Yeung Kong, Canton Province, China, Dee. 4th, 1920.
Dear Brother:—
All of you, in the land we have left behind, have great cause for rejoicing in the remarkable answers to your prayers that we are finding. We especially asked prayer, that being unable to speak, we might have grace to live Christ. How much that prayer has been answered, God alone knows: but we can say, some twenty have been gathered to Christ’s most blessed name. The joy of it is immense, and the love that is shown is touching.
Besides the twenty now breaking bread, there are seven more desiring to partake.
There is one for baptism, a young man who comes and spends a good deal of his time at my house. I have urged him to get some kind of employment; but getting employment is not always easy. Perhaps we may employ him to take care of the meeting house. This is new, that is, new to us. We rented it last week for $7.00 a month. It is a native house, with the usual large reception hall, where over a hundred people can sit, and it has eight other rooms. In one of these, Mr. Choi lives, along with Mr. Taam. Mr. Taam is very active in spreading the truth. Mr. Choi was introduced by him, and baptized a month or two ago. He is elderly and although so recently baptized, you would think he had been a Christian many years. He has assumed the care of the flock most naturally, without any human being, as far as I know, even suggesting it to him, doing the work of an elder. This is remarkable, for one of the charges they bring against me is that I do not believe in elders, and certainly I do not believe in the imitation kind that the churches of this day produce.
Were it not for these two men, the work here could not, humanly speaking, go on. There are several others who are very valuable, but I will not enlarge. Continue to pray for us. We greatly need it. It is a work far beyond my brightest expectations.
The day after tomorrow (D. V.) I purpose to go to Tong Wai, a market town some few miles away, where there are eight people waiting baptism, and waiting to form a little meeting.
You understand these people have almost no knowledge beyond belief in the death and resurrection of Christ; after baptism they come out of the water so happy, and at once one sees evidence of the work of the Spirit. It is something altogether so new to me, that I have followed trembling, so to speak.
Your affectionate brother in Christ.
J. L. Willis.
Since the above letter was written, further information tells us that there are now forty breaking bread.