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Ethan Allen Moon.

Photo courtesy of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives.

Moon, Ethan Allen (1895–1989) and Bettina Bland (1892–1975)

By Remwil R. Tornalejo, and Thang Suan Sum

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Remwil R. Tornalejo is an associate professor in the Historical-Theological department of the International Institute of Advanced Studies Seminary (AIIAS). Tornalejo has a B.A. in theology from Mountain View College, Valencia, Philippines, and M.P.S., M.Div., and M.Th. degrees from AIIAS. He had served as a pastor, Literature Ministry Seminary dean and instructor at the South Philippine Union Conference. He had served as chair of the theology department of the South Philippine Adventist College. Tornalejo completed his D.Theol. from Theological Union (ATESEA). He is married to Marilou Manatad. They have four children.

Thang Suan Sum (B.Th., Spicer Memorial College; M.A. in Religion, Andrew University, Spicer Memorial College-off Campus) currently, works at Myanmar Union Adventist Seminary as a Bible instructor in religion. 

First Published: October 6, 2022

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Ethan and Betina Moon were missionaries in the Philippines and Singapore.

Early Life

Ethan Allen Moon, was born on April 30, 1895, to Adventist parents, George Francis Moon and Anna Revie in Spencer, Wisconsin, the United States.1 He spent the first 10 years of his life in his birthplace.2 He had a brother named Arlie and three sisters, Vivian Gotham, Myrna McCluskey, and Cornelia Shrewsbury.3 He finished 8th grade from St. Helena Church School on May 28, 1908.4 He was baptized in 1909 at St. Helena Sanitarium Church by Elder Charles L. Taylor.5 From 1908 until 1910, he was connected with St. Helena Sanitarium as a part-time worker while attending school.6

Education and Marriage

Ethan Allen Moon attended the St. Helena Public School and the St. Helena Sanitarium Church School from 1907 to 1910. He then went to Pacific Union College from September 1913 until April of 1914 where he finished eleventh grade.7

On December 11, 1916, Moon married Bettina Bland at Napa, California.8 Bettina was born on September 26, 1892, at Centerville, Iowa, to American parents John G. Bland and Lucy Walker. She was baptized by Elder David Voth in Newkirk, Oklahoma, in 1911. She has a brother, W. W. Bland of Hydesville, and two sisters—Ada Hill of Gresham, OR, and Elsie Jackson, of North Highlands, CA.9

Bettina finished the nursing course in 1915 at the St. Helena School of Nursing.10 Bettina was a member of the team of doctors and nurses who went to Elmshaven to care for Ellen G. White when she fell and injured her hip in February 1915.11

Most of the time she did not practice her profession as a nurse and was with her husband in the ministry. She practiced her profession and also taught when they were assigned in Manila. She also taught when they were assigned in Singapore. For a while she worked at the Bindery Department of the Voice of Prophecy in Nashville. Their marriage was blessed by a son named Harry, who was born in 1920.12

Ministry

From 1908 to 1910, Ethan Allen Moon had started his service in the Adventist Church as a part-time worker in St. Helena Sanitarium as a call boy while attending school.13 From 1910 until 1918, he started as full-time worker and held various positions in the in the business office of St. Helena Sanitarium.14

From 1918 until 1920, he served as secretary-treasurer of Central California Book and Bible House at Fresno, California.15 In 1920, the Moons answered a call to serve as missionaries in multiple capacities. Among his major responsibilities was working as the manager and treasurer of the Philippine Publishing House in Manila. He held this position until 1935.16 Within this period, he served as secretary-treasurer and auditor of Philippine Union Mission in 1921 to 1923, and from 1927 until 1928.17 He was treasurer of Philippine Union College in 1922. He served as treasurer of East Visayan Mission from 1921 until 1923. He was editor-in-chief of PPH from 1932 until 1935. The Moons helped start the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital, and Elder Moon served as manager and treasurer of the same medical institution from 1928 until 1930. He was acting-treasurer of the Far Eastern Division from Autumn of 1933 until 1934.

After serving in the Philippines for 15 years, in 1935, they moved to Malayan Union Mission in Singapore to serve as secretary-treasurer until the end of 1936.18 The following year he was appointed as superintendent of the same institution, the Malayan Union Mission. He served in that capacity until 1942.19 “The Moons were one of the three Adventist missionary families who remained in Singapore until the United States consular officials arranged for a final evacuation plan to remove these remaining Americans from Singapore. They were sent to Java then on to Australia where they were sent home on an American troop ship.”20

That same year he served briefly as secretary-treasurer of the Missouri Conference in Kansas City. In November of 1942, he started to work as general manager of the Southern Publishing Association in Nashville, Tennessee. Due to the desperate need of the field, Elder Ethan Allen Moon and his wife Bettina left for South Africa in 1944, and he took up the responsibility of treasurer and auditor for Southern African Division, which was located in Claremont, South Africa.21 From 1944, he was appointed as treasurer and auditor of the South African Division in Claremont, South Africa.22 He served in this position until 1954.23 He served overseas for a total of 32 years.24 Upon returning to the U.S., Moon served as the general manager of the Southern Publishing Association in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1955 until 1960.25 By the end of that year, he retired from active denominational service.26

Later Life

After the Moons retired, they settled in settled in Union Avenue, Boulder Colorado, to be with their son, Harry. They moved to Palisade in February, 1969.27

They shared about 59 years of marriage and denominational service within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Not many available written records exist about Moon’s activities during their retirement days. Bettina Bland Moon died on September 10, 1975, at Grand Junction, Colorado.28 Ethan Allen Moon died in June 19, 1989, at Palisade, Colorado.29

Contribution

Ethan Allen and Bettina Moon will be remembered as pioneer missionaries who served in various capacities for the world Adventist Church. They contributed largely to the growth and development of the Philippine Publishing House and the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital. Ethan Moon was a diligent hardworking person as he had started his work in dealing with finance right after the time he completed his high school life. He served in the treasury department of the Church in different Divisions. Ethan A. Moon has left the young people of the Church with the blueprint of hard work and commitment for the great commission of God.

Sources

Biographical Information Blank of Bettina Bland Moon, General Conference of Seventh-day Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

Biographical Information Blank of Ethan A. Moon, General Conference of Seventh-day Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

“Moon, Bettina Bland.” Obituaries, Central Union Reaper, October 14, 1975.

“Moon, E. Allen.” Obituaries, ARH, November 16, 1989.

“Pastor and Mrs. E. A. Moon. . . .” Southern African Division Outlook, March 15, 1954.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association. Various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

  1. Biographical Information Blank of Ethan A. Moon, General Conference of Seventh-day Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.↩

  2. Ibid.↩

  3. “Moon, E. Allen,” Obituaries, ARH, November 16, 1989, 22.↩

  4. M. L. E., “St. Helena Sanitarium Siftings,” Pacific Union Recorder, June 4, 1908, 3.↩

  5. Biographical Information Blank of Ethan A. Moon.↩

  6. Ibid.↩

  7. Ibid.↩

  8. Ibid.↩

  9. “Moon, Bettina Bland,” Obituaries, Central Union Reaper, October 14, 1975, 11.↩

  10. Ibid. Biographical Information Blank of Bettina Bland Moon, General Conference of Seventh-day Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.↩

  11. “Moon, Bettina Bland,” Obituaries.↩

  12. Biographical Information Blank of Bettina Bland Moon.↩

  13. Biographical Information Blank of Ethan A. Moon.↩

  14. Ibid.↩

  15. Ibid.↩

  16. Ibid.↩

  17. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1923, 116.↩

  18. Biographical Information Blank of Ethan A. Moon.↩

  19. Ibid.↩

  20. “Moon, Bettina Bland,” Obituaries.↩

  21. Biographical Information Blank, Ethan A. Moon.↩

  22. Ibid.↩

  23. “Pastor and Mrs. E. A. Moon. . .,” Southern African Division Outlook, March 15, 1954 ,8.↩

  24. “Moon, E. Allen,” Obituaries.↩

  25. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1955, 270; Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1960, 14.↩

  26. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1961, 31.↩

  27. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1962, 489. Obituaries, Central Union Reaper, October 14, 1975, 11.↩

  28. “Moon, Bettina Bland,” Obituaries.↩

  29. “Moon, E. Allen,” Obituaries.↩

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Tornalejo, Remwil R., Thang Suan Sum. "Moon, Ethan Allen (1895–1989) and Bettina Bland (1892–1975)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. October 06, 2022. Accessed October 15, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5CL1.

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Tornalejo, Remwil R., Thang Suan Sum. "Moon, Ethan Allen (1895–1989) and Bettina Bland (1892–1975)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. October 06, 2022. Date of access October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5CL1.

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Tornalejo, Remwil R., Thang Suan Sum (2022, October 06). Moon, Ethan Allen (1895–1989) and Bettina Bland (1892–1975). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5CL1.

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