View source for Kai Chow (Henan Province, China)

Kai Chow (later Puyang) is<strong> </strong>one of the six counties on the southern tip of Hopei (Hebei) province (In 1987 Puyang was located in Henan [Honan] Province), [[People's Republic of China|China]], where the [[General Conference Mennonite Church (GCM)|General Conference Mennonite Church]] conducted mission work. Kai Chow was more commonly known by the name "P'u-yang," which was the proper government designation. This county was the largest of the six counties occupied by the mission and was central geographically. It had a population of approximately one-half million and an area 1,000 square miles. Besides the county seat there were some 50 larger market towns and hundreds of small villages.

In 1911 [[Brown, Henry Jacob (1879-1959)|H. J. Brown]] and his wife, [[Brown, Maria Miller (1883-1975)|Maria Brown]], purchased property in Kai Chow and started independent mission work, which in 1914 was taken over by the General Conference Mennonite Mission Board. In 1916 the first boys' school buildings were completed, and in 1918 a large church building, seating 800, was erected and a girls' school begun. In 1940 the mission property consisted of about 20 acres of land in the city and east suburb, on which were located two church buildings, five missionary homes, two primary schools, a coeducational middle school and a Bible school. The total student enrollment exceeded 500. There was also a hospital with 80-bed inpatient capacity and a daily outpatient count of about 100. The total church membership in the six counties was 2,273 in 1940, organized into 24 congregations. Thirteen of these, as well as nine preaching places, were in P'u-yang County. With the Japanese occupation, schools and hospital were overcrowded and relief work among refugees taxed all resources. By 1941 the missionary families with children left the station and the following year the five who remained were interned. Attempts were made to reopen the work after the war [in 1945] but the renewal of civil war between the Communist and Nationalist sides made this impossible.
= Bibliography =
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. <em class="gameo_bibliography">Mennonitisches Lexikon</em>. Frankfurt &amp; Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 450.
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