in 1908, the sheltons and another missionary family, the ogdens, established a mission at batang, a town of 350 tibetan families, in the kham region of tibet, a seventeen-day overland journey westward from kangding. this was the first christian mission to be established in batang. in 1909 medical missionary zenas sanford loftis joined the sheltons and ogdens, but he perished from smallpox two months after his arrival.