One of these - Shandongsheng Yidu Medical College in Shandong province - was previously known as Cheeloo University and founded by BMS missionary Dr James Russell Watson in 1885.
The college contacted BMS in 2008 requesting not only help in researching its history but also with a view to forming a new partnership with them. (Click the link on the right to see a PDF of the invitation.)
Four days are set aside in the itinerary to relive some of the college's past and to explore the possible way ahead. There will also be meetings with, and tours around, similar colleges in Shanghai, Jinan, Yantai and Xian.
The group going to China are:
- Margaret Gibbs, BMS regional secretary for Asia
- David McLellan, BMS manager for mission partnerships
- John Howes, BMS honorary treasurer and trustee, from Lewes, East Sussex
- Cynthia MacKenzie of Wishaw Baptist Church, Lanarkshire, who represents a sending church of former missionaries to China.
"The clinching sign for us will be when one or more people come forward from the UK churches offering for service in China. However sure we are of God's guidance and however wonderful our strategy, nothing can be achieved until God's people respond by offering their own lives for mission work in China."
BMS work in China lasted for 90 years and involved nearly 400 missionaries - including for the first time single women as missionaries in their own right - who took part in evangelism and church work, medical mission (including BMS' first-ever recognised medical worker), famine relief work, education, translation work and the distribution of Christian literature. Read more about the history of BMS in China by clicking
here.