Liao Ho Mission (1919-1951)

By Milton Hook

Milton Hook, Ed.D. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, the United States). Hook retired in 1997 as a minister in the Greater Sydney Conference, Australia. An Australian by birth Hook has served the Church as a teacher at the elementary, academy and college levels, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and as a local church pastor. In retirement he is a conjoint senior lecturer at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored Flames Over Battle Creek, Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, Desmond Ford: Reformist Theologian, Gospel Revivalist, the Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series, and many magazine articles. He is married to Noeleen and has two sons and three grandchildren.

First Published: September 28, 2022

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After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Seventh-day Adventist Church made changes to the administration of some mission territories. For example, Manchuria was divided into two along a line between Tongliao in Mongolia, through Changchun and on to Tumen to the east on the border with Korea. A main railway approximated the line. To the north the Sung Kiang Mission was created. South of the line became the Liao Ho Mission. It extended further south into Jehol (later Rehe) Province or northern Hebei Province.¹ The demarcation line followed a cultural boundary. The territory within the Liao Ho Mission was the seat of the twelfth century's Liao (Khitan) Empire.²

When the Liao Ho Mission was organized in 1950, Lui Chang Li (劉常禮) was elected as the acting director. He was also the director of the Northeast China Mission. The headquarters for both entities was located in Mukden (later Shenyang 沈阳). There were fifteen organized churches within the Liao Ho Mission and 989 baptized members. Two ordained nationals and fourteen licensed men cared for the believers. Two elementary school teachers were included on the staff.³ The director, Lui Chang Li, was a new addition to the ordained nationals, having been given the credentials in May 1950.⁴

The Liao Ho Mission had scarcely begun to function before all missions in mainland China were closed in 1951 because of political conditions. No mention of the Liao Ho Mission activities appeared in the China Division Reporter during its brief existence.

Sources

“Division Notes.” China Division Reporter, May 1950.

“Jehol Province.” The Free Dictionary. Accessed July 1, 2022. https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Jehol+Province.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951.

Notes

“Northeast China Union Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951), 106-107.↩
“Jehol Province,” The Free Dictionary, accessed July 1, 2022, https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Jehol+Province.↩
“Northeast China Union Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951), 107.↩
“Division Notes,” China Division Reporter, May 1950, 8.↩