I’m very thankful I could be a student at Indiana Academy from 1920 to 1923.  I had studied in high school for the 9thgrade.  At the Academy, I first knew my husband-to-be, Herbert Smith.  We both graduated in 1923.  He wanted to continue studies at Emmanuel Missionary College, but my parents could not send me to study there.  Herbert spoke to my father and requested that they permit us to marry and he would pay my way to study at C.M.C.  My father and mother agreed.  I’m very thankful.  We studied together for 4 years and graduated in 1927.

Before that, we had received a call from the General Conference to go to China as missionaries.  We had hoped to get a call to Africa as our good friends Gerald and Mable Nash were called to go to Africa.  We accepted the call to China (now I’m happy we did) as I love the Chinese people.

Neither my husband nor I had traveled very far.  It was difficult to say goodbye to my dear mother as my father died in 1927.  The year we sailed for China on August 11, 1927, my mother was brave.  My sister was only 15 years old.  Later when she married, my mother made her home with them.

In those days, most missionaries traveled by boat.  For me, it was a happy time, but my husband was really seasick.  He was happy when we finished our 16 days by boat in Shanghai, China.

We had been students in academy and college, so we continued as students in Shanghai with Chinese as our language and our teacher.

The following May, we left by boat up the Yangtze River for west China, Chungking, Szechwan.  We had been assigned as missionaries to Kweichow Province.  We had decided we’d like to start new work in a new field.  Since I was expecting our baby in August, we continued studying Chinese.  Chungking summer was very hot, so in order to keep cool we slept on cots in the yard.  My baby boy Herbert was born August 28, 1928.  My doctor came in a sedan chair over the mountains carried by two men.  We had to send to get him as we had no telephone.  I was happy to have our associate missionaries with us, the Buzzells. She was a good nurse and took really good care of me and baby.

Elder M.C. Warren was our Union President.  He taught us a lot about how to travel in that area and to our field in Kweichow.

It took us 18 days by sedan chair to reach our new field of labor in Kweiyang.  I had four Chinese men carry me and baby over those mountain paths, two in front and two in back of the sedan chair.

Every night we slept in very primitive “motels.”  We carried our own folding cots and nets and often all we could get for food was rice.  We carried some extras with us.

At every rest stop, we were the great attraction. I remember while trying to eat a meal at a round table.  Many people crowded in back of us.  Some, who couldn’t see, stood on stools to look over the heads of those in front of them. At night, we didn’t have much privacy either.  The windows had no glass, just paper pasted over.  In order to see from outside, they would make a hole with their ginger, put their ey at the hole to see.  But we tried to be patient.

The scenery was beautiful.  The paths were very narrow over the mountain roads.  We didn’t like to look down the steep path ahead. The Chinese carriers did very well, never dropped us.

Our home in Kweiyang City didn’t have running water or other conveniences that we have here, but we were happy.  It was really our first home by ourselves since we were in college.  Our friends the Buzzells lived across the breezeway (we’d call it today).  Most of the windows had no glass, only paper. Vegetables and fruits we could get in abundance.  Herbert and Mr. Buzzell began visiting soon.  We had borrowed a Chinese evangelist for our evangelistic first meetings. It was a happy day when ten people were baptized.

My husband wrote a letter to the Division.  It said that we hope in two or three months to baptize ten more.  This week, four colporteurs are starting to work here.  God has blessed us with good health.  Kweiyang has good weather too.  We had borrowed a Chinese evangelist, so he had to return to his field, also a lady Bible Instructor.  On March 28, 1929, Herbert with the evangelist and Bible Instructor left Kweiyang for Yunnan Province.

After two weeks, one day a telegram came telling us that Herbert was dead.  What a shock! The telegram had taken three days to reach us.  After that, I pleaded with God for strength and comfort.  Then a letter arrived from the Chinese evangelist.  It was true.  He had been shot by a Chinese bandit.  Some said they had been soldiers who deserted the army.  The sad part, he didn’t die right away but suffered and bled to death.  There was nothing to relieve his suffering.  It took 11 days to bring his body back.  I never saw him.  I wanted to remember him as he was when I said goodbye to him.  He was buried there in Kweiyang, Kweichow.  I know angels watch his grave.  We were very faithfully for family worship, study and prayed together. Why did this happen when we were so happy in the work we had chosen to do?  Someday, I’ll understand.

I know God had a purpose to permit it.  I was thankful for the comfort He gave me and for good neighbors the Buzzells.  The China Division wanted me to go to Shanghai.  I chose to stay.  I’m thankful now I made that decision.

Later I moved to Chungking, Szechwan.  Elder and Mrs. M.C. Warren were planning to go for furlough to the U.S.A.  I’m thankful they taught me how to do the mission office bookkeeping.  I could have my boy near me.

I was in China until 1933.  I went to the U.S.A. for a furlough then returned to China to do mission office work until 1941.  World War II started, 1941 to 1944 in U.S.A.  I had many happy experiences helping with evangelistic meetings in Vancouver, Canada; Minneapolis, Minnesota and Detroit, Michigan.

In 1949, I returned to Hong Kong and Taiwan.  That same year, before I decided to return, my son Herbert joined the U.S. Air Force stationed in Texas.  Later he married.  I have three grandchildren.  He developed heart trouble and died in September, 1974, only 46 years old.

I had many happy experiences in Taiwan as a Bible Instructor and Religion Teacher in our college for 30 years.

 Recently, for my 90thbirthday, I received a fax message from the teachers at Taiwan Adventist College.Twelve wrote, some in Chinese, some in English.These were happy messages to me.