Recently several Chinese pastors and believers expressed their sorrow at the passing of a former foreign teacher at China's national theological seminary who died at the age of 79.
Flossie Faye Pearson or Pei Fei, who started teaching at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary (NUTS) in 1998, passed away in the United States in the early hours of February 20, 2019, local time.
According to Rev. Li Chunhai, the seminary's graduate who now serves in the United States, the American missionary came to China the first time in 1994 and was introduced to the China Christian Council (CCC) & Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) leaders at that time by Taiwan legendary pastor Rev. Chou Lien-hua. He was in charge of introducing teachers to the seminary and the Amity Foundation and also established a hospice care center in Nanjing.
In 1997, Han Wenzao, the president of the CCC&TSPM, came to visit her at her home in Mississippi and invited her to work in the Amity Printing Company, the World's largest Bible production factory. She accepted.
In 2002, she returned to work at the Taiwan Baptist Christian Seminary (TBCS) as the director of the missions department. Rev. Chen Yilu, the standing vice-dean of NUTS, who was the speaker at TBCS' commencement service, met her in 2007.
Flossie had served in Taiwan and mainland China for 42 years.
She was born in Myrick, Laurel, Mississippi, and less than eight hours after her birth, mother passed away. She later was told that her mother had dedicated her to the Lord some weeks previous.
Growing up with her grandparents, she often followed them to church, attending Primitive Baptist Church, where she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior.
At the age of 12, she received a missionary calling from God while at a missions conference. Since childhood, she had a strong love for China. Her grandfather frequently shared about China and Chinese culture with her and she attended a Cantonese-speaking Chinese church while studying theology in Fort Worth, Texas. During the period in which she served at Oklahoma Baptist University, she met some Chinese people with whom she talked about the struggles and hardships of Chinese. After graduation from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Flossie worked in some state unions of the Baptist church.
On October 8, 1968, she officially was officially sent as a missionary to China by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). While she was involved in student ministry there, learning Chinese was a challenge for her. In 1972 she commenced ministry at Kaohsiung medical colleges, universities, and training centers. Many young students from Hong Kong were converted to Christianity. By 1981 she had gained more understanding and knowledge about the Chinese language and culture. In 1981 she held the post of the director of the education department at TBCS. Seven years later, she assumed the office of the secretary general of the mission department of SBC in Asia. Later she was promoted to secretary in charge of the missions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Okinawa, and three other closed countries.
In the recent decade, she returned to her hometown in the U.S. due to health problems.
In her four-year battle against cancer, during the late stages of the disease, she still served in a local Chinese church. From April to June 2018, she taught Sunday school training courses in the church.
Rev. Chou Lien-hua, the "emperor's pastor" to Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling, gave her her Chinese name "Pei Fei" which means "beauty, grace, and elegance".
She said, "If I have 42 more years, I will give it to the Chinese people without reservation! "
- Translated by Karen Luo
