(1936) Sacred Aspen

In the western part of the city of Kiaohsien grew a poplar. An ever increasing number of people came to visit the tree and pay it veneration as if it were a god. It was attested by many to have miraculous healing powers. First it was honored by people of Kiaohsien, but more people were coming from cities of Kaomi, Pingtu and Tsingtao. Many of those paying homage to the tree with the leaves that seemed to dance and shimmer in the breeze. Many of the supplicants were girls and old women, but men too would come. At night worshipers would light lanterns by the tree.1

Nearby people sold paper and incense to the visitors. The worshipers kneel by the river bed a distance from the aspen. Facing the tree they burned the paper, and light the incense. Beside the incense was placed a cup of water. Prayers were spoken. The water was transformed to medicine it was said. The medicine was often for those sick at home. It is witnessed by many that the magically transformed water healed the sick.2

The year 1936 was the celebration of the Baptists 100 years in China. In 1836 J. Lewis Shuck, the first Baptist missionary, arrived in China. Since then the denomination had grown to 70,000 in China alone and 12,500,000 throughout the world making this denomination the largest independent denomination. Reverend George W. Truett from Dallas Texas and chairman of the Baptist World Alliance and Secretary J.H. Rushbrooke of London were visiting the Chinese Baptist churches connected with the English, American and Swedish Baptists in Shantung.3

The local government had improved and widened motor roads in the spring, and their anti-illitercy campaign to provide one year of schooling for illiterates in twenty schools was well under way.4 The mission's Junior Middle School had the largest enrollment of students in its history. A new building built the previous spring was filled to capacity. Part of this success was probably due to the schools good showing in the annual state examinations.5

In the middle of the year Buddhist pilgrims were making their annual pilgrimage to the temples in the hills in southern Kiaochow district and offering sacrifices to the gods. Five bandits robbed two hundred pilgrims as they were making their way down a winding mountain road near Shangchuang.6 In June farmers were harvesting their meager crops. Bad weather had spoilt the winter bean crop, and hail had ruined part of the wheat crop in west Kiaochow district just before harvest.7

In September Egron and Gerda arrived with Miss E. Wahlin on the S.S. Tsingtao Maru from Europe via Shanghai.⁸ If this is the same Tsingtao Maru, which is likely, the steamship was "sunk by U.S. carrier-based aircraft on October 18th, 1944, about 40 miles N. of Luzon Island, Philippines.
TSUKUSHI MARU No. 3 Kaijima Tanko K.K.; 1927; Kobe Steel Works; 1,012 tons; 225 -3x33-5x16-7; 88 n.h.p.; triple-expansion engines."
Information on ship supplied by:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/cdasm.56/dictionnaire/718.pdf They had been on furlough in Sweden. While they were gone the name of the city had changed from "Kiaochow" to "Kiaohsien."8 Two new missionaries also arrived, Miss I. Ericsson and Rev. V. Andreen. They would be studying Chinese at the College of Chinese Studies in Peking before starting their work in Shantung.9

At the same time as Gerda and Egron were returning to Kiaohsien, a force of five hundred military police and local militia were chasing bandits in southern Kiaochow district trying to exterminate the bandits. They combed the Sao Chu Shan. As the year had progressed the bandits had begun attacking villages. People had been kidnapped and ransom demanded. The bandits had often killed those they kidnapped even after they received money.10

On Monday, October 5, Brigadier General Tang-chih and his troops left Kiaohsien Weihsien. He and his troops were given a grand sendoff and the two railway stations. The general and his troops had been stationed at Kiaohsien for two years. He had commanded a disciplined and fit military force. Also his troops had been responsible for the upkeep of the main roads to and from the railway station in the city. Compared to the irresponsible military of the Tuchun period, Tang and his force were very much appreciated. Also, stepping down was Chou Chu-sheng who had served as magistrate of Kiaohsien for two years. During his time in office he had improved the dirt roads and starts several other projects. He had been unexpectedly recalled to Tsinan.11

On November 27 Johan Alfred celebrated his 70th birthday. He had Hedvig had spent more than forth years as missionaries doing evangelical and educational work. He was the Chairman of the Swedish Baptist Mission and had authored several books in Swedish about China and missions.12

Sailing to China

Egron, Gerda, Lally and Johnny were ready to head home. With fellow missionaries Walter Andrén and Ingrid Eriksson they took a train from Stockholm to Versaille, France and from there boarded a the Katori Maru, a Japanese ship to Shangahi.

Rouge

[Note: not sure what year this story is.]

One of the orphan girls who had grown up was to marry the son of Hedvig's cook, Cook Ho13. Lalli and Dollan helped to get her dressed in Gerda's bedroom. She was dressed in pink with a white veil and a pink flower headpiece. She was a very 'white' chinese girl, very pale in complexion. On the wall in the bedroom was a daily calendar. All Sundays and holidays were in red. They had an idea. Perhaps the red would smear off on oily skin. Lalli and Dollan pulled off all the red days and smeared the pieces of paper on the bride's cheeks and lips. She looked beautiful and the bride thought so too. Brides are not allowed to laugh on such a day because it is bad luck so she showed little outward emotion, but her eyes sparkled with delight. Later Dollan confessed to Gerda what she had done. Makeup for the Baptists was sinful.

Christmas

In the days before Christmas Johan Alfred, Egron and Oscar set out to cut long needle Christmas trees for all the Swedes, chinese Bible women and Bible men, plus a giant Christmas tree for the church. They brought with them their rifles and shot rabbits to give to as many family and friends.

At 5:00 AM the brother of Pastor Gong played Silent Night on his trumpet under Oscar and Hellen's upstairs bedroom window as he did every Christmas morning. His playing was so mellow and beautiful it brought tears to eyes. With his solo the family knews that it was time to get dressed and walk the short distance to church for the Christmas service at 6:00 am. [2012-12-29-Doris-Brown]

It was bitter cold. All were all wearing Chinese padded clothes. In all the 6 (or 8?) tall church windows were placed Swedish candlesticks each with three white or red.candles, on the pulpit, and the organ. Each candle was donated by a church member (when they recited their Bible verse?) They were all red (what was red?) with white candles. A twelve foot Christmas tree stood to the right of the platform decorated with hanging tinsel and tinsel garlands and a tinsel start at the top of the tree. Following tradition live candles flickered in the branches.

Suddenly a flame flared up on the right side of the tree with flames glowing to two feet in size. Someone on the far side of the church came running toward the tree. In the mean time Hellen quickly rose from her seat, and without panic, threw a bucket of water on the tree. The bucket had been placed by the tree for that very purpose. The director of the choir, probably Principal Wang, was leading singing at the time. He looked over, stopped for a split second, and then continued calmly directing the Christmas song. 14

The church held about three hundred people. Opening some wooden folding doors allowed about one hundred more people to take part in the Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service was held in the large church (was there more than one church?) and well attended. The church also housed Wednesday night prayer meetings. The church bells rang for five minutes one half hour before church started, and rang again at the time of the service. (Dollan believes Lalli said that the bell was melted down from bullets, but she might have meant melted down for bullets, BUT also that could of been one of the many churched that SBM and not the church in Kiaohsien.)

The church was segregated. All women sat on the right side of the church, and all men on the left. Mothers breast fed their kids throughout the service, with some breast feeding the kids till they were five years old.

In those days men and women were not to meet "privately", and this included church or other gatherings. Even after church the men and the women did not speak.

The Christmas trees in the missionaries homes were also decorated just as they had been in Sweden with live candles, tinsel, a star, handmade paper hearts, four of five strings of small Swedish flags, and Swedish flags on toothpicks affixed to the end of each branch. Visitors could have not doubt that this was a Swedish home if they knew what a Swedish flag looked like.

Other Mission Statistics

In another mission, China Inland Mission membership was at a peak in 1936 with 1,387 individuals. (This is probably missionaries and other workers in CIM, and does not include converts. LJH). In 1900 CIM numbered many hundreds with workers coming from British Isles, North America, Germany, Switzerland, Australasia, Scandinavia and other lands. Not only were these from many countries but also many denominations. Probably Taylor was hoping to recruit Swedish Baptists when he spoke at the seminary in Stockholm when Johan Alfred was a student.15

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Footnotes