On Friday, September 13, 1940, my wife Ruth and I arrived in Shanghai, eager to proceed to Peking in order to study the Chinese language and engage in evangelistic work. Our plans were changed drastically due to the Chinese-Japanese war, which was then in its third year of fierce fighting. But the ravages of war did not dim our evangelistic fever. We knew that we had accepted God’s call, and that He would care for us in spite of the bombs.
On the first evening in Shanghai, we attended the vesper service in the Far Eastern Academy Chapel, and the synopsis of my first testimony in Asia was: “We did not come to China to be parlor missionaries.” God honored that pledge, and allowed us to spend the next six weeks in the Shanghai Sanitarium to begin our study of the Chinese language.
During our temporary stay in the Sanitarium, hostilities intensified so that the U.S. Government sent two ocean-going vessels to Shanghai and advised American citizens to return to their homeland. The General Conference Committee advised us to sail to Burma and continue our language study. Four excellent Chinese teachers accompanied the six new missionary couples to the Land of the Pagodas, and patiently taught the new recruits how to read, write, and speak Chinese.
Our sixteen months in Burma ended abruptly with the relentless bombing of the Japanese Air Force. A cablegram from the General Conference advised the three young missionary mothers with infants to fly from Lashio to Chungking; and the rest of the missionary group with their four Chinese teachers made up part of the truck caravan which would drive to Chungking to await further orders. We will never forget Burma, because our son, Bruce, was born in the shadow of the great Golden Dome Pagoda of Rangoon.
Driving up the Burma road helped us to appreciate the determination of the Chinese people, who carved out that famous rod by hand. An event which most experienced engineers thought to be impossible.
The sixteen trucks, which made up our caravan, were unloaded at the Rangoon docks while the Japanese Air Force was busy dropping bombs. This meant that none of the trucks were properly serviced. Some days the caravan was able to travel only a few kilometers, while repairs were made by the road. There were no repair shops, or gasoline stationson the Burma Road, so most of the repairs were ingeniously improvised, or done by trial and error. By pooling all of our past experience, together we were able to keep all sixteen trucks limping all the way to Chungking.
After recuperating in Chungking from scrub typhus and spinal meningitis, our family of three headed for Lanchow, located in the Northwestern part of China. The road leading to the Northwest was unpaved, and proved to be unsafe when driving at what seemed to us “normal speed.” Two broken truck springs, and a major oil leak from the crank shaft retarded our progress. Previous experience, however, on repairing our 1929 Model A ford prepared us for repairs in an area, and at a time when garages were in dire need.
Although we left Chungking at springtime, our trip took us over snow-covered passes at Hua Gia Lin. We had no road maps. Such a luxury was non-existent during the war years. We drove on the main horse road (Da Ma Lu) and depended upon common sense for directions. There were no inter-state highways, nor directional markers. At night, we put up our camping cots and slept next to the truck on the road, not knowing that such areas were happy-hunting grounds for the bandits. The Good Lord “winked at our ignorance” and sent His angels to protect us.
Shortly after our arrival in Lanchow, the Floyd Johnson family was assigned to take up temporary administrative duties in Chungking; thus opening up the way for us to replace Floyd as treasurer of the Northwestern China Union Mission. Fortunately for us, Elder M.C. Warren served as the President of the Union and Mrs. Warren served as the accountant of the Kansu-Ch’nghai Mission. Elder Warren’s devotion to duty in a rugged area brought on an unwelcomed illness, which cut short his service in that challenging field, and necessitated his returning to America to regain his health. That left us as the only American family in the Northwestern China Union Mission office.
Our elementary church school in Lanchow had an outstanding teacher in Chao T’ung Mai, but the old school needed to be upgraded. Additional installed windows provided the much needed light. New blackboards were installed to take advantage of the additional light. Modern desks and chairs were hand-made right on the school grounds. It thrills our hearts to know that some of those young students developed into dependable workers for God’s kingdom. The Governor of the Province was impressed with the Adventist church school, and donated a new desk and chair so that his son could attend and receive his elementary education.
The hospital on the mission compound was originally built by Dr. Harry Miller, who used the “gift” he received from a Chinese General whom he cured from opium dependence. But time demanded that the hospital be enlarged as well as modernized. A simple electronic call system was installed to replace the ringing of a little bell when patients needed help. A large window was installed in the front of the building which lighted up the dark hallway. Behind that large window was an area which formerly served as a coal bin. In the operating room, the old floor consisted of cinders, sand and lime, a substitute for concrete, was replaced by baked glazed tile. One of the four medical doctors who served in that hospital was Solomon Lee, M.D., who was the first man I baptized in the Yellow River.
We lived in China’s northwest during a time of turmoil, when millions of nationals were on the move seeking for safe shelter. Actually, it was a time of transition when even the Chinese national government moved its war-time capitol Chungking to the island of Taiwan. Prior to the move, inflation rose to astronomical heights. We paid $1,000,000 Chinese dollars for one egg. But there is always a way to cope with challenges. We did our best to keep evangelism alive. In one arid area where the wells were deep, we baptized people in a large wooden coffin. In another area, we had to break the thin layer of ice in order to baptize the converts. When not itinerating, we conducted English meetings in the Y.M.C.A. This might have been the beginning of teaching English overseas as an evangelistic tool.
The city of Pao Gee was in need of a church to care for the slowly growing congregation. It was not wise to request funds from the General Conference because all American funds had to be transferred through the Chinese banks. The exchange rate through the banks was $13 Chinese dollars for one American dollar; but the open market offered at least $40,000 Chinese dollars for one American dollar. A plan was devised to sell SIGNS OF THE TIMES (Chinese) and the price was set at 5 kilograms of flour, DAILY. The price of flour appreciated, whereas the paper money currency depreciated every day. Thus the Church in Pao Gee was built on the exchange earned by selling Christian Literature. The gain on exchange was possible because the Shanghai Publishing House raised the price of SIGNS four times a year; whereas we maintained one-price–a-year based on flour, which price changed daily.
In order to pay our national workers a living wage, we encouraged the tithing principle. At harvest time, we collected wheat (as tithe) from our farming members; turned three of our offices into storage bins, and then paid our workers in kind. The price of wheat appreciated daily; and our workers knew how to change wheat for other commodities. During this period when Japan surrendered, hostilities between the Chinese communists and the national Government set aside their truce, and bitter fighting between these two factions began in earnest. In order to make provision for the future, we asked Pastor Ch’en Wen Hsoh to serve as Union President, and called Brother Swen Deh Ren to the Union office to take over the work as Treasurer. We shall always remember Lanchow because our daughter, Beth was born in the Northwestern Sanitarium and Hospital.
After a year’s furlough in the United States, we returned to Hong Kong (then a British possession), and held nightly street meetings in an enclosed park. These meetings furnished hundreds of enrollees for the Voice of Prophecy as well as providing feeders for the evangelistic meetings held in the Kowloon Auditorium.
In 1950, Aaron Wang (son of Wang Fu Yuen) and I sailed to Taiwan shortly after the Japanese surrender of that Island, in order to sell the Chinese edition of Great Controversy. We soon learned that most of the Islanders spoke mostly Japanese. We sent a cablegram to our Publishing House in Japan ordering 5,000 volumes of Great Controversy in Japanese. We did not know that the Japanese version was published in two volumes. We called on practically all the government officials and placed from twenty to fifty sets in each office. The officials promised that they would distribute those beautifully-illustrated volumes among their relatives and co-workers.
Everyday we lived in Hong Kong, the newspaper would tell of the renewed Civil War in China, with the Communists on the march gaining new areas constantly. We were anxious to circulate Elder Arthur Maxwell’s volume Time Running Outin areas which were bound to fall into the hands of the Communists. So we sailed to Amoy, found a faithful colporteur who needed help. Together he and I called on the Governor and were received cordially. After a season of polite talk, the Governor reminded me that we used to sit at the same table in Landow, where he served as magistrate. Our conversation turned to current events. He had made definite plans to evacuate, should such a move become necessary.
I reminded the Governor that he had a responsibility to the people who could not escape. He agreed. I showed him a copy of Time Running Out and introduced the colporteur who would be willing to bring 1,000 copies of that volume for the Governor to distribute freely in Amoy. The Governor paid for the books. The colporteur delivered the volumes the following day. The money he received liquidated his debt at the Book and Bible House, and he was able to feed his family properly.
Our twelve years in the Orient were interrupted due to a letter from the American Consul, advising families with children to make plans to leave immediately.Again the General Conference was not taken by surprise, but ordered us to sail to the Middle East, where we served in the Middle East Division office.There we teamed up with Wadia Farrag and erected Seventh-day Adventist pulpits through the printed page.We claimed the promise: “More than a thousand will soon be converted in one day, most of whom would trace their first impression of the truth to the reading of the printed page.”