Congo (42) Luebo, Congo 8/28/1921 [BMS]

American Presbyterian Congo Mission

Luebo, Belgian Congo

Aug. 28, 1921

Dear Mother and Daddy:

This is just about the last of August, and we are wondering what your plans are for the coming term, whether it finds you at home or elsewhere. With us, instead of being the end of summer it is just the beginning of our summer, or warmer season. The dry season is almost over now, for we already had several rains lately.

In this mail I am sending you a list of names and a copy of a letter that goes to the Missionary Correspondence Department of our Executive Committee. I am writing the Committee that you may send them some names for this list, so if you have a few more to add just write this department; of course, do not send any that you think would not care for them. It may be that I'll have to send these papers under another envelope. These letters ought to be written every three or four months, but I don't guarantee that they will, only hope so.

This reminds me of another matter along this same line. I would not want to discourage you from letting our friends and your friends know about us, but from what you have written, it seems to us both that you have passed our personal letters to you around rather freely. This of course makes us hesitate to write as we would before. There are a good part, and no doubt the larger part, of our letters that we would not object to others seeing, but I don't like to think of our letters being passed around, even to your close friends. Perhaps these letters to the Missionary Correspondence Department will fill this want. It is not merely a question of our personal items, but there are things about the work that it would be better not to show others just as they are written to you sometimes, because it is so easy for people to misunderstand when they have only a very limited idea about the work. You take this one fact and state it to some people and it would create a wrong impression, that we have some eight or nine boys working for us, or helpers in our yard. you can easily see that some would get the idea that we have servants galore, in other words, that we are extravagant. However, as I stated at the beginning, I don't want you to get the idea that we don't want others to know about us all they can, but we both don't like to think of our personal letters being passed around in toto. It may be, too, that you always "clip" them. Please write us what you think about this.

As it is getting on towards bed time and we want to write another letter, I'll say good night for this time, and maybe add a few lines before this goes in the mail.

With love,

B. M.