Adventism in Sichuan

The East Szechwan Mission (東川區會) was centered in the city of Chungking, where the SDA established its first mission station. From 1919 to 1921, church activities in Chungking were restricted due to civil unrest. The East Szechwan Mission experienced very slow growth, between 1922 and 1925 the membership grew by only 20 individuals. In 1927, a German medical missionary Johann Heinrich Effenberg (艾方伯) took a trip into the regions north of Chungking, where he established 4 Sabbath Schools, opened 2 chapels, and baptized 24 individuals. In 1928 he reported that the mission had 7 outstations, 5 organized churches, 5 elementary schools with an enrolment of 70, and 11 Sabbath Schools with a total average attendance of 300 individuals. During the two-year period of 1927 to 1929, two Chinese workers were killed by brigands, another was imprisoned, a married couple were badly beaten, and a chapel was looted by communist forces. At this time, a total baptized membership of 222 was reported by Effenberg. Dallas R. White succeeded Effenberg, he reported the number of baptized Adventists had risen to 534 by June 1933. During the Second World War the number dropped to 271, but rose to 656 in 1948, and reached the peak of 711 in 1951.[2]

The West Szechwan Mission (西川區會) had its headquarters in the capital city of Chengtu. In 1917, Merritt C. Warren and Claude L. Blandford took an exploratory trip to Chengtu. After identifying some suitable rental premises for pioneer missionaries, Claude and Ida Blandford immediately began their work at Chengtu. A little church of 13 baptized members was gathered by mid-1919. In 1920, the mission established an out-station and an elementary school with 62 pupils, while church membership rose to 22 despite civil unrest in the region. Ida taught in the elementary school and nurtured Sabbath Schools. She contracted pneumonia and meningitis and died on May 5, 1922. In 1923, Sidney Henton Lindt (林思翰) became the mission's caretaker leader while Blandford returned to America on a furlough. In 1926, Alton Eugene Hughes assumed leadership of West Szechwan Mission. In 1927, Alton and Emma Hughes were driven out of Chengtu by a recurrent civil unrest, they were unable to return until about May 1928. Despite the troubles, the number of converts rose to 115. The mission gathered a second church and established seven out-stations. During the 1930s, the number of organized churches rose to four, and baptized membership increased to 236 in 1939. After the Second World War, several public evangelistic crusades injected fresh life into the congregations, but such flourishing period was brief, because communist forces gradually overran the country and made it difficult for Christian missions to function properly. In 1946, Holman Carl Currie assumed the position of director of the West Szechwan Mission, but late in 1948, missionaries were ordered to evacuate Sichuan due to communist threat. Currie left for Taiwan, his assistant Djan Tieh Nung (湛鐵儂) continued with the mission work throughout 1948 and baptized about 50 new converts.[3]

Dr. John Nevins Andrews with local converts standing outside the Adventist Church at Tachienlu, East Tibet, c. 1931.

The SDA administration regarded the mission in Chungking as a stepping stone to entering Tibet, thus an exploratory trip further west to Chengtu was carried out in February 1917, in order to establish another stage in their Tibetan quest to eventually reaching Lhasa.[1] The next year, a medical missionary John Nevins Andrews (grandson of Elder J. N. Andrews) and his wife Dorothy Spicer traveled to Tachienlu, an East Tibetan city located in West Sichuan.[4] They started out in a drafty wooden house where the wind blew constantly.[5] In 1921, several houses were built by the mission for general medical services. According to Dr. Andrews's report, an average of about 50 people went to him for medical treatment on a daily basis. The mission also printed exhortations and evangelistic leaflets in Tibetan language. The mission was not very fruitful in terms of conversion, because of the strong Buddhist presence in the region. In 1926, the missionaries welcomed their first three converts. By 1929, a church was organized with six baptized members.[6]