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medical and educational skills toward soliciting Christian belief and committment. Team leader Yang as translator of Seiss' T~e Apocalyose was highly respected by missionaries, student ministers, Social and educational status of numerous river boat team workers is never clearly defined, but Keller's description of Changsha and its environs revealed the educated nature of the population. "Changsha was one of the four cities chosen by the Rockfeller Foundation for carrying on its extensive work along medical lines." 12 Reliance on direct evangelism by Biola and the Hunan enterprise allowed for little discussion regarding the more indirect attractions of medicine and scholarship within that context. Yet, Keller's own background, and that of later missionaries and Chinese teachers, assured a cultural impact coinciding with and enhancing the Christianization process. T~~ctical _ concept of river evangelism, a new approach to missions, was mentioned first in an undated letter from Keller to Smith sometime between 1906 and 1909 suggesting tract and Bible distribution by use of a launch with a motor. 13 The vision soon became reality, minus the motor, by use of a houseboat and colportage crew in 1909. Keller later reflected his borrowing of ------- the idea from enterprising A~erican businessmen who used steam 14 launches to promote a cigarette selling campaign in Hunan. d . 11 an prospective converts.
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