For a long time, friends and colleagues of mine have urged me to write a book about China. “You lived in China for nearly three decades,” they say. “Surely you have something to say.” My standard reply has been that there are so many books written about China each year; I don’t want to write…
Esther Nelson
Learning Chinese in the 1920’s
As part of her research for a book about Esther Nelson, my friend Noel stumbled upon a digitized version of a Chinese language textbook used by foreign missionaries working in Sichuan Province in the 1920’s. It’s titled Chinese Lessons for First Year Students in West China, by Omar L. Kilborn. Besides the fact that the romanization is obviously not Pinyin,…
Passengers on the “St. Paul”
As those of you who have been following this blog for awhile know, one of the unexpected discoveries of my trip across Sichuan with Noel Piper in March, was the existence of two airplanes, the St. Paul and the St. Peter, which were used by the Lutheran World Federation to transport missionaries around China in…
The Flying Lutherans
While doing research in preparation for the Esther Expedition that I did with Noel in March, I read a book called “Mission Impossible,” by Ralph Covell. It is a history of the work of a particular Baptist group in Sichuan in the late 1940’s. Among the more interesting stories he tells in the book, one…
Esther Expedition Follow-up
It’s late Monday night and I find myself back in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, looking for evidence of Esther Nelson. When Noel and I were here in March, we learned that an institution in town has an extensive archive of pre-1949 mission agency documents. A friend of a friend of a friend has…
The Choir Master
On Sunday morning we attended a service at the church in Huili. The choir (all women), decked out in suits and ties, led the congregation in the singing of traditional songs for an hour and a half before the service began. Then the service itself lasted another 2 and a half hours! We were blessed….