Dr, George Worth (1867-1936)
“In April, Worth announced his engagement to Emma Chadbourn, a childhood friend who also had made a public commitment to foreign missionary work. They were married in the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington at the end of July 1895, and two days later, they left for China with the farewells of the congregation ringing in their ears.”
Lawrence Kessler
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
We just returned from a church sponsored trip to China. Part of that trip was focused on the contribution and legacy of Dr. George Worth and his wife Emma beginning in 1895 to a mission station in Jiangyin, China. How did we see the content and context of his life’s work?
Part of the answer is found a history of that mission station by Lawrence Kessler. Most of that history is about context. To get at the content of his life and practice we were treated to the oral history by his relatives. It was a wonderful opportunity to think about how any of our lives will be seen in the future.
What he medically addressed was smallpox, diphtheria, leprosy, tuberculosis, opium addiction as well as the liver cancer that killed his dear wife, Emma. He was alone without assistants in the beginning facing large volumes of patients. The hospital he loved was destroyed in 1937 in what looked like a horrible conclusion to his life’s work.
What we saw when we visited Jiangyin that the content of his life was honored as a devoted physician He would not believe the legacy that he left. The Jiangyin People’s Hospital that displays his photo as it’s founder is now a 1200 bed teaching hospital!
The conclusion is that the content of our lives is what is what will sustain us no matter the context. Thanks for the witness of Geoge and Emma Worth both then and now, in China and in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Marvin
Jiangyin People’s Hospital
References:
Kessler, L. D. (1996). The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community in China, 1895-1951 (The James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science). The University of North Carolina Press.
Hauerwas, S. (2018). The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Eerdmans.
