I have discovered that keeping up correspondence with ministerial graduates is not only interesting but profitable to them and to us at the college. For two years Mrs. Jemison and I conducted what we call our "Exchange" letter while at Pacific Union College. This was sent to the students who finished the ministerial curriculum during the preceding three years. The "Exchange" was made up of excerpts from the letters that these men wrote to us. It was our original intention to make it a one-page mimeographed letter, but during the months the response grew so large the last "Exchange" totaled four pages. The men and their families in the field were interested to know what their friends and former schoolmates were doing in the Lord's work, and they gained inspiration as they had opportunity to pass on to one another their experiences and news about their work.
It is also valuable for the students who are still in school to have these many letters coming in, telling of experiences and enclosing handbills and many other items of interest. This close contact, maintained with real situations, did more to create interest in preparation for the field than most of the ordinary incentives we could offer in the classroom. For instance, a student who finished his college work in December left in January to enter the work. He reported that among other duties he had to preach six sermons during his third week in the field. Such a report coming straight from the field offered a genuine challenge to the men in school to make as full preparation as possible for the time when they could soon be in a similar situation.
Along with the "Exchange" we sent out an eight-page 5"x 8" publication called the "View." The "View" contained poems, stories, sermon illustrations, sermon suggestions, and quotations usable in evangelism, pastoral preaching, and young people's work. Each issue deals with one general topic, such as "Prayer," "The Bible," "The Second Advent," "Thanksgiving." We have received encouraging reports of the use that has been made of the "View."
