‘Bible Women’ Who Founded and Established the Chinese Church
God chose to work largely through women to found and establish the Christian church in China and Cambodia. Nineteenth-century pre-literate Chinese women, evangelized by Protestant women missionaries, were taught how to read Chinese characters thereby enabling them to teach from the Mandarin Bible. These ‘Bible women,’ such as Dora Yu (1873–1931), publicly evangelized and taught the Bible to mixed-sex groups. Peace Lin and her son Watchman Lee, who later were instrumental in forming churches across China, came to faith through the ministry of Dora Yu.
Though the ministerial influence of Chinese women has waned in recent decades due to tightening restrictions, beginning in the mid-1800s women were able to pursue educational and ministerial opportunities. Subsequently, scores of women engaged in pastoral, evangelical, and mission society leadership. Female leadership in the church was not only considered acceptable, but vital to the gospel mission.
The 100th Anniversary Missional Celebration in Cambodia
Delighted to receive my long-distance call, my Aunt Marlene said, “Oh yes, let me tell you about the ‘Bible women!’” Given how much I admire the faithful work of our Chinese Christian sisters, I was delighted to discover my own connection to Bible women through my maternal aunt, Marlene Westergren. From the mid-1950s–1990, Marlene and my uncle, Cliff Westergren (now deceased), served in Cambodia and then in Hong Kong as missionaries with the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA). The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Western missionaries’ arrival in Cambodia. Marlene’s oldest son Steve and his wife Mary, former missionaries in Cambodia, attended the 100th anniversary celebration (see photo below). I asked my aunt to share her experiences with Chinese Bible women.
Steve & Mary Westergren with the Yourng family at the C&MA 100th anniversary celebration in Cambodia.
Co-Pastors Anna Lau and Miriam Hoh
My aunt described a substantial Hong Kong church co-pastored by two Bible women: Anna Lau and Miriam Hoh. Trained as nurses, both women left nursing to gain biblical and theological training in Hong Kong. Lau and Hoh graduated from Wuchow Bible School and Alliance Theological Seminary. In the twentieth century, many Bible women served in Chinese churches as pastors or co-pastors, some, like Lau and Hoh, after obtaining seminary training. Mrs. W.H. Holton, a female missionary, described Lau and Hoh’s ministry in Phnom Penh: “They visit in rotation all church members and inquirers… I have seen them bend over their Bibles with country women with the same zeal and kindness they would have shown in the most cultured Chinese homes.” Holton concluded, “These two Bible women have been tested in soul, body and spirit and have come forth in victory. For all that God has accomplished through them and for the ladies themselves we thank God.”[1] My aunt explained that she and my uncle Cliff often brought pastors they were mentoring to visit the church co-pastored by Lau and Hoh because of its pastoral and administrative excellence.
Chinese Women in Ministry Leadership
In addition to pastoring, women established mission organizations, evangelized, and planted and led house churches. A woman named Mary Stone (1873–1954) co-founded the Chinese Missionary Society and the Bethel Mission in Shanghai.[1] In 1924, “five Chinese women were ordained as local preachers in the Foochow (Fuzhou) and Kiangsi (Jiangxi) Conferences.”[2] From the house church movement in the 1980s through the 1990s, the church membership was predominately women, and most of the pastors and evangelists were women. During a mission-related trip to China, my aunt and her husband stayed overnight at a Bible woman’s home, which served as the meeting place of a house church she led. As my aunt explained, this was a secret because at the time Christian house churches were illegal in China.
Conclusion
In an article titled, “The Remarkable Story of China’s ‘Bible Women,’ author Alexander Chow noted that the story of Christianity in China cannot be told, “without acknowledging the female evangelists and pastors who built the Chinese church.”[4] God chose to work through ‘Bible women’ to found and establish the Chinese church. Thanks be to God.
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[1] Mrs. W.H. Holton, “Anna and Miriam—Two Faithful Women,” The Alliance Witness, Dec. 1959.
[2] Alexander Chow, “The Remarkable Story of China’s ‘Bible Women,’ Christianity Today, March 16, 2018, 3, accessed May 11, 2022, https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2018/march/christian-china-bible-women.html.
[3] Chow, “The Remarkable Story,” 4.
[4] Chow, “The Remarkable Story,” 2.