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June 1963.....the Hong Kong Peak is issued by missionaries of the ABFMS. The Annual College Mission was an outstanding week in the life of the school. We were able to secure the services of Dr. Chow Lien-Hua, a graduate of the University of Shanghai, an outstanding Baptist scholar, and a man of deep Christian experience. He spent a full week in the campus and addressed a large gathering of students each day. He attended several classes and spoke on such subjects as the relation of Christianity to the natural sciences, the social sciences, economics, and Chinese culture. He was also available for many personal and group discussions. Dr. Chow was well received and made a deep impact upon the lives of both students and faculty. Chung Chi College, together with New Asia and United Colleges, has played a leading role in securing the approval of the establishment of a second degree-granting university in Hong Kong. Some months ago a commission of five renowned educators visited Hong Kong and made a thorough study of the situation. Their report -- the long awaited Fulton report -- recommends the establishment of this second university in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong University, now fifty years old, is the first.) The university will be a federated school, teaching primarily in Chinese and in the first instance composed of the three above-mentioned colleges. The establishment of the new university will mean that Chung Chi graduates will get a recognized British degree rather than the diploma which is all the College has been allowed to give up to now. It is hoped that the first degree examinations can be held in the summer of 1964. We can be proud that this Christian interdenominational college has attained such high standards in such a short time, and that is has made a unique contribution to higher education for Chinese young people. The second meeting of the Asia Baptist Women's Union was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. One hundred and fifty-five women gathered in Iloilo City, Philippines, April 1-5. They came from Japan, Hong Kong, Burma, India, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Ceylon, Malaya, the United States, Australia, and of course the Philippines. In spite of different languages, customs, and cultures, they studied, worshiped, and prayed together; they chatted, ate, and played together. Said one, "This is the nearest we will be to heaven on this earth." In the opening service each of the twenty-two official delegates, dressed in her national dress, followed her country's flag to the platform. It was a moving and inspiring sight. Each one in turn repeated in her own tongue the words of Ephesians 2:21, from which had been taken the conference theme: Workers together with God, we grow. Morning meditations were led by delegates. Miss May Coggins, long a missionary in the Philippines, led the Bible study on the book of Ephesians. Miss Ruth Ciriaco, worker in Christian home and family life in the Philippine Convention, conducted workshops on problems of family life and how to solve them. Mrs. Remedios Vaflor led discussions on women's work. Evening programs stressed "knowing our neighbors." Lessons of flower arrangement, for example, and the tea ceremony led to deeper appreciation of Japan and its people. Each day ended with a devotional period. Throughout, the women realized that problems were the same for families everywhere, and that solutions lay in prayer, and a strengthening of the Christian life. High praise goes to the women of the Philippines who through five years had planned, and prayed, and given in preparation for these days. Miss Alice Giffin is their missionary co-worker. Mrs. Ayako Hino of Japan served as chairman, and was re-elected to the presidency to serve another five years. Mrs. Blanche Hodge of the U.S. and Mrs. Florence Church of Australia, both officers in the Women's Department of the Baptist World Alliance were invited guests. Those representing the Swatow Baptist churches in Hong Kong were Mrs. Catherine Ho, Mrs. Ruth Noren, and Miss Edna Smith. One final comment conveys something fo the spirit and the challenge of the meetings. Said Dr. Joe T. Howard, "Our Asian church women are not only finding their places in the sun, but --- are actually setting the pace for the rest of us." "Home is only a place for sleeping," was the comment made by a Chinese refugee mother in Hong Kong. She and her husband work full-time in a factory. They live with five children and a grandmother in one room which measures ten by twelve feet. Grandmother earns a few pennies a day by making plastic flowers at home, while she minds the tow pre-school children. Many families related to our Swatow Baptist churches live in this kind of crowded conditions with a minimum of privacy. Family life, if it is to be Christian, requires parents who not only have good intentions, but who also possess extraordinary initiative and patience. Even second-generation Christians whose childhood environment was thoroughly Christian, now as parents sometimes fail to train their own children in the way of Christ. New church members usually have little understanding of what a Christ-centered home is. The Swatow Baptist Women's Association has recently organized a committee on Christian Family Life. In the women's societies, one month each year is designated for practical guidance in understanding children and youth. Efforts are being made to initiate the habit of family prayers in busy homes where material things come first, and spiritual matters are easily postponed to the next Sunday service. Packets of worship materials are given out for family use at Christmas time. At the World Day of Prayer service, devotional materials were on sale. In two churches recognition has been made of families participating in this effort. Members of literacy classes have also received individual help in preparing scripture readings for use at home. A one-act play was presented by the committee at the annual spring retreat of the Swatow Baptist women. We pray that what is still a blueprint in the hands of the committee can become a well-structured program to revitalize Christian homes. All our readers who have studied Chinese, or indeed any language for speaking mastery, will appreciate these comments by Barbara and Alvin Koons. They are studying the Swatow dialect, while Ruth and John Espy are studying the Cantonese dialect. At the Summer Institute of Linguistics last year, Dr. Eugene Nida informed all the students that in order to speak a language one must first "murder" it! We have been analyzing this statement and have put it this way: Language Study: First phase -- criminal intention; Second phase -- 1st degree murder; Third phase -- post mortem; and Fourth phase -- trial and verdict. Right now we are in the second phase as we are learning "how" to converse. Swatow Chinese had no complete textbook or language program when we began, so we used all the techniques in the linguistic books for the first three months. Then when John and Ruth Espy arrived and began studying Cantonese in a language school, at New Asia College, we found that Yale had just printed a new book on spoken Cantonese. Now the Cantonese book is being translated into Swatow, and all four students are using the same materials. Swatow and Cantonese sound nothing alike. However, the sentence construction is very similar, and the writing is common to all dialects regardless of the pronunciation. No doubt we still sound like Americans speaking Chinese, but never-the-less we are able to communicate in a small way. Studying Chinese is a hard discipline and very new to us. There is a scripture passage which encourages us and makes us realize the extreme importance of all the hours we put in. "There are in the world a great variety of spoken sounds and each has a distinct meaning. But if the sounds of the speaker's voice mean nothing to me I am a foreigner to him, and he is a foreigner to me." (I Corinthians 14:10-11) We hope to come to the time when we are not "foreigners" in speech, to the people we have come to serve. Missionaries.... Miss Seater-Margaret Drever | |||||||||||||||||||
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