Pioneer Missionary to China

 Emma Marie (Thompson) Anderson (1865–1925)

Emma Marie Thompson Anderson was a pioneer Adventist missionary to China, author, bookkeeper, Bible worker, and educator. She along with her husband, Jacob, and sister, Ida Thompson, were the first group of official missionaries to China in 1902.

Early Life

Emma Thompson was born May 6, 1865, in Lone Rock Valley, Wisconsin, to Ozro (1839-1928) and Martha Elizabeth (1844-1912) Thompson. She attended a country elementary school, and later a high school in Mauston, Wisconsin. At the age of 17, she began teaching at a public school and would continue teaching for the next five years. She subsequently studied for three years at the University of Chicago and Nebraska State University. In 1887, she became a Bible worker in the Wisconsin Conference. She also attended a short course of instruction in giving Bible readings from George B. Starr in Chicago, Illinois. She served as Sabbath School secretary and then president of the Sabbath School Association for the state and promoted religious education. For the next five years, she served as a Bible worker in the Wisconsin Conference. On December 22, 1896, she married Jacob Nelson Anderson. They had three children, two of whom were born in China.

Journey to China

In 1901 Emma responded to a call with her husband, Jacob, out of a sense of “conviction of duty and the call of the Mission Board” to serve in China. They traveled by train, arriving in

San Francisco only a few hours before their ship, American Man of the Tayo Kisen Kaisha, left at 1:00 p.m. on January 4, 1902. Eight days later, the Anderson party arrived in the harbor of Honolulu, Hawaii. Twelve more days across the Pacific Ocean brought the Andersons to Yokohama, Japan. After traveling along the coast of Japan, they finally made it to their destination, the harbor of Hong Kong, on February 2, 1902. Their journey had taken a total of twenty-nine days.

Missionary Work

During their early ministry in China, Emma teamed up with her sister, Ida, and frequently went to visit some of the women in the countryside. She befriended them, held Bible readings, and developed a network of women interested in the Adventist message. Emma was especially concerned with the widely accepted custom of the day, which gave preferential treatment to men and denigrated women, resulting in many undesirable practices against Chinese women. She determined to devote much of her efforts to the improvement of the lives of Chinese women through education and healthy practices.

Widespread changes occurred between 1905 and 1906, setting off a wave of nationalism and a desire to modernize China.

The Andersons avoided having a mission “compound,” instead living among the people with all of its “sights, sounds, and smells.” Furthermore, she developed relationships with people.

On June 24, 1907, a major turning point was the baptism of the first three girls (aged 11, 14, and 16) from the girls’ school. Emma’s special task was keeping the mission books. In 1907, she was asked to return to Hong Kong where the General Conference provided remuneration and rent for an apartment while she audited the church books. By this time, she also had become fluent in Mandarin and assisted in the creation of Sabbath School lessons. Emma served as the first chronicler of the history of early Adventist missionary work in China. Emma continued to look for opportunities to do ministry, especially as her husband increasingly traveled to encourage other missionaries, conduct evangelism, and lay out strategic plans. She stayed behind to provide continuity and stability effectively running the home missionary base.

She was especially helpful with her nursing skills, and, for example, began to develop a reputation as the “foot doctor” because she was so successful at helping those who cut their feet to get better or women with bound feet.

Permanent Return and Illness

While in China, Emma contracted a tropical disease. She left with her husband to attend the 1909 General Conference session. Her continued poor health necessitated church leaders voting to have her move to the Washington Sanitarium for further medical treatment in March 1910. Jacob meanwhile returned to China in late 1909 but came back in late 1910 on permanent return from mission service to assist his wife with her continued medical challenges. They would initially relocate to Washington, DC, where Jacob taught in the Foreign Mission Seminary, and Emma could have ready access to medical treatment at the Washington Sanitarium. She passed away on November 25, 1925, and was buried in the Mauston-Oakwood Cemetery in Mauston, Wisconsin. 

 Condensed from the article by  Michael W. Campbell
Read the whole article:
https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=EIKT

 

 








 

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