Hauge’s Norwegian Lutheran Synod began its work in China in 1891. The main station is Fan Cheng and the territory lies partly in the Honan and partly in the Hupeh Province. The field of this mission covers six thousand square miles and has a population of between three and four millions. The working force includes twenty-one missionaries, two of them medical missionaries, and ninety-eight native helpers. The Christians number twenty-six hundred.
The Norwegian Synod has had a mission in Honan since 1912. Here ten missionaries are at work in three stations.
The Norwegian Free Church has been at work in Honan since 1915. There are six missionaries at work in a section the population of which numbers two million.
The Norwegian Lutheran Brethren Society established its mission in Honan in 1900. There are fourteen missionaries at work.
|Another Large Field.| The Augustana Synod[[8]] has had since 1905 a mission in the Honan province and now has fourteen men and five women at work there. The field is in the form of a triangle with one corner at Hsu-Cheo, one at Nan-Yang-Fu and the third at Honan-Fu. Its area is about ten thousand square miles, a little less than the State of Minnesota, with a population ten times as large, that is, about three million. The province of Honan was one of the last to submit to the invasion of the missionary and the first missionaries of the Augustana Synod suffered during their search for a mission field from the feeling against the foreigner. Their experience is vividly described by their first missionary, the Rev. Edwins.[[9]]
[8]. A part of the General Council.
[9]. This account is taken from Our First Decade in China, published by the China Board of the Augustana Synod.
|A Perilous Journey.| “To our knowledge no danger threatened us at any time except on the second day of our journey. Then it happened that we were attacked at a country village where two of the common Chinese open-air theatres had attracted a concourse of about two thousand idle spectators. Through the village street, which was crowded to the utmost, our clumsy mule carts had to make their way. On seeing that we were foreigners many in the crowd began to yell out a kind of unearthly war-whoop. Our drivers were somewhat uneasy and desired to move on as fast as the dense crowd would make way. The two-wheeled cart swayed from side to side on the uneven road. A basket of Chinese steamed bread was upset by a slight collision with one of our carts. The vendor, a young boy, screamed loudly as his little loaves rolled on the ground and were snatched up by the thievish bystanders. This episode increased the commotion. Little by little, however, our carts plowed their way through the dense mass of surging humanity, and we were soon on the point of leaving the crowd behind us, but then the mob followed us hooting and yelling and hurling at us and our mules and vehicles whatever missiles were at hand. Some of our little company received heavy blows. The mules pulling the foremost cart stopped and for a moment it seemed that we must be surrounded, but fortunately our drivers succeeded in getting the animals started again and by rapid driving we managed to outdistance the howling mob.”
Provided with a military escort, travelling by another route and aided by the workers of the China Inland Mission, the Americans selected their field. To-day thirty-two missionaries are preaching and teaching. Two hospitals and a school for the blind have been established. In 1915 the Synod contributed $40,000 to this work.
|Co-operation a Reality.| Recently all the Lutheran Missions in Central China united in a co-operative plan of educational work, which it is expected will result in economy and efficiency. A union theological seminary was established at Shekow in Hupeh Province near Hankow and a union college, a union publishing house, and a union periodical are under consideration. In the words of a Lutheran missionary historian: “Co-operation is not only a watchword but an established reality in the Lutheran missions of China; and thus the foreign missions of our American Lutheran Church excel the home churches in wisdom and working efficiency.”