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dynasty, shattering any sense that forceful treaties could ever provide a lasting spiritual peace between the former combatants.
PART SEVEN: After the golden light has shined...
It is only right to return to the Chinese Christians in Poklo once more and ask what, if anything, ever transpired in their tragic situation. In fact, there is much to say. Sometime in 1867 the house in Poklo and its keys were once more handed over to the London Missionary Society, and the former colporteur, Leung Man-shing, equipped with some lengthy experience as a hospital apprentice, entered the town both as a part-time physician and evangelist. By the beginning of the 1870s, another missionary under the London Mission Society, E. J. Eitel (1838-1908), took up residence in the area and, along with Chinese Christian help and support, soon had five functioning churches in the district. It should also be noted that, back in Hong Kong, the "son of the martyr of Poklo" was registered in the late 1860s as one of the baptized members of the Chinese congregation of Union Chapel under the pastoral leadership of Ho Tsun-sheen.97 The Qing dynasty finally fell in 1911, and in the rest of the 20th century there were changes of such devastating power that most of this past Chinese Protestant history in Bóluó has been completely lost and forgotten. In the most recent gazette for the Bóluó district published in 1988 there is information about some late 19th and 20th century activities and five churches maintained by German-speaking Lutherans from the Basel Mission Society in the region, but the editors humbly admit nothing else is known. Personal visits to the area and to pastors of the Three-Self congregation in Huizhōu in 1994 verified that no knowledge of these 19th century events remains even among the clergy now working in the region. Outside of the official congregation in Huìzhōu, only one or two acceptable meeting points currently exist for Christians in the two districts of Bóluó and Huizhōu.
98
Clearly, this essay offers much new light on these things from the not-so-distant past, allowing the "Golden Light" once more to shine within the thoughts and memories of Chinese Christians and others in that region, also for the sake of Christian missiological
220
dynasty, shattering any sense that forceful treaties could ever provide a lasting spiritual peace between the former combatants.
PART SEVEN: After the golden light has shined...
It is only right to return to the Chinese Christians in Poklo once more and ask what, if anything, ever transpired in their tragic situation. In fact, there is much to say. Sometime in 1867 the house in Poklo and its keys were once more handed over to the London Missionary Society, and the former colporteur, Leung Man-shing, equipped with some lengthy experience as a hospital apprentice, entered the town both as a part-time physician and evangelist. By the beginning of the 1870s, another missionary under the London Mission Society, E. J. Eitel (1838-1908), took up residence in the area and, along with Chinese Christian help and support, soon had five functioning churches in the district. It should also be noted that, back in Hong Kong, the "son of the martyr of Poklo" was registered in the late 1860s as one of the baptized members of the Chinese congregation of Union Chapel under the pastor leadership of Ho Tsun-sheen.97 The Qing dynasty finally fell in 1911, and in the rest of the 20th century there were changes of such devastating power that most of this past Chinese Protestant history in Bóluó has been completely lost and forgotten. In the most recent gazette for the Bóluó district published in 1988 there is information about some late 19th and 20th century activities and five churches maintained by German-speaking Lutherans from the Basel Mission Society in the region, but the editors humbly admit nothing else is known. Personal visits to the area and to pastors of the Three-Self congregation in Huizhōu in 1994 verified that no knowledge of these 19th century events remains even among the clergy now working in the region. Outside of the official congregation in Huìzhōu, only one or two acceptable meeting points currently exist for Christians in the two districts of Bóluó and Huizhōu.
98
Clearly, this essay offers much new light on these things from the not-so-distant past, allowing the "Golden Light" once more to shine within the thoughts and memories of Chinese Christians and others in that region, also for the sake of Christian missiological
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