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Honan, China

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 2, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 22.

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Honan, China

By F. A. Allum

CHEO CHIA K'O.—Our hearts have been greatly cheered by the arrival of the new recruits. We are also thankful that Elder W. A. Westworth is with us to lead the work in China. We shall do our best to help him extend the work and the triumphs of the cross in this field of darkness. The meeting just closed is the best we have yet held, and the plans laid will mean much for the advancement and strengthening of our work in this place.
We are planning to open Szechuen to the message early this year. Dr. A. G. Larson and wife and Elder F. M. Roberts and wife are under appointment to that field. The committee thought that as Dr. A. C. Selmon was to leave Honan, it would be well for me to return to Honan for two months to help in the work.
It is planned for Dr. Larson and myself to make our first trip some time in May. We shall leave our wives at Mokanshan until we have rented a suitable place to live. As we shall not get a start until May, we shall have to pass the summer in Szechuen; for it is unsafe to travel during the summer months in that province, owing to the great heat. As soon as summer is over, we plan to return as far as I-chang, a town four hundred miles above Hankow, in the province of Hupeh. Brother Roberts will then escort our wives as far as I-chang; for thus far there are foreign steamers.
The distance from Shanghai to I-chang is one thousand English miles, and seven or eight days are required to make the journey. From I-chang to Chung-king is a distance of three hundred miles. As Chung-king is the largest city in Szechuen, having a population of over six hundred thousand, we purpose to begin our work there. As far as I can learn, nearly every mission that has work in Szechuen has made its beginning in Chung-king.
The journey from I-chang to Chung-king, which is made in native boats, is very tedious, and often attended with grave danger on account of treacherous rapids in the river. It usually takes from twenty to thirty days to cover the three hundred miles between these towns—a longer time than to come from Australia to Shanghai. Our wives will not leave Shanghai until some time in September; for we feel that it is not well to risk their health by taking them out there until we have made some provision for them, and until the summer is over. Such are some of the seeming sacrifices in pioneer work in mission fields; but I do not feel that, in the Lord's work, one can call even these experiences sacrifices. The glad day will soon come when this message will be finished in triumph. The thing for us to be anxious about is whether we shall triumph with it. If we do, we shall receive what is laid up for us, which will more than compensate for all the experiences through which we now pass.
God has much people in Szechuen, and I ask you to remember us before the throne of grace as we begin this forward march on territory that has never heard one word of God's last message of warning and salvation.
F. A. ALLUM.