COMMENTARY: On the death of Han Wenzao (1923-2006)

Posted: 2/21/06

COMMENTARY:
On the death of Han Wenzao (1923-2006)

By Britt Towery

The news of the death of Dr. Han Wenzao in Nanjing caught my wife and me by surprise. Jody put her hand to her mouth, for it was like losing a member of the family. We paused to pray for his wife Zhuo Zhaohua, who was by his side for six decades.

For my wife and I, Han was as fine a Christian leader as we have ever met. The term "Christian statesman" fit Han Wenzao perfectly. We enjoyed the fellowship of the Hans in their home and work with the China Christian Council which he led for many years.

In 1953 when Jody and I felt God's leading us to China as missionaries political realities made it impossible. We took the next best assignment, that of Taiwan, the Republic of China, some 100 miles off the East China coast.

The mainland of China became the People's Republic of China in 1949 under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. America broke relations with the PRC and recognized Taiwan as "China." The Taiwan government and China proper remain to this day in an unresolved civil war. Though the two governments still do not recognize each other, they work well together in making money.

We were living in Hong Kong when the first opportunity to visit the China mainland came in 1982. Communist China was opening to the West more under the leadership of Chairman Deng Xiaoping. Christian churches began to receive their property back and worship in them was made possible by the able leadership of Bishop K.H. Ting and Han Wenzao.

In 1985 the Amity Printing Company was organized with Han Wenzao in a leadership role. The United Bible Societies of the world made possible the publishing of the Bible and hymn books in China for the first time in over 40 years. At the same time the Amity Foundation began programs for foreigners to teach English and other languages in universities and institutes. Work in health care and rural development helped the Chinese to see that Christianity was good for the country. His efforts narrowed the gap between believers and the citizens who knew so little of Christianity.

The Communist had made a great deal of how Christianity entered China with the blessings of foreign governments and had a part in the attempted dividing up of China as Africa had been treated by the European powers. It has taken time for the truth and value of Christianity to the people as a whole.

I met Han Wenzao the first time on a rainy February day in the Nanjing Theological Seminary. It was 1984 and after an exchange of letters arrangements were made to meet. My purpose was the possibility of making a documentary film that would relate what Christians in China had been through and where they were at the moment. There were to be no foreigners in the film, only testimonies by lay and clergy.

The need for Christians around the world to learn first-hand these things drove me to see if the SBC Foreign Mission Board would back such a venture. They were not as easy to convince as Han. As we talked for hours, he ask if I were a Baptist like Jimmy Carter or Jerry Falwell. Even then he knew the difference. I was the first Baptist he had met.

The film was made by the FMB (now International Mission Board) "Winter is Past" in 1985. Han's brief appearance in the film reveal the kind of man of faith he was. He told of the people loving the Bible and the faith of the re-opening churches were completely on biblical foundations.

Now, 20 years later, Amity has published over 40 million Bibles in China. (I have often said, that Chinese Bible is the only thing made in China that Wal-Mart does not sell.)

In 1994 on one of my last visits to China Han met my plane in Beijing and drove me to my hotel. As busy as he was with the People's Consultative Conference going on at the time, he wanted to keep up with his friends. I admired his ecumenical spirit and his many international trips opened the eyes of many that China was entering a new era in Christian history.

The healing between the Christians in Taiwan and the mainland was further strengthen when Samford University honored Han and a Taiwan colleague, Chow Lien-Hwa, with doctorates. That university should be proud of such an honor at a time when healing was needed between Taiwan and mainland China.

As Philip Wickeri, close friend of the Han family, wrote: "May they [the family] find comfort in knowing that he will be remembered all over the world, and that his work for China, for the Amity Foundation and for the Church will constitute his living legacy."

Britt Towery of San Angelo was a missionary in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for 30 years.