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(1901) Oscar's Childhood

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In the mornings the family had a morning hymn, scripture reading, prayer and in the evening prayer together once again. All meals began with a prayer.

The children naturally picked up Chinese from Chinese children in their Chinese school and from their female servant (Amah) who took care of them while their parents were busy with missionary work. The parents were not always at home. Hedvig was teaching school and John was either preparing sermons, studying or writing in his home office or riding his horse to surrounding villages and preaching.

As a small boy Oscar enjoyed carrying two small buckets of water and watering the flowers in the evening in the family's vegetable and flower garden. Life could be monotonous except with the glad interruption of such events as Chinese weddings and funerals. The children would rush to the mission compound gate to see the colorful procession pass by with the sound of wind instruments filling the air.

The Rinells were a Western family in a Chinese environment, but they found a friendly and happy home with the Chinese people and took part in Chinese life such as the exchanging of presents with neighbors on Chinese festivals. Chinese friends visited their parents daily and were cordially received.

Though Oscar has many impressions of China as a boy, his strongest impression was being born and raised in a Christian and missionary home. This influence affected him the rest of his life.

A New Chapel

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First Chapel in Kiaohsien, 1901
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In 1901 a new house was purchased and along with some property and a chapel built along with . MacGillivray. A century of Protestant missions in China, (1807-1907), page 515. The building was in an 'L' shape so that the men could sit in one arm of the chapel and the women in the other. Men and women sitting separately was Chinese custom, and the proper thing to do. The rostrum was of course at the junction of the two arms, so the preacher was able to see the whole congregation. The chapel could hold 150 people. On the same site they built a street chapel with a caretaker's house [gatukapell medvaktmästarebostad]. The largest portion of the cost for these buildings was donated by the congregation themselves.

In 1901 another forty people were added to the congregation by baptism an impressive amount for any church.Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, The. Volume XXXVII. Shangahi: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1906, page 527. Do not know if this 40 was in Kiaohsien only or also included Chucheng.

[Note: Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, The. Volume XXXVII. Shangahi: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1906, page 527 says that three chapels in 'suitable centers' were built by the Chinese themselves. Perhaps the other two were in outlying villages. LJH 2008].

The Railway

1901 saw the completion of the Tsingtao-Kiaochow railway, built by the Germans.2 According to Oscar.

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Footnotes

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Foreign Devils: A Swedish Family in China 1894 to 1951
© 2012-14 Lennart Holmquist
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Updated: 10-Feb-2017

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