Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

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limited to several big cities but extended to the remotest villageswhere the gospel was never heard. And in all mankind those whoneeded the gospel most were the toiling masses and preaching tothem was most rewarding. He realised all the more that some ofthe evangelistic methods of his time were Western methods,contrary to the Biblical. These should undergo a revolutionarychange.According to the Acts of the Apostles, the early Church’sevangelism was on the go. Now evangelism was on the stay. Thereason why the Western missions adopted this latter method wasdue in no small measure to the practice of some missionaries ofthe materialistic type. In the year after the Boxer Rebellion(1900), they came to China with the privilege of an unequal treaty.They made their headquarters in all the big cities. First theyselected a piece of land of the best situation and scenery and builtthereon the most spacious and comfortable Western-type mansion.They made it a palace like Herod the Tetrarch’s – to rule overtheir parishes. They would employ between eight and ten men andwomen servants, consisting of cook, gardener, peon, valet,launderer, handyman, amah, etc. In their leisure they gatheredthese eight to ten servants to a worship exercise and taught themsome Westernised Bible knowledge and recite the Lord’s Prayer,and some sentences of “Jesus loves me, this I know.” These werethe beginnings of a Chinese theological education. Some of thesmart know-nothings who were good at fawning became the elect.The missionaries would buy them a blue gown each for attire andsend them to a town, rent a house and put a “Gospel Hall”signboard over it. Thereby they were made resident preachers. Apreacher’s salary per month was between five and six dollars. Notworth very much, it was the equivalent of a slice of Americanchocolate or chewing gum. To employ eight or ten of suchpreachers to the emptying of the missionary’s own purse was noproblem. Once a report was sent back to the Mission at home thegold dollars would roll to the field. The preacher being backed by26
such an extraordinary institution played on his countrymen’sinferiority to the foreigners. They would threaten or cajole,sometimes with honey-sweet words after the threats, so long assome would nod assent and belief in Jesus, whether these repentedof their sin or not. Thus, like the temple-curates, these preachersmade their rice bowl as secure as Taishan (China’s sacredmountain).When the Western missionary went on seasonal tour of theparishes, he would go to much trouble as if he were housemoving.He would even bring along drinking water, bottle bybottle. (The Western missionary need not “trust heaven for food”,but as to water, yes – rain-water, because water in China wasmuch contaminated. When the Western missionary went on tour,the native preachers would work their heads off to pull in theclients.The Western missionaries came to China in style, the haughtysons of heaven. The doctrines they preached were far removedfrom Bible truth. They behaved in an arrogant and patronisingmanner, as if God created the universe specially for them, thewhite race. Yes, indeed. When Noah awoke from drunkenness,eyes a-blinking, did he not explicitly declare in blessing his sons,“God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents ofShem; and Canaan shall be his servant”? Then we of the colouredraces who are predestined to be the white race’s slaves shouldhold our peace! Such a situation the boy had keenly observed.This was a fact, though not every Western missionary was like theabove-mentioned. Indeed there were others who sacrificed theirlives for the Lord, but these were too few. The minority elite couldnot cover up the majority of bad ones. Truth to tell, the failure ofWestern missions in the Far East cannot be denied. It is a pity anda shame the early Church in China should have been built on suchfoundations. These questions kept revolving in the boy’s mind andmade him utterly resentful.27
Page 4 and 5: Pioneering in Dyak Borneo© 1997 Re
Page 6 and 7: Translator’s Preface to this Abri
Page 9 and 10: Chapter 1A Half-Century of Fleeting
Page 11 and 12: are higher than the earth, so are m
Page 13 and 14: children, her great hope, and looki
Page 15 and 16: he would have to go from home to sc
Page 17 and 18: if he had footache, to which he cou
Page 19 and 20: to the boy, “You just come with m
Page 21 and 22: with the nursing superintendent and
Page 23 and 24: inflammatory disease of the small i
Page 25 and 26: corrupt petty officer. But he had n
Page 27: He loved China like his own country
Page 31 and 32: For the company of schoolmates who
Page 33 and 34: them published in the newspapers’
Page 35 and 36: misunderstood or falsely accused, t
Page 37 and 38: One day while writhing in the throe
Page 41 and 42: Although he utterly detested those
Page 43 and 44: inside the living quarters he becam
Page 45 and 46: last, he was determined to a celiba
Page 47 and 48: “A laborious couple”45
Page 49 and 50: period, we expressed our regrets to
Page 51 and 52: esulted in our coming together agai
Page 53 and 54: was no help to me. But when she pou
Page 55 and 56: But the peculiar condition surround
Page 57 and 58: saw it declared it was the work of
Page 59 and 60: her same-mindedness in this matter.
Page 61 and 62: Chapter 4“A New Thing”“And he
Page 63 and 64: entreated him to find them pastors
Page 65 and 66: With Dr Jaffray on eve of sailing f
Page 67 and 68: - the Chinese Foreign Missionary Un
Page 69 and 70: The Chinese Foreign Missionary Unio
Page 71 and 72: aptised. Moreover there are one tho
Page 73 and 74: espond to this type of work. In add
Page 75 and 76: Chapter 5Strange Quarry from a Wild
Page 77 and 78: A Chinese Templeinstitution where o
Page 79 and 80:
The durian tree is very tall. Its f
Page 81 and 82:
e their home. Were it not for two b
Page 83 and 84:
A few days after our arrival in Mak
Page 85 and 86:
Fifteenth Night are equally boister
Page 87 and 88:
hear some hawker in the silent stre
Page 89 and 90:
He will surely answer.” We prayed
Page 91 and 92:
Our jungle headquartersnomadic life
Page 93 and 94:
However, though many old Dyaks clai
Page 95 and 96:
A longhousedwelling. Ordinarily, yo
Page 97 and 98:
The first Dyak village we visitedso
Page 99 and 100:
the art of eking out an existence.
Page 101 and 102:
Dyak one-piece coffins!becomes thei
Page 103 and 104:
Although the things their hands hav
Page 105 and 106:
An ox totem, part of the ox-spearin
Page 107 and 108:
“. . . further augmented by fierc
Page 109 and 110:
for Thee . . . The things that are
Page 111 and 112:
White khaki and topeethe virtue of
Page 113 and 114:
you come to their village, you need
Page 115 and 116:
title given made him “Temenggung
Page 117 and 118:
We spent a total of three weeks on
Page 119 and 120:
eligion, it is your great mistake o
Page 121 and 122:
Like am army’s expenditionary for
Page 123 and 124:
Our jungle hotelthat time I was the
Page 125 and 126:
Paul Lenn among the bravehardly wal
Page 127 and 128:
Second, the “disciples of a heter
Page 129 and 130:
A Dyak Christian Chieftain’s fune
Page 131 and 132:
eport, proving the method we’ve a
Page 133 and 134:
who was with me showed His mighty w
Page 135 and 136:
eader of the Indonesian edition of
Page 137 and 138:
we left for another village. Sudden
Page 139 and 140:
swamped with a hundred items of bus
Page 141 and 142:
“going south,” and my original
Page 143 and 144:
without anymore relying on the evan
Page 145 and 146:
Those who first heard the Word and
Page 147 and 148:
They are in unceasing pursuit of im
Page 149 and 150:
weak. Yet the conference required m
Page 151 and 152:
just one hour gathering the produce
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Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

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