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By Walter deVelder
.... This
fascinating memoir was provided by Joann
Hill. Enjoy!
Part
1: 1900-1910 Part
2: 1910-1920 Part
3: 1920-1930
Part
4: 1930-1940 Part
5: 1940-1950 Part
6: 1950-1960
Part
7: 1960-1970 Part
8: 1970-1980
Return
to The Amoy Mission
I
Remember "Wally"
Part 4: 1930-1940
My assignment at Talmage College Boy's High School 1929-32 was a happy time, even though it ended by the Communists cutting my term short by two months. We had 150 boys in the high school. I lived in the dormitory where there were ninety residents. Our campus was new, only three years old, the school having been moved from Kolongsee, Amoy. I taught English and Bible. My classes were never larger than fifteen students. I played a saxophone in the school band; the instruments given by a generous church in New York. I tried to teach sports but that was not easy. Only two boys in the school played tennis. I noticed they did not keep score. I asked why not? The answer was, "we do not know how and if we did keep score, one of us has to lose". Basket ball was the same. My best results were in the shot-put and discus. It is incredible how competition has changed in past decades, and China's athletes compete in sports the world over. Losing has lost much of its "loss of face" and I marvel at the change in the last sixty eight years.
We did not have many vacations, Christmas was only two days, but Chinese New Year's vacation in January or February could be as long as twenty five days. The Chinese year is twelve months of twenty eight days each – a Lunar calendar. I used this time to travel extensively to Canton in the South and over to Taiwan Island across the Straits. In Canton I made life long friends in Bernard Hormann, and in Taiwan, Jim and Lillian Dickson and others. The boat fare to Kelung in North Taiwan from Amoy was one Chinese dollar. Taiwan at that time was still under Japanese rule and its population was three and a half million. Bernard and I walked across the Island over the high mountains from Hoa-lien on the East coast to Taichung on the West coast.
In March, 1932,
we heard rumors in Chang Chow that the Communists in Longyou since 1929
were coming to raid Chang Chow and possibly get down to Amoy. The rumors
proved to be true and on April 15 the American and British families had
to flee for their lives to Amoy. The Communists under Mao Tse Tung, Chu
En Lai, Chu Teh, and Lin Piau ravaged the city for three weeks, and then,
were driven back to Lung Yen by Nationalist Troops – when we returned
to our homes in Chang Chow we saw a sorry mess of devastation. I lost
all of the little I had. For the families it was much worse. All our band
instruments were gone and books were defaced. The Seventh Day Adventist
Mission on Kolongsu gave Talmage College room to continue a make-shift
school for students who had not gone to their homes. I taught two courses
until May 31st when the school closed for the Summer, and my time to return
to the USA had come. It was a sad ending for a three year assignment.
Nine Personal Decades in the 20th Century, by Walter deVelder
The S. S. President Cleveland brought me into San Francisco harbor on July 1st, after a very good trip across the great pacific Ocean. It was wonderful to be back in the States again, and after seeing my family in Iowa I met dear Margaret in Chicago.
Uncle Philip Phelps, Margaret's mother's brother, had a small cottage on the third ridge in East Northfield, Mass., home of the Northfield School for Girls and home of the famous Dwight L. Moody. Margaret was a graduate of Northfield. Margaret and I decided to have our wedding in beautiful Sage Chapel on August 13, 1932. None of my folks from Iowa could come because of the Depression, the lack of each and most of them of all gas rations. Frank Eckerson of China was there, home on furlough. It was a hot but wonderful day. We went to Maine on our honeymoon, and returned to East Northfield via Vermont and New Hampshire.
We made plans to go to New Brunswick, New Jersey to New Brunswick Theological Seminary in early September.
I must go back to relate how we almost did not go to New Brunswick Seminary. In January, 1932, I wrote from China to the Seminary applying for admission and stating that we would come as a married couple. In February I received an answer which chilled any hopes, saying the Board of Trustees was not ready to have NBTS receive married students, but in April would decide upon the matter. This was a blow to us, because we had set our hearts on going to New Brunswick. We thought of an alternative, Margaret had a dear classmate at Northfield, Rachel Hodous, whose father, Dr. Louis Hodous was President of Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. Dr. Hodous had at one time been a Missionary of the Congregational Church in Foochow, China. We wrote to the Seminary and were welcomed to attend, but it would not be possible to ensure any outside employment. In May I received a letter from NBTS which made us very happy. Not only would we be admitted but I was assigned to work in First Reformed Church with the Rev. Jasper Hogen, but Margaret was offered a job as Assistant to Margaret Wilson at Sage Library. The only drawback was there was not any housing for married couples on Campus. Margaret and I looked forward to going to New Brunswick with great anticipation.
Our last two weeks in Northfield were very enjoyable. Every evening there were excellent programs in the big auditorium. There were famous preachers from all over the world. There were Symphony Concerts and world famous musicians. I was honored to speak on China on "Round Top", where Dwight L. Moody and his wife were buried.
On September 10, four days before the opening at NBTS we rode our trusted 1928 Ford to New Jersey. Our first objective was to find housing, which we did at 236 Livingston Avenue, renting an attic apartment at $15 per month. Our landlord was a Jewish Doctor whose family was very good to us. The apartment was small and neatly furnished. I made arrangements for working at First Reformed Church, and found the Rev. and Mrs. Jasper Hogan very friendly and understanding friends. Margaret liked her work in the library very much and Margaret Wilson, the Librarian was very kind and helpful. She was from Canada and had a delightful sense of humor. She later married a Professor Wilson from Rutgers College and we had several good picnics together. I had some very stimulating teachers and I found the work among the young people at Church and in the Choir very enjoyable. The Seminary had a good basketball team and we often practiced with the Rutger's team. We had outside games with seminaries and even colleges like St. John, and Ryder. Dean Martin and Vern Vanderhill and I had been on Hope's Varsity team. Connie Myskens had been on the Team at Central College in Pella, Iowa.
Rutgers had a very excellent Concert Series. We heard the Cleveland Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic, pianist Sergei Rochmaninoff, violinist Fritz Krisler, and other world famous artists. We were close to the big city, New York, and were exposed to many special events. On Dec. 31, 1932, we were in Times Square and saw the big ball descend at midnight, and heard Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians play their fine music. We worshipped in beautiful St. Nicholas Church on Fifth Avenue where Dr. Sizo preached great sermons, and which Church was later "sold out" to Rochefeller Center.
In June, 1934, the Seminary appointed me as delegate to the General Synod meeting in Rochester, N. Y. Because I spoke in favor of the ordination of women as Elders in the Church. I was branded a liberal in certain areas of the R. C. A. In my experience in China, 1929-32, I saw no difficulty in the Church having women elders, and I was scolded by certain older leaders in the R. C. A. When I said that in my opinion the issue was not a theological one.
NBTS had good relations in inter seminary work and we held two good conferences, one in Rochester – Colgate Seminary, and one in Eastern Baptist in Philadelphia. We had good relations with Princeton Seminary. Don Miller, a very good basketball player in his middle year at Princeton, later became President of Pittsburg Seminary, he was a life long friend.
Margaret and I had a wonderful three years at NBTS. Her work in the library, my in-service training in First Church and two years as student pastor in Griggstown were very good years. The Board of Foreign Missions sent us on occasional assignments, and assured us that if the Depression lifted we would be assigned to the Amoy Mission in 1935, but God lead otherwise.
We did not go to China in 1935. We went in the opposite direction to the Neterlands. In 1934, NBTS celebrated the 150th anniversary since the first President, John Henry Livingston had studied at Utrecht University and had been a member of the Leiden Pilgrim Father's Society, Utrecht and Leiden Universities offered a Fellowship to NBTS for a student to study at these universities for the academic year 1935-1936. I was granted that Fellowship and the Board of Foreign Missions could postpone assigning us to China.
My parents, sister Tena, and brother Mert's fiancée, Edith Wanscheer came to my graduation. Whereas, in 1932 they could not come to our wedding because of gas rationing. Now, dear friends in Iowa gave them sufficient gas coupons to make this trip. I want to record a wonderful thing about my mother at the commencement. It was announced that brother Mert had won the Sandham Scholarship award in his Junior year, and I had been given the Fellowship to the Nederlands. Dr. Boyles, my Homeletics teacher and dear friend said to mother, "Are you not proud of your two sons?" She answered, "Yes, but I much rather say grateful". In subsequent gatherings I heard Dr. Boyles tell how my mother taught him the difference between proud and grateful."
We left New Brunswick with many wonderful memories. The New Brunswick Classis of the R.C.A. had been very good to us in ever so many ways and my experience in the Church at Griggstown had been very rewarding. Professors at NBTS like Dr. Beardslee, Raven, and Hoffman had been good mentors and we had stimulating professors from the outside like Dr. Buttrick and Scherer. Margaret helped me through Seminary and enjoyed her three years with Margaret Wilson in Sage Library.
Before going to the Netherlands in August of 1935, we took a trip to Iowa to say goodbye to the folks and take part in the wedding of brother Mert and Edith Wandscher in Sioux Center. I was Mert's best man and this he says has been true always. Mert and Edith came back to NBTS for his middle and senior years and followed me as student Pastor in Griggstown Church for two years.
We sailed for Europe on the S. S. Franconia of the Cunard Line. She was a British ship, run well. Margaret had never sailed on a big shop so it was a great thrill for her.
From England we travelled by Channel ship to the Hook of Holland. We went directly to Utrecht where we were to stay with Dr. and Mrs. Cor VanStaveran. Dr. VanStaveran was the son of Dr. Otte's dear friend, Dr. Wim VanStaveren. I enrolled in three courses at Utrecht, one of which was in Old Testament with Dr. Obring, Court Preacher in the Hague to Queen Wilhemina. I had a most interesting experience in preaching. The English Reformed Church in Amsterdam, founded in 1603, had its pulpit vacant since the Rev. John Thompson had retired in July. One of the Leiden Pilgrim Fathers, Dr. Slotemaker De Bruyn, was Minister of Education in the Netherlands. He recommended me to the Consistory of the English Reformed Church and I occupied the pulpit of that historic old church for three months while the congregation waited for their new preacher from Scotland. One of the attendants by the name of John Henry de Jong Schuwenburg, wrote me a letter the second Sunday, asking me to call on him at his office of his Fire Insurance Co. on the Kaizersgracht. He was keen on mission work in Egypt and wanted to know about Chine. This wonderful man became a great friend to Margaret and myself, and was instrumental in getting us to China. He gave us a great vacation in Austria in a small hotel in the mountains near Innsbruch where we met the Chancellor of Austria in a most interesting way. I registered my occupation as Minister, and the Hotel thought I was a "Minister of State". Dr. Kurt Van Schussnizg thought this very fascinating and we remained good friend for thirty years. In 1938 the Chancellor suffered greatly under Hitler, but was able to come to the USA later to be a Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis, MO. We exchanged Christmas cards for many years.
In February, 1936, we received a letter from the Board of Foreign Missions informing us that while the Depression was easing somewhat, it was doubtful that the Board appoint us to China in 1936. This was a great blow and our friend, deJong Schouenburg, shared in our disappointment. One day in March, he called us into his spacious apartment in the Jan Lay Kenstraat, near the Concert-Gebouw, and said he was prepared to give the Board a gift of 8,000 guilders (about $5,000 U.S.) if we would be sent to China. When this wonderful gift got to New York, the Chairman of the Board said, "This is like a gift from Heaven. Let us go on in faith, and appoint the deVelders now." We left our year in the Netherlands with many fine memories.
Again, through Mr. Slatemaker DeBuuyn I was introduced to the gymnasium (Premier High School in The Hague) to speak on China. The Headmistress, Nell Schokking became a great friend and we enjoyed her family members for many years as friends. Her uncle was Jan Schokking, Minister of Justice in Queen Wilhelmina's cabinet. In our conversations when it was deplored that the House of Orange did not have a male heir in almost a century, he said, "But our women do pretty good!", with a big twinkle in his eye. Wim Nell's brother, was a Director of the Concert Gebouw and his wife, Emmy, and he took us to some great concerts in that famous Hall. It was only three weeks ago that we had a letter saying the last member of the older Schokking Family (seven of them) had passed away. We left many friends in the Netherlands when we returned to the USA at the end of April.
We were "flat broke" on leaving. The Fellowship Stipend was quite adequate, but in October, 1935, the U. S. Government went off the gold standard and the exchange rate in U. S. went from two to one to two to 1.63 guilders – that was a big blow. I was fortunate to get work for the month of May before my Ordination, and our Commissioning as Missionaries to China. I worked on a farm near Jamesburg, N.J., some fifteen miles from New Brunswick. Dr. Milton Hoffman, my History Professor at NBTS and good friend of Margaret and myself, had retired and bought an eighty acre farm. His brother from Michigan came to manage the farm, but I was needed as an extra hand to plow the fields, and so forth.
On May 29, I put on my best clothes and in First Church, New Brunswick, N.J., was ordained in a very impressive service in which Dr. Robert E. Speer gave the address, and Dr. E. Dimnent gave the charge. The Commissioning Service followed and Margaret and I were finally assured of our going to China. The Board of Foreign Missions, because of the Depression, had not sent a Ministerial Missionary couple to the Amoy Mission in nine years.
Margaret and I made a two week trip to Iowa and Michigan to say goodbye to the folks and friends. The folks were grateful that I had finished Seminary and was now a Missionary and that brother Mert was a student at NBTS.
The Board of Foreign Missions sent us to China via Europe. The Board was very grateful for the gift received from Mr. DeJong Schwievenburg and wished us to thank him and the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam in person. We sailed on the M/S Frankkonia in early September. We had very interesting shipmates in the persons of the Rev. John VanNes of the Arabian Mission and Arthur Vandenberg, editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Press in the 1970's and now a Senator in the U. S. Congress. Margaret and I had some very interesting and in dept discussions with VanNes and Vandenberg. Little did I know then that nine years later I would ask a big favor from the Senator and he would respond immediately. The Senator knew little of the Far East and was interested in how the U. S. on the one hand made token protests against Japanese intrusions into China and on the other hand kept sending shipload after shipload of scrap iron to Japan to feed the war machine – VanNes kept talking about Middle East affairs.
After docking in Portsmouth, England, we took the boat train to Harwick. The countryside was lush and green and we enjoyed the train ride very much. The overnight ferry boat ride to the Hook of Holland and across the Channel and the North Sea was smooth and pleasant. We had a good breakfast in the Hook of Holland and were in Amsterdam at Mr. DeJong Schwieyenburg's spacious flat in the Jan LuyKenstraat by 10 o'clock. We had a very good two day stay with our dear friend and he appreciated the personal thanks from the Board of Foreign Missions.
We returned to England via the Hook of Holland and Harwick and went to London to stay in the Russell Square Hotel. We were honored to be given receptions by the English Presbyterian Mission and the London Missionary Society. This was largely because of the esteem these Missionary Societies held the R.C.A. and because of Margaret's late father, the Rev. Dr. John Otte, Medical Missionary in South Fukien from 1887-1910. Who was held in high regard by many Missionaries of both English Missions.
We left London from the Royal Dock on the M S Yasakuni, a brand new ship of the Japan Kishen Kaisha Line. It was late September and we had a violent storm in the Bay of Biscay, and strange to say neither Margaret nor I were seasick. We had a day in Gibralter and even made a brief incursion into Africa. From London to Alexandria in Egypt we had an unusual experience, having almost daily meetings with Dr. Kagama, famous Japanese theologian. He was a wonderful humble man and we loved him. Another unexpected traveler was Russell Durgin, Head of the YMCA in Tokyo. We had known him in East Northfield, Mass. He had attended the Olympics with a Japanese contingent in Berlin in August. The ship stopped in Alexandria, Egypt for a day and we did the usual sightseeing of the Pyramids, and the like.
A stop at Aden was very drab. We went on to Bombay and Ceylon and stopped a day in beautiful Rangoon. Singapore was a very nice stop and we realized we were drawing closer and closer to China. The M S Yasakuni was a fine steady ship and we enjoyed the voyage very much. The food was delicious whether Western or Japanese. In September we had a day in beautiful Saigon and Indo-China. In late September we entered Hong Kong Harbor. I had not been in this fabulous harbor in seven years and it was a "first" for Margaret. We were in Hong Kong over a Sunday, and I was asked to preach to a congregation of some fifty Amoy speaking people who were meeting in the Bishop's Chapel on Lower Albert Road. Later, that congregation was able to build it's own church in Happy Valley near the Race Track. We were able to go on to Amoy in a few days on a Butterfield and Swire ship.
Entering Amoy Harbor was an exciting time for Margaret especially, when she saw the buildings of the Hope and Wilhelmina Hospital which her father had build in the early 1900s. For me it was exciting to be back in China after an absence of four years. Seven of the living medical students of Dr. Otte gave us a delicious dinner. This wonderful time included Dr. & Mrs. Clarence Holleman, present Head of the Hospital, the Kiu-Se in Chinese.
We were soon immersed in language study in Chianchui. Since I learned a bit of the language in my short term 1929-32, I completed the first year's requirement in seven months, and Margaret was also adept at learning the seven-tone language. She did very well.
In the 1937 Mission Meeting we were assigned to the North River District. This District had suffered greatly, especially LungYyen, because of the occupancy of the Communists from 1929-1934. It was a large area about the size of the Albany Capital District, which had twenty-two Churches and Chapels. The Mission decided we should live in Changchow, because the houses in Lungyen were occupied by the Chinese military. The Hospital (Fagg Memorial) in Lungyen was open with Dr. HanTek-Seng in charge.
In the 1937 general Synod of South Fukien a committee selected in 1936 brought in a report suggesting how the South Fukien Synod might celebrate the 100th Anniversary in 1942. It was a simple idea with a great potential result. Each Church and Chapel would be the center of the project. For five years the Church would plan a program of evangelism. Starting in 1937, each Church and Chapel would go out in a four mile circle reaching every man, woman and child with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, inviting everyone to Church and giving them a tract explaining Christianity. In five years it was estimated that all the circles would converge, except in the remote area of Ting Chow. Great stimulation was given the program by Dr. John Sung, the Evangelist in the 1920s and 30s. Dr. Sung, with a Ph.D. in Physics and one in Mathematics from MIT and Harvard had decided on shipboard returning to China to teach, to give up teaching to preach the Gospel. He was a brilliant speaker and motivated thousands to embrace Christianity. The Synod Program got off to a great start in 1937, but it received a great blow four months later when Amoy Island was occupied by Japan, cutting off several of Synod's strongest Churches from the mainland. However the program went on and in 1942 the Synod had a great celebration of thanksgiving.
Margaret and I were transferred from Chanchow to Kolongsee, Amoy, in 1938, because our Mission force was down to four persons on Kolongsee. We continued language study and itnerating in the North River District. We had an excellent Chinese language teacher in the person of Ang Tek-Seng, whose pupils had been Murry Maclehose, later Governor of Hong King, as John Outram later Governor of Sarawok, and Claude Fenner, a good friend, who became Chief of Police of all of Malaysia during the second world war.
May 8, 1938, a great blow came to our area, when Amoy was taken over by the Japanese. Margaret and I saw the whole debacle from the rooftop of Ioktek, Amoy Girls' High School in Kolongsu, one of the highest buildings in Kolongsu Island. We saw very sad things happening. People coming across on small rafts, some folk being held up by basketballs were trying to swim across the Harbor, but were being shot at by Japanese soldiers on the Bund. Some 30,000 refugees came from the Island of Amoy, stretching the population to double its size in the tiny peaceful Island of Kolongsu, in international haven, run by the British and French, the US and the Japanese. Accommodation for the refugees was a huge problem. Margaret and I were assigned to the Union Church building where we took in four hundred persons. We dug a deep ditch at the back of the Church to be used as a latrine. Each person had a very limited space, just the size of a mat for sleeping on. Goldsmiths from Amoy had Chinese pillows of lacquer, and suitcases of gold pieces, and even bars. They insisted that the lights be kept on all night for protection. We fed the refugees from a central food kitchen. Men came with huge buckets of soft steaming rice at mealtimes. Everyone helped each other in very remarkable ways in the six week occupation. Finally things returned to somewhat normal conditions, but Amoy Island was cut off from the Island of Kolongsu and the mainland. As foreigners we were not restricted in our travels and on the whole the Japanese treated us well.
In 1938 I completed the three years of language study (the third year was optional) and I continued my trips into the North River District, covering hundreds of miles to the distant mountain Churches. Margaret and I returned to live in Chang Chow in the month of June, 1938. She did well in the language and joined in the mission activities whole-heartedly.
In March Margaret found out that she was pregnant. This was March, 1939, and it was good news to us because she had suffered two previous miscarriages and grieved over our losses.
The work was progressing well although it was difficult not to be in residence in Long Yen. The "five-year Synod Program" was in high gear and the Laity was responding well in the Campaign. We helped Ruth Broekema in her very successful "short-term schools" project of teaching illiterate women to read the Bible and simple hymns and a short catechism. These schools were called "Te-Ki-Hak-Hou" – short-time schools of three weeks duration. We taught
the Amoy Chines written in the Romanized rather than characters. The Romanized words were called "Peh-oe" ("white-words"), the collegial. Later when I studied for a term at Yale Language Institute, I was told that this Romanized, first begun by the Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, and later by the Rev. Henry De Pree and their able Chinese helpers was the most perfect Romanized of any language taught at Yale. It was very amazing how these women learned to read in three weeks and whole new opportunities opened up to them. Ruth Broekema was a wonderfully talented colleague and friend and did much for Christian work in South Fukien. We held youth conferences twice a year in strategic places with young people coming, usually walking for many miles.
In the summer of
1939, Margaret and I had a very happy holiday in North China in the port
city of Tsing-tau, some 500 miles north of Shanghai. We went up on a brand
new ship of the JCJL – Japan-China-Jova Line. The M/S Tjejalengka came
from Indonesia. It was a beautiful ship and had excellent food, and very
good facilities and other features. Inflation was setting in for the Chinese
dollar and the Dutch Bank advised us to take U S Travellers cheques with
us. Exchange went from six to one to seven to one to eighteen to one in
three weeks, so we were very fortunate indeed. We stayed with the Eames
family in Tsing-tau, who lived just a block from a wonderful beach called
"Iltus Huk". Iltus Huk, a German ship had gone ashore on the
rocks off shore at Tsing-tau many years before. Tsing-tau was literally
a German Concession, and the hills inland were called the Helderbergs.
The beach was a wonderful place to swim, and float, in clean water, like
a cork as our son would say about Brittany many years later. There was
anti-Western feeling in Tsing-tau and one day we watched a parade of protesters
which came past the British Consulate a few blocks away. This time it
was anti-British. We saw people, mostly men and boys carrying big signs
saying "Down with the British", Mrs. Eames saw a man in the
parade who had been a cook in the home of a British, and also in the home
of American Missionaries in Tsi-nan Provence. When all was quiet the next
day we met this man on the road when we went for our walk. Mrs. Eames
said to him after asking about the children, then, "I was disappointed
to see you in the parade yesterday carrying the sign 'Down with the British'
you have worked for good British people, why did you do this?
He looked sheepish and said, "For fifty cents", which amounted
to about five cents US – a nickel. How many parades in the world are
motivated like that, I wonder?
We got back to Shanghai on September 3, the day that Germany and Russia signed that famous accord which was to last just one year. Shanghai was in turmoil. We wanted to send a cable saying when we expected to arrive home, but the Japanese had closed all the cable offices. Then, I had an inspiration, why not try the Radio? Carroll Olcott was in charge of one of the Radio Stations in Shanghai. He was not in favor with the Japanese authorities in Shanghai. The Japanese called their incursions into China, "The New Order in East Asia", but Carroll Olcott always referred to it at the close of his radio hour as "The New Odor in East Asia". Carroll Olcott received me kindly and asked what he could do for me? I told him my problem and he said, "I'll put it on the air at 9pm and your folks will know when you are coming, this evening." Carroll Olcott got out of Shanghai just before Pearl Harbor. He was very fortunate indeed.
We arrived back in Amoy without incident, except that we were in British Naval Convoy part of the way. We had a most wonderful summer under the circumstances and in fact made some money because of the rapid exchange between US currency and the Chinese Yuan.
We settled back in Chang Chow and I took periodic visits to Lungyen and the North River District. Banditry was rather rife in the mountains of South Fukien and on a trip in October 1939, I met my "Waterloo". It was a beautiful autumn day about ten in the morning. The bus was filled with folk to capacity. We were travelling slowly up a rather stiff incline in a lonely spot when six bandits stepped out on the hillside and directed the driver to stop on the side of the road. I was sitting next to the driver and my heart froze when I recognized the head Bandit. He had his two upper front teeth covered with gold and on them inscribed the Chinese characters for happiness and long life. I had known his mother in a small village high in the mountains. She came to the Chapel but her wayward son would not. The Chief Bandit recognized me and perhaps his heart froze too. He barked out his commands to his fellow bandits, "Don't touch the "Hoan-a (foreigner) and his baggage. Everyone left the bus except the driver and myself. Watches, cameras, eyeglasses, money, finger rings, etc. were all stuffed into a big canvas bag. All the suitcases and other baggage was ripped open and valuables taken. The hillside was littered with clothes thrown hither and yon. This whole operation did not last very long and no other traffic came along. The bandits went up into the hills on foot and we went on to Longyen, a sad looking lot indeed. Questions came flooding into my mind – why would a young man engrave in the gold on his front teeth those wonderful words "happiness" and "long life" and then turn bandit? The most perplexing question was why was I, a foreigner left alone? not violated and unharmed? It was sad others lost so much. A few days later the six bandits were caught and all lost their heads. That experience of meeting the bandits and not being molested has never left my memory.
The Autumn was a beautiful time in Chang Chow and we were looking for the baby's coming in early January. We went down to be with Clarence and Ruth Holleman for Christmas, 1939. Margaret went into Hope and Wilhelmina Hospital with some bleeding, but things looked optimistic and we kept cheerful. On January four it was decided to do a caeserian section for placenta previa. Margaret died on the operating table. The whole Chinese and foreign community was shocked, as were the friends in the United States. I could not believe the sun would ever shine again.
The funeral was held in Union Church with the Rev. Edwin Koeppe taking the service. Margaret was laid to rest in the Three Missions Cemetery beside her father's grave. Margaret died at age 34, her father Dr. John Otte at fifty.
Our baby was taken
into the home of the Hollemans. Ruth Holleman mothered Philip as her own
for six months. Although in shock, I kept all our plans and on January
seven went to Tong-An for a retreat, set up by Frank Eckerson, for Pastors
and Elders. The best therapy for me was to work as hard as I could I remember
one of my dear Chinese friends saying to me, "Work as never before
and remember your dear wife", also, remember that "earth has
no sorrow that heaven cannot heal". That wonderful advice proved
to be true.
Continued...
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com
Snail Mail: Dr. William Brown
Box 1288 Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian
PRC 361005
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