During the year 1887 the whole number of adult accessions was one hundred and seven; and one hundred and eleven non-communing members were added to the roll, making two hundred and eighteen additions to our little flock, exclusive of Lakawn. As I now look back over these years, it is plain to me that the great lack of the mission all the way through has been the lack of well-trained native helpers; and for this lack the mission itself is largely to blame. Those who are eager to accomplish the evangelization of the world within the present generation, should first of all lay hold of the present generation of Christians in every mission field. Fill _these_ with enthusiasm, qualify them, and send them forth, and we have a lever that will lift the world. From the Report of the Board in the same number of _The Church at Home and Abroad_ cited above, we quote the following: “Dr. and Mrs. Peoples are still left alone in Lakawn, the utmost picket of the foreign missionary line. Mrs. Peoples has not one lady for a companion; and the doctor is dangerously burdened, bearing all alone the labour of teaching and healing. For more than two years they have been waiting for help. No station under the care of the Foreign Board calls so loudly for reinforcements as this. Again and again we thought we had found a Christian couple for Lakawn; but in each case we have been disappointed. Single men could have been sent, but it is very much to be desired that the new missionary going there should be married. Dr. Peoples’ medical work has won for him increasing friendliness throughout the city.... Mrs. McGilvary has revised the Lāo version of Matthew’s Gospel, and has translated for the first time about half of the book of Acts. The Scriptures have had considerable circulation among the Lāo, but only in the Siamese tongue.... Dr. Cary had no sooner reached the field than through the assistance of Dr. McGilvary and Norwood McGilvary, a young lad, acting as interpreters, he was able to begin work with regular hours for receiving patients, and for surgical practice.... Mr. Collins has made a beginning in the much-needed school for boys. “Only one other mission now under the care of our Presbyterian Church has during the last year shown as much growth, in proportion to the missionary force employed, as the Lāo mission.... It is never out of place to remind our Presbyterian Church that it is to her alone that God has committed the evangelization of the Lāo tribes.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XXVI A FOOTHOLD IN LAMPŪN