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Chinese Mission Work in San Francisco

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 21, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 12.

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Chinese Mission Work in San Francisco

By PERCIVAL J. LAIRD

Soon after landing in the United States from China, it was my privilege to become acquainted with a young Chinese Seventh-day Adventist brother, a graduate nurse from St. Helena Sanitarium. The few days I was detained at San Francisco caused me to be impressed with the great need for more aggressive work to be done among the many thousands of Chinese in that city. Being physically unfit to undertake the task myself, I endeavored by prayer and correspondence to get this young brother to enter such a needy field for which to us it appeared his training had eminently fitted him.
After several months' delay, I am greatly encouraged by the good reports he is now sending, and take pleasure in forwarding a few extracts from them, in order to call forth the prayers of the Lord's people. He writes as follows:—
“What do you think I am doing now in Chinatown in making a little start? Well, Dec. 5, 1911, was a day which marked a new experience in my nursing profession. I am nursing a sick young Chinese who is afflicted with tuberculosis. . . . Two evenings ago I read the one hundred third psalm to him in Chinese, and then prayed for him. . . . We are located in the back of the Chinese Salvation Army Hall. . . .
“I have been able to drop a few words to different Chinese. A man took four of our Chinese Signs to give away. . . . My work will be well known in a few months, and as in this way I come in contact with quite a few Chinese, the truth will be communicated to them. I have made an advancement in being able to read a few chapters in Chinese. After one year of persistent study of my mother tongue, I think I shall be able to be well versed in Chinese characters. Who will be the first missionary to establish a mission for the Chinese of America? ‘Here am I, send me,’ if it is my place. . . .
“Two sailors came in where I am nursing, and wanted some Chinese literature to give to some Chinese who could not land and will sail to-morrow. So I gave them five Chinese Signs. . . . Our message must go. The Lord sent me down here at the right time. Praise him for what I can do for his sake. . . .
“This forenoon I started out and visited my former Chinese patient, sold a ‘Second Coming of Christ’ to him. He is pleased with it and glad to learn so many ‘good things.’ He has a copy of Chinese series of Bible doctrine, which I presented to him when I left after he was well enough to care for himself. . . .
“My heart is longing and full to do something for these poor Chinese who are soon to pass out of the world without hope. I am now writing up texts and learning them so that I can visit them again to tell them about our blessed Saviour. How my heart burns to pour forth what I understand so clearly in English. . . . Here is something more wonderful. Praise God for his wonderful healing power and truth. Yesterday I received a letter from a brother who will come to see me soon, bringing a Chinese believer. This Chinese was a leper, and the Lord healed him through faith. This white brother taught the truth to him for four years and nine months. He desires to be baptized. . . .
“Concerning the Chinese who was once a leper, but now healed: I saw him the following Sunday. He speaking another dialect, there wasn't much information gotten from him, but he was going back to the leper camp for a while, and will be baptized when he leaves the institution. . . .
“For the last two weeks or so my time has been well occupied. I now have two Chinese patients and one white patient. One Chinese is a Catholic. The coming Sabbath I shall take him some of our truth-filled literature. God help me to present the light to him. . . . The other Chinese patient is a heathen, and after I had given him my card, he read the two texts John 3: 16 and 3 John 2, and asked me, ‘Are you a believer in Jesus Christ?’ I answered him in the affirmative. He said, ‘I want to believe, too.’ Thank God for such first longing. I must take the reading-matter to him. . . .
“I am rooming with a nurse, who a few weeks ago was a Catholic, but is now taking hold of the truth. It is so wonderful to see a changed man emerging from dark Catholicism into God’s blessed truth. Several times God opened the door for me. When the door is opened, I do not seem to realize it immediately even though I had prayed for it before. Now you see God has given me two Chinese patients to treat, so that I may carry the truth to them.”
These few remarks emphasize the instruction given: “An important part of the education of Chinamen who are under training for evangelistic work, will be for them to see the successful efforts of those who are winning souls to believe in Jesus Christ. . . .
“We are to study how to meet the people where they are. An impression is to be made upon the people of all nationalities, by their association together in Christian assemblies, where consecrated believers with the greatest earnestness express their faith in God, and reveal the light of the gospel truth as it is in Jesus. Such assemblies as this camp-meeting that we are now holding in Oakland, where able workmen are making special, persevering efforts for the unconverted, will have a powerful influence upon the people of all nationalities. . . .
“The Lord will be pleased to see all our brethren and sisters who are in the cities, moving forward under the deep influence of the Holy Spirit, and laboring earnestly for the unconverted. With the Bible in their hands, and its truths in their hearts, they should, with all simplicity and tenderness, express their love for those whom Jesus Christ died to save.” PERCIVAL J. LAIRD.