Cross-Cultural Encounters

China and the Reformed Church in America

Gloria Shuhui Tseng

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781532618918, 9781498244800
• eBook ISBN: 9781498244794
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Doctors, nurses, teachers, and evangelists, the men and women of the Amoy Mission sowed the seeds of vibrant Christian community in China's Fujian Province. This book tells the stories of those remarkable missionaries whose legacy endures to this day.

1

A Visionary Mission

The Life and Work of Dr. J. A. Otte

Rebekah Llorens

The study of Christian missionaries and their work enhances many different fields of inquiry. It furthers the understanding of cultural history, because missionaries have helped the spread of Christianity to both obscure and well-known peoples and lands. Missionaries have reached the far corners of the earth and have been the means for the transformation of people groups and social patterns through their message. The study of their work also enhances the life of the Church. When Christians want to know more about the history of their faith and its influence over time, the accounts of missionaries provide a time stamp for important events and developments in the spread of Christianity. An understanding of the historical role of missionaries and their strategies on the mission field may allow the missionaries of today to get a better grasp of the successes and failures of their predecessors and how they experienced them.

The life of one missionary, Dr. John A. Otte, and his service in China give insight into two realms of mission work. As a medical missionary, Otte provided healing to the Chinese people in both their bodies and their hearts. He sought to bring holistic healing without forcing his patients to become Christians. Two things are worthy of note about Otte: first, he applied his faith to his practice. For him, the work of the Gospel took priority, and medical work was simply the means to further it. Instead of forcing his patients to change their own ways to reflect Western values when they did become Christians, Otte changed his personal lifestyle to better relate to the people whom he served. Second, Otte was determined to help the Chinese remain Chinese, and not become westernized in their Christianity (that is, by living like people in Europe or North America). By adopting this cultural approach to ministry, Otte established a genuine image of the Christian faith before the Chinese people.

This study is divided into four sections. The first provides a general history of Otte and his work, giving the context for an analysis of his ministry. The second section focuses on Otte’s strategy for ministering to people through his medical work. The third section analyzes the steps that Otte took to close the cultural gap and to relate to the Chinese; and the fourth summarizes the conclusions gathered from the analysis of his work.

A General History of Dr. J. A. Otte

John Abraham Otte was born on August 11, 1861, to working-class parents in Vlissenden (Flushing), the Netherlands.1 When he was five, he and his family moved to the United States in search of a job for his father. The family settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Johannes, now going by the name John, eventually attended Hope College in the city of Holland. While in school, Otte suffered several attacks of diphtheria that weakened his voice, thus destroying his mother’s hope for Otte to become a minister. His weak voice and lack of interest in theology caused him to opt for medical school at the University of Michigan after graduation from Hope in 1883. It was in medical school that Otte first considered the idea of becoming a medical missionary. By this time, he had become a fervent Christian and played an important role in a revival on the campus of the University of Michigan, which was the precursor to the nationwide Student Volunteer Movement. Otte decided to approach the Reformed Church in America (RCA) about receiving support from the denomination to go to China. Most American denominations had a mission board that evaluated applicants for long-term missions. The RCA’s Board of Foreign Missions liked his idea, but because they did not have the resources to fund him, they rejected his proposal. Instead, Otte took the suggestion of a visiting minister surnamed Van’t Lindenhout to go to the Netherlands for one year to study diseases of the eye at the University of Amsterdam in Utrecht. Otte’s knowledge of eye diseases would later prove useful in meeting a common need in China.2

While studying in the Netherlands in 1886, Dr. Otte met a little girl who inspired him. She gave Otte two Dutch halfpennies and told him to build a hospital in China with them.3 Encouraged, Otte returned to the U.S. once his year of study was concluded and approached the RCA Board again. Although they did request that he raise more funds first, they agreed to send Otte to China. With his new wife, Frances Phelps (daughter of Philip Phelps, Hope College’s first president), and with funding from supporters, Otte set out for China in 1887, arriving there in January 1888.4

Otte set his mind to building a hospital, which he did both quickly and efficiently. In the village of Xiaoxi (referred to as Sio-khe by RCA missionaries of the time) in Fujian province, he established Neerbosch Hospital, named after the orphanage founded by Mr. Van’t Lindenhout in the Netherlands. Otte completed this project within the first year of his arrival in China, but not without resistance from local villagers. The Chinese considered the area on which he planned to build the hospital sacred ground, and many tried to sabotage his efforts. Otte persisted through these obstacles, and his efforts bore fruit from the first night of the hospital’s opening. Local inhabitants flooded the hospital and began to learn what the foreign doctor could offer them. From tumor removal surgeries to eye surgeries to amputations, Otte quickly began to deliver relief to a longsuffering people and to establish his ministry.5

In 1897, after a two-year furlough, Otte returned to China with the goal of building a hospital in Xiamen (referred to as Amoy by RCA missionaries of the time), the city where the RCA’s China mission first began. He set his sights on the island of Gulangyu (referred to as Kulangsu by RCA missionari...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Visionary Mission
• Chapter 2: Cultural Exchange
• Chapter 3: The Dual Calling of Missionary Wives
• Chapter 4: Hope and Wilhelmina Hospital School of Nursing
• Chapter 5: Tena Holkeboer
• Chapter 6: Faith and Humanitarian Aid in Wartime China, 1937–1941