Advanced +

Kweichow Mission (1945–1951)

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: May 5, 2022

Audio

Following the Second World War some reorganization took place in the West China Union Mission territory. Previously the West Kweichow Mission and East Kweichow Mission had been administered as two separate entities. However, with improvements made to the road and communication systems, the combination of the two missions became a practical option in 1945. It meant that the new Kweichow Mission 贵州区会 territory included the entire Kweichow 贵州 (Guizhou) Province with the additions of the northeast portion of Yunnan Province and the section in Sichuan Province south of the Yangtze River. Church administration retained the former headquarters of the East Kweichow Mission, Kweiyang (Guiyang) as the head office for the entire Kweichow Mission. Elder Ho Ai Deng 賀愛敦 (Hè Aidūn) assumed its directorship with Hsieh Mo Kwen as secretary/treasurer and Elder Li Wan Chuen 李萬全 (Lǐ Wànquán) as Sabbath School secretary and field secretary. The mission staff now included two elementary school teachers together with approximately twenty individuals who nurtured the members in the scattered out-stations. The territory had six organized churches with a combined baptized membership of 1,219.1 Colporteurs actively sold subscriptions to Shi Djao Yueh Bao (Signs of the Times). Medical clinics operated at Guiyang 贵阳 and Pichieh 毕节 (Bijie)2 with a third unit opening in north Kweichow in 1948.3

Ho Ai Deng moved from administration to evangelism, conducting evangelistic series in Guiyang in 19484 and 1949 together with another one in Yunnan Province during the spring of 1949.5

In 1948 yet another shuffle of territory took place, significantly reducing the area of the Kweichow Mission. The extreme west of the province joined with Yunnan Province to form a new entity titled the Southwest China Mission,6 leaving Kweichow Mission with only three organized churches and a total baptized membership of 153 individuals.7 The new arrangements lasted only for a very brief time, because as the communist forces gradually spread throughout China, expatriate missionaries fled to safe havens and left control of mission activities in the hands of nationals. The beginning of the end occurred in 1949.8 Church leadership attempted to organize the China Division under national leadership in 1950,9 but communication with the wider world quickly broke down and entities such as the Kweichow Mission ceased to exist.10

Directors of the Kweichow Mission

Ho Ai Deng 賀愛敦 (Hè Aidūn) 1945-1947; Djang Djen Gwih 張援國 (Zhāng Yuánguó) 1948-1949; Lo Yun Chaio 1950-1951

Sources

Branson, William H. “Emergency Plans for Our Work.” China Division Reporter, January 1949.

“From West China.” China Division Reporter, October 1948.

Go Chao Oh. “West China Union.” China Division Reporter, March 1949.

Goh Djao Oh. “Report of the West China Union.” China Division Reporter, March 1948.

Longway Ezra L. “Gleanings from West China.” China Division Reporter, January 1949

“Newly Elected Division Officers and Departmental Leaders.” China Division Reporter, Fourth Quarter 1950.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946-1952.

Notes

  1. “Kweichow Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946), 103.↩

  2. Goh Djao Oh, “Report of the West China Union, China Division Reporter, March 1948, 9, 10.↩

  3. E[zra] L. Longway, “Gleanings from West China,” China Division Reporter, January 1949, 4.↩

  4. “From West China,” China Division Reporter, October 1948, 6.↩

  5. Goh Chao Oh, “West China Union,” China Division Reporter, March 1949, 4.↩

  6. “Southwest China Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951), 114.↩

  7. “Kweichow Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951), 113, 114.↩

  8. William H. Branson, “Emergency Plans for Our Work,” China Division Reporter, January 1949, 2.↩

  9. “Newly Elected Division Officers and Departmental Leaders,” China Division Reporter, Fourth Quarter 1950, 1.↩

  10. “China Division,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1952), 104.↩

×

Hook, Milton. "Kweichow Mission (1945–1951)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. May 05, 2022. Accessed March 19, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CJGF.

Copy to clipboard Download Word File

Hook, Milton. "Kweichow Mission (1945–1951)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. May 05, 2022. Date of access March 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CJGF.

Copy to clipboard Download Word File

Hook, Milton (2022, May 05). Kweichow Mission (1945–1951). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved March 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CJGF.

Copy to clipboard Download Word File