Group of refugees at Hunan Bible Institute in Changsha on the Chinese New Year’s Day
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J. Russell Davis
/ IT WAS time for the Marine plane ✓ to take off from Kiangwan air port in the outskirts of Shanghai. All of the passengers had been checked; the baggage was loaded; and all was ready for the plane to sweep down upon the long concrete runway and take off on its trip to Tsingtao, four hundred miles up the coast of China. As the flight officer prepared to announce that the pas sengers should proceed to board the plane, a phone call interrupted him, which meant a few minutes’ delay. A Naval Commander had telephoned that he was driving out to the air port with a Chinese passenger to be flown to Tsingtao on orders of the Admiral. We did not have long to wait until they arrived. I was glad to see that the Commander was a friend of mine from Tsingtao, ac companied by a neatly dressed Chi nese- After a word of greeting, we boarded the plane and took off on our trip. The Commander told me that if I ever wanted to buy any jew elry, Mr. Kan was the man to con sult. He was a merchant dealing in jade and other precious stones who had such a fine reputation for hon esty and trustworthiness that the Admiral was having him flown up to Tsingtao in order that the officers of the Seventh Fleet could make pur chases without being cheated by un scrupulous dealers. I thought this rather unusual, because of the pre vailing tendency among merchants to cheat Naval and Marine officers, and to overcharge them for very in
ferior products. I was happy to see that real honesty was being recog nized and rewarded in this way. A few days later, back in the UNRRA office in Tsingtao, one of my fellow-employees expressed the de sire to buy some jade, and wondered where he could purchase it without being cheated. I immediately thought of Mr. Kan, the jewelry dealer whom I had met on the plane, and it took only a phone call to the Officers’ Club to locate him. The next day he called at my office, and showed his wonderful collection of precious and semi-precious stones, and many other items of jewelry to the group of employees there. A few sales were made, and Mr. Kan stayed a moment after the others had left to express his appreciation that I had asked him to come to the office and had allowed him to display his merchan dise there. We had talked for only a moment when Mr. Kan asked if I knew Chi nese, and upon my reply that I could speak a few Chinese words, he asked me if I was a missionary. When I replied that I was, he ex pressed great joy in meeting one who was engaged in this great work. Then his next question greatly surprised me: “Do you know Dr.' Keller?” “From Changsha?” I asked, and he replied, “Yes, from the Hunan Bible Institute, which is my old school”’ Questions then flew thick and fast, and I was delighted to find that this one to whose honesty and integrity
high Naval officers had paid tribute, was one of the graduates of our own school. He in turn was happy to find that I was connected with his school, and he hoped that before long we would be in Changsha helping in the work of the school- A purely business call rapidly turned into a very friend ly visit, and news of Dr. and Mrs. Roberts and others whom he had known in his school days in Chang sha was most welcome to Mr. Kan. Thus the quiet consistent testimony of one of the graduates of Biola in China has brought glory to the name of the Lord, and has re-emphasized the value of the work being done by the Hunan Bible Institute. The train ing of Christian leaders and Chris tian business men is a great work for the Lord, and is worthy of the earnest prayers and sacrificial gifts of God’s own in the homeland. Though the tide of war and destruc tion swept' over and well-nigh en gulfed BIOLA in China, leaving it a shattered shell of empty ruins, this tide has now receded and the work of reconstruction has begun. A few buildings have been repaired and a small group of students have been gathered together. We have begun anew the work of seeking to lead these young Chinese into the full stature of men in Christ Jesus, so they will be able to take their places with other BIOLA graduates who have gone before them, as living wit nesses to the saving and keeping power of Christ, and to the value of the work of BIOLA in China.
FEBRUARY, 1947
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