Mr. Suter, (Charles' father-in-law) since Florence was his eldest daughter who was vety talented and educated. In those days this was unusual for an average farming family. He was very proud of her and reluctant to let her go overseas, a major event in that period of time. Together they sailed across the Pacific Ocean to Shanghai, then continued on a smaller ship up the Yangtze River for five days to reach Hankow (now Wuhan). Finally, by train they traveled north to reach their city of Mi-Yang, Honan Province. The last eight miles had been on a hard wooden horse cart over rough dirtroads. The mission compound was a simple group of brick buildings surrounded by a wall for privacy. They both spent the first year in full-time study of the Chinese language. Charles was fortunate to study with a Confucian scholar who took a great interest in this bright young man. He seemed to learn quickly, and so the scholar also shared Confucian literature and philosophy with him. The teacher made Charles memorize over 50 analects and special sayings of Confucius which he learned to appreciate. Charles often used the beauty and poetry of the analects in his sermons and in the classroom, much to the delight of his Chinese audiences. Charles and Florence made plans to build their home. Meanwhile, she began to teach and supervise a boys' school. On Sunday he would visit the villages and share the good news of the faith in simple fashion. Another little girl, Miriam, was born to Florence in March 1918. The following year tragedy struck. The pandemic flu of 1918 and 1919 reached China and Florence caught the flu. In three days she died ofrespiratory failure on January 20, 1919. Charles was devastated and bewildered. He conducted the funeral for his wife with great ¥– difficulty being the lone foreigner in the city. His missionary compatriots, the Nowack family, had been absent at that time! He sent a telegram to his in-laws in Ohio and to his mother in Canada. In later years, Faith would tell of her devastation at four years of age seeing her mother's body being put in a coffin and carried out the window. Meanwhile. Louisa understood more than most people what it was to be far from home and alone with two small children to grieve alone. Rev. Carl Nowack brought Charles over to his daughters' home to join them at the mission headquarters. The two Nowack daughters in the mission helped to care for the two little girls.
For another year Charles carried on with his language study and village evangelism.
6
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs