2. Romance, Theology and Taiwan
3. Hello Hong Kong, China at Last
4. Divine Encounters
5. Friends of China
6. Open Doors, Uncertain Days
7. Spectacular Beauty, Beijing Tragedy
8. From Xinjiang to Fuzhou
9. A Season of Joy
10. An Expanding Vision
11. Project Dengke and Other Adventures
12. Crisscrossing the Nation
13. Travelling Days Continue
14. Never a Dull Moment
15. 1997-A Momentous Year
16. Fighting Cancer, Journey Through Grief
17. A New Beginning
18. Tragedy and Blessing
19. Earthquake, Mongkok Miracle and More
20. Qinghai to Zimbabwe, Hong Kong to New Zealand
Surprised that I had greeted him in Chinese, the man sitting opposite me on the train asked, "Where do you come from?" "I come from Zimbabwe in Africa," I replied. "From Africa? But you are the wrong color!" Being 'white' and a 'long-nosed foreigner',' it would have been no surprise had I told the man I was from America or Britain or somewhere in Europe. He nodded understandingly when I explained that yes, although I was from Zimbabwe most of my forebears came from Europe.
On another long train journey in China, I got chatting to a retired cadre- turned businessman. Mr Wang had an incredible story. He shared some vivid childhood memories of living under the Japanese occupation and went on to speak about the Nationalist/Communist Civil War, 'Liberation', the Cultural Revolution, and the rise of Deng Xiaoping.
When I suggested he should write up his story he replied wistfully, "It's not the time to write true history. I would only get myself and my family into trouble."
As I tell my story, I trust I will not get anyone into trouble. My aim is to bring honor to the One who calls us to follow, and to share some of the wonderful things I have seen Him do. God called me from Africa to China but let me begin by mentioning my early forebears who followed God's call to Africa.
Born in London, William Anderson (1769-1852) of the London Missionary Society (LMS) was amongst the earliest Christian missionaries to South Africa, serving for fifty-two years. His great grandson, my grandfather, William Wardlaw Anderson (1888-1978), together with my grandmother Sheila, served with the LMS in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) for almost 60 years.
My maternal grandparents too were missionaries in Africa. My mother's father Reuben Bishop Flinn (1887-1988) arrived in Kenya in October 1813 a recruit with the Africa Inland Mission (AIM).
He married Miss Elizabeth Ann Thompson a young worker with the Heart of Africa Mission' which had been founded five years earlier by C.T Studd, the famous cricketer and missionary to China."...
Romance, Theology, and Taiwan
It was my first time back at church Youth Fellowship. There was quite a crowd! Due to my duties in the boy's hostel of the school where I had just started teaching, I was late. As I slipped in and sat at the back of the hall, I noticed a group of girls sitting in the front row. "They must be students from the Teachers College (TTC)," I thought to myself. To my disappointment, before the meeting was over the young ladies slipped out the front door of the hall and were gone.
On the Sunday, however, the same group came to church. After the service I plucked up the courage to speak to one of them. "Hi, my name is Peter. Welcome to Rhodes Street Church."
"Thank you. I'm Geralyn. My friends call me, Gerry."
"Nice to meet you, Gerry. I noticed you girls on Thursday evening but didn't have a chance to say hello. I guess you've just started at TTC."
"Yes," Geralyn replied with a smile, "Being new students we had to get back to the hostel before the 9.30pm curfew."
I was immediately attracted to Geralyn and enjoyed a much longer chat with her the following weekend at a Scripture Union camp. She told me she was from South Africa' but had come up to Rhodesia for high school. Her mother Phyllis had died when she was just ten, and her father, Gerald (Gerry) Ford, reluctantly agreed that his precious daughter should go to live with Phyllis's sister Mary and her husband Reg Dismore in Rhodesia. On completing high school at Roosevelt Girls in Salisbury, rather than returning to South Africa for university, Geralyn had decided to study at TTC.
Geralyn told me about her journey to faith, "My high school friend Alison invited me to the Youth Group at Salisbury Baptist Church, and I loved it. Later, at the church Easter Camp after one of the evening talks, as I sat alone looking up into the star-filled sky, I asked Jesus to come into my life. I was filled with joy. Earlier that evening we had been singing the song "There's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine. I knew my name had been written down in glory. I knew God had accepted me and made me His child....
