John Nevins Andrews , grandson of Elder J. N. Andrews who pioneered as a first Adventist missionary, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan where his father Charles worked for the Review & Herald.
The family moved to Takoma Park after the tragic fire in Battle Creek and he worked in the new Review & Herald Press and then went to California to join the second class of the College of Medical Evangelists newly formed in Loma Linda. Needing to be nearer home he finished his medical course at George Washington University in Washington D. C. in 1916.
In those days a medical internship was not required. Within a few weeks graduation, he married Dorothy Spicer, oldest daughter of Elder W. A. Spicer of the General Conference and was on a boat headed for China where the young couple in their 20’s were to spend a year in Shanghai learning the language.
They then traveled to Chungking to join Elder Merrit Warren and there their son Robert was born in 1917.
Dr. Andrew and Elder Warren were sent to find a place as close to the Tibetan border as possible to open up medical work. They chose Tatsienln (now named Kangding) which was then a town to which caravans of Tibetans came to trade furs, copper, silver for tea. At that time there was a China Inland Mission couple and a French Catholic Mission in town nested in a valley at 8,500 feet with ragged Himalayan peaks and a river through the town.
On their initial trip they encountered a series of holdups and by robbers along the river each town seemed to have armed men shooting at the boat demanding that they pull over and have their luggage examined. Elder Warren would preach and Dr. Andrews would try to help. Other passengers traveling were robbed and lost jewels and money but they got back to Chunking safely.
Soon John, Dorothy and little Robert started out for the interior. The Sanpans (rickety wooden boats) were often leaky and more than once their belongings had to be dried out on the rocks while the hulls were patched. Linens, clothes and medical books would have to be salvaged. Food was scarce at times but they managed to keep canned milk enough for the baby.
John and Dorothy started out in Tatsienln (Kanding) in a drafty wooden house where the wind blew constantly. John had a small clinic and there was soon a constant parade of people seeking help. Many were deep into the opium habit. These were the days when the high- class ladies had bound feet and weren’t sure if they should have the babies vaccinated.
Dorothy as a nurse helped John by dripping ether if he was doing surgery which in emergencies was lit only by kerosene lanterns. Later they had their carpenter help give the anesthesia. Some of the Tibetan men were so tall they had to have their heads outside the building to breath their ether!
John went on trips into outer Tibet leaving Dorothy to manage and during one of these trips a girl, Elizabeth, was born on Feb. 1920. Dorothy had to be assisted by a C. I. Mission missionary wife. In 1922 Jeanne was born and 1923 Judith.
In 1923 John and Dorothy had their first furlough and at this time all four children developed whooping cough. Judith then age five months died in spite of all they could do.
In 1924 the family returned to their post in Tatsienln. A new house and a large clinic were built. At this time there was great unrest and interval fighting all over China. As a result there broke out a great anti-foreign uprising and in 1926 John, Dorothy, and the three children had to flee the interior in midwinter over icy mountain passes to get to Chentu. From there by bamboo raft and then a leaky wooden boat they arrived at Chungking in the middle of the night to see half of the city across the river on fire.
Elder Warren and family met us and we all slept on mattresses in the American Consulate with other refugee families until we could be loaded on steamers to Shanghai.
In Shanghai in barracks on the mission compound we joined the Fredrick Lees, the Scharffenbergs, the Warrens, the Hilliards and many others and Edward Andrews was added in November, 1927.
In 1928 things quieted sown and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hartwell went with us back to Tatsienln. On the way back up the Yangtze our steamer hit a rock and the river went down leaving us stuck for three weeks. A fire broke out in the cabin next to us but was extinguished . Our baggage and those of all the passengers was stacked up along the deck to protect us from bandits shooting as we went through the Yangtze Gorge.
John Andrews settled back in Tatsienln (Kangding) and built a waterwheel for electricity and set up a printing press, soon printing thousands of tracts in Tibetan to send back with the caravans. Dorothy met the town people, raised her four children, had a garden, and helped teach us.
In 1932 John & Dorothy and four children returned to America just in time for the great depression. Dr. Andrews live in Tennessee for two years when doctors were paid with produce and then he returned to Takoma Park and worked with Dr. Harry Hadley in Washington DC.
At the beginning of the World War II, he opened an office in Silver Springs, Maryland and was a charter member of that church until he retired in 1948 and moved to Loma Linda.
From childhood this couple felt that there was no need to acquire “things.” They knew how easily possessions could disappear forever.
They firmly believed that God had a better world and had sustained them in trying to help spread the gospel in their day.
John Andrews died in October, 1980. Dorothy Andrews died in October, 1979. Robert Andrews became a doctor, served as captain in the US army in World War II and worked for many years at the White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. He currently lives in Loma Linda. Elizabeth Andrews became a nurse and retired in Loma Linda. Edward Andrews’s family live in Oregon.