Abraham and Sarah were dumbfounded when they learned that at their advanced age (Sarah was 100 years old) Sarah was going to have a son. Abraham laughed and said something to the effect that he and Sarah were just too old for such an undertaking. Their concern was relieved with the reassurance "not to worry -- God will take care of everything".
When asked to say a few words on this occasion David Lee didn't exactly promise that God would take care of everything – but his message in effect was "not to worry -- you have been around a long time and should be able to think of something to say".
For our devotional today I will read some Bible verses that were dear to the hearts of my father and mother who served as China missionaries very near by Kikung where this alumni group had its roots. Before that, I will tell the rather romantic story of how they came to be there and a incident or two from their lives together.
On the island of Boemloe, some thirty miles south of Bergen Norway there is a peninsula that is perhaps the point in Norway jutting fathest out into the North Sea. It's geographical location made it a hotbed of Norway's resistance to German rule in World War II and the transit route of Norwegian young men escaping Norway to serve in the navies and merchant marine fleets on the Allied side.
The peninsula is called "Nesse" and consists of "hoire (upper)Nesse" and "nedre(lower) Nesse". People made a living through hard scrabble farming and fishing. In the year 1881 a girl was born on lower Nesse and a boy on upper Nesse. The boy was named "Hans" after his father. The girl was named "Danielle" after her father who on the day of her baptism was drowned -- and in this is a family story.
It seems that a member of the community on the baptism day sighted a "swirl" of mackerel out to sea and several men including my mother's father set out to net them. They did extremely well and not only filled their boat but also filled a small dinghy chained to the fishing boat. A storm came up and swamped the overloaded dinghy. When the men tred to cut the dinghy free there was no means at hand to cut the iron chain, the fishing boat sank and the fishermen drowned. Danielle was later baptized and named after her father, Daniel.
This incident is a moral teaching tool in our family's tradition. The overloaded dinghy points out the danger of avarice -- don't push good fortune too far! The "uncutable" chain points out a deficiency in good judgment and the need for plan for contingencies. For the grandchildren the lesson is more direct -- those of us with the Nesse heritage may be neither as smart nor as careful as we should be! This brings out another family story. As children my father's idea of winter sport was to take his three boys hiking on the ice of the swift-running river that ran in front of our Sinyang home. He looked for areas of thin ice that would crackle as he crossed it -- Once across my oldest brother Gerhard made the trip, next Henry and finally Arthur trembling and perhaps crying. This reinforces the message to our own grandchildren that Nesses are, as I mentioned before, not necessarily smart and certainly not careful!
Going back to Norway, at 18 my mother left "naedre Nesse" to become a nurse. It was not until she was about 29 years old that she was able to pursue her consuming interest in mission work. She finally received an offer from the Trondheim Mission Society (incidentally still active) to serve at the Norwegian Mission Hospital at YiYang, Hunan province, some 100 miles upriver on the Yangtzi river from Wuhan.
In a letter dated March 6, 1910 Danielle wrote the following to her half-sister Gertrude in Norway:
"Well now I have had my first examination in Chinese --- they all said it was well done by me that I was able to take the examination after such a short time --- First I was give some Chinese characters -- which I should translate into Norwegian --- then I should translate some material from English to Chinese ---this I managed quite well. Then --- I read a portion of the Bible and translated it to Norwegian and next, unscripted, --- answer questions on what was read -- converse a bit with the teacher in Emglish as others listened -- It's so much fun to realize how far I have come so I could take such an examination".
A later letter advised Gertrude that she was going to take some vacation time in the summer of 1912 at the summer resort on Kikung mountain in Henan province she had heard that there were some American missionaries of Norwegian background who would be interesting to visit with.
We can now move back to my father Hans and his story biginning at "hoire Nessse". He left Nesse and Norway at age 17 to make his way in America. He was a diligent and capable immigrant, worked in a piano factory, worked on Great Lakes steamers and went to school at a church-related academy in Ottawa Illinois. He completed his educational experience at the University of Minnesota and Luther Seminary and was ordained a a pastor by the Nowegian American Lutheran Church of America. He accepted a call to be a missionary in China and in 1910 joined the mission effort in Hupeh and southern Henan provinces.
A letter from Hans to a Chicago friend, and quite differently from my mother, Hans summarizes his feeling on his introduction to life in China.
"I remember happily the many cozy times I had in your delightful home.--- The meaning of "cultural adjustment" becomes real when I think of your home. I must remember that where I am now there are only Chinese people in China. --- there is a rule that missionaries have two years to study the language -- for the present I am in Kioshan studying the language (which is) unconscionably difficult. A missionary said the devil gave the Chinese this language to frustrate outside ideas from entering China. The language has 40,000 characters (with) many duplications --- Characters must be memorized --- the meaning of each character carries over from historic times. The Chinese teacher has no special training in teaching techniques and teaches with teacup in hand throughout instruction --- you must teach the teacher to teach you. I have so far learned about 800 characters --- with help from a Chinese lexicon I can now read the New Testament reasonably well. I have also made a couple of efforts to give talks but I have no idea if the Chinese undersood what I was trying to say. Overall, I find the language study interesting, actually very interesting. --- I have never seen such poverty --- miserable people come to our door --- have not had food for several days --- (it is) likely that many of them will die -- graves were opened and the dead eaten. A pall of soot prevails in winter. --- there is a joint seminary project with the Norwegian Missionary Assn. (Norway), the Hauge Synod amd the American Lutheran churches. If the Chinese are to be Christian it must be by the efforts of China's own sons and daughters --- missionary efforts can only be a drop in the ocean."
Going back to Danielle, she made the vacation trip to Kikung. There she met Hans and renewed acquaintance with the playmate from her childhood, Hans was now a missionary from America sponsored by what was then the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. Her resignation letter of Nov. 12, 1912 to the Norwegian Missionary Assn. tells the story.
"I have become engaged to Pastor H.M. Nesse of another church's mission in Honan. I am hoping that the honorable Executive Steering Committee will be agreeable to my request that I be released from my service here. --- I should let you know that Pastor Nesse and I are childhood friends. Our parrents were nearest neighbors home at Nesse. --- We played together, went to school and confirmation class together ---when we were eighteen years old we left --- to the broader world. Little did we imagine that twelve years later we should meet again as missionaries in China --- we have both found it to be God's will that we should hereafter share life's sorrows and joys."
Together they established the mission station in Suiping. They had three sons and no girls, a sure sign to the native Chinese that they were indeed blessed by the gods. Among other things, this also greatly enhanced the effectiveness of their missionary message.
I don’t have time to discuss the missionary careers of my parents. Danille's was all too short. She was a nurse and provided medical service beginning with her time as a Norwegian missionary. She founded a school for girls at her first assignment and throughout her time in China wrote and published widely in American church publications as well as in the Norwegian secular press. Perhaps the most complete story of the shooting death of Daniel Nelson in Sinyang was written by her and published in the Oslo Daily Newspaper. Danielle died of cancer at age 50 and is buried in the cemetery on Kikung although, as you know, most of the grave sites are now is overgrown. The cemetery is the site the Moongate built by ASK alumni in 1992 and refurbished on 1998. Harold Martinson, Paul’s father, wrote Danielle's obituary in the Lutheran Herald.
My father served in China some 40 years, principally from 1926-1951 in Sinyang. He resided for some years in the home of Harold and Charlotte Martinson where I also made my home while on holidays from school at ASK. He remained in Sinyang between the years 1937 when the Japanese took over from the Chinese government and the outbreak of World War II – remarkably the mission work continued during this time, Christians in the Japanese Army participated in worship at the mission station and he reported that during this time 843 people were added to the congregation. During the US-Japan hostilities he was interned in Wuhan. He wrote a book, Under Nippon’s New Order, describing these years.
After a furlough in the U.S. my father returned to China in 1948 with high hopes to continue mission work in Sinyang. The Chinese proclamations of freedom of religion, education of women, universal medical care and economic and social progress were to some in the U.S. a fulfillment of mission hopes and dreams for China. Sadly, the history of the Communist years until recently, tell a different story. Hans ultimately left China in 1951and decided to come to the U.S. via his home place in Norway.
I have happy letters from my father's time in Norway telling of family gatherings, mission conferences, rides on a motorcycle and fishing trips. He died as he stepped into a taxi en-route to yet another speaking engagement and was buried in his ancestral churchyard in Norway.
I will now read the Bible verses my father used to characterize Danielle's character. Timothy II ,Chapter 4, verse 5 reads:"I have fought the good fight" (this was engraved on her tombstone) and the passage continues; "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."
I canot know whether the selection of these verses grew out of my mother's four years of struggle with cancer (despite early diagnosis and American level medical service at the Rockefeller Medical Center in Beijing) or represented her intense dedication to her work.
Some 20 years after my mother died, my father described his hopes for the future of Christianity in China with the words from Haggai, Chapter 2, verse 9 -- "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former". At that time he was referring with high hopes to the dictates of the Communist authorities calling for religious activites to be "Self-supporting, Self-governing and Self-supporting". For him this was the goal of misssionary endeavors in China from their inception. These hopes were dashed at that time but may apply again now. Some 50 years later when we look at the growth of Christianity and Christian programs in China today (including those of China Service Ventures) we can hope that the words of Haggai still apply -- "The latter house shall be greater than the former".