The ship crossed through the Panama Canal, hugging the eastern coastline, arriving in New York the first week in July. Charles had sent a telegram from South Africa that he was coming home to New York. Grace was waiting for six weeks in New York hearing nothing further about his arrival, but staying at Biblical Seminary. In June, Dede had graduated from Stony Brook School with science honors. Miriam's husband graduated from Biblical Seminary in New York. Still, Charles had not yet arrived. The first week in July a message was delivered to Mission Church Headquarters in New York reporting that Charles was looking for his wife! They spent a week alone before heading west by train. Five daughters and a son eagerly and teary-eyed greeted a totally white-haired father at Union Station in Los Angeles. One of the persons overjoyed at seeing Charles was his mother, Louisa. She was at home in Glendale, California, now 75 years of age and suffering pain from cancer. Her face lit up with beaming joy as she saw him walk into the house. It had been six long years since she had seen him. He was thin and tired, with all white hair. It was only the second time that all six children were together that year with his first grandchild, Faith's son Kent. His mother, Louisa, died four months later and was buried in North Glendale. At this time Faith's husband was working for the Navy in Panama, Miriam's husband was a chaplain in the Navy serving with the 3rd Marine Corps in the Pacific, and Charles Jr. would be shortly drafted into the U.S. army, thereby becoming a U.S. citizen. Miriam became a citizen when she married John Lee, while Janet became a U.S. citizen at age 21 later. The other children were U.S. citizens by birth. Miriam would shortly present the second grandchild, Linda, in June of 1944. At the end of a year of furlough in 1944, another difficult decision had to be made. The war in China was still going on while the war in Europe was hopefully ending quickly. Charles was offered a large church at his college town of Ft. Wayne, but he knew his call and ministry lay in China which had become his home for almost 30 years. He applied for an American residential permit and received one of the first "Green" cards.
In September 1944, he returned to China by flying across the Pacific and then flew back to Chungking, the war-time capital to continue to work with Ernest Yin. The multitude of
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