All posts tagged esther expedition

Esther Expedition: huili — seeds

by noel.piper on May 30, 2012 in Asia with No comments

Esther Expedition

In missionary biography, it’s easy to focus on the big things and overlook the things that help everyday life go on.

This springtime season reminds me of one recurring topic in Esther’s letters from Huili. Alongside the reports of sowing the seeds of the Gospel were the requests for seeds to nourish the body–seeds to share with local farmers and for the 2 gardens she tended. One was in the church compound, the other in the chapel compound down the street.

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4/15/48 — Huili

I wrote you about sending vegetable seeds some time back.  Please send a package of each kind of vegetable as red onions, rutabagas and others, lima beans and others I did not mention. . . .

We have vegetables here but of very little variety–only about 3 kinds on market all thru and one gets so tired of them, so would like to get some started here, also watermelon and different melons etc.

5/21/48 – Huili

My tomatoes are now blooming, lettuce is up, cabbage is small, not doing well. They have a very scant variety of vegetables so want to get seeds out to the farmers. . .

 

7/30/49 — Huili

We have been enjoying tomatoes & cucumbers out of our garden at the church. We also have peaches now. I have canned some. We have so enjoyed the crabapples here this summer. We have baked them and they are grand. I canned 8 or 9- jars of them. The only fruit we get to can here is crabapples and peaches.

8/14/49 — Huili

I am just getting my fall garden ready. Some beans, peas, and lettuce are just coming up. . . . I hope things grow so that I get new seeds. If I am able to stay on here I would like some rhubarb seed. . . .  Our watermelon plant is growing. It is very small and just blooming now so am afraid it will do nothing. My cucumbers were not very good. May do better next planting.

10/22/50 — Huili

I wonder if you would put a few lettuce (head) seeds and a few beet seeds in a letter and send on. My other seeds dried out from too much rain. I would like  getting them started again. Thanks heaps.

4/20/51 — Huili

It will soon warm up. I have been planting tomato plants these days. Our cauliflower is now heading. We have just a very few in our garden but it’s nice to have them as this time of year there is not much on street.

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Nowadays, Esther wouldn’t need to ask for seeds to be sent from home. If she walked along the old streets of Huili today, she’d find more than one shop lined with packets of every kind of vegetable seed she’d want.

 

 

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My travel photos may be viewed at my Shutterfly Share Site.
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If you make a purchase after you click on some of the product links in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I had.
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Esther Expedition: Huili — getting there

by noel.piper on May 27, 2012 in Asia with 3 Comments

Addition: We arrived in Huili just one day after the 64th anniversary of Esther Nelson’s arrival there. For us it was March 9, 2012. For Esther it was March 8, 1948. (I was 2-1/2 months old then).

Esther Expedition – March 2012

It was a rough road 3 months ago from Xichang up to Huili. And I do mean up–over 4 ranges, each higher than the last. Once we got to the mountains the good road looked like the photo to the right here. Pavement not too bad, but watch out for the edges. In this shot, the drop-off is only a few feet. My eyes were shut too tight for taking photos when we were  skimming the edges of the non-guardrail real dropoffs.

What really tears up the road is the heavy trucks, hauling coal from near the top of one of those ranges. For miles, the potholes were the smoothest part of the ride. The  small car we were driving in kept hitting bottom–hard. Paul, the owner and driver, assured us there was a protective cover. Good thing, else we’d have been paying for lots more than his time.

The trucks groan to the top and then descend the other side in a cloud of steam, produced by the device that sprays their brakes to keep them from burning up on the downhill stretches. At filling stations, truck drivers don’t just fill with gas, but also with water for those brake coolers.

Still, once again as we compared our trip with Esther Nelson’s, we came out easy. Our ride took a long morning; hers was 2 long days. Here’s her description of  traveling the same route. Don’t miss the Minnesota-style irony when she says the roads are fine.

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Wednesday, March 10, 1948

I left Sichang [Xichang] on Sunday morning, or rather noon for it was noon before we got away altho we were told to present ourselves at 8:30 in morning. I do not like starting out on any trip or journey on Sunday but at times we can not help it, we have to go when bus leaves or wait an several weeks. Perhaps that would be the thing to do but sometimes it seems not.  I wish you could see the thing they call a bus and  the way they load it.  I did take the picture of it but only about half the people were on as I had to take it when we stopped and some were off before I was ready.

Found on the way to Huili--Esther's "bus" still running?

The bus here is an open truck, and first freight and baggage are packed in, then the people scramble on top as fast as they can and squeeze in like sardines or even more so. I was fortunate this time to be allowed to sit in the cab part with the driver but that too was crowded as we were four people and a baby besides four or five large wash basins, my typewriter, my shopping bag full of last minute things (the one Odette gave me), and half a dozen other things under and on our feet, or in our laps.

The roads were in rather poor repair which of course is nothing new. The truck traveled without his hood as it had to be off so that the two men sitting one on either side of the hood part could coax the truck along, sometimes feeding it gas, sometimes oil, sometimes tying the broken wires together and sometimes burning alcohol to get it hot. Always the cranker had to be used, sometimes putting stones under wheels as the brakes were worked on.

It is wonderful how they can manage and the truck chocks away at a fair speed and thankful I am that it can not go faster.  We did have a good driver this time. We had a difficult time getting started.  The truck was packed way beyond its capacity, the people sitting on top of the hood and everywhere, even having their feet hanging over the top of the cab so that the driver could hardly see the road at times.

I wish you could see the roads. Well they are fine.

Going up the higher hills the people had to get off and walk up, and over most of the bridges they walked. We were getting along well when at about one o’clock or so we arrived at a place where the small bridge had been removed to build the one on the further side leaving this one a big gap with no boards or planks or even stones to fill it up with It took all of an hour to dicker with the people who were to’ have had it in repair to get them to get it fixed up and then at quite a sum of money.  (This was a public bus and roads should be prepared.) The men began coming from every direction carrying heavy planks, tree trunks and boards and in another hour we were ready to proceed on our way, none the worse for our wait in the sun. Some even went and had their dinner.

Dechang now ("Tei Chang" to Esther)

I had to stop and move out of the sun it seems to shine into every corner and is quite hot.  The flies too, are a nuscians (?  My dictionary is in Shanghai!).

We arrived at Tei Chang [Dechang] at about 4:30 p.m. but had to stop here for the night, as if we went on we could not make the next good stopping place, so another two hours were lost.

It was almost a panic getting off for sleeping. Places are not too many and each one wants a good one. It’s every one scramble for himself.  I got off but too much of a scramble for me so let the greater number get away before I tried to get at my baggage, two suitcases, one box of a few tin things, and my bed bundle, consisting of a coverless quilt, steamer rug, wash basin and toilet articles, my green coat, and several other things that did not get room in suitcases, wrapped in a large oil sheet. When I finally got in I was sent up on the loft which was not all finished, as yet only a little more than half having floor. I saw some straw in a corner and hurried over and got a large two hands full and put it the other corner right next to a paperless window (Paperless means glassless) Then I put my bed bundle there also. The rest I left in a room downstairs. The only stairs was a ladder. I scrambled down this several times before I could get two boiled eggs and a little bowl of rice, and some warm peanuts for my supper and lunch. Then turned in for the night but I was so tired that I did not stop to open my bed bundle but just spread the straw, used my bag of things as a pillow, my coat as covering and off I went to dream land with my 23 million dollars under my head.

We were off early so I was so glad I did not have to stop and tie up my bed bundle. I noticed some of the others did as I did about opening bedding. Today our hills or mountains were some what higher climbs and all day long we circled around in the mountains, with some sudden hair pin turns, caved-in roads and so on. Long before we were anywhere near Hweili [Huili] we borrowed alcohol from another bus going in other direction but long before we got in we were feeding the truck pouring in a little at the time from a bottle. This was found too tedious so they stopped and uncovered some in the truck but they were too stingy with it so it only lasted a short distance but as luck would have it we were going downhill all the way so coasted down.  When we got to the other side of Hweili where it was flat we stopped to send into town for alcohol. This was a mile or more to town which we were expected to walk. It was just dusk so another scramble to get away before dark.  I got a carrier for my baggage and off we went to town and to the church.

I have arrived.  Thank the Lord.

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There are more photos of the road between Xichang and Huili.

Huili ("Hweili" to Esther) -- late 1940s

Huili today

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My travel photos may be viewed at my Shutterfly Share Site.
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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here.
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If you make a purchase after you click on some of the product links in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I had.
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I hope you’ll also visit my other blog–NoelPiper.com

Esther Expedition: Huili — Esther’s house?

by noel.piper on May 22, 2012 in Asia with No comments

My laptop is living up to its name by sitting in my lap while I sit on the love seat in my living room. So it’s a good time for some virtual travel. One virtue of virtual travel is that we can be together in Europe one moment, and then fly the next moment to China.

A few days ago I heard of someone who was in China and would be traveling to Huili, Sichuan Province. She is related to one of the families who was serving there at the same time as Esther Nelson. Esther was there  1948-1951.

Sending some Huili information to her reminded me that I hadn’t yet uploaded any of my photos from Huili or posted anything here about that significant place.

Today, let’s just visit the church.

The Huili  church building is entered through the courtyard behind some businesses that face the street. The church owns the businesses (one is called the Gospel Snack Shop or

something like that) and rents them for income.

We showed up without notice just when a small meeting was about to begin in the balcony area. We were greeted first with kindly curiosity. Their interest and enthusiasm grew as we explained our reason for being there and showed them the “Esther Nelson’s China” photobook that traveled in the back pocket of my vest.

They told us that there had been an old missionary house where the altar of the church is now, and they thought that must have where Esther Nelson and Flora Mae Duncan lived.

Perhaps that was Esther’s house, but I’m not sure becasue a letter from that time says they lived in a house behind the chapel, which was a different building.

Around town later, we showed a 1949 photo of the chapel building and asked a number of people in the streets or in shops where the chapel building was–the former bank building that the Baptists bought to use for classes and other gatherings besides the usual church services.
Finally, someone put the pieces together and pointed us to a place a few hundred yards down the street from the church building. The old building isn’t there any more, but in the courtyard, you can see the top edge of an old house over a wall. It’s in the right place, in the right courtyard behind the former site of the right building, so it might have been Esther’s house. It wasn’t accessible at the time I spotted it.

White building is where chapel used to be

Roof of old house, just visible over long low wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there are more Huili Church photos too.

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My travel photos may be viewed at my Shutterfly Share Site.
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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here.
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If you make a purchase after you click on some of the product links in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I had.
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I hope you’ll also visit my other blog–NoelPiper.com

East meets west

by noel.piper on May 10, 2012 in Asia, Europe with No comments

You may have thought that when I came to Europe, I was leaving the  Esther Expedition behind for a while. Not possible. Esther’s world seems to follow me wherever I go.

Joann, my travel companion in China in March, had been fascinated to discover that the Lutheran World Federation in the 1940s operated a charter plane, which they named the St. Paul. Ever since then, she’s been researching the history and story of the Lutheran Airline, as she called it.

Now here’s where east meets west (if you use your imagination). Earlier this week for the second leg of our flight to Geneva, the carrier was a regional affiliate of Lufthansa.

After we arrived, as soon as I had Internet, I emailed Joann: “There is a Lutheran airline–Augsburg Airways–and here’s the plan of salvation they make available to each passenger.” (Augsburg is to Lutherans as Westminster is to Presbyterians–Lutheran churches, colleges, publishers, nursing homes named Augsburg, and now apparently an airline!)

Some discussion of the name followed. Augsburg Airways is obviously ELCA, because LCMS would have been Concordia. Air is good–it’s appropriate that Christians should meet in the air, doncha think? But why Airways when we know there’s just one way?

Enough!

Here’s the scoop Joann just posted on the real flying Lutherans–the ones in China.

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Don’t miss the giveaways for this Europe trip:

You can see photos from this trip, as they’re uploaded, at my Shutterfly Share Site.
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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here.
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If you make a purchase after you click on some of the product links in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I had.
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I hope you’ll also visit my other blog–NoelPiper.com

Esther Expedition: Cloth or disposable or . . . ?

by noel.piper on March 21, 2012 in Asia with 4 Comments

Esther Expedition

The other day, I included a picture of the cute little toddler wandering the aisles during church service. You might have wondered about the gap in the seam of her pants. Had the seam ripped open?

Nope. There never was a seam there. It’s very common here that babies and toddlers wear split pants and “potty” training begins right away.

When the parent thinks it’s time to go, they hold the baby facing out, spread its knees and pull them up into what would be a squatting position (good preparation for the standard “squatty potty” toilet). The parent hiss-whistles and waits.

Professional people and the more well-to-do are more likely to use diapers, but even then split pants still are more convenient when it’s time for a change.

You can see a diaper peeking through the gap in the pants of the little girl in church. She probably has that just during a time like church service, when it won’t be convenient to hold her out in front so she can do her thing.

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As photos from the Esther Expedition photos are uploaded, you can see them anytime at my Esther Nelson Shutterfly share site. There’s a map there too, of our expedition locations.

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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here. 

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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did. 

Esther Expedition: I feel someone’s eyes on me

by noel.piper on March 21, 2012 in Asia with 2 Comments

Esther Expedition

After leaving Shanghai, it was 2 weeks before I saw another western face. Sometimes we were pretty sure we were the only foreigners in whatever town we were in that day. In fact, sometimes someone would turn around and unexpectedly catch sight of us and actually give a small scream.

There are a lot of Chinese people who have no qualms about outright staring at whoever is different–that would be Joann and me. That includes comments to each other about us.

Each of these photos was when we were the center of attention. Center is literal–picture us surrounded by people blatantly gawking. Not to be rude, but I figured if their staring is acceptable, my corresponding version would be taking their pictures.

If we startle people by our presence in the 21st century, I just wonder what it was like for Esther. She wasn’t the first foreigner in the places where she lived, but there weren’t that many. And what about the visits to remote villages where she probably was the first. I don’t recall any mentions in her letters about people’s responses to her foreignness. Perhaps she just considered that part of life here.

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As photos from the Esther Expedition photos are uploaded, you can see them anytime at my Esther Nelson Shutterfly share site. There’s a map there too, of our expedition locations.

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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here. 

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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did. 

Esther Expedition: Children & dogs

by noel.piper on March 21, 2012 in Asia with 3 Comments

Esther Expedition

Children and pet dogs don’t need much explanation. So here we have then-and-now photos of:

Esther Nelson’s pekingese, Tag and a ferocious little turf-protector in the market who protested sharply when I took his photo.

Two toddlers padded out in quilted winter clothing so you wonder how they can walk.

“Kiddy Karts.” The old one is made of wood using a pattern that Esther found for a young Christian carpenter so he could make and sell wooden toys to support his family.

Baby baskets on the mothers’ backs, not uncommon still today. The baby can sit or stand as he’s being carried.

Baby baskets set on the ground to give Mama a rest.

To see a photo larger, just click on it.

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As photos from the Esther Expedition photos are uploaded, you can see them anytime at my Esther Nelson Shutterfly share site. There’s a map there too, of our expedition locations.

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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here. 

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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did. 

Layover in Yichang

by noel.piper on March 7, 2012 in Asia with 1 Comment

Esther Expedition

 

It’s Thursday morning in Chengdu for Joann and me, while our families are still living Wednesday evening in Minnesota. We’re regrouping today before launching out tonight to places where Esther actually lived and worked.

Last post, I wrote about worshiping at Shanghai Community Church 4 days ago, on Sunday. That afternoon we flew to Yichang, which in Esther Nelson’s day was known by foreigners as Ichang.

For Esther, it was a stop on her voyage up the Yangtze river from Shanghai to Chongqing (known to her as Chungking). She might have spent a few days at a time in Yichang, waiting for the next boat, whose schedule might be uncertain. But she never lived or worked here.

Still, there were a few photos of “Ichang” in her old albums, including 2 of the sort of monumental buildings we associate with London or Washington, DC. In fact, one of the buildings was flying an American flag, so we guessed it might have been the American consulate.

We showed those photos to taxi drivers, hotel personnel and others. No one recognized them. The best pointer we could get was directions to the neighborhood where the old city and foreign governmental buildings used to be.

So we set out wandering. We walked along the riverfront, where Esther’s steamship from Shanghai would have docked. We looked to the hills across the river and tried to find the notch from which one photo was taken, looking back to the town. She and friends must have taken a small ferry across the river that day for an outing in the hills.

As we turned away from the river and toward the town, we saw the large Yichang City Hall. It is common that Chinese government buildings now stand where foreign official buildings used to be. That confirmed we were in the right neighborhood.

We found some wonderful old narrow passageways and alleyway streets lined with houses, shops, open air vendors–streets Esther would have walked. Along the streets, amid the newer buildings were random ones that were very old. But all of them were everyday, normal places, not the grand government-like buildings we’d seen in Esther’s photos.

Then Joann noticed the historic preservation plaque on a large could-be-old-enough building. It was property of the Catholic Church. Around the corner was the church building itself. Inside we were met by a friendly woman who was a treasury of information. She introduced us to the priest. He didn’t recognize “our” buildings, but he knew of one old place, and asked the woman to walk there with us.

Hidden in a courtyard, surrounded by “regular” buildings was the former British Consulate, now a restaurant. The US Consulate would certainly have been nearby.

We walked out of the courtyard, excited over this discovery and thinking we’d found all there’d be for us. But right across the street within a wall was an old, gray, squarish, business-like building. The historic preservation plaque by the gate named it as the former British Steamship Company.

Here was another find. Esther’s transportation up and down the Yangtze was often via British steamships. As Joann said, “Who knows? She probably stopped in here to buy tickets, confirm schedules, and check on her frequent traveler miles.”

So, in Yichang, merely a layover city for Esther, we saw places she would have seen and walked where  she would have walked. This is more amazing than it might sound, because China–though it has a millenia-long heritage–has covered much of the old with new.

I’m sorry, I can’t take time to upload photos into this post, because I need to skim over Esther letters to check again for names and places and details that will aid our searches during our next jaunts.

So here are the photos where you can see the old Yichang story for yourself.

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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did. 

Worshiping where Esther worshiped

by noel.piper on March 6, 2012 in Asia with 7 Comments

Joann and I have been without Internet for 2 days because we’ve been up the river on a slow boat in China. But before I tell you about that, I think I better catch you up in chronological order, so I don’t get confused. (In the meantime, you can see some of Joann’s reminiscences of the river now compared to her own trip in the 1980s.)

In the files of Esther’s papers is a bulletin for Sunday, October 29, 1933, from the Community Church of Shanghai. The church is still there. A brass plaque on one side of the entrance still says Community Church, though we also heard or saw it referred to as Heng Shan Road Christian Church or Shanghai International Church.

If you’d like, you can see more pictures from our visit to Shanghai Community Church.

The congregation Esther worshiped with would have been almost entirely non-Chinese. But all those Europeans and Americans were required to leave China in the early 1950s. Later the church was shut down because of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. It was allowed to reopen in 1980 as a registered Three-Self church. So the congregation we worshiped with last Sunday was almost entirely Chinese.

When we entered, we told the usher we’d like English translation (I did, anyway) and were directed to the balcony where there are headphones for simultaneous translation. We arrived 15 minutes early and already the sanctuary was full.

Recorded mellow instrumental hymns were playing. Other than the music, the main sound was the whispery whish from people praying all around the sanctuary.

I don’t know how the building was used during the Cultural Revolution, but I expect renovation was needed when the church was allowed to function again. If the front now is similar to what it was in 1933, Esther might have been reminded of her home church. Community Church is much grander than the old sanctuary of First Swedish Baptist, but the woodwork color and  patterns are similar.

During the service, a long prayer included the affirmation: “We are not afraid, for we are yours,” and thanks to God that although “before Liberation there were only 700,000 Christians, now there are 50 or 60 million.”

I’m not sure if these are officially accepted numbers, but that doesn’t matter. The truth is that tens of millions of Christians have blossomed from the seeds that were planted by Esther Nelson and many others like her, along with the Chinese brothers and sisters they left behind when they had to depart China.

As this hymn by the congregation affirms: Christ is the Everlasting Lord! (English translation of the hymn is in the description at YouTube.)

 

Esther Expedition: Miss Nelson slept here

by noel.piper on March 3, 2012 in Asia with 2 Comments

 

Esther Expedition

Esther’s entry in to China was through Shanghai, a port city where many Europeans and American lived and worked. It was a good place for her to buy supplies before traveling all the way inland to Sichuan.

Our first stop in Shanghai was also Esther’s first stop some of the times she entered China. The majestic gray brick house was the Lutheran Hostel. The address now is 310 Changde Lu, but then was 310 Hart Road.

At the front door are mailboxes for the current tenants, whose landlord is the army. The dusty front entry hall is the garage for the tenants’ vehicles–bicycles. They are parked on old crosses woven into the pattern of the mosaic floor.

The once-grand stairway has been stripped of the carpet it probably wore and the vista bottom-to-top is blocked by plain wood dividing walls. But the steps are still wide and the bannisters ornate. The day’s gloomy light is still colored by some remaining stained glass in the landing windows.

The one tenant we spoke with was annoyed at having his breakfast interrupted, so we didn’t see any of the rooms.

On the front door is a tiny red plate that says the building is of historical value. The plate is old and not the same as current historical preservation notices. So it isn’t clear whether this building can survive with high rise apartments and offices looming around its prime real estate.

Later we looked for the Baptist Guest House where Esther stayed other times. Maybe we found it, maybe we didn’t. It seems most likely that it’s beneath a golden glass tube of a high rise.

So, for these to be our first stops of the Esther Expedition is a good reminder: We will find tangible reminders of Esther’s life in China, but tangible remains are not the important things to look for. We must have our eyes open for the eternal that remains.

You can see photos from the Lutheran Hostel.

Now we’re off to worship at one of the churches where Esther visited at least once passing through Shanghai.

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Subscribe to Tell Me When To Pack. Use the links to the right or click here. 

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If you make a purchase after you click on a product link in a post or after you use an on-line shopping link in the sidebar, I receive a small commission, which costs you nothing extra. I recommend only items that I think will be of interest to my readers and that I probably have used personally or wish I did. 

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