All posts tagged nelson

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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Esther Expedition: Streams in the Desert

by noel.piper on March 26, 2012 in Asia with No comments

Esther Expedition

Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings4/23/1933 — Esther Nelson letter from Chengdu

I am enjoying Streams in the Desert so very much.

 

Sunday we worshipped with believers in Chengdu. Afterward, the name of the bookshop across the street caught my eye–Streams in the Desert–named after a book that was given Esther Nelson by friends at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis when she was returning to China in 1932 to work in Chengdu.

Inside, almost immediately, Joann discovered the Chinese version of The Legacy of Sovereign Joy. She turned to the shopkeeper and pointed toward me, “This is the wife of the man who wrote this book.”

“Praise the Lord,” she replied.

Another woman overheard and walked over, picked up a copy and leafed through it. She handed a second copy to her friend. After both had completed their purchases, we caught up with them outside to get a picture and give them the address of the DG Chinese website.

(Earlier in Chengdu, we saw the book also at the Daily Renewal Bookshop.)

 

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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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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: 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. 

Video: Esther Expedition itinerary

by noel.piper on January 19, 2012 in Asia with 1 Comment

At our Esther Expedition presentation, after I talked about Esther (videos: Part 1 and Part 2), Joann sketched out our March itinerary when we sort of follow in Esther’s footsteps.

Below the video, you can find the maps that don’t show up all that well (or at all) on camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1: Why I want to know this woman

Part 2: Dream Fulfilled and Cut Short

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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 use personally or wish I did. 

Video: Dream fulfilled and cut short

by noel.piper on January 17, 2012 in Asia with 2 Comments

In the first part of this presentation about Esther Nelson, I showed her as a self-effacing woman with the heart of an adventurer for God.

Here’s the rest of what I had to say. Of course, there’s lot’s more to talk about and read, so stay tuned!

Esther Expedition presentation, part two:

Part 1: Why I want to know this woman

Part 3: The Esther Expedition Itinerary