Science in Christian Perspective

Letter

[missionary matters]

365, Kings Road, North Point, Hong Kong.

Dear Friends,

It is good to see that the desire to be missionaries is finding its place in the thought of young doctors, who have come out to Hong Kong in the Army. One of these took care of my clinics, and thus gave me a short holiday in July, which was most acceptable. An old missionary friend from Honan, came and took morning devotions for the Staff and patients, and the young doctor was interested to see how it was done. May the missionary seed sown in his heart bear fruit, when his time in the Army is finished.

A few miles from Hong Kong there is another island, on which is a high mountain, and being on the top was like having a week in Scotland, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. My only regret was that my dear wife was not there to spend the time with me and with our friends Archdeacon and Mrs. Donnithorne. Duties and responsibilities at home in England necessitated her return in Many, and so after some enjoyable months together, we have had to part again for a time.

After my return from the mountain, the Rev. Eric Hague asked me to see a man, Cheo-Tzu-Long, who had had both his feet blown off. He was a beggar walking on his knees, and Mr. Hague wanted me to fix him up with legs. Money, perseverance and the surgical fashioning of new stumps were all involved. After eight months the task seemed completed, and to our delight Tzu-Long walked about on his artificial limbs like a new man. How to find him a job had caused much thought and correspondence. By last Friday we seemed near the end of our task, but when a policeman met the transformed Tzu-Long on the street, be recognized him as being a lapsed deportee, transported five years previously for begging! How the policeman remembered him is more than I can fathom. His trial took place two days ago, and I am glad to report that a letter f rom me, and the presence of Mr. Hague procured his release. The judge was most considerate. How one could muse on the price of a soul. If it costs so much in this life, no wonder that Heaven had to be robbed of its greatest treasure to save you and me. Tzu-Long has learned this for he has given his heart to the Lord.

Mrs. Yung has been brought to the clinic by her daughter Nancy. I found that Nancy was being influenced by the Roman Catholics. She and Gordon her fiance, both speak English, and we have had many talks together. The question of their decision for Christ has been settled, and now they are realizing their need for Bible study and prayer. When Gordon became a Christian, he had f irst to put the question to his grandmother. "She is a pagan," he said, "and I approached her with trembling as she is a masterful old lady." To the surprise of us all she gave her consent to my being a Christian, but she herself remained unchanged. Then my small brother, her youngest grandchild, became ill, so ill that he was approaching death. She knew that none of her gods would avail, and for the f irst time she turned to the Jesus whom she knew I had accepted. She prayed then in the Name of Jesus, and the child improved, and continued to improve until he was well. This is the event that has really changed her and our home. Now she says that only prayer in the Name of Jesus avails, and her days and much of her night are given to prayer.

We think that the Victorian age had a monopoly of stern fathers controlling refractory daughters! By no means, for David Wang has just told me his story:- David has been staying with me in my flat, while he awaits his visa to U.S.A. His fiancee, Annie, has just left for the States and they have both set their hearts on full training for the Lord's sake, leading to full time service for Him. Her father had other and far more worldly ideas for his daughter, and he forbade the young people to see one another. He blamed David and Christianity for the wonderful change that had come over her. Then he found another change taking place in her, due to his prohibition. Her cheeks lost their roses and she began to wilt. Praise God, the Father relented, and allowed them to meet for half an hour a week. How I smiled when I heard it. Love found a way, and before she left, my telephone almost caught fire with the frequency and ardour of the messages that flew between Davi~ and Annie!! It will not be long now before he is on his way to the Moody Bible Institute, whilst Annie has already gone to Wellesley College. David tells me now that his younger brother has given his heart to Christ. "How often I have exhorted them," said David. But he wrote that his heart was set on going to Russia for further studies but now what a change! By chance he went into Wang-Ming-Tao's Church in Pekin, and there he settled the question and has come right out on the Lord's side. How very wonderful, for this is happening in Communist China, the extreme cost of missionary endeavor has not been in vain, and the Church established there is standing in the vortex of the storm. But still the "blood and tears" are being shed, for Wang-Ming-Tao, his family and 18 of his Church members were visited at 1 o'clock in the morning and carried of f to prison by the secret police. A fitting hour for the Reds and those who love darkness.

My clinics go on here apace, and I would ask for your prayers for a plan to extend medical-evangelistic work into the New Territories right up to the Red border. Both the Church of England and the Lutheran World Service have such a plan in mind, and the latter have asked me to take charge of the clinics they plan to open. Recently, a patient, who had been to my clinic in Kings Road, after exhausting all other possibilities for getting cured, was miraculously healed after one visit. As a result, many people in the village of Tailing were greatly influenced in the direction of Christianity, to the extent that one man donated a large room in his home as a chapel.

Following the above incident many people in Tailing threw away their idols, and looked to Jesus Christ for life and hope. Unfortunately, however, the faith of many of these people is still very immature, and the devil is constantly striving to win them back. In the light of the above, the time seems opportune for opening clinics in the New Territories, and yet if I attempt more than I am already doing, the medical work here would inevitably suffer. Do pray that I may be guided, and that some way may be found of helping the people in these distant villages. The Bamboo Curtain is becoming so porous, that even now patients are coming across from Red China for treatment in increasing numbers.

Our elder daughter, Elizabeth, has just become engaged to Mr. Philip Habershon, the eldest son of the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Tunbridge Wells. We do rejoice with them both in their joy, and pray that they may always be a strength and inspiration to each other.

My dear wife is in the throes of selling our house, and buying another and more suitable one. I do hope that this will not hinder us from seeing one another again this coming year.

D. VAUGHAN REES.