PETRA TUNHEIM: PRESIDENT OF THE WEST JAVA MISSION (1913–1915)

 Women’s History Month

Petra Tunheim was born on February 18, 1871, in the town of Hatteland, Norway.[i] She was the youngest of 10 siblings in a family of farmers and spent most of her childhood “herding sheep and reading her Bible on the lonely hillsides” of her native country.[ii] In 1892, after the death of her father, she emigrated to the United States along with her mother and four brothers. There she learned about the Adventist faith and enrolled at Union College, where she also worked as a teacher.[iii]

For a time, she devoted herself to canvassing, until she read in a magazine the need that the church had for missionaries abroad. In 1903 she traveled to Australia, where she worked as a literature evangelist with great success.[iv]

In 1906, during the annual meeting of the Australasian Union, Miss Tunheim offered herself as a volunteer to go to Java as a missionary.[v] Her work initially focused on the city of Surabaya. There a Protestant Dutch woman invited her to go to her mission station. Eventually, she handed over the command of the station to Ms. Petra who took it upon herself to lead and manage it.[vi]

During these years Petra Tunheim sold literature, gave Bible readings, led Sabbath School classes, provided basic medical care, and preached.[vii] In the city of Pangoengsen, she started and led a Sabbath school with about 150 new members.[viii]

Petra Tunheim also used to travel to rural villages in the area, treating the sick with simple remedies and preaching easy-to-understand biblical themes.[ix] Her ministry was not only successful, but she also had the opportunity to witness miracles. For example, the daughter of one of the women who studied the Bible was healed of her illness after Petra Tunheim prayed for her.[x]

On every mission trip, Miss Tunheim carried a briefcase full of evangelistic literature to sell.[xi] The result was sometimes surprising. A Dutch official received an Adventist tract. He was so interested that he sent letters asking for more material and despite never having met an Adventist in person, he began holding religious meetings on Sabbath with his friends to whom he lent the books that had been sent to him.[xii]

On another occasion, a Muslim boy named Menan Diredga saw a torn letter written in Malay in the trash can at the home of his Adventist neighbors. Out of curiosity, he stole the remains of the letter and reassembled it to read its content. To his surprise, it turned out to be a letter from Petra Tunheim inviting his neighbors to re-consecrate their lives and prepare for the Second Coming and God’s judgment. Menan could not sleep all night, feeling his complete lack of preparation for the soon arrival of Christ as Judge. The next day he returned to his neighbours’ house, apologised for stealing the letter, and asked for more information about the Second Coming. Soon after, he was able to visit Miss Tunheim, who gave him a Bible in Malay. The young man decided to keep the Sabbath and began to attend Sabbath School.[xiii]

In 1913 the West Java Mission was organised, and Petra Tunheim was named its president and treasurer.[xiv] The center of its activity was in the city of Batavia. The Seventh-day Adventist Church differentiates a “mission” from a “conference” by its self-sustaining capacity and missionary needs, among other factors. However, the president of a mission and a conference essentially share the same responsibilities and have the same authority over their respective territory.

During these years of work, Miss Tunheim suffered several times from severe tropical diseases, such as malaria. However, she fulfilled her administrative and ecclesiastical duties even when she was ill.[xv] In 1915 her health deteriorated so much that she had to return to the United States to restore her physical condition.[xvi] A year later she returned to Java to resume her evangelistic work, but in 1919 she again had to leave after being attacked by the disease; this time she went to Shanghai.[xvii]

At the Sanitarium of Shanghai, she began to learn Mandarin Chinese. This was her seventh language. In addition to Norwegian, her mother tongue, she spoke English, Dutch, Malay, Javanese, and Cantonese Chinese. In a matter of a few months, she was giving Bible studies in Mandarin Chinese.[xviii]

In Shanghai, she was diagnosed with cancer. WH Miller, the director of the Sanitarium, offered to keep her as a patient for as long as she lived. She refused. Instead, she wanted to go back to Java and spend her last days preaching to her Malay friends. Unfortunately, her health was quite poor and she died en route on the ship taking her from Singapore to Batavia.[xix]

The Australasian Record published an obituary titled “A Modern Heroine”:

“This heroine, whose Christian life and works compare well with the most famous records of mission annals, visited four continents, made nine long sea voyages, learned seven languages! Her influence was always for the right, witnessing for the truth she believed; her prayers were unmistakably earnest; her testimonies were constantly ringing with the inspiration of soul-saving effort.”[xx]

After her death, the new president of the West Java Mission decided to finish the construction of the Batavia temple as a memorial for Miss Tunheim, who had started it 10 years earlier. The inhabitants of the city of Batavia not only donated high-quality materials but also sent workers to build the church, as a “token of their affection for her”. Once completed, the church could seat 500 people.[xxi]

Charles H Watson, president of the General Conference from 1930 to 1936, wrote: “I visited Singapore many times, and always I made a pilgrimage to Miss Tunheim’s grave. I used to feel I was looking at the resting place of a saint.”[xxii]

Extract from the Article by  Eric E Richter in the Adventist Record of December 17, 2020 entitled Women conference presidents: a forgotten historyrecord.adventistchurch.com/2020/12/17/women-conference-presidents-a-forgotten-history/

Photo: Adventist Record

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[i] Milton Hook, “Skadsheim, Petra (Tunheim) (1871–1923)”, Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, available on: encyclopedia.adventist.org/article (accessed on August 14, 2020).

[ii] Milton Hook, An Oriental Foster Child: Adventism in South-East Asia before 1912, Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series 23 (Wahoonga: South Pacific Division Deparment of Education, n.d.), 12.

[iii] GA Wood, “Fallen on the way to the people she loved”, Review and Herald, November 8, 1923, 22.

[iv] Petra T Skadsheim, “My experience in Periodical Work”, Union Conference Record, November 1, 1903, 6-7

[v] E H Gates, “From a Pioneer missionary”, Australasian Record, January 6, 1936, 4.

[vi] Hook, “Skadsheim, Petra (Tunheim) (1871–1923)”.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] A Nordstrom, “Sabbath-School at Pangoengsen, Java”, Union Conference Record, November 22, 1909, 6.

[ix] [John Fulton], “Pastor Fulton in Java”, Union Conference Record, September 12, 1910, 8.

[x] Petra Tunheim, “Good News from a Far Country”, Australasian Record, May 27, 1912, 2.

[xi] “Notes”, Asian Division Mission News, April 1917, 4.

[xii] “Seed-sowing in the Dutch East Indies”, Asiatic Division Outlook, June 15, 1921, 6.

[xiii] George A Campbell, “Won By a Missionary Letter”, Australasian Record, December 6, 1943, 5-6.

[xiv] ME Diredja, “The Early Advent Movement”, Far Eastern Division Outlook, August 1956, 8. See also Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington DC: Review and Herald, 1914), 130; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington DC: Review and Herald, 1915), 134.

[xv] AG Daniells, “West Java”, Australasian Record, July 19, 1915, 4.

[xvi] Hook, “Skadsheim, Petra (Tunheim) (1871–1923)”.

[xvii] Ibid.

[xviii] Lulu S VanBuskirk, “Her Life for Java”, Eastern Canadian Messenger, September 9, 1924, 5

[xix] CH Watson, “Memories I Cherish – The Lone Woman Missionary”, Australasian Record, August 27, 1962, 4.

[xx] Milton G. Conger, “A Modern Heroine”, Australasian Record, March 10, 1930, 3.

[xxi] Watson, “Memories I Cherish – The Lone Woman Missionary”, 4.

[xxii] Ibid.