Tai Ku, being the third largest city in Korea, in the midst of a very densely populated province, that of North Kyeng Seng, of which it is the capital, a station was opened here, in 1899. The missionaries had taken their residence there in 1897. This province is said to contain 1,750,000 people and is left entirely to our mission and here in this city is a fairly well equipped hospital, a church with an average attendance of between seven and eight hundred and an academy which it is expected will meet the needs of Tai Ku and Fusan for some years to come. It is still pioneering work in this district. The work is divided into that of the city and four country districts. In the latter they have 85 entirely self-supporting churches with 564 communicants—of whom 280 were added during the year—and 6145 adherents. These churches have 49 schools, 46 being entirely self-supporting, with an enrolment of 433 pupils. The numbers of applicants and baptized have been nearly doubling themselves in this station yearly for the past three or four years. All this work with the responsibility for nearly two millions souls is on the shoulders of four ordained men and one physician, their wives and one single woman. “The responsibility,” I said, humanly speaking, for could they not cast this burden on the Lord it would certainly crush them, but in addition to the knowledge, the inspiring knowledge that they are workers together with Him, they also realize that they have the earnest prayers of brother missionaries and of Christians in home lands.
The members of the Southern Presbyterian Mission arrived in 1893 and have always worked in harmony with the Northern church. They assisted the Northern Mission for a few years while studying the language and finally started their first station in Chun Ju, the adjacent territory for which they are responsible having a population of five hundred thousand. There are 60 out stations, 386 communicants, 4000 adherents and there are ten schools of which nine are self-supporting. There is only one missionary and his wife to work this territory. Kun Son is really the port of Chun Ju and with its surrounding population has a territory inhabited by five hundred thousand people with four clerical men, one of whom is married, to care for them. They report 27 out stations, 381 communicants, 1150 adherents, six schools and 125 pupils.
Mok Po and Quang Ju should be considered as one station, the one being the port, the other the capital of this southern province and this station has entire charge of the province of South Chulla Chulla, with a population something over one million. Here are four missionaries, three of whom are married and one single lady. They report 53 out stations, 284 communicants, 3260 adherents and carry on three schools with 66 pupils. Two million people are here left to be evangelized by eight missionaries. Says the Rev. Mr. Preston, “The number of recognized stations on my circuit has grown from seven to fourteen. A chain of stations within easy distance of each other has been effected. The growth has been very gratifying. I examined in all 331 people of whom 74 received baptism and 193 were received as catechumens. The total number in these groups is 120 baptized and 188 catechumens, as against 49 baptized and 75 catechumens last September. It seems hard to realize that only a year and a half ago this work consisted of Mok Po with 27 baptized and 17 catechumens, Soo Yung with six catechumens and Sadong with none. Mok Po is in a flourishing condition, the growth having been more than fifty per cent in the last nine months. This, too, is in the south, where it was said by some only a few years ago that the people were so different from those in the north we could never expect similar results among them.”
The Canadian Presbyterians, arriving in 1898, have by mutual agreement been assigned the northern province of Ham Kyeng and have stations at Won San, Ham Eung and one point still further north. They have at present six clerical workers, one male physician, one lady doctor and one other single woman. They have 62 self-supporting churches with 814 members, adherents 3830, who gave last year $2,573.34. Almost the entire population of this province is left to their care.
Syen Chun was set aside as a station in 1901, when the work in North Pyeng Yang was growing so rapidly that it was impossible to care for it from the old center. The territory is about three hundred miles long by one hundred and fifty wide and includes a population of about eight hundred thousand, of whom fully five hundred thousand are the Presbyterian allotment, for the Methodists located at Yeng Byen have divided this with them. When this station was opened, the enrolled membership including catechumens was 1800. There are now in charge three married clerical missionaries, one doctor and his wife and two single women. A new church to accommodate fifteen hundred people has just been erected in this town which, with a men’s Sunday School numbering eight hundred and a women’s numbering seven hundred thirty-three, is only a part of the results since the station was established.
The country work is divided into twenty-one circuits and during the year twenty-four new groups have been started. Included in this territory is the Kang Kei district to the north east. Here there are three circuits with three helpers, thirteen school teachers, three home missionaries and two colporteurs, all entirely supported by the native church.
The difficulty of access and the great distance make it imperative that a new station should be started here at Kang Kei as the people are eager, intelligent and among the most responsive and progressive in the province. For this new station at least two ordained men and a physician will be necessary.
During the past year, 1906-7, this station reports 102 churches, all self-supporting, with 4,639 communicants, of whom 1085 were added last year and a total of adherents of 15,348. These churches support 103 schools with an enrolment of 2,290 pupils. The rapidly increasing number of graduates from primary schools who demanded further instruction and the insistence of their parents have made it necessary to open temporary academies in various parts of the province but these will be now united at Syen Chun, the necessary funds having been generously given by a Christian woman in New York.
The two single ladies with the missionaries’ wives have women’s work in charge which includes women’s training classes, girls’ schools and two girls’ academies to be opened for a part of the year.
Chai Ryong station was started like Syen Chun because the rapidly increasing work made it seem necessary to place resident missionaries in their midst, so this station was opened in 1905-6 with three married clerical men and one doctor and his wife. In this city the natives have built and paid for a new church with a seating capacity of one thousand. The missionaries report 98 self-supporting churches, 2,255 communicants, of whom 417 were added during the year and 7,420 adherents. These churches carry on 45 parochial schools with 771 pupils. It was this district with regard to which much that has been written in previous chapters of this book had reference and here are some of the oldest of the Christian communities.