Saturday, February 6, 2016

Rev. Dr. David Gelzer 郭大衛牧師.



郭大衛牧師

Rev. Dr. David Gelzer 

       1919-2016


The first time I met Dr. Gelzer was at the campus of the Tainan Theological Seminary in 1975 when he was a visiting professor of theology and I was a pastor of the near by Tung-Ning Church where a lot of college and high school students gathered (including the SCM member students from Cheng-Kung University.)  Soon afterward, Rev. and Mrs. Gelzer were seen often in the Tung Ning church while Ms. Brown (a long time British missionary/campus minister) helped them understand the church services especially during the sermon.
 
I remember that during the introduction, Dr. Hsiao, then the president of the Seminary, told us that Gelzer was primary teaching the theology of the African and the theology of Reformation since he was working and teaching in the western part of Africa (Cameroon) as a missionary for more than twenty years.  From the casual conversation with the seminary students (I was also a part time lecturer then) I learned that Gelzer was virtually also teaching the [theology of hope] in the biblical sense.  After all, without faith, hope and love, what is left there then?

I learned a little news of Dr. Gelzer after I came to the States for further study in 1976 that he was very much involved with the struggle of the Taiwanese political movements in general and the Presbyterian Church clergy/members involvements in particular, especially during the so called Kaohsiung (Formosan) Incident in 1979.  Gelzer must have been standing closely with the Taiwanese,  the Presbyterian Church ministers and the members who suffered the unnecessary imprisonments – just because they wanted their voices to be heard. 

Then the next thing I heard was that Dr. and Mrs. Gelzer were expelled by the KMT in 1984, ten years after their service started in Taiwan as missionary.

Shortly after my retirement, I talked with Gelzer over the phone briefly.  His major concern was still the churches and the people in Taiwan as if he was from Taiwan, and was of Taiwan.

Dr. Gelzer was not the first missionary been expelled from Taiwan.  There were some British Presbyterian Missionaries and United States Reformed Church and Presbyterian Church missionaries left Taiwan that way too.  Let us hope that Gelzer would be among the last incident of the expelled missionary elsewhere.

After all, before his passing away on 1-23-2016, Dr. Gelzer must have heard or sensed the major change in Taiwan during the presidential election in 1-16-2016 where the KMT suffered a complete election defeat in the modern history of Taiwan
    
Dr. Gelzer had spent ten years in Taiwan as a PC-USA teaching missionary.  Yet he must have won, known to him or not, million Taiwanese hearts along the way.


Below is the Living history by Rev. Gelzer


                     From left : Mr. Gelzer / Dr. Gelzer / Ms. Brown / Mrs. Gelzer
                                                  In front of Tainan Tung Ning Church

Friday, March 22, 2013

Rev. Dr. H. Daniel Beeby - 彌迪理牧師

Daniel Beeby (1920.8.24 - 2013.3.18)                                          















 --- A British missionary with a Taiwanese heart                
 
Rev. Beeby was a British Reformed Church missionary, originally sent to Amoy, China, then to Tainan, Taiwan. He first was a teacher and the chaplain of the Chang Jung Middle School.  He then moved on to teach the Old Testament Theology at the Tainan Theological College and Seminary (TTCS). He also taught English at Cheng-kung National University part time. 

Dr. Beeby spent 22 years in Taiwan teaching Old Testament theology; preaching the love of God and the wisdom of the words of God, among others. He loved Taiwan so much that he once applied the citizenship of Taiwan, though unsuccessfully.   



  • Beeby was the first British missionary being expelled by the Communist China (1949-50) and the Nationalist KMT in Taiwan (1972)
 
  • He spoke better Taiwanese than many Taiwanese
 
  • He was one of the few who applied the citizenship of Taiwan
 
  • He said that a good preacher should be like a prophet in the Old Testament where he pointed out the sins of the enemies of Israel before the judgments of God would soon come down too; e.g., Amos to Israel
 
  • Perhaps better off by using the metaphors to point out the messages; e.g., Nathan to King David
 
  • He suggested that in the 1960’s, the only way to understand the Taiwanese newspapers was to read them “upside down
 
  • In 2001 Dr. Beeby was invited by the Midwest Taiwanese-American Association Annual Meeting held in Central College, as the keynote speaker. With his beautiful Taiwanese, Beeby began his speech by asking a simple yet stunning question, "What is the Taiwanese culture that you folks carry on here in the United States?”
 
  • He was the one who dreamed in Taiwanese language well into his retirement in England
 
Dr. Beeby's ultimate question remains true today: Where is Taiwan heading?


Links to references in Chinese -  
 

 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

台灣人的故事

The Stories of the Taiwanese 


James Laidlaw Maxwell 馬雅各 (1836-1921)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/04/dr-james-laidlaw-maxwell.html

Ko Tióng 高長 (1837-1912)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/03/mr-ko-ting.html

Lí Chhung-seng 李春生 (1838-1924)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/11/mr-li-chhung-seng.html

Hugh Ritchie 李庥 (1840-1879)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/07/rev-hugh-ritchie.html

William Campbell 甘為霖 (1841-1921)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/09/rev-william-campbell.html

George Leslie Mackay 馬偕 (1844-1901)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/03/rev-dr-george-leslie-mackay.html

Thomas Barclay 巴克禮 (1849-1935)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/04/rev-dr-thomas-barclay.html

Campbell N. Moody 梅監霧 (1866-1940)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/12/rev-dr-campbell-n-moody.html

David Landsborough III 蘭大衛 (1870-1957)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/05/dr-david-landsborough-iii.html

Yoichi Hatta 八田與一 (1886-1942)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/06/mr-yoichi-hatta.html

Lim Bo-seng 林茂生 (1887-1947)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/04/dr-lim-bo-seng.html

C Y Peng 彭清約 (1888-1969)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/01/dr-c-y-peng.html

The Liangs 梁道 (1888-1954); 梁炳元 (1913-1982); 梁許春菊 (1918-1997)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/11/dr-d-laing-dr-and-mrs-p-y-liang.html

Chhòa Pôe-hóe 蔡培火 (1889-1983)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/04/mr-chha-pe-he.html

Su-Beng Huang 黃俟命 (1890-1950)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/05/rev-su-beng-huang.html

W S Chiang 蔣渭水 (1891-1931)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/08/dr-w-s-chiang.html

Chong-Ming Du 杜聰明 (1892-1986)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/02/dr-chong-ming-du.html

Lai Ho 賴和 (1894-1943)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/02/dr-lai-ho.html

A-Sin Tsai 蔡阿信 (1896-1990)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/10/dr-sin-tsai.html

Chien Shih 施乾 (1899-1944)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/02/mr-chien-shih.html

C T Lin 林澄藻 (1900-1973)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/03/mr-c-t-lin.html

John Sung 宋尚節 (1901-1944)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/02/dr-john-sung.html

Lillian Dickson 孫理蓮 (1901-1983) http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/11/mrs-lillian-dickson.html

Liao Chi-Chun 廖繼春 (1902-1976)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/07/prof-liao-chi-chun.html

Loh Sian-Chhung 駱先春 (1905-1984)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2010/02/rev-dr-loh-sian-chhun.html

Lâu Chú-an 劉主安 (1905-1994)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2010/05/elder-lau-chu.html

Lōa Bûn-liông 賴文良 (1907-1986)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/07/mr-la-bn-ling.html

So Thian-bêng 蘇天明 (1911-2000)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/05/rev-so-thian-beng.html

C K Wu 吳振坤 (1913-1988)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/06/prof-c-k-wu.html

Shoki Coe / Ngⁿ Bú-tong 黃彰輝 (1914-1988) / 黃武東 (1909-1994)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2005/11/rev-dr-shoki-coe-and-rev-dr-b-t-huang.html


Chen-Yuan Lee 李鎮源 (1915-2001)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2009/01/dr-chen-yuan-lee.html

William Sia 謝緯 (1916-1970)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/01/rev-dr-william-sia.html

Wu Fu Chen 陳五福 (1918-1997)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/06/dr-wu-fu-chen.html


Marjorie Ingeleiv Bly 白寶珠 (1919-2008)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/09/marjorie-ingeleiv-bly.html

David Gelzer 郭大衛 (1919-2016)
http://storiesoftaiwanese.blogspot.com/2016/02/rev-dr-david-gelzer.html

Bo Yang 柏楊 (1920-2008)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/10/bo-yang.html

H Daniel Beeby 彌迪理 (1922-2013)
http://storiesoftaiwanese.blogspot.com/2013/03/rev-dr-daniel-beeby.html

Franklin Lee 李豐明 (1934-2005) http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2005/11/dr-franklin-lee.html

Chiau-Seng Hwang 黃昭聲 (1936-2006)
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2007/07/chiau-seng-hwang.html


Merry Christmas, Taiwan!
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-christmas.html

A Tribute to the Missionaries in Taiwan
http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-beautiful-sight.html