The first bell that I found in China was in the city of Yibin, in Sichuan Province. The American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society began work there in the late 1800’s and in the early 1900s they built a church and hung a bell that had been brought over from the United States! Here’s what the…
Yibin
A Tale of Two Bells
Mr. B crawled around the cement beams near where the giant church bell was mounted, reading out the letters engraved on the top as Noel frantically wrote down each letter: C.I.N.C.I.N.N.A.T.I. Cincinnati! Then: “Buckeye Bell Foundry, 1886.” The rest of the inscription read: “First Baptist Church, Coffeyville, Kansas. Presented by W.S. Upham 1886. Praise Ye…
Yibin? Suifu? Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
During our two days here in the town of Yibin, we have been trying to solve a couple of things that have been puzzling us about the life and work if Esther Nelson. The first is….what was her Chinese name? Everywhere we go, people have been asking us what her Chinese name was, and unfortunately,…