English trans. by Jeremias Norman. Original posting: 53)
"In 1909 in the spring, a school was opened in Ninglingxiang in rented quarters. Its leader was Nikolai Xie. Beginning in the following year, the school was relocated in another building; the teacher was the local elder and resident, Paul Wu and a student of the missionary seminary, Andrei Zhu. In this way a missionary station was established in which there were 28 Christians and which in 1912 it became necessary to close due a lack of resources. Altogether there are more than 500 Orthodox Christians in the province of Henan. The chief obstacle to the development of missionary work is the lack of a regular priest and a church in this area.
Hankou, which is located on the Yangtze River, possesses great importance, being the center of the tea trade. Located there are representatives of European trading firms; a Russian colony, consisting of people working in Russian trading firms has existed there for a long time. In 1884 a stone church in honor of St Alexander Nevsky was consecrated here and there are now about 50 parishioners. Initially, a hieromonk from Beijing resided here for a time and then the duties of priest and psalmist were taken over by white clergy [i.e., non-monastic clergy] who depended on the parish for support. These priests, occupied with carrying out their parish responsi- bilities, were unable to develop missionary work in Hankou. For this reason, no missionary station was formed here, but undoubtedly the church services had a great influence on missionary work in the region of Hankou. One can also point to facts that testify to sympathy on the part of Russians to missionary endeavors: Mr Melygyn donated three small plots of land to the mission for the establishment of a sanatorium for lepers up the Yangtze river close to the town of Liangkoubao.
Yuanjiakou is a large trading town where land for an oratory was donated in 1903. Deacon Sergei Chang, dispatched there from Beijing, travelled about the surrounding villages, assembled people for preaching and instruction. At that time 140 people signed up to hear his sermons. It was proposed that a school be opened, but it opened only in 1907 and was in existence for only a short time. In a period of 10 years, 34 people were baptized. The reason for lack of success in the mission is due to its great distance from Beijing and that there were no experienced teachers and catechists for the local people, but there is definitely an attraction to Orthodoxy among the local people.