November, 1940
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
414
gelistic effort is being put forth by the Biola Evangelistic Bands. These trained Chinese evangelists, serving in groups of six, have established a record of soul winning through public meetings and house-to-house visitation that is re markable. Thirty-six men in all are giving their lives to this Band ministry. So radiant is their'zeal for Christ that they themselves seem •unaware of the handicaps that war conditions impose upon them. Is there cause for thanksgiving in China? Even in the midst of smoldering ruins, restricted food supplies, loneli ness, and uncertainty, missionaries and native evangelists answer, “Yesf’ em phatically. And what a grateful echo should rise from the heart o f . every Christian who shares by prayer in this ministry! “Thank God”—for protection and provision, not always complete but always sufficient. “Thank God”—for open doors and open hearts for the gos pel. “Thank God”—for that cementing love which unites Christians in adver sity and itself testifies to His grace. Oh, that a volume of prayer would rise to God for. His servants in China in this day of spiritual opportunity! grow above the mines of iron and coal. God has been gracious to this land. Its resources are two and three layers deep. “He tumeth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may pre pare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease” (Psa. 107:35-38). I am thankful that I live iq a land where there has never been a general famine. There have been local short ages in this country of ours, crop fail ures due to drought and insect pests; but we have been so far removed from general famine that we hardly under stand what such a thing means. There are people in this country who are not properly nourished, but to see any one die of starvation is an unusual rather than an ordinary sight; certainly, to see thousands die, a thing which is common in Asia, yes, even in Europe, is un heard of in America. “I will abundantly bless her provi sion: I will satisfy her poor with bread” (Psa. 132:15). We live in a country in which the subsistence standards are higher than anywhere else in the world. Much as we can rightly deplore the extremes of inequality between the very nch and AN AMERICAN GIVES THANKS [Continued from Page 406]
told the camp manager, “ the way the kids sat and listened.” In another camp, a family turned, in their hour of sorrow, to the Biola young men to conduct their baby’s funeral, i Their hearts were strangely softened, and there was opportunity for real wit nessing over the little grave.
young women worked, together with a former Biola graduate, the Bible story hour was popular indeed. The recrea tion director, strolling through that camp one day, was impressed with the fact that there was not a youngster ;in sight. Knowing the children’s ways and suspecting mischief, he made his way to the playground. To his as tonishment he found all eighty children sitting under the trees listening spell bound to the Bible teachers. “You’d think they were being fed candy,” he When the Superintendent of the Hunan Bible Institute (the China De partment of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles) recently had to go from the headquarters of the work, in Changsha, to Nanyoh, where a Bible conference grounds is located, he found himself traveling with a boatload of Chinese soldiers. Suddenly, above their boat there appeared twenty-seven Japanese bombing planes—a magnificent and terrifying sight as they swept along in precise military formation. Flying low enough to have wiped out the lives of the passengers and crew, the planes nevertheless kept straight to their course. Not a bomb was dropped. Not a shot was fired. Yet upon a city not far from Changsha, enemy planes rained death and destruction, almost obliterating the city. As these menac ing birds of war zoomed away, Charles A. Roberts, the representative of the Huhan Bible Institute who was aboard the boat, once more praised God—as he had praised Him on many similar occa sions—for the protection of His mighty hand that is making possible a continu ing evangelistic ministry in China. What does it mean to “carry on” in wartime ? Changsha is located just ninety miles from the Japanese lines. The roar of bombs is heard constantly in the dis tance or nearer. The city has been swept by a fire which destroyed seventy per cent of that area. But the buildings of the Hunan Bible Institute are still intact. Again and again work has had to be interrupted as men apd women have rushed to air-raid shelters in response to warnings, And who are the ones that make up the "family’’ that calls the Hunan Bible Institute “home” in these days? They are not groups of young people only, for under. present conditions school
The students are back in Los Angeles studying again. But out in the crowded camps there are still hundreds of wan dering ones who need to find in Christ their- sure abiding place. Is There Thanksgiving In China?
cannot convene regularly. They are blind girls—sixty of them. They are hospital patients, cared for by faithful German and other missionaries whose own medical buildings have been de stroyed. They are refugee children—350 of them. They are old and forsaken Christians—sixty to ninety years of age —who have no other home than this. They are Christian families, destitute of other shelter, crowded together in one dormitory that fairly bursts with their praise for God’s goodness. Others could be named as well; but among them all there is just one white mis sionary—Mr. Roberts—whose devoted wife and children were required re cently to return to America. The burden of all Mr. Roberts’ letters can be expressed in just one word: Opportunity. Doors are opening on every hand for evangelistic work. In May, Mr. Roberts was asked to conduct a city-wide evangelistic campaign, using the Hunan Bible Institute as the center of operations. Six churches co operated, and the city, whose normal population is 200,000, was stirred mightily by the Spirit of God. Five hun dred persons who attended the meetings in one church alone, signified a desire to accept Christ as Saviour. House-to- house visitation was conducted, and large, numbers of souls were won in this manner, besides those who re sponded to the public evangelistic appeal. Now Mr. Roberts is receiving urgent requests to conduct similar campaigns in surrounding cities. The opportunities that these invitations afford are almost unprecedented. In addition to the public meetings and the daily work of witnessing which is carried on faithfully among the varied groups in the Hunan Bible Insti tute, a further and very fruitful evan
The Chinese characters at the left, read from right to left, bear the message, “To day’s Opportunity.”
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