Missionary Extraordinaire: Home Is Where the Heart Is
By Darrell W. Wood, former missionary to Hong Kong, 1968-1973
The following article was written by the author while serving as a Baptist missionary to Hong Kong. The article appeared originally in the August 1973 issue of "The Commission" magazine of the Foreign Mission Board, SBC, (now International Mission Board).
As a graphics designer and Art Director of Baptist Press, international publishing center in the Hong Kong-Macau Baptist Mission, I've been asked to help with an endless variety of creative projects on the mission field--but perhaps the most unusual one had to do with a gravestone.
Fellow missionaries, led by Jaxie Short, chair of the HK-Macau mission, requested me to design an appropriate marker for the grave of Miss Ruth Pettigrew. Located in Happy Valley, a British colonial cemetery in Victoria on Hong Kong island, her resting place was shared by such notables as Henrietta Hall Shuck, first American woman Baptist missionary to China in 1836 who came to Hong Kong in 1842, and many others.
Who was Miss Pettigrew? After many questions and some research, I realized that the story of this "old China hand" was notable in its own right and ought to be shared. Thus, I wanted to design a simple but fitting tribute in stone. I felt it should be a memorial to inform strangers and remind friends of an unusual life--a life worthy to be remembered.
Home is where the heart is.
For 46 years, Miss Pettigrew, Southern Baptist missionary extraordinaire, gave heart and life to her beloved Chinese--first in China and later in Hong Kong.
Retired in 1959, she returned to the United States. But after such a long time away, few of her family or friends remained. Besides, she had left her heart and home halfway around the world. So after only a few months, Miss Pettigrew found herself back in Hong Kong as an independent missionary. For another seven years she served among those whom she felt still needed her love and witness.
On March 19, 1966, this quiet, unassuming emeritus missionary died in Hong Kong Baptist Hospital at age 76, bringing to full circle almost half a century of exceptional Christian service overseas.
Born in Florence County, South Carolina, in 1889, Miss Pettigrew first set foot on China's soil (the "good earth") in 1920. For more than 30 years she did evangelistic work in Kwangtung and Hunan provinces.
After the Communist takeover she was forced to flee her adopted homeland in 1951, one of the last three Southern Baptist missionaries to leave the mainland.
Transferring to Hong Kong, she soon established a new home and work in the New Territories, the rolling farmlands dotted with rice paddies that stretch 17 miles north of Kowloon to the barbed-fence border with Red China.
Miss Pettigrew had to be content to live within the shadow of the forbidden border, never again to enter the land she had loved so much.
Fellow missionaries who knew Ruth Pettigrew well speak glowingly of her. One tribute said: "Through all her years in the Orient, she identified herself with the people around her. She showed this in such practical ways as trying to improve their living and farming conditions, denying herself to share with those in need, and taking into her own home some who had special need for her daily love and care."
Among the youngsters in need whom Miss Pettigrew sheltered were the Chan sisters, Esther and Stella. When they were very young, their father abandoned them on the streets of Hong Kong. "Mother" Pettigrew took them in and loved them as her own.
Mei-Mei was another little girl taken home and cared for. Found wandering aimlessly, Mei-Mei had not eaten for three days when Miss Pettigrew discovered her. Her mother had died three years earlier, and her father, Tsin Chiang, was a heroin addict. But due to the loving efforts of their new friend, Mei-Mei and her father eventually accepted Christ and were baptized.
Besides her warm Christian spirit, Miss Pettigrew's ability in the Chinese language enabled her to make notable contributions to the work. For many years to come, her ministry will continue in the form of Bible literacy readers, tracts, and a textbook on personal evangelism, and in the many churches and chapels she helped establish.
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All this serves to remind us of a life worthy to be remembered.
As designer of her gravestone, my role played such a small part in the Ruth Pettigrew story. But I'm grateful to have helped in this "labor of love" for such a remarkable person.
Her epitaph appropriately reads: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings" (Romans 10:15). Chiseled into the white marble slab are a cross and branches, symbolizing peace and the hope of resurrection and eternal life in Christ. On the footmarker of the bilingual monument, Miss Pettigrew's Chinese name is inscribed, followed by the characters which translate: "American Southern Baptist missionary to China and New Territories."
This stands as a silent but eloquent testimony of who and what she was. For the outsider, it serves to inform; for the family of faith, it is also a reminder.
As I think of Miss Pettigrew's memorial, thoughts turn to my many other design projects, all quite different:
What does all this have to do with Ruth Pettigrew and her modest memorial? Despite the diversity, there is one thing these projects share in common: Their purpose is to inform and to remind. To inspire. To encourage.
These stand as markers or signposts along the way, declaring to the world the truths of our glorious history and heritage as Christians--and Baptists. Whether gravestone or hymnal cover, if they prompt recollection of those things worthy to be remembered, they will have rendered a worthwhile service.
As Samuel Johnson once said:
"Mankind requires oftener to be reminded than informed."
When we come to the Lord's table at Kowloon Baptist Church, we are reminded of the words of Christ in 1 Corinthians 11:25--"This do...in remembrance of Me."
How can we have a mere memorial of One who is still alive, still present and acting in us? He, above all, is worthy to be remembered.
Ruth Pettigrew lived and died by this great truth.
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