Sonya Grypma appointed Dean of TWU School of Nursing
Trinity Western University is pleased to announce the appointment of Sonya Grypma, RN, Ph.D., as the Dean of the School of Nursing, effective May 16, 2013.
Grypma joined the School of Nursing from the University of Lethbridge six years ago, having just completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. A leading scholar in the history of nursing and global health, Grypma has gained an international reputation for her work on missionary nursing in China, through her groundbreaking book “Healing Henan: Canadian Nurses at the North China Mission, 1888–1947”; and subsequent “China Interrupted: Japanese Internment and the Reshaping of a Canadian Missionary Community.”
Nurse, Dean, Professor, Historian. Author of “Healing Henan” & “China Interrupted”
China Interrupted
Japanese Internment and the Reshaping of a Canadian Missionary Community
Subjects Religion, Medical, History Of Medicine, History, Military History
James R. Menzies: healing and preaching in early 20th-century China
Map of the North Honan mission from Foster's PhD thesis, pg. 377/378.The Canadian Presbyterian Mission was one of the first to station and permanently establish itself in Honan (now known as Henan) north of the Yellow River in 1881. Student volunteers of the Canadian Presbyterian Church reached Honan in 1888 and established a station in Weihwei (now known as Weihui) in 1891.
Medical service was very important to the Canadian Presbyterian mission in Honan because it made the Chinese people more willing to accept the teachings of the gospel. The Chinese people of Honan otherwise resented the missionaries and their evangelism but since they came to Honan with certain medical expertise that the Chinese themselves did not have they were more inclined to listen to what they had to say in exchange for these new medicinal practices.[1]
Dr. William McClure holding a Clinic, in Honan, n.d. The first converts of the North Honan mission came from mostly rural areas within the province rather than the larger cities. Rural citizens seemed to be more receptive than those citizens living in cities like Honan.
The Chinese church that the mission had created spread through the countryside of North Honan to result in 123 congregations by 1925. Central stations at Wuan, Changte, Tao Kou, Weihwei, Siu Wu and Hwaiking all housed mission compounds. By 1925 the mission membership was made up of 32 men, 26 wives, 33 single women and with help from 11 Chinese ministers and 152 Chinese evangelists the mission had created a Christian community of 9157 people in China. As well as fostering evangelic work, the mission had set up 93 day schools, 8 boarding schools, 4 high schools, and 2 bible training schools by 1925 and became involved with Shantung Christian University, also known as Cheeloo University in 1916.
Cheeloo University, n.d.
The North Honan mission is represented by 51 slides in the John William Foster fonds. The slides reflect the rural areas and residents of North Honan, medical work brought by the Church and images of Cheeloo University among other aspects of missionary work in the area. The North Honan mission slides reflect the wide range of work that took place over the years and the wide range of the people who were involved in the process.
Take a look at this map to see the North Honan Mission locations and some corresponding slides.
[1] Foster, John. “The Imperialism of Righteousness: Canadian Protestant missions and the Chinese Revolution: 1925-1928,” (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1976) page 389. JOFO-005
