Brief History of Xinyang
The following is a summary of some articles that John Peterson (our camp director)
provided us to read regarding the history of missionary work in the Xingyang and
Jigoshan area.
The first Christian church in all of southern Henan Province was dedicated in 1906 in
Xinyang. It started with Daniel Nelson, who was born on a little farm in Norway in 1853
to a Christian family. At the age of 14, he became a sailor. During his 15 years at sea,
he was shipwrecked four times, the last occurred in a storm near China. He was
rescued by a Chinese fishing boat and towed to shore near Shanghai, and served two
years on an American warship in the China seas.
Upon returning home to Norway, he recommitted his life to Christ and married Anna
Sandvig on September 26, 1878. Soon after, he migrated to Eagle Grove, Iowa,
purchased 80 acres of farmland through working carpentry and on building the railroad.
While shingling his new house in Eagle Grove, Iowa, Daniel Nelson thought of the
Chinese living in mud huts and farming tiny rice fields, barely eking about an existence.
According to his account, he thought of what he had seen in China: people begging on
the streets, the sick and dying left unattended, baby girls tossed on garbage heaps to
dies because the parents wanted a boy, and, thought how blessed he was in America
on his farm. It was then that he heard a clarion call in his heart: "Go sell all these things
you have here. Take your family and come over to China to help."
For days he struggled with this inner sense of call and finally told his wife, who
supported him. He went to tell his pastor, who told him, he was too old to go to China.
He was 38 years old with four children. The pastor told him he was uneducated as a
pastor and what mission agency would take and send him? Daniel Nelson even went to
a church convention for pastors and pleaded with them to start a Lutheran mission in
China, pledging to provide his own support. No pastor supported him. He even
attended seminary for two years, but still no mission agency would take and send him.
While in Thor, Iowa, on a bench a the Lund Brothers Store, he told the local pastor of
his sense of call to China. Again, the pastor told him to forget it. Evidently, Nelson wept
openly and caught the attention of the store owners, who advised him that if it was
God's will for him to go to China, that God would provide for him and open the way.
Those two brothers helped Nelson auction off his farm and equipment, and, on
November 30, 1890, he and his family arrived in Shanghai with $500 dollars in their
pockets with no ordination, no mission agency endorsement, and no financial backing.
His first year in China was spent in Wuhan (formerly Hankow) learning Chinese. His
early efforts, while scouting the mission field, were met with stoning, bandits, illness,
and vermin-ridden inns and hovels as he traveled. But, he was convinced that he was
about his Father's business.
On March 17, 1895, he was ordained in Wuhan and accepted for support by the
Missionary Society of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. He moved to Xinyang in 1901,
established a new mission there, and baptized his first converts on Christmas Day,
1902. He ministered in Xinyang for 25 years, bringing over 2000 souls into the Christian
faith. He died on February 8, 1926 by a stray bullet between warring troops of local
Chinese warlords.
I had walked life's way with an easy tread,
Had followed where pleasures and comforts led,
Until one day in a quiet place
I met the Master face to face.
With station and rank and wealth for my goal,
Much thought for my body, but none for my soul,
I had entered to win in life's mad race,
When I met the Master face to face.
I had built my castles and reared them high,
With their towers had pierced the blue of the sky;
I had sworn to rule with an iron mace,
When I met the Master face to face.
I met Him and knew Him and blushed to see
that his eyes, full of sorrow, were fixed on me;
And I faltered and fell at His feet that day,
While my castles melted and vanished away.
Melted and vancished, and in their place
Naught else did I see but the Master's face,
And I cried aloud, "Oh, make me meet
To follow the steps of Thy wounded feet!"
My thought is now for the souls of men;
I have lost my life--to find it again,
Ever since one day in a quiet place
I met the Master face to face.
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