Melvin, or R. M., as he was always called by his fellow workers, was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 11 1896. He was but six months old when his father died and his mother took him back to her old home in Teeswater, Ontario, Canada. When Melvin was ten years of age she remarried and moved to a ranch near Olds, Albert. They were not Adventists at this time. His stepfather was very hard on the boy, making him put in long days of work on the farm.
On day a salesman for pest extinguishers came by to sell his product. He also asked permission to remain with the family over Sabbath, as he was a Seventh-day Adventist and it was too far to go to church. He shared with them the blessed truth. Each time he visited them he would leave more literature. Finally the mother and son accepted the message. This brother also told Melvin about Alberta Industrial Academy, (which became Canadian Union College) where he would go to school and work his way. From 1911 to 1916 he went to Atlantic Union College. Next year saw him at Walla Walla College, and from1917 to 1919at Washington Missionary College where he received his B.A.
It was in 1985 at Canadian Union College that Melvin’s wife, Alma received a certificate which stated she was a member of the Honored alumni class of years, having graduated in 1915.
Alma M. Anderson was born May 18, 1896. Her mother passed away when she was six years old. Her mother, being a Seventh-day Adventist at the time of her passing, had requested that a fellow believer, by the name of Mrs. Jordan, would take Alma into her home. She finished the 8thgrade at 12 years of age. As Mrs. Jordan’s daughter was married to J. I. Beardsley, the principal of the Alberta Industrial Academy, her foster mother felt it best to send Alma there to school. This is how she met Melvin and they were married June 30, 1920.
Having already received the call to China, they left the same day after the wedding, for San Francisco, California. Here they set out in company with 21 other missionaries and their families for the great unknown countries of the Far East. Their field was to be South China and they arrived in Hong Kong in August of the same year. The Paul Williams were sent to Nanning, Kwangsi province and the Milnes to Canton, Kwangtung province.
Melvin was asked to carry the Literature Ministry and the Home Missionary work among the churches as well as the Educational and Missionary Volunteer work in those six great major language areas of South China Union. This took him away from home for months at a time, traveling by boat, sampan, mule back , afoot and one short run by train, and later by bus. At the same time he tried to learn the language. With so many different dialects in this field he had to have interpreters with him for the first few years.
Mrs. Milne was immediately put to work by opening a school for all the missionary children. And in her spare time also helped Miss Ida Thompson in training girls in the Bethel School to make crochet lace and knitted clothing to earn their money for tuition and other expenses.
Bro. Milne’s first trip through the mission field was by stern wheeler up the East river about 150 miles from Canton. Mrs. Milne accompanies him on this trip and were guests of the Nagel family. The Magel’s daughter fell in love with Alma and became her close second mother all the rest of the lives. The Milnes did not have any children of their own but nearly one hundred missionary children and some from national workers’ homes lived with them so they could attend a school and then get an education.
Alma described some of the hardships they faced that first year in these words: “I suppose as young people all long for travel, adventure, and the chance to see land afar, I know of no better way for girls to gratify such ambitions than to marry a missionary and be willing to go to the ends of the earth with him. You may be sure that your life will be packed full of all kinds of experiences from the comic to the tragic, with all kinds of demands made on time, patience, and strength confronted at times with dangers from wars, robbers, famine, earthquake, fire and sea, wind and torrential rains. You may be annoyed by having all the ants in the country move in on you and contest your housekeeping, white ants to eat the furniture and books, tiny red ants to get into the sugar, black ants to come marching in a regular army across your kitchen floor. Cobras may come into the oven to change their skins or be shaken out of the boiler when you prepare to work, centipedes move into your bed without invitation and there are always the ever-present, every inquisitive mosquitoes to chew you up. There may be breath-taking escapes from absolute danger, and there may be endless monotony.”
They remained in Canton for seven years. Then it was time for furlough and back to Canton for another five years. In 1933 they were transferred to Singapore. Melvin had the same work as in China. Alma taught in the Malayan Seminary until they ordered them out at the beginning of World War II. They left by ship via Java just before Singapore fell. Their ship was bombed in Padang, Sumatra and was burned so they lost all that they had taken with them. Fortunately they had gone to church that Sabbath morning and their lives were spared. They got back to java via bus and train and another boat via of Australia, New Zealand, Panama, to New Orleans being four months on the way.
Before the war was over they were asked to go to India. Robert was invited to Poona where he had the Publishing Department for the Division and Alma assisted in the Educational Department, inspecting schools and holding institutes for teachers. As soon as the war ended they were the first family to return to the field, this time to open a school in Bangkok, Thailand. Melvin went out to solicit funds to build the Bangkok Adventist Hospital. Their greatest accomplishment was to buy land and build the Ekamai English School which had over 1,000 well-paying day students. Many young people attended this school over the following years. Soon after the opening of the English school, another institution was added which was conducted in Thai. A lovely church was also constructed on the property.
By 1964, already over retirement time, they went back to U.S.A. and settled in Angwin, California. But they had been home only two years when a call came, and they were the first family to return to the mission field under the S. O. S. (Sustentation Overseas Service) program.
What a thrill to fly into Hong Kong this time, 46 years after they had gone out before. What a happy reunion with old workers and friends! R. M. joined Ezra Longway and Dr. Harry Miller in raising funds to build the New Tsuen Won Adventist Hospital and later the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital at Stubbs Road. Over 50,000,000 US dollars were gathered in both from friends in the U. S. and from Hong Kong business men.
Alma passed away in Hong Kong on August 2, 1987 and was laid to rest by the side of her mother in Iowa. Melvin stayed on still gathering funds for the hospital until he went to his rest June 26, 1994. If he had lived until July 11, 1994 he would have been 98 years old. He served the denomination for 75 continuous years.