Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

II. Exploring the Mission Field 1892 – 1900.
From N.F. Höijer to the Boxer Uprising
In February 1892, N.F. Höijer arrived in Kashgar for an exploration trip. When Höijer went
back to Russia after just one week, his companion, a Christian Turk by the name of
Avetaranian, remained in Kashgar where he worked, on his own, until 1894 when the first
Swedish missionaries arrived. A few years later, some more missionaries from Sweden joined
them. The first tentative of missionary efforts during the pioneer era yielded few results apart
from what was achieved within the field of medical care. Sven Hedin who was living in the
area at that time criticizes the Mission. The leaders of the people want to get rid of the
missionaries and send written complaints to the Chinese authorities. Local riots against the
Mission around the turn of the century and in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising in Central
China force the Mission to wait and see, and the new century starts with unrest and
uncertainty about the future. The Mission pioneers followed unbeaten tracks and in all that
they saw and did during the first years, they kept looking for a reply to the question: Are there
conditions in this country for breaking ground and starting mission work?
1. An Un-known Mission Field
The MCCS was already engaged in mission work in Asia in the 1880s working in Russia,
Caucasus and Persia. One of its missionaries to Asia, N.F. Höijer dreamed about enlarging the
mission work further east. 1
Höijer came from the province of Värmland, and after studies at the MCCS mission
school, then situated at Kristinehamn and language studies in England, he started an eventful
missionary career in Kronstadt in Russia. He was the “visionary type”, full of enthusiasm and
his tremendous power of initiative brought him from one task to another. He has been called
the bold pioneer. But his staying power seems to have been less developed. 2 His various
mission tasks were facilitated by the fact that he spoke 14 languages.
Soon he finds himself in Caucasus where the Armenian Evangelical Mission Covenant
Church was founded, on his initiative, in 1887. This Church comprised the MCCS missions in
Caucasus and Persia. The name was later changed into The Oriental Covenant. This name
evokes Höijer’s great mission vision. The Oriental Covenant was intended to push further on
into Central Asia, and en route establish a band of mission stations. “Why not mark out a road
in white from the Baltic Sea to the Land of the Rising Sun, through the whole of Asia?” 3 This
line of strongholds, stretching over Batum at the Black Sea in Caucasus into the heart of Asia,
via among other places Askabad, Buchara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Kokand and Osh, would
then, in the East, meet the already established Mission in Central China, and in the South
contact would be established with the Missions in India. In India, there was Christian mission
work in a modern sense already established since the end of the 18 th century, and in China, the
China Inland Mission had been founded in 1865. The MCCS also had mission work in China
in the Hupeh province, where the first missionaries arrived in 1890. 4
It was this vision of Höijer’s focused in conquering Asia for Christ that lay behind his
eagerness to come to Kashgar. Impatiently he wrote letter after letter to the Mission Board in
Stockholm concerning this matter. But it took time before the Mission Board could come to a
1
Werner, 1898, p. 331. The English explorer Henry Lansdell mentions having met with N.F. Höjer in Tiflis in
1888. (Lansdell, 1893, p. 19).
2
Björk, 1965, p. 111.
3
Lindeberg, 1948, p. 19. Larsson, 1905, p. 348.
4
Palmaer, 1942, p. 10 f. Larson, 1919, p. 56. The MCCS General Conference minutes from 1895, § 34.
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