MAY SHE LIVE TEN THOUSAND YEARS!

May the Lord bless thee and keep thee;
May the Lore marks his face to shine upon thee And be gracious unto tuee;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee And give thee peace.
Numbers 6:24-26

As the year 1963 adds it link to the chain that binds together Pooi To’s varied and illustrious history, we thank God and take courage.  This year indeed is an important landmark in the annals of the school as it marks.

1. The seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the school by Miss Emma Young who returned to America the next year to become the bride of a Baptist minister, Reverend W. S. Ayers.
   
2. The seventy-fifth anniversary of the arrival in China of Mrs. Janie Lewrey Sanford (later Mrs. R. H. Craves) who had spent seven years as a missionary in San Francisco teaching Chinese children and taking the Gospel into the homes of shut-in Chinese women.
3. The seventy-fifth birthday of two gifted teachers, Emma May Hine and Flora E. Dodson, who made valuable contributions to the administration, curriculum development, teaching, spiritual life, and activities of Pooi To in the middle years of her history.

In founding the school and guiding it through the first crucial months, Miss Young accomplished a monumental task as she laid a foundation so strong it has supported the superstructure that has far exceeded her fondest dreams.   

On Miss Young’s resignation, Mrs. Grave became principal in which position she served for 35 years. During her administration Pooi To developed from a small ungraded school, training the pupils in religion and in the Chinese classics, into a twelve year elementary and middle school with an enrolment limited only by its limited facilities.  Her middle school graduates entered accredited colleges in China and in America receiving degrees in four years.

From 1888 to present day, succeeding generations of Christian leaders have proven the value of training in Pooi To that has reached its highest peak in today’s Pooi-To-in-Hong-Kong.

On this, our diamond anniversary,

I SALUTE the teachers and students who laid foundations during the difficult years at The Gate of the Five Genii in Canton; those who served through the middle years of expansion, of transition, and of wanderings during the war years; and those who have the rare privilege of serving Pooi To Middle School in Hong Kong today.

Of each period it could often be said that nothing seemed to happen according to rule; that no day was like yesterday or tomorrow; and that no year resembled the last or the next; but that opportunities were always limitless.

I SALUTE the descendants of the first Chinese teacher in Pooi To, Miss Hsiu-ling Senn (MRS. T. L. Lee), who assisted Miss Young in founding the school in 1888.  Years later two of her daughters taught in Pooi To, one serving as dean.

I SALUTE little Marcus John Woo whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandmother are prominent Baptist leaders in Hong Kong today.  Mark can trace his ancestry through six generations to a very able Pooi To pupil in 1888.

I SALUTE the thousands of teachers and students of Canton years.  Many of whom are dear personal friends.  Many are in Hong Kong; many are in America, or in the islands of the sea; and, also, many are behind the bamboo curtain.  Each one has my true love.

I SALUTE the trustee; the principal, Miss Helen Huen, members of whose family have served the school almost from its beginning; the faculty; staff; students; and all who have helped in the development of Pooi To Middle School in Hong Kong.  You have the high privilege of serving during the greatest period of the world’s history, but with the challenge and opportunity will come temptation, difficulty, and danger.  “Be strong and of a good courage.” Joshua 1:6

Today as we rejoice in the present and try to envision the future, it seems that the months in our modern world are as vast years of pld, making events of a decade past appear as ancient history and placing near future in the distance.

May they seventy-five years of God’s loving care give strength to the Pooi To of today as you continue into the next century asking wisdom from Above and seeking God’s guidance in leading you to

“PRESS TOWARD THE MARK FOR THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” Philippians 8:14

CONGRATULATONS ON
Pooi To Middle School's 70th Anniversary

To
Pooi To Middle School
on the occasion of her seventieth anniversary
Congratulation on your three- score-and-tenth birthday!
Reviewing the years from 1888 to the present, one must exclaim:
"What hath God wrought."

Long before my missionary experience began, Pooi To held a warm place in my affections as I knew it through my dear aunt, Mrs. Janie Lowry Graves, who arrived in China two months before the school was founded by Miss Emma Young, and who became its principal the next year. Mrs. Graves held that position for 35 year, guiding the school from infancy to a full grown middle school meeting standard requirements.
From the moment of my arrival in Canton. Mrs. Graves was my China Mother; the Pooi To teachers and students were my sisters; and the institution was engraved on my heart.

As Pooi To has been true to her motto: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," our Heavenly Father has fulfilled His promise to add all things that have been needful. When invasion, war, and occupation made Christian education on the established campus difficult, the present spacious location with its excellent facilities was provided in the providence of God, through the generosity of the Hong Kong government, the sacrificial giving of Chinese and American friends, and the help of the Foreign Mission Board. What a wonderful fulfillment of His promise this has been.

The marvelous opportunities you are having and your efficiency in meeting these opportunities are demonstrated by the increasing number of students and by the position the school holds in Hong Kong where educational standards have always been high.

In becoming adjusted in Hong Kong, Pooi To has been fortunate in having the advice and encouragement of Pui Ching, her stalwart brother who has outgrown his older sister; of the Henrietta Shuck Middle School, founded by the Caine Road Baptist Church and lovingly fostered by the late Mrs. Wong Kwok Shuen and her daughter, Mrs. Lam Man-hsing; and by the many elementary schools that form such a broad and sure foundation for a middle school of high standards.

At the other end of the Baptist educational system in Hong Kong you now have the Theological Seminary continuing the work of training preachers that was begun almost a century ago by Dr. R.H. Graves: you have the Baptist Press; and now the dream of many decades has come true in the founding of a college. A Baptist college in South China with 317 students seems too good to be a reality.

Congratulations to you, Pooi To Middle School, wonderful institution with a glorious past; with a foundation of elementary schools in Hong Kong and Macao; and with colleges in Hong Kong, Formosa, and America beckoning to your graduates!

On this 70th anniversary, as we gaze hopefully into the future, we also pause for a loving look into the past. On the third of March, 1888, a little group of 20 students and two teachers assembled in a small building (which had cost less than $4000, including the land on which it stood. for the founding of this school that was destined to have so great a future. Thirteen new students entered in the fall of that year, making a total of 38 students (23 girls and 10 women) in the first year of Pooi To. A small beginning in point of numbers, but bow vast has been its influence. The Chris-tian work of these pioneer students and of their descendants to the sixth and seventh generations would fill many volumes.

One of the teachers, Miss Senn Hsiu-ling, daughter of one of the founders of the Shiu Hing Baptist church, married Dr. Lei Tsai Leung who was for many years pastor of a prominent church in California. All their sons and daughters were graduated from American universities and all became useful Christian citizens in China or America. One son, the late Dr. John Y. Lee, was the first Chinese General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association for all China, and was also leader in many other phases of Christian work in Shanghai. A daughter, Mrs. Sara Cheuk, is loving-ly remembered as the efficient dean of Pooi To for a number of years.

Grandmother Wong, who learned to read after she was 82 years of age, was a forceful and unique personality. The records indicate that, in the evening of her life, she was able to do more for the cause of Christ than most of us have accomplished in an entire lifetime. Moreover, scores of her descendants have been outstanding leaders in many phases of Christian work, among them Mr. K. M. Wong, for many years principal of Pui Ching Middle School.

In 1907 Pooi To School was moved from its narrow campus at the Gate-of-the-Five-Genii to Tung Shan where two modest buildings had been erected to care for 80 students. In 1909 the women were placed in a separate institution under Mrs. V. P. Greene as principal, a division that greatly strengthened both departments of the school.

After the Revolution the number of students increased so rapidly the buildings were soon congested. When the limit of crowding was reached, would-be students were turned away by twenties, by fifties, and by hnndreds. Rented property and matsheds were used; Mrs. Graves, from a small sum she had inherited, built several temporary buildings, liberal gifts from friends in China and America erected a small building for the primary school; and Mrs. Graves released for a middle school dormitory the mission residence that had been her home for many years. Still the crowding was almost beyond belief for, from 1907 to 1923, the Foreign Mission Board gave only one building costing $8,000 although 879 students were enrolled in 1923. This $8,000 was but little more than twice the cost of the original property in 1888 when only 20 students entered.

In spite of crowded conditions, meager equipment, and financial anxiety during the first 35 years of Pooi To's history, the improvement in scholastic standards and student activities was perhaps more marked than was the increased enrollment.

In 1912 a primary department was added in which modern educational techniques were adapted to the needs of little Chinese children. This department was used as a demonstration school for teacher training class begun the next year. The students in this group of future teachers were recruited from the advanced classes in Pooi To, with several graduates from True Light Seminary, in Canton; Miller Seminary, in Siulam; and the Scott Memorial School in Swatow Pooi To graduated its first class of Normal School students in 1915. The enrollment in this department was always limited to 21 and the work was continued only five years. However, the results were not so brief. Two of these graduates, Huen Wai Ling and Leung Wing Fong, after some special work in Bridgman Academy, entered North China Woman's College, which later became a part of Yenching University. Miss Leung studied medicine and for way years was a successful practicing physician in Canton. As you know, Miss Huen is today the beloved principal of Pooi To Middle School. Twenty years after the training was discontinued, 75% of the graduates of this department were still teaching. Four of these were principals of important schools, two were deans, and one was in the social service department of Peking Union Medical College.
In 1917 Pooi To turned her attention to standardizing her middle school work. Standards were raised in all subjects, especially in English, and the school was organized into an eight-year elementary and four-year middle school. This belated attention to secondary education followed the pattern of other schools for girls in South China, for according to official reports, in the Two Kwong Provinces in 1915 there was no school for girls giving a full middle school course. Colleges had waited on the standardizing of middle schools. Hence, Lingnam University, founded iu 1898, graduated its first college class 25 years later, and granted its first degree to a woman in 1921. After the founding of True Light Seminary, 47 years passed before True Light Middle School graduated its first class in 1919. Pooi To, founded 16 year after True Light, graduated its first senior middle school class in 1921. Students from the small graduating classes of the first three years entered the University of Shanghai, Lingnan University in Canton, and Baylor University in Texas, without conditions, receiving their degrees in four years.

With the graduates of successive middle school classes doing efficient work in colleges of high standards and with large, well organized classes advancing to take their places, Pooi To was firmly established as a standard middle school. Members of the mission and of the Chinese church who had doubted the value of Christian education were convinced as schools for girls had proved their worth and Pooi To had become the pride and joy of South China Baptists.

Compared with the spectacular development of Pooi To today, progress in these early years was slow and the numbers few indeed, but the atomic age has its problems as did the days of the Empress Dowager.

As you seek "first the kingdom of God", may your earth satellites encircle your opportunities and your guided missiles direct the students of today and tomorrow into fields of Christian service on earth and into our Father's house of many mansions hereafter.

-Mary Raleigh Anderson
101 South Carlin Street
Mobile, Alabama
U. S. A.

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God......We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture... For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."
Psalms 100:1-3. 5