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by Gabriel Bach (Author)
Missionary Journeys tells the story of my parents, missionaries in China, through the lens of their extensive China correspondence, in the 1930s and 40s. They were carrying out mission work in northeastern Hakka region of Guangdong, Kwangtung at the time, their lives threatened by Kuo Ming Tang army elements and by Japanese army detachments and airplane bombings.
After WW2, the Chinese communist victory forced my parents and us children to return to Europe where my father became a parish minister in a French-Alsatian suburb of Basel, Switzerland. Besides his traditional responsibilities, father focused on disadvantaged youth, migrants, and on reconciliation with German parish across the Rhine, while mother took over the upkeep of the church and presbytery. A call from the Chinese parish in Tahiti found father spending the last eleven months of his life organizing and providing guidance to the parish, leaving behind an abundant correspondence. To let my siblings and myself finish our studies, Mother managed in northern Alsace a center for adults with special needs before retiring and passing away in Bern-Mittelland, Switzerland.
Not enough has been written about this war period of the Basel Mission (Swiss Christian Missionary Society) missionaries in China. These Journeys fill a gap about the China episode, the Alsatian ministries, and the Tahiti Hakka theological conflict. Divinity students, students of theology, history, anthropology, social sciences, and those interested in mission work in the world and protestant missiology will gain an invigorating insight into missionary life.
