A symposium such as this is gratifying in a great mission field such as China, where health evangelism is particularly appropriate because of the heathen background of the teeming millions. We were happy to receive this encouraging report front Dr. Flaiz, who is visiting several Oriental fields in the interest of our medical work. The meeting reported here occurred on January 12 of this year.
Herbert Liu, M.D. (medical secretary, China Division): We have been looking forward to this meeting of the China Division medical department for a long time. Through the long war years we were isolated and working alone, and without much counsel. But today we can get together and discuss our medical problems. Our council program lists Dr. Flaiz as the speaker for this hour. He has asked rather that we hear from a number of those who have had successful experience in medical evangelism, and that we discuss some of the special situations or opportunities in the work here in China. We are glad for this opportunity to exchange ideas on the best ways to conduct medical missionary work.
Here on the platform we also have Dr. Caleb Chu, from Lanchow in West China. He is in charge of our hospital in that place. He came two thousand miles with the other brethren in a chartered plane. This plane had carried four tons of supplies to our missions in Northwest China, and on the return trip brought thirty-five people from various places to this meeting in Shanghai. We have here a large group of nurses from the Shanghai clinic, also a number of doctors from various places in the division. Miss Abbie Dunn, from Hankow, Central China, is also present. She was my greatest helper in Chungking during those years of bombing and privation. I have never seen anyone who took such an interest in visiting and praying with the patients, and helping those in trouble as Miss Dunn did in those dark days of the war.
We also have Miss Pauline Neal, director of the school of nursing and nursing service in the Shanghai Sanitarium and Clinic. These workers will speak on matters related to our medical evangelical work here in China. We will first hear briefly from Dr. Flaiz.
T. R. FLAIZ, M.D. (secretary of the General Conference Medical Department): It has been my privilege during the past month to visit our hospitals in Central, West, and South China. With the exception of Wuhan, I was happily surprised to find all these hospitals under the direction of our Chinese doctors. Most of these young men have received their training in the universities of China, Several of them received their preparatory work in the college at Chiaotoutseng. These doctors have carried the administration of these hospitals under trying wartime conditions. As the war made it necessary for the foreigners to leave, these men, formerly assistants, stepped into this heavy responsibility. It speaks well for the administration of this field that so large a group of national workers has been prepared to carry on in these hospitals. I wish we could see this same farsighted policy placed on a strong basis in all our mission fields.
It has been especially encouraging to note the large measure of responsibility which our doctors take in the evangelistic work of their institutions. In a number of cases the doctor carries a heavy medical and surgical load, acts as elder of the church, or as pastor, and in addition does personal soul-winning work. Such planning and hard work will certainly be productive of good results.
Perhaps one of the outstanding instances of successful national leadership is the story of our medical work in Chungking. During the four or five years of the war, Dr. Herbert Liu with his helpers carried forward a noteworthy medical evangelical program, and wit1t hospital revenue and donations rebuilt the bombed-out hospital from time to time. I can speak from observation that Dr. Liu is a good preacher, and he has an excellent reputation as a surgeon.
You have here in China a very high reputation to maintain. This reputation has been established by our self-sacrificing missionary doctors who have given up the best years of their lives to the realization of this purpose. Nothing less than this same devotion, backed by a high degree of professional skill, will maintain the excellent reputation established by our loyal pioneers in the work in this field. We hope our doctors will continue to grow into this responsibility, and with the help of our doctors from overseas, quickly restore these institutions to their highest degree of effectiveness in our mission work.
I thought we might profitably turn our attention today to a discussion of some of the various phases of our medical evangelical work. Miss Dunn has perhaps had as much experience in hospital evangelical work as any worker in this field. Her active work with the patients in the hospital and in follow-up work qualifies her to speak to Us on this phase of our medical activities.
ABBIE DUNN (Bible instructor, Hankow) : My five years of service as Bible instructor in the Chungking branch of the Wuhan Sanitarium convinced me that no richer field for personal soul-winning work can be found than that of our medical institutions. My experience in this institution was during the war, when we were constantly under the threat of bombing and other dangers.
I found 'all the hospital staff thoroughly cooperative in Bible work for the patients. Dr. Herbert Liu, who was our superintendent during those years, was very helpful, not only in facilitating our Bible work in every limy, but also by taking an active part himself.
I began my work by visiting the patients each morning after the doctors had made their rounds. After a short visit I would leave a tract, a portion of the Bible, or a copy of the Signs. If the occasion were convenient, I would have prayer with the patient. I found that nearly all appreciated this interest. Especially did the more seriously ill patients enjoy it. When patients had been in the hospital a few days, it often became convenient to conduct short studies with them. This was in response to an immediate request, or in answer to questions asked by the patients. I found that one interested patient opened the way for an approach to other patients.
When interested readers were about to leave the institution, we arranged to follow them to -their homes with literature sent by our mailing band. If the patient lived near the hospital, we tried to keep in touch with him ourselves. If he lived farther away, we had to pass on the name and address to the nearest mission worker.
Although I did much of this work myself, I -regarded it as more important that I help the student nurses do it. At first they seemed fearful to venture out in such work, but once started they were enthusiastic. We have seen a good fruitage for our work among the patients, And the benefit to our nurses was very definite ;also. Because of conditions at that time, we accepted students , into training who were not church members. We believe our missionary activities were largely responsible for some of the baptisms among the young people. I do not believe there can be a good spiritual condition in a school of nursing where this phase of training is neglected. Briefly I would summarize my suggestions for realization of this purpose as follows:
1. Every school of nursing to include in its curriculum a Bibk instructor's field-evangelism course.
2. Nurses--to adopt the practice of praying with patients at ithe close of the day.
3. Nurses to follow patients to their homes by means of the young people's correspondence band, or personally if the patient lives near at hand.
4. Doctors and nurses encouraged to adopt the plan of carrying specific interest in at least one patient at all times.
5. Distribution of portions of the Bible and other literature placed in the hands of a literature mailing band, the work of this band participated in by as many of the nurses and helpers as possible. .
HERBERT LIU, M.D.: Now from Northwest China, Dr. Caleb Chu brings us his experience from the Lanchow Hospital. This institution is located in real frontier country. They have Mongols, Chinese, Turks, Moslems, Tibetans, and Russians in that part of the country. Dr. Chu has an excellent reputation as a surgeon and physician among the people in Lanchow. He has been called upon to give professional help to high government officials from the governor's family on down. I am calling on him to tell us of his experiences in combining his medical and surgical work with active evangelism.
CALEB CHU, M.D. (superintendent, Northwest China Sanitarium) : Our staff in the Lan-chow Hospital is working very hard to make this institution a real light for God in Northwest China. In addition to my duties as medical director, I an also directing the evangelistic work of the hospital. We do not have a full-time chaplain. If the influence of the hospital is to help teach the gospel among the upper classes of our district, it is necessary for the doctors to take part in the evangelistic work as well as nurses and other workers. I have many friends among the businessmen, the people of culture, and the government officers. These people are friendly to me because of my medical work and my surgery. I have operated on many of the people in Lanchow, and they have confidence in me. This gives me a chance to talk to them about the truth.
I know that some of my hospital workers do not take an active part in this missionary work, but if I help direct in the plan of working for the patients, they are encouraged to join in. Most of the hospital personnel are active workers. My work in the hospital requires ten hours every day, but I put in some time in my church and missionary work every day. It is important that the doctor take some personal interest in the teaching of the school of nursing Bible classes and in the nurses' worship hour. If the physician gives his attention to it, this will help the nurses understand how important this work is.
I wish I could take time to tell you of our experiences in Lanchow in our medical evangelistic work. Our work is well known all over the city. We are able to give good support to our evangelists in this area. We are hot able to go into the districts to follow our patients, but we co-operate with the mission by giving them the names of interested patients to follow up. Our hospital contacts permit us to work for all classes. We have had government officials and leading citizens among our patients. In our hospital we try to work together with the Bible instructors and evangelists, and make our institution really serve as the right arm of the message.
DR. LIU: We see now why Dr. Chu has been so successful as a medical evangelist. Dr. Chu, how many people have been baptized as a result of your hospital effort during the past two years ?
DR. CHU: We should not claim credit for all the baptisms in this station, but we have helped in bringing many people to a knowledge of Christ.
DR. LIU: Lanchow is not the only place where'they are working in this way. We could mention a number of institutions where they are doing very active spiritual work both in and out of the hospital. We recognize that the responsibility for the success of this combined gospel work rests very heavily on the nurses also. Here at the Shanghai Sanitarium we have tried to educate our nurses to the idea that they are nursing Bible instructors. Miss Neal is in charge of our school of nursing here in Shanghai. She will tell of the plans for training young women in this phase of the work.
PAULINE NEAL, R.N. (director, school' of nursing, Shanghai Sanitarium) : Here at the sanitarium we have in training more than sixty young women and men. We are well aware that the Shanghai Sanitarium is a center for training gospel workers. Although our students are crowded with work, we do not allow this situation to obscure our real purpose. These young people come to us from many parts of China, but the majority are from East, North, and Central China. Because the sanitarium on Rubicon Road has not been running during the past five years, our nurses have been housed in the limited quarters at the Range Road clinic. The clinic has been functioning almost at full capacity for over two years, and the student nurses have therefore had very good clinical material available for their teaching and demonstration.
Our doctors and our nursing-school teachers are holding up to the nurses the great significance of their place as missionary workers. Dr. Liu, our superintendent, has given good leadership in showing the way in the matter of doing spiritual work with the patients. We feel that our young nurses will not take this work seriously unless those in charge show by practical demonstration what can be done in personal work with patients. In our institution everyone who carries any responsibility takes an active part in this important personal service. When we move to the Rubicon Road sanitarium, we anticipate it will be possible for us to lead these young women into the homes of the people. It will be more possible then to carry on follow-up work for interested patients after they leave the sanitarium.
We are to be supported in this Bible and public work by an experienced chaplain and Bible teacher who is coming to the medical center. It is planned then to work out a course in medical evangelism by which our nurses will receive formal training in this phase of their work. We realize that Bible teaching and field evangelism is not a task for the inactive or the retired worker, but that it constitutes a challenge to the most vigorous and alert among us. We are, therefore, fortunate in having the assurance of just such help for the school of nursing of the Shanghai Sanitarium.
We realize something of the significance of this center of training in the work here in China. The nurses who go from here are to take charge of the nursing, teaching, and administration in our schools of nursing and hospitals in other parts of China. Only as we here at the center maintain the ideals of Christian medical missionary work will we be contributing our best to the finishing of our work in China.
DR. LIU: The story of our work here in China contains many examples of the great possibilities of personal work by our doctors. I think our pioneer worker, Dr. H. W. Miller, gave us a good example in this matter. Dr. Miller often prayed with his patients. Many of you have heard the story of his experience with the General Chang Hsu Liang. This man was hopelessly addicted to opium. He learned of our sanitarium. He came and met Dr. Miller. The doctor explained that he himself could not cure his disease, but that there was a God who could help him. Most of you know the story of the days the general spent under the doctor's care, and of the earnest prayers of the doctor for his recovery. The general was cured. From that day forward he has not ceased to witness to the help he received from the prayers of a Christian physician to the true God.
This conviction on the part of a non-Christian general originated in the prayers of a Christian physician. Some of our national doctors have known this pioneer physician, and are attempting to follow the good example he has given. In the reports which have come from the outlying institutions, we learn of a real consciousness of the possibilities of medical missionary work. We hear it from Larichow, where Dr. Chu is located; from Dr. Lu, at Chang Tsai; from Dr. Paul Hwang, at Yencheng; from Dr. W. C. So, at Waichow; from Dr. P. H. Leung, at Fatshan; from Dr. Y. T. Hwang, at Chungking; from Dr. B. W. Lo, at Nanning; Dr. Solomon Lee, at Canton; and from the church work of Dr. Paul Lee, of Hankow. What a power these men and their associates can be when they lead their institutions into aggressive field work.
In a few days we will be returning to our various stations in the north, the east, the west, and the south. Our mission has every right to look to us to fulfill a role of great importance in China. Let us carry back with us to our hospitals the inspiration of this meeting, remembering at all times our Pattern in medical missionary work, the Great Physician Himself.
