An orphanage in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province was established by the Danish Lutheran Church 106 years ago.
Besides the foundling hospital, there are several Christian sites with a history of more than a hundred years on the banks of the Yalu River in Dandong City, such as the Yuanbao Mountain Church (Dandong Church), Danguo Hospital, and Pitasaikou Highschool, being the first middle school in the city.
As a building combining Chinese tradition and Western modernity, the orphanage’s historic site is now owned by Dandong Church, as a Christian and historical relic site.
At that time, the Danish Lutheran Church carried out missionary work, medical care, education, charitable activities in Dandong, with more than 20 Danish missionaries in its heyday. Two people that made outstanding contributions were Rev. Johannes Vyff and Karen Gormsen, who was a pastor and deacon in Dandong Church founded by the Danish Lutheran Church, as well as a midwife of Danguo Hospital.
Karen Gormsen (1880-1960), the head of the orphanage, was an important person in the Danish Lutheran Church in Dandong at that time. According to a report written by her, as the youngest of adopted children was only one year old, Rev. Vyff and Ms Gormsen began to raise funds in 1916 to take better care of these children. With the approval of the government and the help of local Chinese people, they built a nursery in the Qinglong Street. Besides raising funds herself, Karen even used all the inheritance left by her parents for the expenses of the orphanage.
When Karen adopted an orphan, she wrote down the origin and name of the abandoned child in her registration book, naming the baby if they didn’t already have a name. In principle, they did not adopt children with parents. According to a pastor of Dandong Church, after the locals put the abandoned infants in a box outside the gate of the orphanage, they rang a bell connected to the inside. Hearing the bell ringing, the staff came out quickly to carry the abandoned baby inside the nursery, where three or four hundred orphans and abandoned children were adopted.
Born on August 10, 1870, Rev. Johannes Vyff, died of typhoid fever and was buried in Dandong on September 9, 1932. Arriving in China in 1896, Vyff came to Dandong in September 1901 as a pastor, educator, gardener, and doctor. In addition to building Dandong Church, he also established many social welfare and charitable organizations. It was recorded that more than 70 Danish missionaries, doctors, nurses, horticulturalists, educators, and architects came to Anton to establish hospitals, schools, and orphanages, including Soren Anton Ellerbek and Kaj Johannes Olsen.
(The article was originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
在辽宁省丹东市鸭绿江畔，有几座百余年为神作见证的基督教遗址，如元宝山基督教堂、基督教丹国医院、丹东第一所中学三育中学等。今天，我们介绍的是安东（丹东，下同）的具有106年历史的基督教慈善机构：育婴堂。
育婴堂旧址建筑现归属丹东市基督教会，作为基督教遗迹和历史文物，依然保存完好。这是一座中西结合的建筑
当时丹麦信义会（基督教新教“路德宗”派系之一。）在丹东做传教和从事医疗、教育、慈善等事业，在安东的丹麦传教士就有二十多人。而郭慕深则是这其中的一员，是丹麦信义会安东基督教会的教士、执事会执事、丹国医院的一名护士。这里我们不能忘记其中有突出贡献的两位先人：于承恩牧师、郭慕深教士。
郭慕深（Karen Gormsen，1880—1960），安东基督教育婴堂——当地人称孤儿院的负责人，应该说她是丹麦信义会在当时安东的一位“重量级”人物。据《安东基督教育婴堂事业报告书》载，当时郭慕深收养的孩子中最小的只有1岁大。为了更好地照顾这些孩子，1916年于承恩、郭慕深等人开始四处筹集资金、在取得当时政府的许可和当地华人的帮助下，经过努力，在现青龙街一带建起了一所育婴堂。郭慕深教士不仅自己募集善款，甚至将父母留给自己的遗产也全部用于育婴堂的开销中。
郭慕深收养孤儿前，会在自己的收录册里详细写上孤儿的来源、姓名，原则上有父母的孩子是不予收养的，没有姓名的孤儿则由自己取名并收养。据丹东基督教会牧师介绍：当年在育婴堂的外面大门处，有一个接收弃婴的地方，当地人把弃婴放进去之后，拉响连接里面的一个铃铛，铃铛响了，育婴堂的工作人员就知道又有弃婴来了，就会及时地出来，将弃婴抱进室内收养。最多时育婴堂里面收养了三、四百名孤儿、弃儿。
于承恩牧师（Johannes Vyff），他生于1870年8月10日，1932年9月9日因伤寒病在中国丹东去世，并葬于丹东。于承恩1896年来中国，于1901年9月来到安东。他不仅仅是牧师，还是教育家、园艺师、医生，他不只是在丹东建教堂，还兴办了许多公益和慈善机构。据资料显示：一百多年前，于承恩、吴立身、安乐克、郭慕深等70余名丹麦传教士、医生、护士、园艺家、教育家、建筑家先后来到当时的安东，创办了医院、学校、育婴堂（孤儿院）等。
（本文作者为福音时报特约撰稿人）
http://www.fuyinshibao.cn/article/index/id/61759
记辽宁丹东百余年见证神爱的慈善机构——育婴堂
An orphanage in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province was established by the Danish Lutheran Church 106 years ago.
Besides the foundling hospital, there are several Christian sites with a history of more than a hundred years on the banks of the Yalu River in Dandong City, such as the Yuanbao Mountain Church (Dandong Church), Danguo Hospital, and Pitasaikou Highschool, being the first middle school in the city.
As a building combining Chinese tradition and Western modernity, the orphanage’s historic site is now owned by Dandong Church, as a Christian and historical relic site.
At that time, the Danish Lutheran Church carried out missionary work, medical care, education, charitable activities in Dandong, with more than 20 Danish missionaries in its heyday. Two people that made outstanding contributions were Rev. Johannes Vyff and Karen Gormsen, who was a pastor and deacon in Dandong Church founded by the Danish Lutheran Church, as well as a midwife of Danguo Hospital.
Karen Gormsen (1880-1960), the head of the orphanage, was an important person in the Danish Lutheran Church in Dandong at that time. According to a report written by her, as the youngest of adopted children was only one year old, Rev. Vyff and Ms Gormsen began to raise funds in 1916 to take better care of these children. With the approval of the government and the help of local Chinese people, they built a nursery in the Qinglong Street. Besides raising funds herself, Karen even used all the inheritance left by her parents for the expenses of the orphanage.
When Karen adopted an orphan, she wrote down the origin and name of the abandoned child in her registration book, naming the baby if they didn’t already have a name. In principle, they did not adopt children with parents. According to a pastor of Dandong Church, after the locals put the abandoned infants in a box outside the gate of the orphanage, they rang a bell connected to the inside. Hearing the bell ringing, the staff came out quickly to carry the abandoned baby inside the nursery, where three or four hundred orphans and abandoned children were adopted.
Born on August 10, 1870, Rev. Johannes Vyff, died of typhoid fever and was buried in Dandong on September 9, 1932. Arriving in China in 1896, Vyff came to Dandong in September 1901 as a pastor, educator, gardener, and doctor. In addition to building Dandong Church, he also established many social welfare and charitable organizations. It was recorded that more than 70 Danish missionaries, doctors, nurses, horticulturalists, educators, and architects came to Anton to establish hospitals, schools, and orphanages, including Soren Anton Ellerbek and Kaj Johannes Olsen.
(The article was originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
Orphanage in Liaoning Founded by Danish Missionaries
