Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 100, 24 August 1945, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatmu- Ministers' Association).

CHINESE CHRISTIANS SING TO OUR BOYS The very first contact I had with the Chinese people after my flight over the "Hump" was an inspiring example of Christian brotherhood in action. We met the choir of the Church in one of the ante-rooms where we had a hurried evening meal with them(There is no Presbyterian Church in China. Since we are a part of so many other denominations \vw oil work together as the Church of Christ, in China). The choir was composed of young men and women, who T bulged 7 y > must be students and teachers and J j perhaps nurses from some of the hospitals. They were excited as any group of singers is before a concert and kept singing bits of their music between mouthfuls of rice and Chinese cabbage. As soon as we had washed the juice of big Kunming pears from our fingers we were hustled out to the highway and packed into two army ambulances and a truck. The eleven miles- out to the base hospital was the roughest ride I've ever had. When we arrived I collapsed over a wooden bench at the back of the auditorium and wanted to be accepted as a patient -but the choir put on their robes and marched primly to their places on the platform. .

The hall quickly filled up with American boys recuperating from sickness and injuries. Those fine young fellows in red corduroy bathrobes, limping to their places on the backless wooden benches of the hospital auditorium burned into my mind again the great and terrible cost of flesh and blood and Hfe energy that this- war is costing us. Looking at their sagging shoulders I said to myself: "How can people at home complain!"

But the shoulders straightened a bit as thie concert began and the boys became'lost in attention to the music. There was a long list of numbers by an excellent Chinese violinist as well as the numbers by the choir. At the conclusion of each item on the programme tbc J^oys

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

split the hull with their and they called lor encore after encore. For the space of two hours '■bey forgot that they were hemmed in on, three narrowing sides hv the enemy, with the only exit over the highest mountains in the world; they forgot their injuries and weakness; they were carried back home again on the wings <»f song from hearts of Chinese Christians; they were llown to this land of memories on the golden notes from the soulj of a Chinese violinist. j

When you hear criticism of the Chinese and stories, of the tough/ time your boys are having out here, remember that when they were sick in the hospital far away from home it was a group of Chinese Christians who cheered them with song.

Alter the final encores the army photographers got busy with- Hash cameras so now that act of goodwill by the Church of Christ in China is immortalised in the United States, Army pictorial records. Then the army did a nice thing; they treated the choir and friends to toasted cheese apple pie and coffee. The sandwiches were big ones made of two lull-sized slices of bread flanking very generous slabs of cheese. But Chinese people usually abhor cheese (a. thing the army is not apt to learn upon casual contacts:!). I watched with intense interest to see what would happen. True to their inherent sense iof courtesy every Chinese person there ate his cheese without the slightest sign of discomfort. The treat was accepted as sincerely as it was given and the whole thing was wound up with speeches, of appreciation from the American soldiers and the Chinese Christians. The incident which I have reported is but one of many similar incidents taking place wherever our service men meet Chinese Christians on this suffering continent. It is a challenge to the Christians of Amen rica to do the same thing for thousands of Chinese students and service men living in the United States today, It is only through acts of brotherhood and kindness like this that the Kingdom of God can be known on earth, -—A. R, Crouch in "Women and Missions,"