while, these are my people, they are refugees and home less.” The ministry of helping the homeless is not a new thought for this winsome 46 year veteran of foreign serv ice. She went through two wars on the China mainland, each time with a price on her head. Her only desire was to help the orphans of the areas where she went. Often traveling under the veil of night, she would lead as many as 150 children to the safety of another day, out of the range of the guns, but within earshot of cannon blasts. Miss Hitchcock is founder of the Hebron Mission, a children’s orphanage in China. Her work has been supported by close friends and through the ministry of the Hitchcock Drygoods Store in Santa Barbara. Her sister, Mrs. Helen Potier, carried on the tradition of their mother in which much of the profits from the store went to help the Chinese under Miss Hitchcock’s guidance. “ In the late twenties,” Miss Hitchcock recalls, “my parents' felt that it would be wise for me and several of our other helpers from Germany to have a place for a vacation spot. They secured a little home for us on the island of Cheng Chau. Little did I know that the time would come when this island would be a sanctuary for me. How good is the providence of the Lord.” And what of retirement? “The Lord will retire me,” Miss Hitchcock laughed infectiously. “ I will be coming home for a few months, but I can’t stay there. There is too much to be done and too little time in which to do it.” But just then the bell sounded, “My next class is about to start,” Miss Hitchcock smiled. “The Lord is so good to give me the opportunity of training others in His Word.” Indeed, one could readily see what she meant by the words, “This is my home—near my people, the refugees.”
Gathering on the steps of her home, Miss Hitchcock receives a visit from one of the orphans she helped to get to safety during the Japanese war. With his family, residing in Hong Kong, he with others who have been similarly helped like to visit Miss Hitchcock at her home on the island.
In the market place at the village, one o f the women counts the meager earnings o f her day’s work. Nothing is wasted; every vegeta tion is sold and eaten in order to keep from starving.
AUGUST, 1961
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