Advancing in Face of Difficulty
By W. F. Hills
ALTHOUGH the enemy does his best to hinder the progress of the message here in Swatow [China], we see that the harder he works, the brighter the truth shines, and as a result many souls are turning to the Lord. We have a splendid interest, and Brother Ang, especially, is kept very busy. We are expecting a big harvest the coming year. We have had three hard typhoons within the last six weeks. The last one was the worst, and much damage was done. Nearly the entire city was under water. The bund was washed out badly, and many walls were blown down, and roofs blown off in all parts of the city. New roads were just being completed, but the storm tore them all to pieces, and they were almost impassable. They are now being repaired. We thank the Lord that no damage was done to our home. Not even a wall was cracked. The sea water blew in torrents, and of course our garden suffered. It looks as if it had been scalded. They say this is the worst storm experienced here for many years. Our gospel boat was forty-five miles interior, with five workers on board. Although the wind upset the boat, no one was drowned, and the boat and all the belongings were recovered, with a loss of only about five dollars. The plague has been very bad in Swatow this summer, and one of our best men died of it. He was a good worker, and it was with sad hearts that we laid him away. It was only a few hours from the time he was taken sick until we buried him. I believe this is the first Seventh-day Adventist to be buried in Swatow, and is also our first experience with the plague.