WITH CHRIST IN INDOCHINA - IndoChina1911

CHAPTER IX
OUTSTATIONS FROM TOURANE
WHEN the Mission was permitted to reopen,
it was definitely stated that the protectorate
of Annam was closed to Protestant missionary propaganda.
An old treaty, dated 1884, between the
Annamese Empire and the French Government, was
cited, which, it was said, restricted all missionary
propaganda in the Empire to the Roman Catholic
Church. The fact is that the treaty authorized Roman
Catholic missions and said nothing whatever
about Protestant missions. But it was interpreted as
prohibiting Protestantism, and this ban remained
against the Mission for more than ten years. Before
it was finally lifted, however, eight churches had
been raised up within the protectorate with the tacit
permission of the authorities concerned.
The Lord brought the people from the interior to
the chapel at Tourane. He has a key man or woman
in each town where He would work. He brings such
persons into contact with the message, and sends
them back with it to their fellow villagers. It works
like the little snowball that a child begins to roll
when the snow is soft and sticky. It begins small;
but as it rolls along, it grows until it becomes larger
than the child who is pushing it.
C 58 3