Our missionaries overseas will doubtless be interested in the following newspaper story, which appeared in the Pomona, California, Progress Bulletin of April 17, 1950. The article was accompanied by two large pictures of Elder and Mrs. Victor M. Hansen, former missionaries to China, and carried this large display title: "Visual Aid Material Furnished Missionaries by Pomona Couple."
"Bible texts, pictures, and quotations reproduced on color slides by a local minister of the Seventh-day Adventist church and his wife are giving present-day missionaries in the foreign field the help in spreading the gospel that the local couple could have used in their 20 years of missionary service in China following the first world war.
"Elder and Mrs. Victor M. Hansen of 800 Paige Drive have dedicated themselves to pro viding missionaries of their denomination with the type of visual aid material which, if it had been available during their service, would have lightened their evangelistic work among the Chinese people during the 20's and 30's.
Twenty Years in China
"Stationed in South China from 1917 to 1937, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen found that their work in Protestant religious education among the natives was burdensome due to the bulky magic lantern equipment and visual aid items they had to carry from place to place. Transportation of three hundred to four hundred pounds of evangelistic supplies was always a problem, they said.
"Today's modern photographic technique applied by Mr. and Mrs. Hansen is supplying, in contrast to the old material, color slides for evangelistic sets that can be carried easily in a small case and weigh only about twenty-two pounds per set. Each set comprises fifteen hundred color slides that are divided into groups of fifty each to make a total of thirty sermons on Biblical subjects.
"Using various sources of Biblical material and superimposing the language of the country for which the material is intended, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen expose hundreds of feet of color film every week and process it in their home darkroom. The processed film is then sent out to have each exposure hermetically sealed in plastic, thus making each slide practically in destructible, according to Mr. Hansen. The laminated film is then bound in plastic mounts, ready for use in the field. Mr. Hansen pointed out that the slides must be durable to withstand the climatic conditions in the Orient and tropics. Last year Mr. and Mrs. Hansen made 54,000 color slides for use in China. They are now completing 22,500 slides for evangelistic work in Japan and among Japanese groups in this country. Next project is to turn out fifteen evangelistic sets in the Italian version. Korean and Spanish sets are also planned in the near future.
"Mr. and Mrs. Hansen might still be in the foreign mission field if it were not for their children, both of whom were born in China and were educated by their parents until they were in their early teens. Then the Hansens brought their son and daughter to the United States in 1937 to begin their formal education." Mr. Hansen retired from the ministry and went into X-ray and laboratory work."
