MISSIONARIES IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20985, 13 October 1933, Page 18

MISSIONARIES IN CHINA

MORE RECRUITS NEEDED EXPERIENCE OP A NEW ZEALAND WOMAN Some of the difficulties and dangers attendant on the work of of the New Zealand Church Mission ary Society in China were describe! in an address given last evening b Miss Blanche Tobin, a society tt - y * sionary, to a large audience in gt John's Schoolroom. Miss Tohln, wh is on furlough in New Zealand, aß ° pealed for recruits for the work in China and for the support of church people in New Zealand. She gave an interesting account of her capture b bandits in 1928, and her release J ransom three months later.

Miss Tobin mentioned that her task in China was a lonely one, in that in her area she was not working in asso< ciation with any New Zealanders. She had therefore come to New Zealand partly to recruit for assistance. Ther» was scope for additional workers nS only in her diocese, but all over Chin? At present her diocese needed a doT tor very badly, as well as two nursed and another two women workm There were only three nurses to carw on the work at present. Doctors and nurses were wanted not only for their medical work, but for the evangelical work of the mission. The work dcm* v. by the doctors and nurses had a ore. nounced effect on the practical!? ■ minded Chinese, who saw in th» nurses, for instance, examples of the wonderful things Christianity had done in the emancipation of women Because of the lack of missionaries the mission was unable to follow un many opportunities which were "o well worth while following up. Tobin mentioned that she had taken up hospital teaching for a time and had found that when patients left th» institution it had been impossible to carry on teaching them, although it had been very necessary to follow ud the hospital teaching by further work Countless thousands of Chinese could not read and every attempt was made to teach them, because the church wanted educated Christians who could spread their faith. But the averaee Chinese was hard to teach. Their minds, usually accustomed only to the routine of the house and the fields would not open easily to the routine of learning, and constant repetition o* a lesson was needed. The mission wanted more missionaries to work among those illiterates and to train Chinese to become teachers themselves. There was also plenty of work to do among the Chinese children, who had more receptive minds. Most of the children in the missionary schools came from non-Christian homes, but many of the children were only waiting for the proper time to adopt Christianity. Unless both the parents of the child were Christians, the child could not be baptised until reaching the age of 16. Love of Country. The Chinese showed how dearly they loved their country when the Japanese threatened an invasion over j the Manchurian affair, said Miss Tobin. I Internal differences with the central government were forgotten in the great rally to the national cause. The missionary schools had been affected by the general cin, to the extent that the itfents, | older than those of the | schools, had appealed to the mission children to join them in their displays of national feeling. The missionaries had been able to see the effects of their teaching when the children, although just as nationalistic as the older students, agreed to pray both for China and Japan. In many cases, in the student classes, communist influence had got in ahead of the missionaries, who, the Chinese had been told, were agents for imperialistic governments, whose religion was a "dope" for the multitude. Mis Tobin found among the secondary school girl students high national ideals. Some could talk glibly al« though rather vaguely of Carl Marx and Lenin. But those girls had lost sympathy for communism when they found that, in some provinces, particularly in their neighbouring province, communism was educated banditry. Someone was wanted to teach these students, who would not learn from Chinese Bible-women, but who listened eagerly to educated Englishwomen.

It was a difficult task to overcome Chinese prejudices. There were difficulties and dangers attendant on the work. But the mission work had to continue, and although the work was sometimes difficult and disappointing, and although one sometimes met with danger, the speaker dared to ask lor recruits in the great adventure.

Captured by Bandits. Miss Tobin mentioned a thrilling incident in her own life in China. In 1928, when she was taken by bandits, there seemed no hope of a ransom being paid for her release. She had not the money, and the Missionary Society could not pay because of the danger of setting a precedent which would lead to similar captures. Her one hope was in the arrival of soldiers. The chief of the bandits made it clear that she would lose her life if a ransom did not appear. They were ruthless men and had committed many atrocities. For her, she had found the proximity and curiosity of the bandits very trying. They had not seen a white woman before. They were in rough mountainous country and Miss Tobin said that after a few days she felt that she was being kept separate by some invisible power from the bandits' attentions. Eventually the heathens of the district in which she worked raised a ransom and she was released. It was regarded as a miracle by her friends in China that she had survived the experience and come out of it unscathed. Miss Tobin concluded her address with an appeal to her listeners for assistance in securing recruits and lot other support for the China mission. Following her lecture, she showed a number of interesting slides of the province in which she works, and oi the class of Chinese with whom the missionaries came in contact. She was thanked for her interesting address. Mr G. Stening, chairman of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society! presided, and extended a welcome to Miss Tobin. The Rev. W. A. Orange led a short devotional service.