courage and
faith to trust God to give me a Bible-woman. Those who know anything of
mission work in China will agree with me that it is far more difficult
to find women than men who are able to preach the Gospel; or if able,
who are free for the work. But I was beginning to learn that God is
limited only from the human side; and that he is always willing to give
beyond our asking, if the human conditions he has so plainly laid down
in his Word are fulfilled.

A short time after I had begun to ask my Heavenly Father definitely for
a Bible-woman, Mr. Mac G---- came in from a tour, and his first words
were:

"Well, Mrs. Goforth, I believe we have a ready-made Bible-woman for
you!"

Then he told me how he had come across a widow and her son in a mountain
village, who had heard the Gospel from a recent convert out of one of
the other stations. This man had been a member of the same religious
sect as the widow and her son. When he found Christ he at once thought
of his friends, and went over the mountain to tell them. Mrs. Chang
received the Gospel gladly. She had been a preacher in that heathen
sect, and had gained the fluency in speaking, and power in holding
audiences, so necessary in the preaching of the Gospel.

The way was soon opened for her to come to me, and she became my
constant companion and valuable assistant in the women's work during
those early years. She witnessed a good confession in 1900--being strung
up by her thumbs when refusing to deny her Lord. Faithfully she served
the Lord as a Bible-woman, until the time of her death in 1903.

During the first two or three years at Chang Te Fu we lived in unhealthy
Chinese houses, which were low and damp. It was therefore thought best
that we should have a good semi-foreign house built for us. The work at
this time was so encouraging--converts being added weekly, and sometimes
almost daily--that we feared lest the new house would hinder the work,
and become a separating barrier between ourselves and the people. We
therefore prayed that God would make the new house a means of reaching
the people--a blessing, and not a hindrance. The answer to this prayer,
as is often the case, depended largely upon ourselves. We had to be made
willing to pay the price that the answer demanded.

In other words, we came to see that in order that our prayer could be
answered we would have to keep open house every day and all day, which
was by no means easy. Some assured us it wa