AndersonBL

Parentage: Father Neils Andersen (1827-1916) and mother Karen Andersen (1834-1906)

In 1905 he married Julia Peterson, a nurse from Poy Sippi, WI.

Siblings: The three brothers, Jacob N. Anderson (eldest), Benjamin L Anderson (next), Hans P. Anderson (youngest) in total served over 100 years with the SDA church.

Education: Trained in Milton College, Milton, WI, Battle Creek College, MI, and Union College, NE. Later received a Master degree from University of Colorado.

Service: He and his wife went to Kulangsu, Amoy as missionaries in 1906. They worked in south China for over 40 years as evangelist, educator, and mission administrator.

Helping the Women of China

Once the Bee Wha School for boys was built, "Aunt Julia" (as Mrs Julia Anderson was affectionately known among the younger generation of missionaries), persuaded her husband to purchase another piece of land on top of hill at Kulangsu to build a school for girls. At that time, co-education was unheard of in China. Again the challenge of financing such a new venture entailed a lot of work.

Initially, Julia Anderson taught the Chinese ladies to do fancy needlework and crochet to make pillow cases, napkins, and small table top covers. She asked her friends in the US to sell those products. The proceeds were saved in a bank for the new girl school. But the saving did not grow fast enough. So she started a dairy business in the (boy) school ground and started to sell fresh milk to the Europeans and rich Chinese living in the region. But the milkman that she employed decided to cheat by mixing more water with the milk, so that he could pocket the milk money. When Aunt Julia found out, she immediately dismissed the local milkman and got up a 3.00am each morning to supervise the work of pasteurizing, bottling, and sealing the milk containers, to ensure the quality of their milk. At the bottom of the hill where the buffaloes took their baths, Aunt Julia planted some lotus flowers. She would harvest the flowers and the lotus seeds and sold them for income. In addition to being a diligent missionary's wife, she was a real entrepreneur looking for every possible means to raise funds for the girl school.

After 32 years of labor, the Bee Hwa Girls' School was completed and turned over to the mission free of debt by Mrs Anderson. This is her greatest gift to the women of China.

Sino-Japanese War

When the Sino-Japanese war broke out, Xiamen soon fell into the hands of the Japanese Imperial army in May 10-12, 1938. While Mrs. Julia went to Hong Kong, Elder B.J. Anderson was visiting some church members in the Xiamen area separated from his wife. While there, he was interned by the Japanese army by placing him under house arrest in his own home in Kulangsu. Although his movement was restricted by Japanese soldiers, he was able to get some food and cooked his own meals. He remained in interment at Kulangsu until the end of the Second World War, virtually isolated from the rest of the world.

Soon Hong Kong was also occupied by the Japanese military machine. Julia Anderson was not as fortunate. Since America is at war with Japan, she was taken to the Stanley Concentration Camp, on the south side of the Hong Kong island. There, together with all the internees, she was subject to the starvation diet which caused her already weaken health condition to deteriorate. Furthermore, inmates in the Stanley Camp were rarely allowed to communicate with the outside world. So loneliness and isolation increased her worry about her husband who was in inland China, as she had not heard from him for many years.

When the ship "Gripsholm", probably in 1943(5?), took the first batch of prisoner of war exchange back to New York harbor, the first thought and request that Julia Anderson made was, where was her internee husband in China? The friends who met her in the New York harbor took her back to their Washington home, where she rejoined her husband. With love, care, freedom, and nutritious food, she regained her health and strength within three months. But her eye sight continued to fade as a result of the ordeal that she went through during the war.

Final Years

Benjamin and Julia Anderson both gave over 40 years to mission service. After World War II, even when they returned to the US, their hearts were with the many Chinese youths they educated, who they urged to return to China to serve their own people. This was the reason for their sacrifice.

Julia Anderson passed away on June 30, 1958 in Licoln, NE, while one of her "Chinese son" Timothy Ling (林德泉) and his wife were by her side. Though Elder B.L. Anderson lived for another 4 years, he too lost his memory, and was taken care of by Brother and Sister Timothy Ling in Takoma Park, MD. Our pioneer missionary, B.L. Anderson passed away on October 4, 1962 in Takoma Park, MD.