King's Business - 1923-08

OUR BIBLE INSTITUTE IN HUNAN PR©VINCE, CHINA DR. FRANK A. KELLER, Superintendent

HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO MAYUANAO

'There is not a rich man among the members. Not one is possessed of a field. There are rich men In this coun– try who own the coal and iron and lime– stone, but none of these are believers. "The members are farm laborers and such like. When it was not convenient to have the meetings in the farm houses In turn, they consulted about building a chapel as a settled place of worship. Tbe first difficulty was land. Should they hllY a piece? But one man got permission from the members of his clan to use a piece of unoccupied ground by the roadside belonging to the clan, and there work was begun. Every man was willing to help. Some gave bricks, some tiles or wood, and all gave of their labor. So eager were they that In two months the work was com– pleted. No man boasted of what he had contributed. Nobody seemed to know what the others bad done. Simply the work was done.' "The result Is a very creditable piece of work. The building will seat about a hundred, and adjoining there are rooms for the preacher's residence. Af– ter that early morning service I started back to Changsha. One of the mem– bers offered to guide me aloni; the by– paths to the high road. He could not be persuaded to return until he had set me thirty Ii (ten miles) on my way. He told me of the beginnings of the good work: " 'Some years ago a man went from our district as a pilgrim to Nanyoh. He brought back a booklet that had been given to him there and it passed from hand to hand. What impressed us was a statement that Jesus, the Son of God, had died upon the cross to save

FEW days ago the Rev. W. W. Gibson, Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Mis– sion in Hunan, met me and

said: "I have just returned from a visit to a most interesting church in one of our circuits. The church Is one of the fruits of your Biola Evangelistic Band work. It is really a wonderful story and I want to write it out and send it to you." The following day Mr. Gibson's Inspiring report came to hand. He wrote: find. "Mayuanao was not easy to That Is the case with many places that are not strategic centers but something better, namely, spiritual capitals. My coolie and I tramped and enqulred for two days as we journeyed from Changsha, and it was not until the morning of the third day that we found a man in an inn who said he had heard of the place. At Yiyang the trail was easy, and we walked up the beautiful valleys flanked with bamboo groves for eighty Ii and there we came across a man who offered to guide us to the hamlet of Mayuanao. Ten Ii brought us to the few scattered houses which constitute the hamlet, and a by-path led us to a chapel by the wayside. "This is the spiritual capital of the countryside. Scarcely a house is in sight, but word speedily went around that I had arrived and a good congre– gation gathered to hear the Word and to 'remember the Lord's death till His coming again.' Early the next morning several men came to the chapel for another service. "The story of the chapel building was told me by the preacher in charge:

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