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TH E K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
March'1925
I M n U 9 S l B l i i i § S S S i S g E I S I § iS I I li li lI li lI I I I ll I I I ll I lI ll E l§ ^ iI iS ll lI I I lE li § I lB ■ ■
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Our Bible Institute in Hunan Province, China
Superintendent
S m H I S B S § i g S l € € ä l I 3 S E i l i i I i I i I s i H I i I i I I S i S H I I I g e l I i = I s l M l l i I i I l ü = I l I = I = I I i I s i I i I i l i l S ä l I I g I g g i l 5 l l ^ l 3 £ S l l l I S O i I I S I i i 6 1 i B B I f H m S
The Hunan Bible Institute (the China Department of the Bible Institute of Los A ngeles) is organized along sim ilar lines to the home Institute,— training native Chinese young men and women for Christian work, and at the same tim e carrying on an active evangelistic work am ong the unsaved. The work (which is recognized by the different evangelical m issions as one of the best in China) has three departm ents: (1 ) A Bible Institute at Changsha (the capital city of Hunan Province.) (2 ) Twelve Colportage Bands w ith thirteen men in each band, devoting the mornings to Bible Study, and the afternoons to giving the Gospel in the native homes. (3 ) The Autumn Bible School and Conference at Nanyoh (one of China’s three sacred m ountains). Hundreds of conversions have resulted from the work done among the thousands of pilgrim s. THE SIEGE OF KWEILIN
G athering th e S cattered F lock Then followed several weeks of busy preaching in th ree different towns. The first was a small and unresponsive place, and only th ree or four people seemed to be really earnest enquirers. In th e second town the people seemed more receptive. Their little city nestles among th e hills, and they have a repu tation for boldness and for being well armed, which keeps th e bandits away. Here a preaching station has been sta rted as a resu lt of our work. In the
(N ate: Mr. K’ang Chien Heng, the author of this article, is the leader of Biola E vangelistic Band No. 3. The unanimous testim ony of mis* sionaries in Kweilin, and of his colleagues in Band No. 3, is that throughout the siege he showed him self to be an heroic Christian gentleman.— F. A. K.) H HEN we left Nanyoh in th e fall of 1923 the whole of Hunan was in a very disturbed condition on account of the war between the m ilitary governor of Hunan and a southern general who aspired to th a t position. We had trav
th ird place a chapel was already in use, b u t unfor tunately, some m o n t h s before, th e evangelist had been killed by robbers and th e little flock had been somewhat scattered. We were glad to be able tc gath er many of these Chris tians together again and to leave th e work in a more encouraging condition. We arrived a t the city of Kweilin early in January. It is a city w ith excellent n atu ra l fortifications. On the E ast th ere is a river, North and West th ere are hills. Only on the South has
elled about 200 miles when, oh arriv al a t th e Kwangsi border, we were detained for several hou rs by soldiers who made a very thorough exam ination of our baggage. At th e tim e th is seemed a very annoying delay. We had only travelled about th ree miles fu rth e r, how ever, when we realized th a t God’s protecting hand had been upon us, for we found th a t bandits had passed th a t way only two hours before, robbing a number of coolies who were carrying cloth.
BIOLA EVANGELISTIC BAND NO. 3 K’ANG CHIEN HENG (Leader) in Center.
it been necessary for men to erect a wall. So strong are the fortifications th a t during th e Taiping Rebellion th e city was besieged unsuccessfully for tw enty-eight days. Kweilin was form erly the capital of Kwangsi and is still an im portant city. It is a very wicked city also, gambling and opium smoking are open, and the “ red ligh t d istrict" is officially conducted by th e city fathers. There are th ree missions a t work, th e Church Missionary Society, th e Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Southern B aptist Convention. None of th e churches are very large, bu t they are faith fu lly conducting the regu lar evangelistic, medical, and educational form s of m issionary activity. Our first work was in th e city itself in connection w ith th e Christian and Missionary Alliance. A fter th is we had tim e to work th e n o rth ern and eastern suburbs outside the city wall before the w ar conditions drove us again into th e city. W ar Clouds About Ja n u ary 20 the w ar clouds began to gather w ith th e arriv al of General Luh Yung Ting, who took possession, necessitating the escape of the small force which had been (Continued on page 134)
Except for the delay a t th e hands of the soldiers we would almost certainly have been a t th is place a t th e same tim e th a t th e bandits were there. T hat very n igh t while we were quietly sleeping a t an inn, thieves came to steal cattle from the house next to ours. If they had only realized it, they could much more easily have entered th e house in which we were and taken our belongings while we slept. Here again we had cause to th ank God for His protection. We moved on to Ta Yung Kiang, where afte r th ree weeks’ evangelistic work eight had accepted Christ. Six of these have already been baptized. Ju st as we were ready to leave th is town, however, we had still another experience w ith lawless men. We were living on the th eatrical stage belong ing to the Hunan Society of Kwangsi. On the very last night of our stay thieves dug a hole in the mud wall, and would certainly have despoiled our goods bu t for a very heavy coffin which they found in the way when th e hole was made. So much tim e had been used in digging th is first hole th a t before th e thieves had completed ano ther hole we had sta rted on our preparations for th e long jo u r ney th a t was ahead of us. One more proof th a t “All things work togeth er for good to them th a t love God.”
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