CHINA

Writing from Ping Fan, Kansu, China, our brother Foggin, says:

Visiting these parts I have found that there is a need for workers among the Tibetans on this side of the border and much more on the other side. In the vicinity of Hualung I suppose half the population is Tibetan and cannot speak the Chinese language, except that they can say prices and the names of the goods they want, but you cannot hold a conversation with them. Tibetan work is very discouraging as very rarely does anyone get saved.

There is a need for a young man who is willing to sacrifice his life for the Lord in service to these people. I do not see any reason why one should not enter Tibet if he does it in a discreet way, perhaps feel his way. When at Kweiteh I met one of the living Budhas. He came into the tent and asked us to take the lantern to the Lamasery at which he was staying. This .we did, and showed the life of Christ. He said he was quite willing that Will Simpson should have a mission station at the place where his headquarters are, about a week's journey into Tibet. You perhaps have read in the papers that Will Simpson was killed last year by bandits about twenty-five miles east of Anting on the main road. He was bringing the baggage of some new missionaries. He was one of the best Tibetan speakers on the mission field and used to go into Tibet for six months at a time.

The Tibetans that come into Kweiteh are the Nomads which live in tents and I understand that these are typical of the Tibetans in the interior. Will Simpson used to go with a train of yak and I think carried a tent with him as there are no inns such as you find in China, and it is also on a high cold plateau.

I am not telling this because I feel called to such a work, although it has its attractions, but perhaps there are some young men in our assemblies who may. I would suggest two young men at least, as I know what it means to be single-handed and we are human after all.

I am planning to leave here in September for Peiping and will likely go on to our brother Kautto's. It looks as though the Japs will occupy Taitowying.

I have requested a brother to order a tent for me from Shanghai.

May I ask the prayers of the Lord's people on behalf of these two large needy places?

In connection with our brother's mention of the work on the border of Kansu, the following are a few incidents in connection with the beginning of Protestant missionary work in that part of China. Until the year 1866 practically no Protestant missionary work was done in the interior of China and not until about the year 1875 were the Western provinces of Shanshi and Kansu entered. At that time Mr. Easton and Doctor Parker of the China Inland Mission made a pioneer journey into these provinces. Of their first journey they say, "fifty-six days were spent, in cart and inns, passing from city to city through the southern part of the provinces, where roads were roughest and accommodation poorest, and where little food was obtainable beyond steamed bread and rice, or coarse home-made vermicelli. Starting at earliest dawn, we often traveled on till dark, preaching by the wayside or in crowded streets, everywhere telling the glad tidings of Redeeming Love."

Later, when definite work was established at Kansu, a terrible war broke out between Mohammedans and Chinese on the border.

Almost two years the fearful struggle lasted, 80,000 people being massacred, not to speak of soldiers killed in battle or frozen on the mountains, but through it all the missionaries stayed at their posts, proving themselves the friends of Chinese and Mohammedans alike and winning love and confidence that brought wonderful opportunities for the Gospel. We read in Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission* *To be had of the Publishers. Price, $2.* "After a preparatory stage of several months, the Mohammedan Rebellion had swept down upon the city of Si-ning on the borders of Tibet, where Mr. and Mrs. Ridley, their infant child, and Mr. Hall were the only foreigners. Ten thousand Mohammedans lived in the suburbs round the city, and it was a terrible night (July 24) when, contrary to vows and protestations, they turned upon their Chinese neighbors, and amid scenes of fearful carnage threw in their lot with the rebels. Already the city was filled with refugees, and the missionaries were working night and day to care for the wounded. Led by a beggar who knew the healing virtues of their medicines, they had found in the Confucian Temple hundreds of women and children who had made their escape from burning villages and the horrors perpetrated by their enemies. Groans and wailing were heard on every hand, and in the twilight of that summer evening they saw a mass of human suffering that was appalling. Burned from head to foot and gashed with fearful sword-cuts, scores of these poor creatures lay dying with not a hand to help them, for no one would go near even with food and water.

Then the missionaries understood why they had felt so definitely that they ought to stay on in the city, when they might have made good their escape. This was the work for which they were needed, the work that was to open hearts to the Gospel as years of preaching had not done. With heroic courage they gave themselves to the task, and throughout all that followed never ceased their ministrations. Amid scenes passing conception they cared for the wounded of both sides-first in the seven months of Mohammedan frenzy, when the Chinese were falling before them in thousands, then in still more awful months of Chinese retaliation. With no surgical instrument but a pen-knife and hardly any appliances but such as could be obtained on the spot, they performed hundreds of operations, and treated over a thousand cases of diphtheria, not to speak of the dressing of wounds that occupied them from early morning till late at night."

BRAZIL

Our brother Penna writes as follows:-

Your letter of April 4th was duly received, and there was thankfulness on our part to God our Father and to His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour for this token of your fellowship in our labors for the Lord here in the Amazon valley. Our unworthiness and God's grace are a full contrast and we are touched by the Lord's faithfulness toward us. We realize how difficult things are these hard times but the Lord stands the same, always taking care of His servants and ministering to them through His distressed people. To our Blessed Lord and Saviour be all glory for ever.
I told you I was contemplating moving out of Parintins and, after seeking the Lord as to this, am now living in Aicurapa River where we have a good beginning in the work. Last Sunday we broke bread with eleven at the Lord's table, with about twenty visitors. Some of the latter are believers who have not taken their place as yet.

At Mirity Lake we are having encouragement and God is working there. I go there every other Sunday and hope for some fruit soon.

It is in my heart to make an intensive Gospel trip beginning July 4th. For this purpose the Lord is providing a canoe. Out of the ministry I received since January, the Lord has graciously enabled me to put aside $40 and with this amount we have started work on the canoe. The canoe will cost about $80 but we know the Lord will give us the other half of this sum. This is a needy field, one in which we can move only by water. We have need too of a brother, a servant of the Lord to help us. Will the saints please pray for both these needs.

I am glad to say the Lord has been gracious to me as to my health. I am feeling well now though I was almost overcome with lung trouble. Am indeed thankful to Him for having spared my body.

ARGENTINA, S. A.

Our brother Montllau writes as follows:

We have been cheered by the good attendance at the Gospel meetings and Sunday School during the last weeks. There are several who seem to have received the message and they profess faith in the Lord Jesus. In other halls where we held united prayer meetings there has been some awakening and after a series of special meetings many have confessed the Lord as their Saviour. We began meetings on Saturday night in a section called Pompeo and there is quite an' interest and fine attendance. We expect to see much fruit there. We crave your prayers on behalf of several young people who desire baptism.

AFRICA

Announcement was made in our last issue of the marriage of our brother William Deans to Miss Dora Winsor of Wheaton, Illinois. So that our sister might be better Known, we take the liberty of mentioning the following few details concerning her work for the Lord:

Several years ago Miss Winsor followed her two sisters and her brother to the mission field and commenced service for the Lord at a point near the Northeastern tip of the Belgian Congo. There at Aba she found opportunities for witnessing among women. Conducting a women's school daily, she instructed them in the way of the Cross. Supplementing the daily school, heathen women were visited in their huts. Many turned to the Lord and thus the hearts and affections of the women, both pagan and Christian were gained. Miss Winsor also took a part in caring for orphans and other unfortunate children.

May the Lord richly bless our brother and his wife in their new united service for Himself.
Of the work at Nyangkundi our brother writes:

Since my last letter much has transpired here at Nyangkundi. Over thirty have come to Christ. Some of the older Christians have been led into full time Gospel work, being not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, having felt its power in their lives and seen that it is in truth the power of God unto Salvation to everyone who believes.

"After the Gospel meeting we four will go to preach to the Balendu," Kamesu and his fellows said to me one Lord's Day morning as the first fingers of light from the blazing sun shot upward from the eastern hills. Kamesu and Nzunde, converts of several years, had spent many a Sunday afternoon among the Balendu villages preaching Christ. The other two, recently converted, found such joy in 'the Lord that they had a longing desire to impart it to others too, to share with the Balendu that satisfying peace made through the blood of the Cross.

Two villages had requested that he and Nzunde come to live and teach in their compounds. Realizing that Romanist teachers rush to enter in competition wherever the Gospel is brought, the villages asked us to get special permission from the Government authorizing them to come. So to the chief, the territorial agent and administrator, the letter went and Kamesu returned to make plans for a removal of house and home. The second day back he brought his eldest daughter, about seven years old, and asked for medicine. She, coughing up sections of a milk worm, aroused our sympathies and not having the proper remedy, a letter was sent to Doctor Woodhams, but before the medicine arrived Kamesu had laid away his daughter. Calm and resigned, he praised the Lord that she was with Him, which is "far better."

Then plans were interrupted this week by the sudden illness of Kamesu's youngest and last night she, too, was laid beside her sister. The two graves, dug but a week apart, contain the crowning earthly ties of our dear brother. Today word comes to us from Kamesu, "Tell Bwana that all this does not move me from my purpose to preach the love of Jesus to the Balendu. It only gives me less of the world to think about. I care nothing for the world, but all for Christ."

Continued, systematic, persistent Romanist opposition vies with heathen trickery to bring the Gospel of Salvation by grace to naught. Despite this, however, fruit is being continually seen, particularly in the Bahema and Balenda tribes.

After Belinyama, Mubira king, died, Bwana Muzuri, his eldest son, ascended to the place of authority. But how unlike Hezekiah of old he has proven to be. We have been blessed by the reading of the revival under Hezekiah. His good influence encouraged the people to return to the Lord Jehovah. Bwana Muzuri, on the other hand, is urging Satan worship and deification of ancestors, which has caught even some of the weak village Christians in its wake. The chief, angry that so many have left pagan ranks to serve the living and true God, encourages free persecution of our people. Women cutting wood in the grass are molested, men are threatened, captured, beaten and forced to work for a season, under the chief. Cases brought to the chief's court are either shelved or speedily decided in the favor of the pagan, seldom if ever for the Christian."

Our love and sympathy surely go out to our brother Kamesu in the loss of his two children. The beautiful spirit manifested reminds one of another missionary who years ago after losing husband and child within a few days of each other could write:

"It is just possible that you may have heard of the honor that my God and Father has put upon me. Yes, He has trusted me to live without my darling husband and child and they 'are not for God has taken them.'- My treasures are gone and I am left alone-He has taken my all. Now I can only give Him what remains of life. He has indeed emptied me. May it be only to feel His love, compassion and power." HARBOR WORK-New York

Through the faithfulness of God we have been enabled to keep on in this work among the seafarers on the many ships which constantly ply to and fro between New York and other ports. We are thankful to report His unchanging goodness to us and His support of the work. Particularly has this been true of literature, which is still at low ebb, yet there is enough for our work from day by day.

We received genuine cheer in talking to an American seaman who told us he had been definitely cleared up as the result of a Gospel tract we had left with him some few months earlier. Not only this, but he constantly reads our booklets and stands for the Lord. He has asked me for a larger type Bible than the one I gave him in January, expressing at the same time the great joy he has reading the Book every day. This, naturally, is something so different from the usual response of American seamen that we can give God alone the praise. We may not realize it, but there are ever so many seamen who are true Christians and their lot is a difficult one if they seek to stand true to Christ. Again and again we have been stirred at meeting these "good soldiers of Jesus Christ" and it would do the heart good to be able to tell something of each of them. Just last month one such came across our path and what a joy it was, not only to meet him, but take him home for tea, then to the Assembly, where fellowship with God's people means so much to the weary traveler. May the Lord's people remember in prayer those of "His own" "who go down to the sea in ships," for truly "these see the work of the Lord and His wonders in the deep." -R.A. West.