"Rev. Chen is really amazing, as he is still preaching in many places in his 90s. Thank the Lord for him!" said Rev. Lan Meihua of Zhushu Church in Xiamen.
In Flower Lane Church, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, on July 3, the 94-year-old Rev. Chen Yiping from Trinity Church in Xiamen was invited to give a sermon titled "Running Out of Wine", with hymns of "Jesus Lord, My Best Love Thou Art" and "The Eternal Love — The Seven Last Words" from a choir in Xiamen.
Born in 1927, Rev. Chen at a young age lived in Gulangyu, Xiamen, with his ancestral home in Nan'an, Quanzhou, Fujian. He began to learn how to administer teeth fillings after graduating when Heping County was liberated on September 17, 1949.
At that time, while working as an apprentice, Chen also engaged in developing Xiaoxi Chapel together with Pastor Zheng Zhengzhang. He went to find believers in villages and towns to lead them back to the church, setting up Heping County TSPM and serving as the first chairman.
In 1957, after graduating from the Yanjing Union Theological Seminary, Chen served in Trinity Church, Gulangyu, Xiamen, as a pastor. Soon after, he was mistakenly classified as a "rightist" and underwent reform through labor for 20 years, building railways in Sanming of Fujian, Ningxia, and other places. He returned to serve in Trinity Church after he was rehabilitated in 1979.
Once appointed as chairman of Xiamen CC&TSPM and senior pastor of Trinity Church, after retiring, he carried out a series of activities of training pastors, elders, deacons, and church volunteers, as well as pastoral care for believers, "traveling all over the city and countryside". He often said, "rural missions are my greatest burden."
- Translated by Abigail Wu
