundreds of miles • of good roads had been b u i l t in thi Province and in Slaansi, which if kept in shape by tne Chinese Government would not only be constantly usable for auto and cart t r a f f ic but in c i s e of mother famine would, be the a r t e r i e s thro which to speo the succoring grain from other regions where the crops were good* I am sorry to report that in our region the Government has fail eel to do. i t s duty in maintaining the roads i n t a c t . The.rains of . l i s t summer did .serious damage to these roads, washing away the turn pikes in many p l a c e t . Culverts should be put in and a drainahe system maintained and as the road i s used and deep 'ruts ire formed by the cart wheels these ruts should be periodic illy f i l l e d up and the road smoothed out -gain* As none of this work has been olone our link fro a here .00 the r a i l r o a d , a t To he how i s scarcely usable. In other parts .of the Province Famine. Relief funds . h ve been used t h i s spring to do the'double work of employing laborers from regions where f >mine again threatened aid of repairing the roads b u i l t in 1920# Our ifter-famine work of 1921 was th.: d i s t r i b u t i o n . 1|| two regions where t he summer r i i n s had drowned out a ll t h e i r crops of. seme a en. thousanddollars of famine r e l i e f money which hr<l been left over from the previous year. So much of the money sent thro the American'Board Came '.so l a t e in the spring of 1920 that the immediate need w is over -'hen i t arrived, but t h i s need of 1921, tho' confined only" to a sm-11 part of our f i e l d was just is Imperative. Hence- we - counted ourselves doubly fortunate in hiving t h i s money and in being able thro our experience of the previous year to give i t out so speedily, .and helpfully. • As you c:n well surmise the net r e s u l t of all this r e l i e f ^.Tork on the part of the church has been a wide spread reputation for good deeds, and in nany re^ ions ai earnest d e s i r e on the part ofi a l l ( the educated ncl the well-to-do is well is those who received aeip ) • to .learn .more "font t h i s r e l i g i o n which can raike men so helpful and generous. Our work for !92t r-<nd \$2Z was thus ready t o our hands. The schoo]s were full of children* In both Boys1 and G i r l s 1 Boarding schools the dormitory space i s entirely insufficient so that we are ever in a quandary As to whether i t is b e t t e r to let a few more pupils, come md all stand \, b i t more crowding, or to turn the l a t e seekers aw.-y. f o r the sake of the health of those who come f i r s t . Hiss N V ai Kirk's-- sch ool for Famine G i r l s h'is been c ont'inued, and Is this ntumi to be merged with the Girls* Boarding School, The buildings she erected . f o r this school will be used from now on for the Women's Station CI :Ss worki Thro the aid of special gifts which have continued to come the s e l f - h e l p department of the- Boys' School his been Continued* |
