“Heritage” is a wonderful word. In the 21st century, we are apt to think that we know it all, and history and heritage are unimportant. David in Psalm 89:1 says otherwise.“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” God is a faithful God and our heritage through the generations continues to impact even our 21st century lives.

“传承”是ー个很宝貴的词语。在二十一世纪，我们都自 以为我们了解世界，认为历史和传承对我们来说无关紧要。可 是大卫，一位古代以色列的王，在诗篇八十九篇1节却说: “我要歌唱耶和华的慈爱，直到永远; 我要用口将你的信实传与万 代。”神是信实的神，祂留给我们的产业历经万代，即使是在 二十一世纪也继续影响著我们的生活。

Wukingfu is a small Hakka mountain village in Guangdong province, China. Grandfather was a village boy working as a “gofer” (go for this, go for that) in the Scottish Presbyterian Mission Hospital. Soon the doctors recognized that he was a bright boy and they sent him to study medicine. Grandfather became a Christian, elder of the local Hakka Church, and Superintendent of the Mission Hospital.

五经富是坐落在中国广东省的ー个小客家山村。我的爷爷小时候曾在村里一所属于苏格兰长老会的教会医院当一名杂役。一段日子后，医生们覚得我爷爷是个可塑之オ，于是就送 他去读医学院。后来，爷爷成为一名基督徒，慢慢成为了当地客家教会的长老，再后来也做了这所教会医院的院长。

My father grew up in the village, but was sent to complete his high school in the British Colony of Hong Kong. There he managed to get into the University of Hong Kong Medical School, after a year or two! It had to mean that the village mission school must have been of very high quality indeed.

我父亲也在五经富长大，后来被送到当时还是英属的香港读高中。在那里，他仅花了一年多两年的时间就考入香港大学 的医学院! 可见当时村里的教会学校（父亲曾在那里上学）的教学品质之高。

Soon after graduating from medical school he married my mother, an American born Chinese from Seattle who didn’t even know Chinese. After graduating from the University of Washington, she had braved the Pacific to teach English in the Orient. Evidently my father’s English must also have been quite good to charm her, again a “tribute” to his early mission school. During World War II my parents escaped with me as a baby into the hinterland to avoid the Japanese who had captured Hong Kong. Because my dad had a “foreign wife , they lived in the foreign doctors’ quarters.

从医学院毕业不久,我的父亲就跟我母亲结婚了。我的母亲是在美国西雅图出生的华人，对中文一窍不通。从华盛顿大学毕业后，我的母亲毅然跨越太平洋来到東方教英語。我的母亲能被我的父亲虏获芳心，可见我父亲的英文水准也不逊色, 这同样也要“归功“于他早期在教会学校求学的经验吧。在第 二次世界大战期间，日本占领了香港，我的父母为了躲避日本 人，带著还在襁褓中的我逃到大 陆。因为我的父亲有一个“外籍妻子”，所以他们住到了外籍医 生的宿舍。

I do not remember anything about the 4 years of my early childhood in the village. But in 2000 we returned to visit the village for the first time. To my great surprise, part of the Mission Hospital was still there 一 and even the nurses’ quarters, and the now run-down doctors’ quarters where once we lived. I was reminded then that the mission had built not only the church and hospital, but also the elementary and high school, and even a bible school!

我早已经忘记了在村子里那 四年的童年生活。不过令我大感意外的是，在2000年我们第一次回到这个村子的时候，尽管时隔多年，当年教会医院的部分建筑还存留著，包括護士和 宿舍我小时候住过、现已废弃的医生宿舍。我还依稀记得当时的宣 教差会不仅建立了教会和医院，还有小学和高中，甚至是一所 圣经学校!

The debt we owe to those before us is often staggering. But it is easy to forget that. The tireless efforts of missionaries more than 100 years ago, and the actions of our forbears, have tremendous impact across the generations.

随著时间的流逝，我们所受的恩惠会慢慢变得模糊，甚至被遗忘。但超过100年前那些宣教士无尽的努力，还有我们祖 先辛勤的耕耘，却对以后的世世代代留下了深远的影响。

In 1989 when I took my first medical mission team into China, we passed by many Hakka villages not too far from my ancestral home. I saw the Hakka men and women stooping in the fields, planting the rice shoots.

1989年，我第一次带领医疗服务队去中国。我们路过好几个離我老家不远的客家村落，我看到客家人正弯著腰在稻田里插秧。

As they waved to us, it dawned on me that I could have been the one stooping in the field, waving at these foreigners passing by. If the missionaries had not…, if my grandfather had not…, if my father had not….

当他们向我挥手的时候，我忽然想到也许原本我也是他 们中的ー员。如果当年宣教士没有……或者如果我的爷爷没有……又或者我的父亲没有 那么我现在也会躬耕田野， 向路过的国外友人挥手。

Let us never forget the debt we owe our godly forebears, and godly men and women, ministers of the Word who traveled thousands of miles

to take the wonderful gospel to peoples they had not previously met. Their love and dedication set in train a sequence of events that changed the world and changed each of our lives. May we never forget that, and may we in turn, be godly people who set in train a new sequence of godly traits that will last for generations to come.

我们绝不可忘记我们敬虔祖先留下的恩惠，还有那些敬虔 的人，那些宣教士，他们不远万里来到这里并将宝贵的福音传 给那些素未谋面的人。他们的爱和他们一切的奉献改变了世界， 也改变了我们每个人的生命。愿我们不要忘记他们，也希望我 们能以他们为榜样，成为敬虔的人并将这些敬虔的品性传承给 我们的下一代。