The early missionaries to this region were assisted by many local “Asiatic” men and women who helped bear the heavy burdens that missionary work entailed. Mrs Nathalie Toms Means, wife of the then Editor of Methodist Message, paid proper tribute to these pioneering Christian workers in the Jubilee issue of the paper.
‘THE Methodist Church in Malaya was begun by missionaries, but very soon that small band of pioneers was strengthened by Asiatic workers who loyally helped to bear the heavy burdens of those early years.
The very first Asiatic worker to come to Mr Oldham’s assistance was G. W. Underwood, a Tamil Christian who early in 1887 began work among this own people and soon formed a church. He helped Miss Blackmore to get a girls’ school started in August 1887, just one month after her arrival.
Underwood was the first representative of the Mission to explore the interior of the peninsula and following his trip to Perak in 1889 it was decided that he should be sent to that distant state as Mission Evangelist. Before he could return however, he contracted pneumonia. By his death the Mission lost a zealous worker and fiery evangelistic, not soon to be replaced.
The first Chinese workers, except Dr West’s helper, Lim Hoi Toh, were recruited from the workmen of the Mission Press. Lau Seng Chong came from China as a printer but under Dr Shellabear’s tutelage developed into an excellent preacher and when Dr West went to Penang in 1895 Seng Chong was ordained a local deacon and went with him.
Finally, in 1899 he was sent to take charge of the struggling work in Malacca and was ordained local elder in 1900. His death in 1902 almost spelled disaster to the Malacca work, for there was no one qualified to take his place, until finally in 1904 W. G. Shellabear went to Malacca. The second printer to turn preacher was Yan Whatt, a Borneo-born Chinese who spoke excellent Malay. He was of great assistance to Dr Shellabear. His decision to return to Borneo was a blow to the work which he had so successfully carried on …
Simon Peter was a Tamil who, soon after the work was begun in Penang, showed great ardour and devotion in Christian work. He became pastor of the Tamil Church and was instrumental in opening a Tamil Boys’ School and several Tamil Sunday Schools. Simon Peter was the first Tamil to be ordained in Malaya and to become a member of Conference. So well did he carry on work in Penang that in 1900 he was sent to Singapore to revive the Tamil work which had languished for several years.
Mrs Pykett hated to lose Simon Peter, although she had a good helper in P. Gnanamuthu (elder brother of S. S. Pakianathan). This latter worker had only begun his career when he was stricken with cholera. So many fine workers were thus taken in those early years!
The first Chinese member of the Conference was Ling Ching Mi, whom Dr Luering arranged to have transferred from the Foochow to the Malaysia Conference in 1897.
When in 1898 Dr B. F. West began the theological school in Penang, his Chinese helper was Ong Oan Lai. Several of the very early pupils in what later became the Jean Hamilton Training School became splendid workers, of whom the most outstanding were Kong Iau Siong and Khoo Chiong Bie (Khoo Chiang Bee).
Kong Iau Siong, after serving as pastor in Kuala Lumpur, in 1905 became a teacher in the Training School, where he gave several years of valuable service. Khoo Chiong Bie worked among the Hokkien and Straits Chinese of Penang until 1907 when he was sent to the new work in Java. Although the work was begun by J. R. Denyes in 1905 Khoo Chiong Bie can truly be called one of the pioneers in our Java Mission. Since joining the British & Foreign Bible Society, he goes pioneering all over Malaysia, taking the Gospel to lands and peoples as yet untouched by the great message.
When Dr Kensett began the work in Kuala Lumpur he soon realised the need of a Tamil helper and was joyful when Samuel Abraham came from Ceylon in 1899. Abraham took charge of the Boys’ School and also became pastor of the Tamil Church. Both the school and the church thrived and grew. Dr Kensett left and Kuala Lumpur was for some time without a missionary and then through the years had many changes in the missionary staff, but Mr Abraham was the anchor who held the work. Released from school work in 1904, when the school had become so large that it could not possibly be looked after by a busy pastor, Mr Abraham did such excellent work among the Tamils of Selangor that in 1913 he was made the first Asiatic District Superintendent in Malaya …
The first Methodist representative to huge Sumatra was S. S. Pakianathan. Indeed he is twice a pioneer for he began the work in Medan and later was sent to Palembang to open a school, the Mission’s entering wedge. It was not until several years after Pakianathan went to Medan that the first missionary went to Sumatra.
In north Sumatra, as work developed it was decided in 1921 to begin work in the great jungle of Asahan and again the man chosen was an Asiatic, this time a Batak, Lamsana L. Tobing. Lamsana Tobing is not the only Batak pioneer however, for the first missionary to the Sakais in the jungles of Malaya is also a Batak – Alexander Simoendjoentak. His work is pioneering, indeed, for he is far from home, amid most primitive conditions and when he goes with his wife into the jungle to his little station he must stay for months.
In spite of the conventions and restrictions which hampered women in those early days, there were nevertheless women pioneers who loyally added their contributions to the work. Dr West arranged to have a trained Bible woman sent from Amoy to Penang in 1896 and at about the same time, Thangamal, a Tamil Bible woman was secured, both these women being supported through the generosity of the British & Foreign Bible Society.
Ong Char Kor and Kuan Pat Sam who came in 1903 through many years of service were very valuable and helped to build up the church so much that a plea came from Ipoh for a Bible woman. Sam Ku was also supported by the Bible Society and brought many Cantonese women into the church in Ipoh.
Realising the need for ONG CHAR KOR: Served for trained women workers the many years in church.
Mission established the Bible Women’s Training School in 1901. The first Chinese teacher was Mrs Lim Chin Eng, a woman who through many years of service greatly influenced the women in the school and brought many into the knowledge of Christ.
In Borneo, Mrs Hoover thanked God for Mrs Wong, and in Java and Sumatra zealous women carried the Gospel into the homes. Though pastors’ wives are rarely mentioned or honoured many have been as useful as their husbands in the pioneering work.
Very few of our Asiatic pioneers are still with us but their names must not be forgotten.’ — Methodist Message Jubilee 1935, p.35 ff.
Earnest Lau, the Associate Editor of Methodist Message, is also the Archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore.
