was planned to become the headquarters of the Kachin District and the northern terminus of the Burma Railway. The first buildings of Geis' new mission were built by Christian converts from Bhamo. By 1894 Geis was able to report: "During the past year we have had many tokens of the Lord's blessings resting upon our work. Never have more Kachins come to us, and never have they shown a greater interest in the gospel message. Hundreds from the distant north as they came down to Myitkyina on bamboo rafts have for the first time heard the story of Jesus". He reported on his extensive travels, growing friendship with the local people, the opening of the first out-station in the mountains and the substantial and convenient site that the government had granted for the new mission compound. However, his report was written in the United States, to which he had been forced to temporarily return due to his wife's severe illness. Geis's work was not confined to Kachins. He first visited a Lisu village is 1898. He was accompanied by Karen missionaries from the Karen Bible Seminary, he was the only Western missionary to visit the Lisu people in their mountain villages until 1910. In October 1902 he baptized his first Lisu converts, a couple named Ngwa Tar and Gu Na Du, and this was followed by further conversions. In 1906 the first Lisu church was built in Manhkring, a Kachin village located in the valley between Namhkam and Bhamo. The Lisu established their own village beside the Kachins, and became part of the Manhkring Kachin Baptist Church, although they held some services in their own tongue. Growth of local church leaders On December 15, 1901, the first ordination council convened in the Kachin Hills. The candidates were Damau Naw, who had come as a school boy almost twenty years earlier, and after being educated in Rangoon had helped Hanson in his literary work since 1893; Ning Grawng, who had accompanied Geis since 1894 in the Myitkyina area; and Shwe So, a Karen missionary who had served since 1884. By 1911, there were more than 300 communicants of the Kachin Baptist Church, many of whom had been educated at the mission schools. More pastors were ordained in 1911, although foreign missionaries remained the leaders of the church for many years. Ba Thaw (1891–1967), who had studied for his bachelor of arts