Wang Laiquan or Wang Laijun (王来俊) (1835-) was a Chinese

Christianity in China

Christianity in China is a growing minority religion that comprises Protestants , Catholics , and a small number of Orthodox Christians. Although its lineage in China is not as ancient as the institutional religions of Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, and the social system and ideology of...

 Protestant Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

 and missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 in Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

, Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in the late 19th century. "One of China's great, if unsung Christians, after Pastor Xi Shengmo... he was perhaps the most notable Chinese connected with the China Inland Mission."

Beginnings

Wang was a painter and skilled artisan living in his native Ningbo

Ningbo

Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...

 when he was hired by the pioneer Christian missionary Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor

James Hudson Taylor , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission . Taylor spent 51 years in China...

 to work in his home. As he was working one day on a ladder he overheard a local basket-maker, Feng Ninggui, who had professed faith in Jesus Christ, explaining why he no longer made incense containers that were used for idol worship. Wang was soon converted to Christianity as well under the ministry of Taylor in the days before the founding of the China Inland Mission

China Inland Mission

OMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.-Overview:...

.

After his baptism in 1859, Taylor met with Wang individually to instruct him in Christian teaching from the Bible and Wang joined the small congregation of believers that was growing in Ningbo.

Wang put his new faith into immediate service and worked at the local mission hospital that Taylor had taken charge of – with no promise of income other than what he believed that the Lord would provide as needed.

Wang soon learned from Taylor how to read and write the Romanized Ningbo dialect

Ningbo dialect

Ningbo dialect is a dialect of Wu, one of the subdivisions of Chinese spoken language. It is spoken in the city of Ningbo and Zhoushan and surrounding areas in Zhejiang province.-Area:...

 and began teaching others what he had learned about God from the Scriptures.

England

In 1860 Taylor’s health was deteriorating and Wang accompanied the Taylor family to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1860 as a helper and language tutor for new missionaries. He also assisted Taylor, his wife, Maria and Frederick Foster Gough

Frederick Foster Gough

Frederick Foster Gough was a Protestant Christian missionary who served with the Church Missionary Society during the late Qing Dynasty in China....

 in the revision of the Ningbo dialect New Testament in Romanized colloquial for the Bible Society. Wang’s native language expertise assured that the final translation would be accurate and trustworthy.

While in England, Wang became part of the Taylor family in many ways: helping with laundry, helping Maria take care of the little children, and joining with Taylor in close personal discipleship training and even medical studies. Taylor took him to meet the famous London Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 preacher, Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...

 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle

Metropolitan Tabernacle

The Metropolitan Tabernacle is a large Reformed Baptist church in the Elephant and Castle in London. It was the largest non-conformist church edifice of its day in 1861. The Tabernacle Fellowship have been worshipping together since 1650, soon after the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers...

. Together they influenced Spurgeon to promote the cause of missionary work in China with his sermons and writings. Taylor also brought Wang to meet the Bristol orphanage founder George Muller

George Müller

George Müller , a Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life...

 who would later fund one third of the China Inland Mission budget in the following years of 1866-1871.

Taylor promoted Wang's abilities as a preacher even in England and acted as interpreter for him when he spoke to English congregations.

Return to China

After returning to China he was appointed pastor of the church in Hangzhou begun by the China Inland Mission in 1866-1867. He served as a pastor for 40 years.

See also

• Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission