Original

96 MISSIONS AND CHURCHESgirls with 43 children. In the different schools there wasa total membership of 2,027 scholars a slight decreasecompared with 1914. This decrease is due largely to thereactionary movement in Hunan: so many, especially inthe country, went back to the old educational system.Medical Work^ ^ 1G C ^ OSG ^ ^ ast ^ 6ar ^10 ^i ss i on nadfour foreign doctors, four foreign nurses,fourteen Chinese nurses, four dispensaries and threehospitals. In 1915 1,010 patients were treated in thehospitals, and 18.910 in the dispensaries.In 1915 several books for church work and school workwere printed. These have been us:d quite extensively bymost of the Lutheran missions in central China.The income on the field in 1915 from church work,school work, and medical work amounted to ^10,4::>5.80, anincrease of more than one thousand dollars compared with1914.Some characteristic features of the year swork as coln l)arcd witil lnat ot>previous yearsYear s Work may be mentioned:1 . A determination to keep the workgoing in spite of possible difficulties. Both the foreign andChinese staff know that this will mean careful managementand possible personal sacrifice.2. The work has been better organized and the ChineseChurch understands better than before the duty of makingthe work self-supporting as soon as possible.8. The desire for a still closer union among theLutheran missions in China has grown stronger. TheUnion Lutheran Conference at Shekow in the spring of 1915helped much to strengthen this desire. We hope that theday may soon come when there will be one United ChineseLutheran Church.4. The evangelistic spirit has grown in a markeddegree among our church-members. At the annual conference in the spring of 1915 an evangelistic committee wasappointed to study methods, and make plans for aggressivework. Some new methods and plans have been tried, andthese have brought new stimulus to our evangelistic work.Our usual Christmas meetings which for many years hav e