T h e
17
January 1930
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
\ . 1 V ' V N l S S l O t O S
The Hunan Bible Institute B y F rank A. K eller
IRST of all I want to express our deep gratitude to God for His gracious care and constant bless ing during the terrible times through which China has been passing. And then I want to express our grateful appreciation of the loyal way in which our many faithful friends have stood by us and so have made it possible to continue the work of the Biola Evangelistic Bands with comparatively little interruption, even though the work in' the Bible School had to be suspended for a few months. Working with a depleted staff of missionaries it has
tors that have brought this great result to pass? The greatest praise of your Institute comes not from me, but from those who, on the completion of their studies, come out with an enthusiasm for the preaching of the Gospel.” Many friends have written asking me regarding the men of our Biola Evangelistic Band No. 9 who were cap tured by the communists. Only half the members of the Band were taken. Work had been completed in the dis trict where they had been engaged for some weeks and they decided to press on and open up a new center; but it seemed best temporarily to divide the Band into two parts,
not been possible to w r i t e t h e usual mo nt h l y reports for T he K i n g ’ s B usi ness ; b u t in s p i t e of this necessary omis sion our friends h a v e stood by us, and the work which God has committed to us to reach the un evangelized mil lions of China has gone right forward ; thou sands have heard the Gospel for t h e first time ; many, like t h é Thessalonians, “ h a v e received t h e w o r d in
one group to go forward and be gin work in the new d i s t r i c t while the other group remained for a few days in the old district to help the young Christians in their.Bible study, and to seek to promote t h e i r spiritual growth. T h e leader of the Band and a party of choice young evangel ists w e n t for ward. They had been in the new district for only a few days when they were cap tured.
H unan B ible I nstitute , C hangsha , H unan , F aculty and S tudents , 1929-30.
One evening a number of men came to their preaching service, and remained for some time after the service talk ing with what seemed to be a deep and real interest in the Gospel. On leaving they very courteously accepted some Gospel books from our evangelists and promised to come again. That very night they did come again, but they had thrown aside their masks of courtesy and exhibited their real character of cruelty and hate. They quickly bound the evangelists with ropes, demanded their money, and not being satisfied with the small amount ob tained, they took them away and held them for ransom. After a couple of days one of the evangelists was re leased and sent to us with a letter demanding a large sum of money as a ransom. Several most trying weeks passed, negotiations were going on, and in many parts of the world God’s children were praying earnestly for the de liverance of these men. Finally the bandits learned that the government troops were closing'in on them and they made preparations for a hurried flight into the mountains. They had a large number of captives besides our evan gelists and at such a time too large a party was a burden and hindrance to them; moreover there was the fear that the captives might in some way aid the soldiers who were in pursuit. Therefore on June 26, 1928, they took twenty-
much affliction with joy o f the Holy Spirit . . . and have turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.” And not only so, but again like the Thessalonians, “ from them hath sounded forth the word of the Lord” into other parts. A missionary who is chairman of one of the largest missions working in Hunan, wrote to us re cently of a little church established by God’s blessing on the work of one of our Biola Evangelistic Bands. He said : “ I had glorious services at a village where the work was begun by one of your Bands. The work was fol lowed up closely, and now the members have built a beautiful chapel and p'reacher’s rooms, which is a center of evangelistic activity for the whole district.” A few weeks ago this same missionary chairman wrote to me again saying: “ I have frequently mentioned our appreciation as a Mission of the work done by your Bands in our districts, but the subject will bear a lot of repetition. As I write I think of section after section that has been opened up by your men, and' where now flourishing churches exist. I think of the encouragement and help that has come to our preachers and other workers as they attended your conferences and short-term study courses. Can you wonder that I thank God for the fac
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