(1925) A Son is Born

Swedish Home in China

Hellen did not have the advantage of having a modern language school to learn Chinese. Instead she had like many missionaries of earlier years studied under an old Chinese scholar. She had three years of language study at the expense of the mission, but she studied with her teacher a full seven years. Not only did she need to recall a great number of Chinese characters, but also to learn as close as possible her teacher's pronunciation. With her teacher's help she managed to read the entire Bible in Chinese. Eventually she was reead the entire Chinese Bible again according to Dollan). ¹ During this time Hellen found out she was pregnant.

Roy was born August 31 in Faber Krankenhau (Faber Hospital), Tsingtao. A child meant that Hellen's mission in China would also largely include that of homemaker though their home was always an open house where Hellen was known to be [at least by Oscar because he states it] as a gracious hostess and captivating in conversation. See document Intervju med Hellen, page 8. ² She saw her home as an center for evangelization, especially considering that the home in China is the social unit in the orient. In the home she could place in her guests minds the ideal of the Christian life and Christian service. Her home in essence was her mission field. She was eventually to teach Bible in the girls school, to chinese women, and Chinese grammar school kids. ³

Though her home was now in China, she tried to keep her home as Swedish as possible. However, even in her Swedish home, the Chinese influence seeped in. For instance, Hellen made Swedish meatballs, but in time her Swedish meatball recipe include some garlic and ginger. However, when Oscar journeyed to the mission stations the Chinese cook prepared a pound or two of See-fen to bring with. Oscar was naturally much more in tune with the Chinese culture. After all he grew up in it.

But she did work outside of the home too. Often together with a 'Bible woman' she made contacts with women in the community and talk with them about the Bible. She also worked in the Swedish Baptist school [don't know dates here, so some of this information may need to be moved to another chapter. Len] where she taught geography, embroidery and math. When Dollan was also attending the school, she brought cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, probably to give the seven kids a break and to calm their nerves. The Lärarinen Missions Förening (LMF) (Teachers Missionary Association) supported Hellen financially for eight years as their missionary.

Matzat Family

In November of 1897 the Germans had occupied Kiaochow Bay. In the years that followed they began building a modern town, much of it in German archtectural style, a railroad, and began sending missionaries. The Berlin Missionary Society opened three mission in stations in Shantung Province Tsingtao, Tsimo and Kiaohsien. In 1922 they sent Willy and Dorothea Matzat as missionaries to Shantung where they took over the mission station in the county town of Tsimo.

In 1923 Germany was exeriening hyperinflation. The valuae of German curreny was alll but destroyed. The Berlin Mission Society suffered high financial losses and could not upkeep all their mission stations in Africa and China. On January 1st 1925 the three mission stations of Tsingtao, Tsimo and Kiaohien were sold to the United Lutheran Church in America and their Amercian Lutheran Mission society.

The German missionaries, Voskamp in Tsingtao, Miss Strecker and Voget, and Scholz in Kiaochow; Matzat in Tsimo joined the American Lutheran Mission. It was a smart move. They were acquainted with the local culture and society and spoke the Shantung dialect. The new incoming American missionaries, Krueger, Anspach, and others needed learn the Chinese language before they could begin meeting with success and that could take two years or more. [Email from Wilhelm Matzat to Lennart Holmquist, February 22, 2011.]

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Footnotes