the China Inland Mission (CIM) (1865), now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. The agency, with no connections to a denomination, offered the working class possibly the only channel at that time for participation in missions. Single women were welcome, since they would be readily accepted by Chinese women. Wives and husbands were both considered missionaries. Evangelism was stressed, rather than the planting, developing, and multiplying of churches, because the return of Christ was considered imminent.