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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-07881 to 363-07887.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-07881 to 363-07887
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Title
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Article about missionary work in Malaysia
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Description
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Article draft about Methodist missionary work in Sarawak, Malaysia, for the Associated Press
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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B. A. Deepe
% Associated Press
Mercury Building
Robinson Road
Singapore
Page 1
SIBU, SARAWAK--In 1935, a Nebraska Methodist missionary
and his wife arrived in this remotely primitive country to act as
minister and to supervise xxx Christian primary schools.
In
The Rev. and Mrs. Gerald V. Summers, both graduates of Nebraska
Wesleyan, had a sizable job in this small city, the commercial center
of Sarawak, situated upstream on the tempermental Rejang River.
this British Crown Colony, situated on the northwestern tip of Borneo
island, the tropical jungle prevents an efficient communication system
and
the marked advance of civilization.
The Nebraska missionery and Chinese residents in the area hoped
to build the first high school in the country. Although the Methodists
had established a primary school system, students had to go to China
or Singapore for advanced work.
to
As plans were being laid for the high school, Rev. Summers went
Singapore in December, 1941, to attend the annual Methodist Conference.
War karke broke out; he was interned by the Japanese for three and
MEDIEVAL
a häff years in Changi prison, a medovial fort-like structure situated
near one of Singapore's lovely seasides. His wife and children fled to
India.
He worked in the prison's cabin cobbler shop during the Occuaption
as each cxx captive was assigned a specific duty. On September 5, 1959
1945, news arrived that Singapore had been liberated by the Briitish.
But several hours later, Rev. Summers died, a victim of beri-beri.
(More)
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Deepe
Page 2
Rev. Summers is still remembered in Sarawak. His dream has been
attained. The Methodist High School, housed in the Summers
Memorial Building, was started five years after his death with the
generous funds of Nebraska Methodists.
the
The annual Nebraska Conference of the Methodist Church pledged
U. S. $100,000 for the buying of land and the building of a high school,
which started by teaching Chinese, the predominant race in the ta
towns of Sarawak. In 1951, the school graduated he first Chinese high
school class in the country. Several years later, an English department
was added, the first in the Rejang River area, where this town of 30,000
population lies.
After contributing to the high x school, Nebraska Methodists
did not stop their efforts. Three other significant contributions
have grafted a bit of Nebraska to this country two-thirds the size of
the Cornhusker State.
In 1947,
Bishop Watts (now deceased) of the Nebraska Area,
made a tour of Sarawak. He was so impressed with the Summers high school
that he recommended Nebraska Methodists raise z U. S. $45,000 for a
block of science classrooms and equipment. In 1959, the Bishop H.
ABORATORIES
Bascom Watts Science Hall was opened with four fully-equipped labatories
for home economics, biology, chemistry and physics, plus additional
classrooms.
Another graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan, Miss Sandra McCaig, came
to Sarawak on a three-year teaching assignment. The short-haired
Nornhusker is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Sidney L. McCaig, of 2640
No. 48th Street, Lincoln. Dr. McCaig is program director of the
Nebraska Conference. Miss McCaig is now on home leave.
The third Nebraska project was assisting a graduate of the
Summers High School to attend Nebraska Wesleyan.
has been studying there for several years.
Miss Lee Chew
This reporter made a tour of the school with the Rev. D. P.
Coole, field treasurer of the Methodist Church in Sarawak and former
primcipal of the school from 1952 to 1957.
(More)
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Deepe
Page 1.3.
frequent fisitor.
A native of Kansas, Rev. Coole can be claimed by Nebraska as a
He toured the Cornhusker State in 1958 on assignments
from the Conference, crisscrossing the state from Omaha to Scottsbluff,
Stopping
from Hebron to the northern border, sopping in Chadron to visit his
sister and brother-in-law, the Rev. and Mrs.
Congregational Church. The missionary, who
Leland W. Mann # of the
admitted his liking for
bright-colored sport shirts, attended the June, 1961, Nebraska Methodist
annual conference in Omaha and learned that the last portion of the
$45,000 mm for the science hall had been raised.
Rev. Coole spoke of some of the problems of operating the
Christian school.
"I remember when the Iban school boys from upriver brought
their parangs to Sibu," Raxx he recalled, pointing out that Ibans
had once used their long-knifed weapons to be reputed as the most
ferocious headhunters in Asia.
"The Ibans thought the parangs would be useful to cut the
school yard grass, he explained. "But the Chinese school boys
thought they would be used for in lopping off some heads. To maintain
calm in the school, I had to confiscate the parangs until Christmas
vacation when the Ibans took them home."
Earlier, Mrs. Coole, a native of Creston, Iowa, served cinnamon
robls--a rare treat here--and safe coffee. She said a serious
problem facing missionary teachers was the Iban custom of "ngayap,"
in w which unwed teenage girls are allowed "trial marriages" before
selecting a husband.
consisted of a
The school, nestled among jungle-like trees
windowless, two-story structure suitable for the equatorial climate.
The top floor of a T-shaped wing houses a large assembly hall seating
800 students with a large stage, making it one of the best school halls
in the country.
A
Downstairs in the building is the school library and classrooms.
girls' hostel, accommodating 80 students, stands nearby. I Plans are
being made to build a boys' hostel to house 100 to 150 students from the
up-river areas.
(More)
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Deepe
Page 4
The school had changed a great deal from the early post-war
temporary structures of grass-roofed sheds built among the jungle
clearings, Rev. Coole said.
A relatively quiet atmosphere prevailed around the school during
the tour for the students were taking their final exams, sent out and
corrected by Cambridge University in England. The students have three
terms, one of which begins in mid-January after afive-week vacation.
Rev. Coole explained that the Summers high school was actually
two schools in one. The Chinese junior and senior high school, with
440 students this year, is a six-year course in which classes are
taught in Chinese, with English as one of the subjects.
The English department, with 325 students, consists of a five-
year junior and senior high school. Instruction is in English with
Chinese as one of the classes.
Rev. Coole introduced the Rev. Keith Wiltshire, the young
His office
school principal who graduated from Oxford University.
was cluttered with black robes and bowls of fruit had had collected
for the students x art examination. He said the English junior and
ak senior high school, based on the British system of education,
consists of grades seven through eleven, but covers the work
accredited to a U. S. twelve-year course. The English department has
eight classes a averaging 40 students each.
The Methodist primary and secondary school system educates
1,500 students each year, Rev. Coole said.
The elderly missionary explained that Methodist mission work
started in Sarawak at tax the turn of the century when a Chinese
Methodist businessman visited this small jungle country. He found the
government, headed by a private English family, called the "White Rajahs, "
welcomed Chinese immigrants to help develop the country.
CHRISTIANS
Shiplaods of Chinese arrived in Sarawak. They chopped down the
jungle a along the Rejang River, planted vegetables and later started
small estates of ri rubber, now one of the substantial items in Sarawak's
acreages, they established their own
economy. Living on small
primary schools.
(More)
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Deepe
Page 5
The Methodist Church then sent over the Rev. and Mrs. James
Hoover in 1903 to work with the Chinese Christian primary schools.
Each school was headed by aminister, who utilized one of the classrooms
on Sunday for church services. Rev. Hoover died in 1935, when Rev.
ad and Mrs. Summers were sent to replace him.
But the Nebraska missionary was left the task of building a
Barawak high school, for which he hoped and planned, but never saw.
Rev. Summers' sister, Mrs. Edwin Murphy, is the wife of a
Methodist minister in Lexington, Nebr.
His wife, a teacher in a
California high school, lifes at 1436 Mira Monte, Redlands, Calif.
120A MI CAM
AIATZ
30
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Deepe
Pix 1:
The Rev. Gerald V. Summers.
CAPTIONS
Pix 2:
Students grab a quick snack during recess at the "tiffin"
(luncheon) shed.
Pix 3: Methodist ghi high school students help in cleaning a
classroom.
Pix 4: A special program is being held in the large assembly
hall for the entire high school student body numbering about 760.
Pix 5: The faculty of the Summers Memorial High School in Sibu.
Miss Sandra MoCaig, a Nebraska Wesleyan graduate from Lincoln,
stands in the center. The 12 teachers in the English
department form an international group with three Americans,
two Englishmen, three Indians, three Chinese add one
Filipino.
Pix 6: Students gather on the campus of the Methodist high school.
(Pix 1-6
were given to me by Rev. Coole of the Methodist Church
in Sibu. No negatives. The following photos were taken by me-
submitted with negatives.)
Pix 7: Rev. Coole and the school principal stand in front of the
Summers high school building in Sibu. Rev. Coole has one of two
small busses in Sibu; the airlines company owns the other.
Pix 8:
Rev. Coole points on a bronze plaque to the U. S. $100,000
raised by the Nebraska Conference of Methodists. The other
donations were made by residents in Sarawak. The school
principal is on the left.
(More)
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Deepe
DE IM
CAPTIONS--2
Pix 9 Rev. Coole and a Chinese high school student investigate
an historical exhibit displayed in the library.
Pix 10: During a recess from their final exams,
in the Summers Hg High School Library.
students gathered
Pix 11: An English class in general knowledge discusses the United
Naions. The eighth grade department in English has one Iban student,
one Batak from Sumatra, one Indian, Malays and many Chinese.
Pix 12: This eighth grade class is instructed in English by a
teacher who left Communist China to join his wife in Sarawak.
The Sarawak government, suspicious of Communists,
stay only on a year-to-year basis.
allows him to
Pix 13; A student walks across the badminton court in the school
courtyard. To the far left is the Bishop H. Bascom Watts Science Hall.
30
30
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Date
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1962
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Subject
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Lay missionaries--Methodist Church; Missionaries; Missions; Sarawak, Malaysia
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Location
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Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
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Coordinates
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2.2877; 111.8308
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B1, F5
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
