We were there and we were being invited. We would have daily vacation, Bible school for the children and then, of course, evangelistic meetings and Bible study for the older people.

But one summer during the time of the Japanese occupation, it seemed like it would be impossible for the man to go out. Conditions in the country were so very unsettled as it developed by the time the Japanese controlled the countryside and they would go to the region to conscript workers to come and work on the roads, building roads.

Then at night, the Japanese retired to the old city and the communists came out and they were in control and they would punish anyone who had collaborated with the Japanese in the daytime.

And then when the Japanese came back, they would punish anyone who had collaborated with the communists. And so it was a most unsettling time in a very, very difficult time. And there were many villages that were begging us to come out and help them. But in a situation like that, did we dare to send out these young people for that, for that kind of work?

Finally, we told them to pray about it and they had the list of the various places that were asking for vacation Bible schools. Thank you. And they prayed about it. And finally, each team seemed to feel that the Lord was directing them to one particular place. And so they went out and we waited with great interest to hear the results. One team was arrested the in that place and there were Japanese there were Chinese soldiers there, but they were under the command of the Japanese. And they told the girls, the Japanese have told us that we will give you a beating, but we're Chinese, too, and your girls and we don't want to beat you up. So when the Japanese come and question you, you just tell them that we gave you the beating.

The girls thought about this for a minute, and then they said, well, go on with the beating.

We're Christians, we can't kill us soldiers. Of course, we're astonished and some only God restrain them. And they found some other way of getting around it and didn't beat the girls and they had given their testimony. Then the frightening word came that another team had been carried off by the communists.

The possibilities of danger and of injury and of all sorts of horror.

Things were just overwhelming. And the only thing that kept one sane at that time was the realization that they had felt that the Lord was sending them there and so he would be responsible for that.

He went on with our just desperate prayer for these dear girls who were in the hands of the of the communists, the communist government.

Then they were good workers and the Communists wanted to have them to be communists, the workers. And they were trying to persuade them that it was their patriotic duty to join, join up with them. But of course, their dedication was to the Lord and they wouldn't respond. The communists kept carrying them farther and farther away and so many people just disappeared and were never heard from. So our.

Concern was very good, but then one day I came home tired, then they walked hundreds of miles.

They and the dreadful summer heat in North China, one never dare to drink anything but water.

But on the road, they were so desperately thirsty that they scooped up water from their little puddles along the roadside.

You could just imagine the millions of germs. But the Lord kept them from any ill effects, just one miracle after another. It is wonderful to be working with Lord.

In the fall of 1949, as the international situation worsened and the American families and unnecessary personnel were sent home. This left two men and three women in our bodies who were stationed on the Sunday of December 7th.

I was out in a village about 15 miles from a boarding for holding a leadership class. And word came that the two men were leaving the next day and they expected to catch the boat intention that was taking the Marines away.

And they would go home and join their families because it was obvious that this war was going to be extended and they didn't want to be called away from their families. So that afternoon, I got on my bicycle and rode back to boarding school to have less consultations with these colleagues and also to write some letters for them to take home because mail of mail was very irregular and uncertain. The next morning, Miss and I and one of my colleagues and I, having written letters, we went over to the house where the men wrote to deliver the letters and say our goodbyes. And as we went in, they were at the breakfast table and we saw their faces and knew that something had happened. They were listening to the radio. They had the only radio on the on it was Pearl Harbor.

And of course, that meant that neither of the Marines nor they nor anyone else would be leaving China just then. It was not more than about an hour that the Japanese army descended upon us and put us under house arrest. We were all moved into the upstairs of one of the residences and Japanese soldiers in the Downbelow who kept very close tabs on us. We really felt sorry for these young Japanese soldiers, the young boys, and they they didn't want to be there. They had very poor relations, just rice and little dried fish. At Christmas time. We wanted to show them a little love and joy, and we had to have a big supply of sugar because all these families, before they were ordered home, had put in supplies of sugar for the year. And of course, they were all that was left to us. So we had a good supply of sugar, which is unobtainable on the market.

So we had to tell people we made this tiredly and that these Japanese soldiers to come in and potentially well, of course, they didn't have it. They didn't know what it was all about. But we showed them you to put the butter on their hands and then pull it and so on. And then after they had pulled it, they were amazed that they were they were given what they had pulled and they had this bit of sweet, which was a great treat to them on their very, very limited diet.

We were there in under house arrest for about six months with rumors coming and going about the possibility of being repatriated, and we were given the option of whether we wish to be repatriated on the diplomatic exchanges or whether we wish to remain the two men and I opted to be repatriated and the other two women thinking that the war would be over soon. They thought they just stick it out. So they stayed behind and were later sent to camp.

The trip home, of course, was a fantastic experience, and we were on the road from Shanghai, we were on the controverted and abandoning ship down to learn Cormark in Portuguese East Africa. And there we were, exchanged the Swedish ship and the home and come out from New York, loaded with the Japanese who were being repatriated. And there at the right moment, the exchange was made in the US.

And that was one of the one of the most startling experiences when we got under this this group.

So day we had to stay on the upper deck while they were cleaning the ship. You see, they had to clean the ship from one crowd while this other crowd was coming on and they spread the lunch up here on the deck and it simply boggled our eyes.

We had been on a very slim diet well for years and especially on a boat, just some wormy porridge and other unpalatable things.

And here was this table with all of the most wonderful things, the meats and the fresh vegetables and olives and all of these things. It was just it was just unbelievable. And you can imagine that all of these famished people made good use of that wonderful food. That was one of the first blessings of returning home. The southern Atlantic Ocean was filled with new boats and, oh, shipping just slipped away perfectly dark and without a sound.

But our ship was a blaze of light from stem to stern.

And every few seconds they were radioing our name and our position because the group's home had been promised immunity and safe passage. And so in the midst of all of that danger, we safely came to New York and as we steamed past the Statue of Liberty.

Not a dry.

So we were safe and for four years enjoy the luxury of American life, while our colleagues still carried on in the all of the suffering back in China.

The members of the Lincoln Evangelistic team were not employed by any church. They simply shared whatever was given to them.

When I returned after the war.

They told me some of their experiences of the Lord's provision during those years, at the beginning of this period after we left, they had been compelled to move into the city.

They weren't allowed to work in the country. And, of course, all of their friends were in the country and it was impossible for them to send in supplies to them in the city. So their support was very, very sketchy. The church leaders advised these young women to, well, either to go home or to get married or to take a job as a teacher to do something to take care of their livelihood. But they said that they had dedicated their lives to the Lord and they were going to continue to serve him.

That meant very slim living for four years.

They told me about one of the helps that they had so many people with colds. These balls are made of clay with just a little coal dust.

And then after they've been burned, they were taken out to the city dump sometimes.

And some of these bottles may be a little bit of the coal dust that hadn't been fully burned. And there were two old women widows, one of them completely blind, who would go out to this cold of this dump and pick out the bottles that still had a little coal dust in them and bring them in for the men girls to cook their supper with, as they told me about this.

I knew that there after I had returned and conditions were more normal, that their finances were much better. And and so I said, well, wouldn't it be nice to take some of your money and help these two old women who were so kind to you during the hard times?

And they said, oh, no, I was quite taken aback.

They said that the time belongs to the Lord's servants, to the pastors and the elders. We help the poor from the second tent. And I found that all during this time of near starvation, they had given a tin of everything they received to the pastors and elders and another camp to people that were suffering more than they were.

During the years we, from time to time, sent members of the board, the band down to Tennessee and to a flying Bible school there for further teaching, and there was one particularly gifted girl that we were expecting would come back and head up our little Bible school. But the faculty of the seminary Down and Cancian had other ideas. They coveted her as the wife of one of their finance pastors. And so she was married and she worked with her husband in an old church and in sin. Then came the in bore and the support of this pastor melted away because people were so impoverished that they couldn't keep up their gifts. And after much prayer, the husband suggested that she take a job as a middle school teacher because she was a well educated girl.

She said, no, I married you, that we might serve the Lord together. And so she stayed with her husband and they continued their Christian work and were fed from the Lord's hand through all of those years.

After the war, I returned about include a missionary doctor and a nurse, and I was the only the only Americans there on the compound, and then instead of living in the residence, you see the picture over there in the residence that had been my home for many years. I went to live with the members of the team, the band, and we lived in some simple dormitory rooms as part of the girls school there. We had, of course, more Chinese clothes, a simple Chinese food, and did our own work, which was very beneficial for me because later when the communists came in, they couldn't accuse me of oppressing the poor, oppressing the poor, the servants, because we were our own servants. During that time, many of the of our friends from the country would come in and have a fellowship and study with us. And at that time, I was invited to have a Bible class with a group of Sydney businessmen, the head of the post office, the head of several of the banks, and head of the telegraph office, the head of the big flour mill, the stationmaster, a big group of these leading men, they were hungry for the word of God, and they came faithfully to study the Bible. It was a great sense of expectancy and hope at that time. The education projects, the all of the welfare projects and these things that had been started and stuff had been started before the Japanese came in, were again activated and people were full of great anticipation that better days were ahead. And they were very enthusiastic about the patient who had freed them from the occupation of the the Japanese.

And then all of a sudden the national army collapsed.

It had been so stretched and they colossal conduct contest that the Japanese that it had no strength against the communists who had consumed their forces and their strength.

And so the national army had to retreat to the island of Taiwan and the communists came in.

They weren't welcomed, but they welcomed themselves with loud speakers all over, telling people not to be afraid, you've been liberated. Now we have come and you will not suffer anymore and everything will be fine.

And, oh, it was a very enthusiastic welcome that they gave to themselves.

But very soon they they said now everyone has to register because there are a few dissidents, bad people, and we must find them. And so are you. Good people have to be registered. And then everybody was organized into the cells of 10 or 12 people with one in charge of the conduct and everything about his group.

And they met daily for indoctrination and they had to have their confessions to confess their own failings and also to accuse the others.

And those accusation meetings were very important. If you were a little backward and weren't accusing people, then you were suspect and probably your thinking was needed to be changed. But the the more enthusiasm that you put into accusing other people, especially as your best friend, that was very laudable. And that really gave you points in the eyes of the of the communists. And of course, if children accused their parents, why, that was especially laudable. And the thing that was most ferreted out was if anyone had ever made any remark or shown any attitude, being not being enthusiastic about the new regime, about the communist takeover. And and this one changed one's thinking according to the line that was being taught, you were in danger of being sent off to have your thinking changed in a prison camp, for instance, they would preach one one thing.

America is a is an imperialistic dog, America and imperialistic.

What you think about America, if you said anything except imperialistic dog when you were in trouble and so it and so it meant that people lost the ability, the privilege of thinking they were not allowed to think, they were simply allowed to repeat what they had been taught. Absolutely no mental activity allowed. And then also the physical liberty was taken away. Everyone had to be in his registry place. If not, he was in in danger of of arrest.

And we had some and some of those troubles. Well.

So through all of these years, in good times and bad through famines, floods, warfare, all of these circumstances, the seamless zone, and from the very beginning, our mission had had the purpose of self supporting, self-propagating, a self-governing churches.

That was our object. The communists took that up and made it their thing that really was ours to to begin with. And so in line, in order to to carry this out, a manifesto was issued from Shanghai and that old contact for foreigners had to be broken. And I immediately knew that that meant that we had to we had to leave. The Chinese objected. And no, it would be necessary. But very soon they also came to realize that that was what it meant, that it would not be possible to have any American in their midst. So I applied for an exit visa and waited for three or four months. Finally, they admitted that they couldn't find anything against me as long as I was there. They had to suspect that I was a spy. But if I wanted to leave that, they wouldn't do it and they wouldn't hinder. And so I was given a visa and eventually I was on a boat and bound for Hong Kong and freedom and.

Life at home and.

That's three and of course, when we left and then the world said that emissions in China had been a fiasco and that all the time and money and everything had gone down the drain and everything was lost.

And then this same world had in recent years has had to admit that it was not all lost and that that sea had made a marvelous harvest and there were the millions who had found the Lord.

And everyone is amazed at what God has done in China.

But lest we feel smug and satisfied that our job is done, I must tell you the experience, the conversation with an elderly man in a mountain village who heard the gospel for the first time.

She she said, how long have you known this, you heard about this Jesus who loved her and who had died for her and could forgive her sins and she didn't have to burn incense and try to work up some virtue for herself.

How long have you known this? Oh, I said I was in the Christian home and I don't like your mother. Did she know about this? Oh, yes.

She was a Christian, too. Then she said, Why didn't you come sooner? Do you know that there are a million there's a billion of people in poverty all around the world who haven't heard the gospel? Will they be asking us, why didn't you come sooner?

What do you say after that beautiful testimony? We have a few minutes to Florence will give you a few minutes to rest. If you'd like to take some questions, you can understand them.

And, oh, this has just been a beautiful program and testimony. And Florence doesn't always see this in China. It's everywhere she goes and in every heart she comes in contact with.

Many of us have experienced the fruits of for sowing the seeds in our hearts and in our minds.

And I don't want all of you to scoot out. There are spaces for lunch for any who do not purchase tickets ahead of time or make reservations. If you see Dorothy A..

We do hope that you will stay for lunch and we have about, oh, almost ten minutes if you have questions for us, if you would like to give us.

I know we all have many, many questions, but we're going to limit ten minutes.

Before I mentioned, you are American born over all your and all Chinese speaking entirely. No, no, no English anywhere, because more people, like you said to you that there were three of you left in nineteen forty nine, I think.

Oh, the missionaries. The missionaries, of course were.

Yes, they were all Americans.

As you recall, the young man who said that this is awfully hard to remember his name I, I his name as a young man who preached from the old man.

Oh, yes, indeed. Andrew Jeem.

You mentioned the war in more than one year of war and.

Oh, yes, oh, there are many warlords. They were governors of provinces and each one would have his own army and do his own thing and try to get control of Manchuria and Shamsie and so on. They were all fighting among themselves.

It's very hard to say, right? I see where you are and that I'm on the phone with my city.

Oh, working with villages.

Well, speaking, of course, this is one of the key cities of China. And we were 100 miles south of that. And the city of building is perhaps about 17000 people.

And I was up from there to get involved after the communist takeover. When did you come home? After the communist takeover?

It was 1951. I was more than two years under the Communists.

Very many interesting experiences to learn. How long were you home before you went to Taiwan?

Just about a year.

I said, you go back to the mainland, you go back Presbyterian not not to the mainland China.

No, no, I went back to Taiwan, not to mainland China. I haven't said anything about Taiwan.

At our mission's conference next month, the Junkins will be here and they will tell about the Taiwan experience.

How do you do with your hands when you were in China? How was it how were your apartments kept warm?

They were not such thing that such a thing as any warmth and the and the villages in the missionary homes in Baltimore.

And they you had to call for us.

But in the country, villages and all the heat would come from and from the come.

Oh my. How they they know how to conserve here.

The the food is is cooked in this go with strong and the heat from the this kettle goes under the come the platform in the adjoining room and it circulates under this platform. So this platform is warm and it's warm to sit on and warm to sleep on and it, it makes the room warmer too. So they get all of that just a little strong.

Yes, because investing in China two, we saw no traces of any kind in the big cities that the university students would consider. That is just part of English. Yeah, well.

I I must say that in your tours of China, of course, you you don't see the other side.

It is everyone rejoices that the economic condition has improved for many people in China. But don't forget, that is a great price. They sacrificed mental freedom and also physical freedom to get this advantage of the economic benefit from the communism.

Thank you again, Florence. This has really been an exciting experience when Florence mentioned the Junkins will be here. I urge all of you to come. Mission Department has asked you to operate with them this year. This is a first time venture and on the mission observance in October, this is an annual event Friday evening. There will be a dinner here. We're going to start selling tickets next Sunday. I'll be sure to get you tickets for that.

That's October 17th on the calendar.

And then Sunday for Saturday morning, there will be breakfast with a visiting missionary. And then suddenly what I feel will be a salad bar, but it will be a planned lunch. And we'll also have a chance to visit with some of our missionaries who are here in the area at that time. So please avail yourself of the chance to get the tickets and attend. We certainly look forward to seeing as many as possible. It seems like I was supposed to know something else has left me. I'm sorry, but those who do not have tickets to be sure to stay for lunch, there is adequate food and seating space for everybody. And thank all of you very much for coming. I want to thank Omega Circle for hostessing today, setting up the tables. And Jane Frank is has prepared our meal for us and I know it will be a delightful experience. Now stand. You give us the blessing.

Our father, we thank you for the words that have been spoken by someone who has dedicated her life to you. Thank you for the many challenges that she has given us and for the many lives that have touched her life. We pray to God that thy word may go forth not only through missionaries, but through us, where we are, with our neighbors, with our friends, with our relatives.

We pray to God that your will may be done in our lives as it is in heaven, in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

And I know what it was I wanted to remind you.

Sure. To see the display. Florida, his nickname, the China Wall. So be sure to stay and see the displays after you have your lunch.