Teacher and Missionary to China

 Lucy Mabel Andrus  (1889–1939)

Lucy Andrus taught in church schools in Minnesota and Washington State for a decade before giving 16 years of active mission service in China as a teacher and Bible worker.

Heritage

Lucy Andrus was born in Rochester, Minnesota, on September 21, 1889, to Truman and Clarissa (Lull) Andrus. Her father was a farmer and a former volunteer Union soldier. Her parents became Seventh-day Adventists when she was a toddler.

Church Career

Lucy attended Maplewood Academy, near Minneapolis, from 1904 through 1907, and then taught church schools in Bruno and Mankato, Minnesota, until 1909. She then enrolled at Walla Walla College to begin her formal training as a teacher. In 1911, she began teaching in the cold climate of the Naches Valley, Washington State but continued her training during the summer semesters. 

From 1918 through 1920, Lucy completed the Medical Evangelist’s Course at the College of Medical Evangelists, Loma Linda, California. With her years of teaching experience to her credit and some medical training, Lucy accepted an appointment to mission service in Shanghai, China. She arrived there in November 1920. Her special assignment was the instruction of the children of expatriate missionaries in the Shanghai English Church School.

Lucy agreed to teach the expatriate children for five years without a furlough provided she be reassigned at the end of the term and allowed to do Bible work among the Chinese women. While teaching the English language during those five years, she applied herself to studying the Chinese language and became very useful as an evangelist. She was able to utilize her teaching experience and apply it to instruction for the women with the use of simplified reading material concerning home health, the regular Sabbath School lesson studies, and stories about Biblical characters.

On May 26, 1934, Lucy sailed from Shanghai for a furlough in America. She returned to a new appointment involving Bible work among the women in the Shantung (or Shandong) Mission with headquarters in Jinan. Twelve months into her term, she suffered a debilitating stroke.

Back in the Homeland

Lucy made her home with one of her sisters located in Newberg, Oregon. Sadly, she remained an invalid. Her last days were spent in the Portland Sanitarium where she passed away on May 27, 1939, at the age of 49. Her resting place is in the Friends Community Cemetery at Newberg.

Condensed from the article by Milton Hook
Read the whole article:
https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=H8A1



 

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