OUR BIBLE INSTITUTE IN HUNAN PROVINCE, CHINA DR. FRANK A. KELLER, Superintendent
H O all who accepted the invita tion and joined us In prayer last summer to bring Doctor Tor rey out to Hunan we wish t o . return most grateful thanks. God heard and answered prayer, Doctor Torrey came to us, and God made him a great blessing to many. The adversary seemed to challenge him every step of the way. The war conditions were so bad in Hunan that people on all sides told him that he could not possibly reach Changsha, to say nothing of get ting to Nanyoh, the so-called “ Sacred Mountain” of Hunan, where the Bible conference was to be held. But Doctor Torrey believed that God had brought him out to China to come to Hunan and to take part in the Nanyoh con ference, and op he came. Even after reaching Changsha things looked pretty dark, and for a time it seemed as though it would not be pos sible to secure transportation to Nan yoh. We spent much time in earnest waiting on God and suddenly every thing cleared up and we had an un usually pleasant trip to Nanyoh, and what a wonderful time we had after we reached there. We had invited as many Chinese Christian workers as we could possibly entertain with our usual accommodations, but as soon as the mis sionaries of Hunan and adjoining prov inces learned that both Doctor Torrey and Doctor Goforth were expected to be at Nanyoh, urgent letters began to pour in begging us to allow them to send larger delegations. The requests were so many and so pressing that we felt that we must allow them to come, but how could we manage it? Brick walls will not stretch, and we could only seat just so many in our combina tion lecture and dining hall, and could only provide rooms for the same num ber. First, we wrote to both speakers asking if they would be willing to re peat their morning lectures in the after noon to entirely new audiences. They both wired us in the affirmative, so we sent some of our workers to Nan yoh to secure an additional building fof- dormitory purposes, and sent word to the missionaries to let the addition
al applicants come along. God helped wonderfully and enabled us to secure a most desirable building, in fact, the very building that we had tried in every possible way to rent for the work when we first began the Bible conferences at Nanyoh. At that time the owners could not be persuaded to let us have it, but this year we secured it without one bit of opposition. A Great Conference In spite of very severe war conditions that kept away about fifty of those who had registered, fully 310 were present, one hundred more than ever before. It was a record crowd and a record conference. Doctor Torrey spoke with great power and the Rev. F. C. H. Dreyer interpreted so clearly that the messages gripped the men and were a great blessing .to them. The men were so delighted with Mr. Dreyer as an in terpreter that they appointed a comr mittee to wait on him and beg him to give a course of lectures from his own rich store. Mr. Dreyer graciously granted their request and gave them a series of lectures That they will not soon forget. Our new workers, Messrs. Rutledge and Steven, joined us at Nanyoh and spent a few days in close touch with this work before taking up their lang uage study at Nanking. Next year we hope to not only see them at the con ference but to hear from them as well. Our contractors ate now at Nanyoh, and Mr. Hsiao and the writer hope to meet them there this week; and to lay out the buildings of bur new plant and get the work started briskly so as to have adequate accommodation ready by next fall for a still larger attendance. The Report Meetings Among the most helpful .and inspira tional features of the conference were the report meetings, when the leaders of our nine Biola Evangelistic Bands told of the work of the past year. Dur ing the year 219,942 homes were vis ited, and of these 20,847 were visited by the students of the Hunan Bible Institute during the school year, togeth er with their vacation band work.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online