The Early Years - Departmental Ministry - 1963 -- 1970
The letter from the General Conference Secretariat, dated March 7, 1963, changed our lives forever. It read, “. . . the General Conference has voted this morning to ask you to serve in the Far Eastern division as publishing secretary for the South China Island Union Mission.” It continued to explain that “This is a big assignment . . . ,” You will be faced with the mastery of a difficult language . . . ,” and “You should not make any change in your present work until after you have received word of your medical clearance . . . .”
Sensing an ever deepening meaning of the Great Commission given by Jesus Himself, we accepted the request of the church, to take up new responsibilities on the edge of the Middle Kingdom. A clear sense to leave the familiar in the Michigan Conference where I was serving as an assistant publishing leader was to be exchanged for the position of union publishing secretary in the South China Island Union Mission; the opposite side of the world. It was time to let the roots go down among the Chinese people, learn the Chinese Mandarin language and participate in sharing the Blessed Hope with the people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao through personal witness and the printed page.
The Colburn family, with two small children, arrived in Taipei, July 1, 1963. The cordial welcome in the Taipei International Air Terminal extended by a large group of the South China Island Union office workers, including Don and Irene Gilbert, the union secretary/treasurer and his wife, will never be forgotten. From our brief stop-over in Japan and now our new home in Taiwan, we could already observe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church family was a close knit body of believers regardless of location. Our new friends and co-workers made us feel at home and soon we were settling into our home on the Taiwan Missionary College Campus.
Shortly after our arrival the union officers made our first assignment explicit. They said, “You are not to come into the office! Your first assignment is to learn the Chinese language. Both of you are being enrolled in the Taipei Language Institute for full time language study for a period of one year. With a knowledge of the Chinese language will you be able to do your work much more effectively. Without it you will extremely handicapped! Do your best!” Language study began!
The first three months of study were the toughest three months of my life! I studied diligently, but the results did not reflect the large amount of time spent in study. At one point I felt failure was imminent as far as mastering this tonal language with no alphabet. Just as I sensed this feeling of despair, there was a direct answer to my heartfelt pleas to God in heaven. Suddenly the language made sense. My experience was much like a small snowball which when rolled on the wet snow picks up snow rapidly and soon becomes a huge ball of snow. Praise the Lord within a year I preached my first sermon in the Chinese language. This was a direct providence in the process of becoming a part of the work of the Church at the edge of the Middle Kingdom.
During one of our early prayer meetings Elder E. L. Longway, a dedicated missionary who had given a life time of service in China, spoke to the overseas workers regarding service for God and the Church in China. At that time the General Conference was sending a number of younger workers and their families to become missionaries. He was eager that we enhance the work and effectiveness of the church in China. I will never forget his statement as he looked us straight in the eyes, “Remember, young workers, that where you come from 2 plus 2 equals 4, but in China 3 plus 1 also equals 4.” A pithy little statement that delivers a clear message! There is more than one right way of doing things and we were to quickly learn to view life and things from an Eastern perspective. Great counsel for new young workers on the edge of the Middle Kingdom.
With language communication skills improving and ten months of study completed, I welcomed union leadership agreement to begin the work I had been called to perform; that is the work of the publishing ministry. What exciting, rewarding days those were! There were only a handful of literature evangelists in the union (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao) at that point in time. My work began as I visited with the handful of current literature evangelist and then recruited additional representatives. Christian salesmanship seminars and side-by-side visitation from home-to-home and business-to-business occupied much of my time. What better way might there be to hone the newly learned language skills than working with literature evangelists going door-to-door where one is completely immersed in the culture and the language? The literature evangelists learned and I learned day-by-day. The circulation of truth filled books (Spirit of Prophecy, children's and health) and magazines (the Chinese Signs of the Times) began to steadily increase.
My personal viewpoint was that to improve the effectiveness of the publishing ministry the youth and young adults of the church would need to be involved. There was a vision agreed to by the union officers and committee that we together wanted to build a strong publishing work for the future. This would require the vision and commitment of young, enthusiastic, energetic young people from Taiwan Missionary College. There was an urgent need for young people who had a burning desire to see the Great Commission completed. These young Chinese men and women would become the publishing leaders for the missions and the union, recruiting and training the youth of the church and mature church members. This was the long range plan for developing the publishing ministry in the South China Island Union Mission.
With this master plan in place the recruiting and training of college students to become student literature evangelists was enthusiastically pursued. Many college students responded. Where in the past there were few student literature evangelists, now there were twenty, thirty and forty students sharing their faith and earning tuition scholarships through the sales of the truth filled printed page during summer vacations.
During the these years the publishing ministry in the South China Island Union Mission continued to grow and stabilize. Graduates from Taiwan Missionary College were called into local mission and eventually the union publishing leadership positions. The transfer to Chinese leaders for the Publishing Department was further sped up when in 1970, I was requested by the division to serve as the publishing leader for the West Indonesia Union Mission, in the southern part of the Far Eastern Division. It was very difficult to leave the Chinese section of God's great vineyard and move to another area and begin language study over again. But according to the request of the church, and obviously the will of the Lord, our family made the big move southward.
While the growth of the publishing ministry in Taiwan was favorable very little progress in the publishing department was experienced in Hong Kong and Macao. Several attempts were made. There were increases in Hong Kong/Macao student literature evangelists, but stable development of the overall department always seemed quite illusive.
Alas, while all these good things were happening in Taiwan something else was quietly transpiring. Almost to a person the Chinese worker and his family had a dream that was not immediately apparent. To move to the United States of America seemed to hold a fascination. This slowly became obvious as one-by-one visas were obtained and departure permits granted. Down deep in the heart of virtually everyone of those new, young, effective publishing leaders, there was a strong, but infrequently expressed, desire to relocate to the western world. One-by-one this is exactly what happened! One day while on furlough in the homeland I learned of one of the young leader's plans to leave the work of the church in China for the western world. I sent the following telex (this was prior to the fax machine and email services): PLEADING YOU NOT LEAVE YOUR HIGH CALLING TO MINISTRY. GOD'S CHURCH NEEDS YOU. TAPE FOLLOWS.
To observe these young church leaders depart from the Church in the South China Island Union Mission for a new life and culture in the western world, until this moment in time begs an answer. I will merely remind myself that God is the Righteous Judge. He, the Omniscient One, the Omnipresent One understands the motivation and conclusions of the human heart in a way we cannot.
In the South China Island Union Mission (SCIUM) Doyle Barnett, president and Donald F. Gilbert, secretary/treasurer were carrying extremely heavy loads! The division recommendation was that I become the executive secretary for the union, thus spreading administrative responsibility among three people rather than two. The question was, “Would we return to SCIUM?” The answer, “Yes! If it be the will of the Lord.” Visas were applied for! After a long wait and considerable negotiation visas were granted and the big move took place. Roots quickly went down again in Taiwan and the work of God was experienced from a new perspective, the administrative.
The Latter Years -Administrative Ministry – 1973 – 1981
It was heart-warming to work shoulder-to-shoulder again with these committed leaders of the work for the Chinese people. In addition to Doyle Barnett (not only the union president, but also the Tai Ping Mission acting president) and Don Gilbert (not only union treasurer, but also the Tai Ping Mission acting treasurer). There were many other stalwart workers for the gospel. Among these were Milton Lee, union evangelist and Voice of Prophecy director; M. Y. Hsiao, vice-president for the Tai Ping (Plains) Mission; Jerry Christensen, Tai An (Mountain) Mission president; T. M. Chu, Hong Kong-Macao Mission president; Samuel Young, South China Adventist College president; M. D. Lee, Taiwan Missionary College president; Bob Burchard, Hong Kong Adventist Hospitals president; W. L. VanArsdale MD, Taiwan Adventist Hospital medical director; and many other committed people. These workers, along with the church members, had the sacred obligation of taking the Blessed Hope to every person living within the boundaries of this union. Not only within the territory of the SCIUM, the edge of the Middle Kingdom, but actually far beyond even across into the Middle Kingdom. By some means, perhaps radio broadcasting? perhaps the printed page? perhaps a personal witness? perhaps a tape recording which in some fashion would leap across the straits and extend beyond the border directly into the great country of the mainland of China?
These years as union secretary were a time for personal growth and new challenges. The preparation of committee minutes and the assembling of committee agendas became more familiar. There was the constant round of committees, boards and communication with leaders of the missions and institutions and various segments of the work. Simultaneously, however, there were some serious and ever growing concerns. Church growth in the mountain region and on the plains of Taiwan was slowing. In neither Hong Kong, or Macao, both cities of considerable population, was the church growing rapidly. The medical work continued to show growth, however, there was concern regrading the employment of an ever increasing number of non-Adventist nurses and physicians necessary to meet the health care requirements of the people both in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The two colleges, always fiscally challenging for this small union to operate, were both experiencing declining enrollments. Indicators were becoming more and more critical. The ensuing years were going to be even more complicated and challenging for the church in the South China Island Union Mission.
With these issues simmering across the union territory, another jolt came in the form of a call for the union treasurer, Don Gilbert, union treasurer, to serve in the Far Eastern Division office in Singapore in the treasury department. He had an excellent working knowledge of the Chinese language and a true love for the work of the church and the Chinese people. The vacancy created by his departure was eventually temporarily filled by an acting treasurer in the person of S. J. Lee. This Chinese brother with an excellent grasp of church finance, was called from the North American Division, came out of retirement, as a volunteer to fill this much needed financial leadership position. His committed service in this capacity was deeply appreciated.
The footsteps of major leadership change could almost be heard as now Don Gilbert was in Singapore and the union president, Doyle Barnett, and his wife, were reaching a stage in life when they would request permanent return for the purpose of
retirement. They had rendered outstanding service on the mainland, in the Southeast Asia Union Mission and then for many years on the island of Taiwan with ministry also in Hong Kong and Macao territories. When workers have served the church for many years in a given location like this, departure is extremely painful. It is as though an immediate family member is being taken away and the words of the song, “God be with you till we meet again” have special meaning. Most likely it will only be on that heavenly shore we can live next door to each other again!
In 1975 I was requested to become the president for the South China Island Union Mission. M. Y. Hsiao was no longer vice-president for the Tai Ping Mission, but rather was now the president for the Taiwan Plains Mission.
Roger Lee, a Chinese worker with a fine record of service, became the union executive secretary. Having long ago established roots in Hong Kong, he was well equipped to view the work of the church from the Hong Kong/Macao perspective. (The view of ministry from each of these two sections of the South China Island Union Mission; Hong Kong/Macao and Taiwan, with the Taiwan Strait separating them, frequently had unique perspectives.) Of course, these varying views could bring even greater strength to the work of the church.
S. J. Lee was temporarily meeting the needs of the union treasury, therefore a call was extended by the General Conference for F. Martin Ytreberg, a Canadian, to fill this vacancy. As he and his wife joined us in the union, the administrative
team was complete again. By faith the union officers, the union committee members, the mission's committees and their members, and the colleges, hospitals and Signs of the Times Publishing Association board members began to lay plans and to discuss changes which might lead to further growth and the advancement of the Good News.
Church growth continued to be unimpressive in the two Taiwan missions. College enrollments in both the Taiwan Adventist College (formerly Taiwan Missionary College) and the South China Adventist College in Hong Kong, were in decline. Concerns were expressed by workers and members alike. What should be done? What could be done? Earnest prayer ascended as little-by-little various recommendations for change began to surface. The union and missions were on the brink of two major changes which would be felt throughout their church territory.
The first issue had to do with the reorganization of the missions in Taiwan. This was to be a two phase change in order to better meet the needs of the work. The proposal suggested that, if there was one Taiwan Mission, only one set of mission officers and department directors would be necessary, rather than an entire separate staff for a second local mission.
Secondly, because of a dearth of workers the union would not attempt to have a full departmental staff and the Far Eastern Division department directors would work directly with their counterparts in the Taiwan Mission. The union would have one general departmental coordinator, but not full staffing for each department. The division department leaders would compliment and consult regarding the mission departmental needs. The Far Eastern Division was not eager for the department reoganization, but following much discussion they acquiesced. It was hoped that now the mission departments could afford to have full compliments of leaders in both the Taiwan Mission and the Hong Kong-Macao Mission. This was an attempt to move the manpower nearer the local churches and members. Again the problems were lack of growth and a critical shortage of ministers.
When implementing a major reorganization such as this, the service of workers and their families is also impacted. This caused some apprehension, as might be expected. Slowly acceptance came for the concept of one mission to serve the churches in Taiwan. There was improved exchange and communication between the plains churches and the mountain based churches. These were positive results and made a contribution to the overall conserving of finances for the staffing of the mission. Still today there is one organizational territorial structure to serve the churches and members in Taiwan. The Taiwan Mission has met the criteria for conference status and is no longer a mission depending on appropriations.
The recommendation that division department leaders would work directly with their counterparts in the two missions, was never fully accepted and did not function well. From my observations it was only a matter of time until the union would again be requested to have department directors.
Another of the big challenges was regarding what should be done to re-inspire confidence in the colleges in the SCIUM. Neither of the schools was really being supported strongly. Well qualified professors and staff were difficult to find. In order for these two schools to continue to function, substantial appropriations were necessary. Experimentation was done with the concept of bringing both schools under one administration, but that was never complete accepted and did not develop well.
Firstly, with trend indicators predicting an ever increasing problem with the operation of the Taiwan Adventist College (formerly Taiwan Missionary College) the following issues were considered. 1. The sprawling City of Taipei was reaching right into the suburban village of Hsin Tien. This was no longer a school in the country surrounded by rice paddies, but rather a lightly attended school in the midst of high rise apartment complexes. Christian education was being impacted negatively in that location. 2. Limited, or inadequate, budgetary provisions for school operations greatly hampered the work the school was commissioned to do. 3. Since the school was not accredited, many parents chose to send their children to government operated secondary schools and tertiary institutions other than Taiwan Adventist College.
With these factors weighing on the minds of the college board members and union constituency members some very large and important decisions had to be made.
(The process had actually been set in motion just prior to my becoming president.) The responsible bodies had determined that Taiwan Adventist College must be relocated. A broad property search revealed that land in the Sun Moon Lake region of Taiwan was the most appropriate. This involved multiple land owners and negotiations were complicated, but eventually this large tract of land became titled in the name of the church. Simultaneously, there was an urgent need to sell the former campus and enter into building contracts for the construction of both a college and a secondary school. In retrospect, after these many years we thank God that there is now a beautiful college and secondary school campus near Sun Moon Lake. Several state of the art secondary and college buildings as well as a well-appointed health education center underscore the fact that the relocation was the will of the One who can see the end from the beginning. All we can say is, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
At a later time the South China Adventist College located at Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, sold a portion of their gorgeous ocean bay-side property to a land developer. This provided considerable funding for school building construction and continued operation of the school nestled at the gateway to mainland China. What a strategic location for an Adventist College! One day may it more completely serve the young people in Hong Kong and Macao as well as China Mainland.
Praise the Lord these two colleges continue to be a strong witness for truth on the edge of the Middle Kingdom. These institutions and this part of the world field are vital subjects of the Great Commission which admonishes, “Go ye therefore into all the world . . . .”
In 1981 our two eldest children, a daughter and a son, were studying on the college level in the homeland. Realizing that our first mission field is our children and their needs, we requested reassignment back to the homeland. God's leading was evident throughout this experience.
While it was necessary to depart the land and people we had come to love deeply, it was with a sense of disappointment that the Gospel Commission in that part of God's great vineyard still was not completed. Again we found our selves singing,“Blest be the tie that binds.”
Still today we lift up God's work in China and around the world. Still today we know that His coming is nearer than when we first believed and His great commission must soon be finished!