Anna V. Blough letter to home folks, Feb. 20, 1922

              Pingtingchou, Shansi, China
February 20, 1922

Dear Home Folks, 
At last your back letters have come, those written before Christmas telling of Mrs. Gershbergers, and Mrs. Summeys death and other things. Our mail have been so irregular this winter. I am home now for a day. and hope that the foreign mail that is over due will come today, but as a rule it waits till I am gone and then it goes a long time till it can be sent out to me. 

For thirteen days I have been at Luan Liu. Just finished class yesterday and came home in the afternoon got here for English service. It is good to be home to get cleaned up, to see the folks and rest a little. Tomorrow I go again two miles further on from the last class, another famine village. They are providing the place to live and advertising the class. From there I go from village to village as they will receive me. 

Mrs. Crumpacker and I have been at Luan Liu where we have a boy and girl school and an Evangelist located. We done more work in this village than in any other place, But it has been the hardest pull of a class, I have had since I am back. It is the place I have been three weeks last year. When I first came here and taught reading, We hoped those women would continue and others begin. After I arrived in the place I learned that in two or three days, there was to be a three days theatrical, held, the first for three years. 

During the hard years they had none so they were all anxious to attend. A few who will not attend themselves expected a lot of their friends from other places, and they would have to grind a lot of meal and spent a lot of time in getting meals and entertaining. So the whole first week it was a hard pull to have anything at all. One of my last year young women came faithfully, others came occasionally. The last week was much better and in spite of handicap we accomplished something but far from what might have been had we been there in a convenient season. 

The final outcome was two meetings that were remarkable both in our country work and more so for that place. On Saturday P.M. we had graduating exercises, and on Sunday morning we had decision day, for women. Two of last year�s pupils, including the one who came regular from the first, had read well enough in the phonetic, script to receive the diploma and button awarded to those who have mastered the art of reafing [sic]. It was a grea[t] boon, and gave a lot of women present a new incentive to work towards it themselves. Mrs. Crumpacker delivered the Commencement address, or whatever you may call it. Oh of course it was very crude more so than when Bertha sweitzer and I carried off the first diploma given in Orange for grammar school work. But it was a big thing to them. Mrs. C. tried to tell them the benefit of reading and to inspire them to help to work towards it. When those two young women walked to the front, and got their diplomas one woman actually clapped her hands and others were very happy and proud of them.

That was the best fruit yet of my work since back in teaching women to read. But there are going to be a lot of others. We had worked hard in giving them Gospel messages every day working towards them making a decision. They were so irregular it was hard to make an impression on many. However after our address yesterday morning and at the close the appeal for those to stand who decided to follow Christ, seven people stood up. How happy we were for among them were our two young women graduates, who these two weeks had read fifteen chapters in St. Luke and had got impressions from the Wotd [sic] itself, besides others whom we had expected to take the stand. There were two more who did not, but we hope for them later. It was a tense moment when they began to arise and could see just as truly, the struggle and