A remarkable testament of the power of faith in the face of challenge.面對苦難，他的一生見證了信仰的力量。
Bravery embodied in a country boy from rural China.一個來自中國鄉間的少年，活出了勇氣。
A brilliant and passionate orator and author of dozens of books.才思敏捷、熱誠洋溢的講道者，寫下數十部著作。
A self-taught composer of hymns.無師自通的聖詩作曲者。
A devoted student and teacher.一生潛心求學，也傾心教導。
A loving and deeply affectionate husband, father, and grandfather.滿懷深情的丈夫、父親與祖父。
A man of God fulfilling his promises.一位用一生踐行承諾的神的僕人。
The Life of 1943Rev. Dr. David2026 Kawai Tsang
曾大衛 1943博士牧師2026 的一生
Scroll to begin向下捲動
Hong Kong · 1967 An artist’s interpretation香港 · 一九六七年 藝術演繹
DAVID TSANGA life of faith. A journey across the water.信仰的一生，從越過那片海說起。Preparing the story故事即將展開
1943. Japan Has Invaded China.一九四三年。日本已入侵中國。Age 00歲
Scroll to begin向下捲動
Japan Has Invaded China, 1943日本已入侵中國，一九四三年
By January 1943, Japan’s invasion had torn through China for more than five years. Into a country at war, into a family already living in flight, a seventh son was born.一九四三年一月，日軍侵華已延續五年多。在一個戰火未息的國家，在一個早已流離逃難的家庭裏，第七個兒子出生了。
The occupation of Manchuria in 1931 had widened into full-scale war in 1937. China kept resisting, even as occupied ports and severed supply routes deepened its isolation.
In 1944, the year after David was born, while the world watched Normandy and the Pacific, Japan launched the largest land offensive of the war in the heart of China that most people have never heard of. Operation Ichigō was a 1,600-km, scorched-earth campaign across China, displacing millions, and killing hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens. The campaign devastated communities, drove families from their homes, and weakened the Nationalist government.
Wartime footage from Potential History’s Operation Ichi-Go; The Japanese Hail Mary. This excerpt shows a soldier, a train and troops on the move.節錄自 Potential History 的影片《Operation Ichi-Go; The Japanese Hail Mary》。這段戰時影像呈現士兵、火車與行進中的軍隊。
Enlarge map ↗放大地圖 ↗Operation Ichigō, April–December 1944. Dated arrows trace the military advance; they do not mark the Tsang family’s route.一號作戰，一九四四年四月至十二月。附日期的箭頭標示軍事攻勢，並非曾家逃難的路線。
Background: Shanghai, 6 October 1937. Japanese naval infantry in the ruins near Sanyili, Zhabei. Photograph by Yoshio Kawamura.背景：上海，一九三七年十月六日。閘北三義里附近廢墟中的日本海軍陸戰隊。河村好雄攝。
The historical record · photographs & sources歷史檔案 · 照片與資料來源
View image ↗放大查看 ↗Guilin, 1944. Refugees and a British Military Mission truck during the wartime retreat from the city.桂林，1944年。戰時撤離桂林途中的難民與英國軍事代表團卡車。
Shanghai, 6 October 1937. Japanese naval infantry near Sanyili, Zhabei. Yoshio Kawamura, The Manshu nichi-nichi shimbun. Full composition shown here; the background above is cropped and darkened.上海，一九三七年十月六日。閘北三義里附近的日本海軍陸戰隊。河村好雄攝，《滿洲日日新聞》。此處保留完整構圖；上方背景經裁切及調暗。Source and public-domain record來源與公有領域記錄A later U.S. Army historical map of the April 1944 Ichi-Go plan. Arrows mark planned military advances, not David’s family’s route.美國陸軍後來編製的歷史地圖，呈現一九四四年四月的一號作戰計劃。箭頭標示軍事進攻計劃，並非大衛一家的逃難路線。圖中英文地名包括桂林、柳州、廣州及香港。U.S. Army Center of Military History · Public domain美國陸軍軍事歷史中心 · 公有領域View image ↗放大查看 ↗Southwest China, 1944. Chinese workers reopening the Burma Road, photographed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps.中國西南，1944年。中國工人修復滇緬公路，美國陸軍通訊兵攝。
Video excerpt: 影片片段：Potential History, Operation Ichi-Go; The Japanese Hail Mary, 12:25–12:35 (9 December 2020). The filming dates and locations of these shots are not established by the excerpt. The footage is historical context, not a record of the Tsang family.（2020年12月9日）。這段片段未能確定各鏡頭的拍攝日期與地點。影像用以呈現歷史背景，並非曾家的紀錄。
Ages are counted from David’s birthday, 8 January 1943. His American papers record 3 December 1944; the family gives the January 1943 date as the true one.歲數按大衛的生日一九四三年一月八日計算。他在美國證件上的出生日期為一九四四年十二月三日；家人以一九四三年一月的日期為真實出生日期。
8 January 1943 · Born into a family of ten brothers一九四三年一月八日 · 十兄弟之家
The seventh son.第七個兒子。
David was born on 8 January 1943 in Shaoguan, northern Guangdong, while his family was fleeing Japanese soldiers. His father, Shau Man Tsang, was an army doctor; his mother was Choy Chuen Chan. Their ancestral home was in Jieyang, far to the east. He was the seventh of ten sons, born into a family whose first task was to keep its children alive.
On one night of flight, a servant carried David and his brother Gabriel in two bamboo baskets hung from a shoulder pole. Running downhill, he lost his hold. The baskets rolled into the valley and disappeared into the darkness. When the boys were finally found, both were unharmed. David would return to that story in his memoir: the two children who had vanished into the dark both grew up to become pastors.
一次連夜逃難，家僕把大衛與哥哥 Gabriel 分放在兩個竹籮裏，用扁擔挑著走。跑下山坡時，他失手掉下竹籮。兩個籮子滾進山谷，消失在黑暗中。等到終於找到孩子，兩人竟都安然無恙。大衛後來在回憶錄裏重提這件事：那兩個一度消失在黑暗中的孩子，長大後都成了牧師。
A family on the road. An artistic interpretation of a family’s flight through wartime Guangdong, evoking the circumstances into which David was born.逃難路上的一家人。藝術演繹：一家人在戰時廣東逃難，呈現大衛出生時的動盪處境。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
The baskets in the valley. An artistic interpretation of the night David and his brother Gabriel were carried in bamboo baskets during the family’s wartime flight.山谷裏的竹籮。藝術演繹：戰亂逃難的一夜，大衛和哥哥 Gabriel 被放在竹籮裏挑着走。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
Looking back, he understood that survival as God’s care. Even his birthplace carried meaning for him: he read the character 韶 in Shaoguan as an echo of a call to preach. His memoir begins with that conviction — that his life had a purpose before he could know what it was.
His American papers record a different birthday, 3 December 1944. The family has confirmed 8 January 1943 as his true birth date; that is the date followed here.
Open the original scan ↗放大原件影像 ↗Horse and foal. The animal he loved, and the sign of the year he was born. David’s own ink painting, signed 曾牧 and captioned with Psalm 103:13; undated.馬與幼駒。他最愛的動物，也是他出生那年的生肖。大衛親筆水墨，署名「曾牧」，題有詩篇一〇三篇十三節；未註日期。
His family’s beginnings in faith · Jieyang, Guangdong家人信仰的起點 · 廣東揭陽
A faith of his own親身相信
The Tsangs were Hakka — “guest families.” David also called them sojourners, a word he would use to understand his own life far from home. His memoir traces the family’s faith through his grandfather and father. Each had come to belief through a need he could not meet alone.
His family’s faith gave David a beginning, but he believed that faith could not be inherited. He would have to come to belief himself, in a childhood when even the adults he depended on were in danger.
Birth date corrected by the family in September 2026: David was born on 8 January 1943. His American documents record 3 December 1944, and this site previously followed that date throughout; every age and the date ranges of the early chapters have been recalculated from January 1943. Ages the memoir gives in his own words are unchanged — he says he was ten at his mother’s denunciation rally and fifteen when he left for Xiamen — so those events now fall a year earlier than the page previously placed them, and their years are marked approximate. Documented years are unchanged, so the ages beside them each move up by one. The 1944 Ichi-Go offensive is now told as what came the year after his birth rather than as the circumstance of it; the archival photographs keep their own 1944 dates. The date on his American papers is read as 3 December 1944 in United States month/day order.
Angell also confirmed that David was the seventh of ten brothers. His parents’ names follow Esther’s handwritten note, shared by Angell on 9 September 2026: his father, 曾壽民 (Shau Man Tsang), and his mother, 陳賽珍 (Choy Chuen Chan). The English edition keeps the family’s spellings; the Chinese edition uses the characters in her note.
十兄弟中排行第七及父母姓名，亦由 Angell 提供，兩種語言均保留所提供的拼寫。
父母姓名據 Esther 的手寫註記，由 Angell 於二〇二六年九月九日提供：父親曾壽民（Shau Man Tsang），母親陳賽珍（Choy Chuen Chan）。英文版保留家人的英文拼寫，中文版採用註記中的漢字。
Angell supplied the corrected birth date, that horses were David’s favourite animal, and the family’s reading of the two horse years. The zodiac years are calculable: 8 January 1943 falls before the Chinese New Year of 5 February 1943, so it belongs to 壬午, the Water Horse year; 2026 is 丙午, the Fire Horse year, which began on 17 February 2026. The Elijah image is 2 Kings 2:11 and is offered as the family’s reflection, not as a claim about how he died. Angell has confirmed the date and time of David’s passing, recorded in Chapter 9. The later Fire Horse passage remains the family’s reflection on his life and faith.
Angell’s further family account, shared in September 2026, supplies the birth during flight from Japanese soldiers, Gabriel’s name, the household servant, the shoulder pole and the downhill fall. The memoir also records the nighttime basket accident and both brothers being found unharmed; no precise age or date is assigned to that accident.
Angell 於二〇二六年九月補充的家人口述，提供了逃避日軍途中出生、哥哥 Gabriel 的名字、家僕、扁擔與下坡時失手掉下竹籮等細節。回憶錄亦記下夜間竹籮墜落及兩兄弟被尋回、安然無恙的經過；不為這次意外配定確切年齡或日期。
Passages of Him, You and Me carried in Chapters 1–4: his birth in Shaoguan and the family’s Jieyang origin; his own reading of the character 韶; the Hakka household described as sojourners; his grandfather, his seven daughters, the English missionary’s prayer and his eldership; his mother’s ten sons; his father’s wager and the fever that broke as the elder left the house; the near-drowning at the stone steps; the full wording of his childhood bargain and the old man who interrupted the rally; his washing clothes at the river and what he thought it trained in him; his classmates’ election of him as deputy class monitor in Xiamen; the intended application to Shanghai First Medical College and the security chief who was a fellow townsman; the rebuke he received when he confessed; the five years of prayer for a permit to Hong Kong; and the carpenter’s eye for a true angle. His grandfather’s name appears in the memoir’s characters, 曾慶餘; the family has not supplied a romanization. The near-drowning is placed approximately from his recollection that he was about to begin primary school. The stolen-letter episode is placed in his final school year without assigning an exact age or year. The figure of several thousand people brought to faith is David’s own count, in his memoir and his résumé.
Paintings: artistic interpretations made for this memorial with an AI image-generation tool, in the style of the opening painting. They are not photographs or likenesses. Where a painting moves, only a small painted detail is animated. 畫作：以 AI 圖像生成工具為本紀念網站製作的藝術演繹，參照序幕畫作的風格；並非照片或肖像。有動態的畫作，只有一小處繪畫細節動起來。
A family on the road: David was born in Shaoguan on 8 January 1943 while his family was fleeing Japanese soldiers. His father was an army doctor. The figures are imagined, not family portraits.逃難路上的一家人：一九四三年一月八日，大衛在家人躲避日軍、流離逃難期間出生於韶關；父親是軍醫。畫中人物為想像形象，並非家人的肖像。
The baskets in the valley: David’s memoir and Angell’s family account. The basket accident has no recorded exact date. Composition, landscape, clothing and lighting are imagined.山谷裏的竹籮：根據大衛的回憶錄及 Angell 的家人憶述。竹籮意外的確切日期未有記錄；構圖、地貌、衣着與光線均屬藝術想像。
Chapter II第二章1949 — 1957 · Ages 6–14 · 6–14歲
19491957
Land.Fear.A prayer.田產，恐懼，一個禱告。
“Because the hand of my God helped me” — a chapter title in David’s memoir.「因我神的手幫助我」——大衛回憶錄的篇名。
The People’s Republic of China, 1949中華人民共和國成立，一九四九年
On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The Party’s next campaign would reach every village.一九四九年十月一日，毛澤東宣布中華人民共和國成立。黨的下一場運動，將伸進每一條村莊。
Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan. On the mainland, the new government set out to remake rural society.
蔣介石的國民黨軍隊退往台灣。在大陸，新政府著手改造整個農村社會。
In June 1950 it issued the Land Reform Law. Village by village, every household was assigned a class, such as landlord, rich peasant, middle peasant, poor peasant or farm labourer. That label would shape a family’s safety, schooling and prospects for decades.
David turned seven in January 1950. His father was a doctor, and the family owned property. They would be classified as landlords.
一九五〇年一月，大衛滿七歲。父親是醫生，家裏有產業；他們將被劃為地主。
David大衛View full photograph ↗查看完整照片 ↗David with his family, seated at the viewer’s right in the bottom row. Identified by Angell. Photograph date unknown.大衛與家人合照。他坐在最前排右側（以觀看者方向為準），由 Angell 確認。拍攝日期未詳。
The Tsang family. David, seated front right曾家合照。大衛坐在最前排右側
The historical record · photographs & sources歷史檔案 · 照片與資料來源
The Tsang family photograph was identified by Angell; its date is unknown.曾家合照由 Angell 確認，拍攝日期未詳。
1949 onward · From age 6 · Land reform and its aftermath一九四九年起 · 6歲起 · 土改及其後
Land could mark a family as an enemy. Education could make a person a target.一家擁有田產，可能使全家被視為敵人。一個人有學識，也可能使他成為打擊對象。
1950–1953 · Land reform一九五〇至五三年 · 土地改革
In 1950, when David was seven, the new Land Reform Law promised land to peasants. Families classified as landlords faced confiscation and persecution.一九五〇年，大衛七歲時，新頒布的《土地改革法》承諾把土地分給農民。被劃為地主的家庭，卻面對財產被沒收與迫害。
1–21–2
million executed百萬人遭處決
Historian Frederick Teiwes’s estimate for land reform, cited by Jeffrey Javed. Estimates differ; this is not a combined toll for later campaigns.歷史學者 Frederick Teiwes 對土改的估計，由 Jeffrey Javed 引述。各家估算不同；並非其後各場運動的死亡總數。
A struggle session: the accused stands before the village while an accuser points at him. Not David or his family.鬥爭會：受指控的人站在全村面前，由控訴者當眾指認。並非大衛或其家人的影像。
Photograph supplied by Angell, from an article hosted on Substack; the original photographer, date and publication are not established.照片由 Angell 提供，取自一篇刊於 Substack 的文章；原攝影者、拍攝日期與出處未能確定。
Accused before the village.在全村面前受指控。
A struggle session brought the accused before their neighbours for public denunciation and humiliation. They could be forced to confess supposed wrongs, beaten or killed. Political coercion turned the community itself into a source of fear.鬥爭會把受指控的人帶到鄰里面前，公開批鬥與羞辱。他們可能被迫承認所謂罪行，遭到毆打，甚至被殺害。政治強制，使身邊的鄰里也成了恐懼的來源。
1951–1952 · Thought Reform and workplace campaigns一九五一至五二年 · 思想改造與工作場所的運動
Education offered no guarantee of safety.學識不能保障平安。
During Thought Reform, teachers, writers and other intellectuals faced demands to confess supposed ideological failings and submit to public criticism. Expertise offered no guarantee of political trust. Separate campaigns reached workplaces: Three-Anti scrutinized officials and state employees; Five-Anti targeted private business in 1952.思想改造期間，教師、作家及其他知識分子被要求檢討所謂的思想錯誤，接受公開批評。專業能力並不能保障政治上的信任。另一些運動則伸進工作場所：「三反」審查幹部與國營單位人員；一九五二年的「五反」，則以私營工商業者為對象。
He wanted to be a doctor.他想成為 一名醫生。
David’s father was a doctor. The family’s property brought a landlord classification; his memoir records repeated persecution by the village militia captain. Later, his eldest brother’s rightist label and the family’s background obstructed his admission to senior secondary school. He wanted to become a doctor. His marks alone could not open that door.大衛的父親是醫生。家裏的產業使全家被劃為地主；他的回憶錄記下，一家多次受村裏民兵隊長逼害。後來，長兄的右派帽子與家庭出身，又阻礙他升讀高中。他想成為醫生，單憑成績卻無法打開那扇門。
Foreground: the first page of the 1950 Land Reform Law. The full original pages and credits are below.前景書頁為一九五〇年《土地改革法》原頁。完整原頁與出處見下。
The historical record · Sources and the original law歷史檔案 · 資料來源與法令原頁
Struggle-session photograph: supplied by Angell on 15 September 2026, from an article hosted on Substack. The original photographer, date and publication are not established, and nothing in it connects the scene to David’s family or village.鬥爭會照片：由 Angell 於二〇二六年九月十五日提供，取自一篇刊於 Substack 的文章。原攝影者、拍攝日期與出處未能確定；照片與大衛家人或其村落並無已知關連。
Enlarge the original page ↗放大原書頁 ↗The Land Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China · Promulgated June 30, 1950. Page 43 of the government’s official legal compilation.《中華人民共和國土地改革法》· 一九五〇年六月三十日公布施行。政府編印《中央人民政府法令彙編》原書第四十三頁。
Article 1 presents reform as ending “feudal exploitation” and giving land to peasants. Article 2 orders the confiscation of landlords’ land, farm animals, tools, surplus grain and surplus rural housing.第一條把土改定為廢除「封建剝削」、實行農民土地所有制。第二條則規定沒收地主的土地、耕畜、農具、多餘糧食及多餘的農村房屋。
After the war his father went back to the ancestral district and became director of the local hospital. Beside it lay a small lake and a river, and stone steps where people went down to fetch water. On a hot summer day, in the year he was about to start school, David was splashing at those steps with the other children. He could not swim.
Then the mud was gone from under his feet. He struggled in the water. Suddenly he felt a push toward the steps; his feet found the ground again, and he scrambled out. Only then did he notice his father on the opposite bank, ordering him home. Still frightened, he snatched up his clothes and hurried away.
In his memoir, he thanked God for an unseen hand that had brought him out of the water. He set this memory beside the baskets in the valley: two escapes from danger that he understood, looking back, as signs that he had been cared for before he understood why.
At ten, he faced a danger from which he could not pull himself free. His mother had been arrested on a charge of careless speech and taken to a public denunciation meeting. He could not eat or drink. There was no one he could ask to bring her home. That night, he hid in bed and wept, then turned to the God his parents believed in.
A prayer beneath the blanket. An artistic interpretation of David at ten, praying in bed for his mother to come home.被窩裏的禱告。藝術演繹：十歲的大衛躲在床上禱告，盼望母親平安回家。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
“God, if You exist, please bring my mother home. If You are willing to help me, then from now on I will believe in You.”
「上帝啊，如果您存在的話，就請把我媽放回家。如果您肯幫我的話，以後我必相信您。」
His childhood prayer, recalled in Him, You and Me. English translation.童年禱告，見《衪你我》〈因我神的手幫助我〉。The meeting at night. An artistic interpretation of the denunciation meeting from which David’s mother returned. An elderly father’s interruption delayed the proceedings before her turn came.夜裏的鬥爭會。藝術演繹：大衛母親被帶去的鬥爭會。還未輪到她，一位年長父親的吵鬧便拖延了會議；她當夜得以回家。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
What happened at the meeting he learned only later, from people who had been there. Four people were to be subjected to it. The first three had already been tormented when an old man broke from the crowd, demanding to know why his son’s killer had not been caught. His son was honoured as a martyr, and the cadres dared not antagonize him. It took so long to persuade him to leave that, by the end, they had neither the energy nor the will to turn on David’s mother. They released her. She came home that same night.
His mother, Choy Chuen Chan, in Canton (Guangzhou), 1974. Identified by Angell.母親陳賽珍，一九七四年攝於廣州。由 Angell 確認。
Choy Chuen Chan. Canton, 1974陳賽珍。廣州，一九七四年
For David, her return was the answer to his prayer. He had promised to believe, and now he would keep that promise. He did not claim to understand everything about faith. He knew only that he had asked for his mother, and she was home.
The change first showed itself at home. While his mother picked vegetables, he tended the breakfast fire. He swept when she was busy and took the washing to the river. His younger brothers stared: boys in their village did not do this work. At the river, he was the only boy among the women. He did it anyway. The mother he had prayed to have back now had one less burden to carry. Years later, he wondered whether this was where he first learned to withstand other people’s disapproval.
At the river. An artistic interpretation of David taking the washing to the river, easing his mother’s work after her return.河邊洗衣。藝術演繹：母親回家後，大衛把衣服帶到河邊洗，分擔她的辛勞。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
While David was growing up · His family大衛成長的歲月 · 他的家人
Around 1953 she was arrested and taken to a public denunciation meeting. Before her turn came, an old man’s outburst wore the cadres out. She came home that same night, and her ten-year-old son kept his promise to believe.約一九五三年，她被抓去公開鬥爭。還未輪到她，一位長者的吵鬧已令幹部精疲力盡。她當夜回到家；十歲的兒子，守住了相信神的承諾。
Retold from Him, You and Me據《衪你我》轉述
地主
The family全家
“Landlords.”「地主」
The family’s property brought a landlord classification. His memoir records repeated persecution by the village militia captain. Decades later, that same man would come to their house as a guest.家裏的產業，使全家被劃為「地主」。他的回憶錄記下，村裏的民兵隊長多次逼害他們。幾十年後，這人卻以客人的身分來到他們家。
Retold from Him, You and Me據《衪你我》轉述
右派
His eldest brother他的長兄
“Rightist.”「右派」
His eldest brother was labelled a rightist. The label did not stay with one man: together with the family’s class, it kept David out of the local senior secondary school.長兄被劃為「右派分子」。這頂帽子並不只落在他一人頭上：連同家庭成分，它使大衛升不了本地高中。
Retold from Him, You and Me據《衪你我》轉述
香港
His father他的父親
Across the border.一水之隔
An army doctor who became director of the local hospital after the war, his father later lived in Hong Kong with David’s older brothers. For five years David applied for permission to visit them. Every application failed.父親是隨軍醫生，抗戰勝利後出任當地醫院院長，後來與大衛的兄長們都在香港。大衛一連五年申請赴港探親，每一次都落空。
Retold from Him, You and Me據《衪你我》轉述
三十五年
His second brother他的二哥
A milk tin above the door.門楣上的牛奶罐
As a child, David hid his pocket money in a milk tin above the door. On the day his second brother left for Hong Kong, the savings disappeared. The brothers would not meet again for thirty-five years.小時候，大衛把零用錢藏在門楣上的牛奶罐裏。二哥離家去香港那天，積蓄也不見了。兄弟倆此後闊別三十五年。
Retold from Him, You and Me據《衪你我》轉述
Use the arrows, swipe, or drag between the cards.可用箭頭、滑動，或在卡片之間拖曳翻閱。
Story & historical sources故事與歷史資料
David’s memoir, Him, You and Me, “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful,” explicitly recalls repeated persecution of his family by the village militia captain because of their landlord classification. Angell also describes the persecution as severe. The memoir does not date these incidents or specify their methods; this passage does not assign them to 1949 itself.
The law is a primary record of the Chinese government’s policy. The full original pages 43–44 are reproduced from its official legal compilation, without cropping or added lettering. The law’s stated aims and confiscation provisions are distinguished from David’s own account of persecution; it is not a record of actions against the Tsang household.
His mother’s detention and his brother’s designation are not assigned to a particular campaign date. The cards on David’s family retell his memoir as told in this and later chapters: his father in Hong Kong and the failed permit applications (Chapter 4); the milk-tin savings and the thirty-five years before the brothers met again (Him, You and Me, chapter 23, which does not identify who took the savings); and the former militia captain’s later visit, retold with its sources in Chapter 7. His mother’s photograph beside the prayer was identified by Angell on 15 September 2026; the back of the print reads 1974年 廣州 CANTON, in a hand not identified.
Paintings: artistic interpretations made for this memorial with an AI image-generation tool, in the style of the opening painting. They are not photographs or likenesses. Where a painting moves, only a small painted detail is animated. 畫作：以 AI 圖像生成工具為本紀念網站製作的藝術演繹，參照序幕畫作的風格；並非照片或肖像。有動態的畫作，只有一小處繪畫細節動起來。
A prayer beneath the blanket: David’s memoir describes his tears, prayer and promise to believe, around 1953. The room and the boy’s appearance are imagined.被窩裏的禱告：大衛的回憶錄記下他約於一九五三年的眼淚、禱告及相信神的承諾。房間與少年的外貌均屬藝術想像。
The meeting at night: David’s memoir, retold from what he later learned about the meeting, around 1953. Four were accused. The ground, lanterns, clothing and arrangement of the crowd are imagined.夜裏的鬥爭會：據大衛回憶錄，轉述他後來得知的會議經過，時間約為一九五三年。當夜有四人受指控。場地、燈籠、衣着和人群位置均屬藝術想像。
At the river: David’s memoir recalls being the only boy doing this work among the village women. The riverbank, morning mist and gestures are imagined; no exact date is recorded.河邊洗衣：大衛在回憶錄中說，他是村裏在婦女中間洗衣的唯一男孩。河岸、晨霧與動作均屬藝術想像；確切日期未有記錄。
Chapter III第三章1957 — 1961 · Ages 14–18 · 14–18歲
19571961
Hunger.Conscience.飢餓，良心。
“God’s ways are higher than our ways” — a chapter title in David’s memoir.「神的路高過人的路」——大衛回憶錄的篇名。
The Anti-Rightist campaign, 1957反右運動，一九五七年
In 1956 Mao invited China’s intellectuals to criticize the Party. When they finally spoke out in the spring of 1957, the invitation turned against them.一九五六年，毛澤東號召知識分子向黨提出批評。一九五七年春天，當他們終於直言，這份號召卻反過來對準了他們。
In June 1957 the Anti-Rightist campaign began. By a later official accounting, it labeled more than 550,000 people. They included teachers and doctors. Some were sent to forced-labour camps; others were assigned work in the countryside. This is a count of political labels, not deaths. The consequences could reach their families.
Photographs: two of a set taken in China in 1959 and preserved by Fortepan, the Hungarian community photo archive (FORTEPAN / Kina, 照片：取自匈牙利社群照片檔案館 Fortepan 保存的一組一九五九年中國照片（FORTEPAN / Kina，CC BY-SA 3.0CC BY-SA 3.0; resized for the web). The archive does not record the places or the people. They show the country in the Great Leap Forward years; they are not images of the Tsang family, and nothing in them establishes hunger. ；為網頁縮小尺寸）。檔案館未記錄拍攝地點與人物。照片呈現大躍進年間的中國；並非曾家的影像，照片本身也不能證明飢餓。Fortepan 30586Fortepan 30586 · Fortepan 30601Fortepan 30601.
1958–1962 · Ages 15–19 · The Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine一九五八至六二年 · 15–19歲 · 大躍進與大饑荒
The Great Leap Forward promised abundance. It ended in one of the deadliest famines in history.大躍進許諾豐衣足食，結果卻釀成史上最慘烈的饑荒之一。
1958 · People’s Communes一九五八年 · 人民公社
In 1958, when David was fifteen, radical collectivization pushed rural families into vast People’s Communes. Grain went to communal canteens, and in many regions families were forbidden to cook at home. Villages were mobilized to build backyard steel furnaces, fed with their own pots and tools.一九五八年，大衛十五歲時，激進的集體化把農村家庭併入龐大的人民公社。糧食歸公共食堂，許多地區更不准農民在家煮食。各村被動員建起土法煉鋼爐，投進爐裏的，是自家的鍋與農具。
30–453000–4500
million dead萬人死亡
Estimated excess deaths: about 30 million (demographer Judith Banister), 36 million (Yang Jisheng) and at least 45 million (historian Frank Dikötter). Estimates differ; some are lower.超額死亡人數估計：人口學者 Judith Banister 約三千萬；楊繼繩三千六百萬；歷史學者馮客（Frank Dikötter）至少四千五百萬。各家估算不同，也有較低的估計。
1959–1961 · Famine一九五九至六一年 · 饑荒
The state took its grain first.國家先把糧食徵走。
Harvests fell and were exaggerated, but state procurement stayed high: grain fed the cities, exports and reserves. Villagers could not leave to look for food. The countryside suffered most, and the old and the very young died at the highest rates. In the worst-hit places, the starving turned to cannibalism: archives record the dead being eaten and, in a few cases, people killed to be eaten.收成下降，產量卻被浮誇虛報，國家徵購依然居高不下：糧食供應城市、出口與儲備。農民不准外出逃荒。受創最深的是農村，死亡率最高的是老人和幼童。在災情最嚴重的地方，更出現人相食：檔案記錄了吃死人的事，也記錄了少數殺人而食的案例。
In the canteens · Political status公共食堂 · 政治身分
Whoever held the ladle decided who ate.誰掌勺，誰就決定誰能吃飯。
Canteen cadres controlled every portion: thick food from the bottom of the pot, or thin broth from the top. Food became punishment. No central order set rations by class label. It did not need to: the canteen put food in local hands, and cadres and militia applied policy as they saw fit. Families labeled landlords or rich peasants, “bad elements”, critics and supposed slackers were easy to give little or nothing.食堂幹部掌控每一份口糧：可以從鍋底舀出稠的，也可以只撇一勺面上的清湯。食物成了懲罰的手段。中央並沒有明令按階級成分分配口糧，卻也無須明令：食堂把糧食交到基層手中，幹部和民兵按自己的理解執行政策。被劃為地主、富農的人家，被扣上「壞分子」帽子、提出批評或被指偷懶的人，都很容易只分得很少，甚至被扣飯。
Two of the dead were his cousins.死者之中， 有他的兩位堂兄弟。
David’s father’s younger brother had two sons. Both died in the famine.大衛父親的弟弟有兩個兒子，兩人都死於這場饑荒。
Family recollection shared by Angell.家人憶述，由 Angell 提供。
Politically, a “black” family.政治上， 「黑五類」子弟。
In his memoir David wrote that, by political background, he was a child of the “Five Black Categories”: landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and rightists. His family carried two of those labels. In the famine years, such labels left a family with the least protection from the cadres who held the ladle. His own memories of hunger follow.大衛在回憶錄中寫道，論政治背景，他是「“黑五類”份子的子弟」——即地主、富農、反革命分子、壞分子和右派。他家就背着其中兩頂帽子。在饑荒年間，這樣的身分，使一家人在掌勺的幹部面前最沒有保障。他自己對飢餓歲月的記憶，見下文。
Family recollection · Angell · Both sons of David’s father’s younger brother died in the famine家人憶述 · Angell · 大衛父親的弟弟的兩個兒子都死於這場饑荒
Family source · David’s memoir, Him, You and Me, chapter “God’s ways are higher than our ways” · His own description of himself as a child of the “Five Black Categories”, the family’s landlord classification and his eldest brother’s rightist label家族資料 · 大衛回憶錄《衪你我》〈神的路高過人的路〉· 自述為「“黑五類”份子的子弟」、家庭的地主成分與長兄的右派帽子
1957–1958 · Ages 14–15一九五七至五八年 · 14–15歲
Full marks. Closed doors.滿分以外，還有出身。
At school, his ability carried him ahead of children older than himself. He shared a school year with a brother three years his senior and a class with a cousin five years older. By his first year of junior secondary school he had read the great Chinese novels, including Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber. A teacher later told him that he alone in the school had earned full marks in the public mathematics examination. He wanted to become a doctor like his father.
But when he sought a place in senior secondary school, his marks were not enough. His eldest brother had been labelled a rightist; the family’s property had brought them the classification of landlords. These were judgments on his family, yet they determined his prospects. The local school did not admit him. He remembered the injustice long afterward.
A place at an overseas-Chinese school in Xiamen allowed him to continue. At fifteen, he went far from home to Fujian and had to manage everything for himself. The school’s academic standard was higher than those at home, but he was learning more than lessons. He called himself an old soul in a child’s body. Among more than fifty classmates, he was chosen as deputy class monitor, despite the political background that had stood against him.
Long afterwards he was grateful for the door that had shut. Had he not failed, he wrote, he would never have gone to Fujian at all.
多年以後，他反而為那扇關上的門感恩。他寫道：當年若不是名落孫山，他根本不可能到遙遠的福建去升學。
David as a teenager in Xiamen, 1957–1958.1957至1958年，少年時的大衛在廈門。David beside a stone lion in Xiamen, 1957–1958.1957至1958年，大衛在廈門石獅旁留影。
David Tsang. Xiamen, 1957–1958曾大衛。廈門，一九五七至五八年
“When I was young I often felt like a blade of grass growing in a crack in the rock, needing many turns before it could see the open sky.”
「我年輕時常覺得自己好像是一棵生長在石縫中的小草，須經幾番曲折才得見廣闊的天空。」
Him, You and Me · “God acts for those who wait on Him.” English translation.《衪你我》〈神為等候衪者行事〉。
1959–1961 · Ages 16–18 · The Great Chinese Famine一九五九至六一年 · 16–18歲 · 中國大饑荒
An egg, only on his birthday生日才有的一顆蛋
David’s teenage years unfolded amid catastrophic hunger. Mao’s Great Leap Forward had intensified collectivization, bringing farming and food distribution under collective control. As harvests fell, rigid state grain demands left many rural communities without enough to eat. Millions died in the famine.
When David spoke to Angell about those years, hunger had very particular names: tree bark, insect larvae, an egg he could eat only on his birthday. He returned to these memories often. The boy trying to earn a place in medical school was also trying to find enough to eat.
The birthday egg. An artistic interpretation of the hunger David remembered: tree bark, and an egg he could eat only on his birthday.生日的一隻蛋。藝術演繹：大衛記憶中的飢餓——樹皮，以及只有生日才吃得到的一隻蛋。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
Family recollections shared by Angell.家人憶述，由 Angell 提供。
His final school year高中最後一年
The price of a future前途與良心之間
His ambition survived the move. There were dozens of doctors among his relatives on both sides of the family, and he meant to apply to Shanghai First Medical College. In his final school year he was chosen to represent more than a thousand pupils in Xiamen’s essay competition. He had the results and the record of service as deputy monitor. The obstacle remained his family background.
Then the school’s security chief offered to help him. The man was from David’s home district, regarded him as one of his own, and said he wanted to cultivate him. What he wanted in return was a letter: David was to steal a letter from home belonging to a student from Thailand whom the official suspected of spying. David saw a chance to overcome the disadvantage his marks could not erase. He agreed without thinking it through, stole the letter and handed it over.
The letter under the lamp. An artistic interpretation of the letter David stole in his final school year, and the troubled conscience that led him to confess.燈下的一封信。藝術演繹：求學最後一年，大衛偷取了一封信；良心的不安，最終使他承認過錯。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
He had completed the task, but he could not sleep. Night after night, his conscience troubled him. Finally he went to the student, confessed and asked forgiveness. The answer was a fierce scolding. The security chief, in turn, treated him as a traitor and later found a pretext to subject him to public denunciation. Confession brought no easy reconciliation. It brought back the political danger he had hoped to escape, and his dream of medical college disappeared.
The older David could look back and give that loss a place in his life of ministry. The young man still had to live through it. He finished school with his chosen future closed to him and went to Guangzhou to find work.
“Ten years of study by the window, and no one asks.” Years after the door to medical college closed, David wrote this old saying on the back of a photograph for his parents, signed 七兒, their seventh son. 1973.「十年窗下無人問」——學醫之門關上多年以後，大衛在寄給父母的照片背後寫下這句古語，署名「七兒」。一九七三年。Story & historical sources故事與歷史資料
The school incident and subsequent work follow his memoir’s sequence; their exact years are unrecorded. The hunger memories—tree bark, insect larvae and an egg only on his birthday—come from Angell’s recollection of his father’s spoken stories, not the reviewed memoir. The twelve books awaiting scans may add detail.
Handwriting: the note in this chapter is on the back of a 1973 photograph among the family’s Memory Forward scans. It is addressed to 爸、媽 (Dad, Mum), quotes 「十年窗下無人問」 and is signed 七兒, “seventh son.” The line is the first half of a traditional saying about a scholar’s long, unnoticed years of study. For display, the ink was separated from the scanned card; the front of the photograph is not shown. He wrote it in 1973; it is placed in this chapter, beside the years of study it brings to mind.
Paintings: artistic interpretations made for this memorial with an AI image-generation tool, in the style of the opening painting. They are not photographs or likenesses. Where a painting moves, only a small painted detail is animated. 畫作：以 AI 圖像生成工具為本紀念網站製作的藝術演繹，參照序幕畫作的風格；並非照片或肖像。有動態的畫作，只有一小處繪畫細節動起來。
The birthday egg: From Angell’s recollection of his father’s spoken accounts of the famine. The bowl, table and pairing of the egg with bark form a symbolic still life, not a recorded meal.生日的一隻蛋：根據 Angell 憶述父親談及饑荒的口述故事。碗、桌子及蛋與樹皮的並置是一幅象徵性靜物畫，並非某一頓飯的實錄。
The letter under the lamp: David’s memoir describes a school official asking him to take a Thai student’s letter from home. The exact year is unrecorded. Holding the letter beneath a dormitory lamp is an imagined composition.燈下的一封信：大衛的回憶錄記下，一名校方保衛幹部要他偷取一名泰國同學的家書。確切年份未有記錄。在宿舍燈下拿着信的場景屬想像構圖。
Chapter IV第四章1961 — 1966 · Ages 18–23 · 18–23歲
19611966
Sawdust.Scripture.A vow.木屑，聖經，一個許願。
“God acts for those who wait on Him” — a chapter title in David’s memoir.「神為等候衪者行事」——大衛回憶錄的篇名。
The border and the Little Red Book, 1962–1964邊境與《毛主席語錄》，一九六二至六四年
The famine eased after 1961. In 1962 came one of the great waves of illegal crossings over the Shenzhen border into Hong Kong.一九六一年後，饑荒漸漸緩和。一九六二年，越過深圳邊境偷渡來港的人潮，是歷來其中一次大潮。
It was one of four such waves between 1957 and 1979.
一九五七至七九年間，這樣的大潮共有四次。
In May 1964 the People’s Liberation Army issued the first official edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao, the Little Red Book, for study in the army. Its sayings were to be learned by heart and applied in daily life.
Photograph: food stalls and refugee huts on Jordan Road, Kowloon, 28 September 1955, credited on its Library of Congress caption card to the U.S. Foreign Operations Administration. As the work of a U.S. federal agency it is in the public domain; the Library has not evaluated its rights. It shows the refugee settlements Hong Kong already held, not the 1962 wave. 照片：一九五五年九月二十八日九龍佐敦道上的熟食檔與難民木屋；美國國會圖書館的說明卡註明攝影為美國對外業務管理署。作為美國聯邦機構的作品，屬公有領域；國會圖書館未評估其版權狀況。照片呈現香港早已容納的難民聚居處，並非一九六二年的偷渡潮。Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-26840美國國會圖書館，LC-USZ62-26840.
A light beneath the covers · symbolic illustration被窩裏的一點光 · 寓意畫作
After graduation · Guangzhou畢業後 · 廣州
A teacher, then a craftsman從教師到木匠
Teaching in Guangzhou gave him work when medicine was no longer possible; his overseas-Chinese background made the post easy to find. His father and older brothers were in Hong Kong, and he applied again and again for permission to visit them. Every application failed. He went on praying about it for five years.
Living under other people’s roof, with no relatives nearby to turn to, he went alone into empty fields to pray in tears. At school he had read his Bible in secret: lights out, mosquito net lowered, blankets pulled over him, a flashlight beneath the covers. Now he spent three months reading it from beginning to end. That fuller reading brought a new conflict. Teaching evolution no longer agreed with his understanding of Scripture, and the sleeplessness returned. A doctor’s certificate eventually gave him grounds to resign.
With his conscience at peace, he had to decide how to earn a living again. He thought of Jesus working as a carpenter and asked why he should not learn the same trade. A friend taught him; he obtained tools and began making wooden patterns for molds used to produce machine parts. An error in the pattern could make the finished part useless. Repetition trained his eye to judge a right angle or a straight line at a glance. The medical student he had hoped to become was now a craftsman, learning skills that would remain useful long after he left that workshop.
The pattern-maker’s bench. An artistic interpretation of David’s work in Guangzhou, making wooden patterns for the moulds used to produce machine parts.木模工的工作枱。藝術演繹：大衛在廣州製作木模，供鑄造機器零件之用。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
1966 · Age 23 · The Cultural Revolution begins一九六六年 · 23歲 · 文化大革命開始
In 1966, Red Guards set out to destroy the “Four Olds.” Religion was among their targets.一九六六年，紅衛兵誓要「破四舊」，宗教也在打擊之列。
May 1966 · Red Guards一九六六年五月 · 紅衛兵
In May 1966, when David was twenty-three, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. Students given armbands as Red Guards were urged to destroy the Four Olds: old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking. Temples, churches and mosques were attacked, and many were closed or seized.一九六六年五月，大衛二十三歲時，毛澤東發動文化大革命。學生戴上紅衛兵臂章，被號召去破除「四舊」：舊風俗、舊習慣、舊文化、舊思想。寺廟、教堂和清真寺受到衝擊，許多被關閉或佔用。
破四舊 Destroy the Four Olds 破四舊 Destroy the Four Olds 破四舊
10十
years religion was banned年宗教被禁
1966–1976. The Council on Foreign Relations describes religions as “essentially banned” in these years; Pew Research Center writes that all religious activities were banned and religious personnel persecuted. Many believers kept their faith in secret.一九六六至七六年。美國外交關係協會形容，這些年間宗教「基本上被禁止」；皮尤研究中心指出，一切宗教活動被禁，宗教人員受迫害。許多信徒只能暗中持守信仰。
Documentary excerpt · Cultural Revolution, 1966–1976紀錄片節錄 · 文化大革命，一九六六至七六年
Denunciation became public spectacle. In this footage, accused men wear placards and are forced to bow. Across China, intellectuals were beaten; some died of their injuries, and some took their own lives.批鬥成了公開的場面。這段影像中，被指控的男子掛着罪名牌，被迫低頭彎腰。在全國各地，知識分子遭到毆打，有人傷重而死，也有人自尋短見。
1966–1976 · Churches一九六六至七六年 · 教會
Faith went underground.信仰轉入地下。
Churches, temples and mosques were closed, damaged or taken over for other uses, and religious leaders were persecuted. Believers who held on to their faith were forced underground.教堂、寺廟與清真寺被關閉、破壞，或被挪作他用；宗教人員受到迫害。堅持信仰的人，被迫轉入地下。
The workshop. The portrait. The church.工場， 畫像， 教堂。
For David, the Cultural Revolution arrived at the workshop door. He was told to sing each morning before the leader’s portrait, and he resigned rather than do it. Then he saw a church occupied by Red Guards. His own account follows.對大衛來說，文化大革命是從工場門口闖進來的。他被要求每天早上向領袖畫像唱歌；他寧可辭職，也不肯照做。後來，他看見一間教堂被紅衛兵佔據。以下是他自己的記述。
Background: Red Guards holding Mao’s Little Red Book. Documentary footage: Cultural Revolution denunciations. Neither shows David or his family; full image and credits below.背景：手持《毛主席語錄》的紅衛兵。紀錄片片段：文化大革命期間的批鬥。兩者均非大衛或其家人的影像；完整照片與出處見下。
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution reached into the workshop. Each morning before work he was to report to an office and sing with the others before a portrait of the leader. He believed this violated the commandments. The next day, he resigned. Later, cycling past a church occupied by Red Guards, he saw walls covered in slogans. He had lost another livelihood; the church itself was under occupation. At that doorway, he made a promise.
Five years of unsuccessful applications lay behind him. He was asking for a way to Hong Kong, but his promise reached beyond escape. If a way opened, the life he saved would become a life of service.
Red Guards at Xikai Cathedral (西開教堂), Tianjin, during the Cultural Revolution: images of Mao and anti-Catholic slogans around its door. Not the church David passed.文化大革命期間，紅衞兵衝擊天津西開教堂，正門四周貼上毛澤東像與反天主教標語。並非大衛經過的那間教堂。
A promise at the church. An artistic interpretation of David cycling past a church occupied by Red Guards in 1966, where he promised a life of service if a way to Hong Kong opened.教堂前的承諾。藝術演繹：一九六六年，大衛騎單車經過一間被紅衞兵佔用的教堂；他承諾，若能到香港，便獻上一生事奉。
Artistic interpretation · AI-generated藝術演繹 · AI 生成
“Lord, if You open the way…” 1966「主啊，如果您開路……」一九六六年
“Lord, if You open the way for me to go to Hong Kong, I am willing to devote my life to helping You rebuild the church.”
「主啊，如果您開路使我能去香港，我願意奉獻一生，幫您重修教會。」
Him, You and Me · “God acts for those who wait on Him.” English translation.《衪你我》〈神為等候衪者行事〉。
His favourite scripture, in his own hand: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah. That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1–2 (NKJV). He wrote it in Chinese on the back of a photograph; the date is not recorded.他最愛的經文，出自他的手筆：「願神憐憫我們，賜福與我們，用臉光照我們，好叫世人得知你的道路，萬國得知你的救恩。」詩篇六十七篇一至二節。他把經文寫在一張照片背後，日期未有記錄。Story & historical sources故事與歷史資料
Him, You and Me: childhood, education, hidden Bible and the 1966 vow; his English “My Testimony.” The boundary between Chapters 3 and 4, 1961, approximates the end of his secondary schooling; the memoir does not date his graduation.
Jacob (曾家拾), the tenth brother, recalls the woodworking tools, first flute and Red Cotton bicycle in “Memories from Jacob the 10th brother,” a family-message screenshot uploaded on 12 September 2026. Early 1966 dates the bicycle’s arrival; he does not date its later confiscation or name the former classmate. These are Jacob’s recollections, separate from David’s memoir. The bicycle is not identified as the one David rode past the church.
木工工具、第一支笛子與紅棉牌單車，據十弟曾家拾（Jacob）的家人訊息截圖〈Memories from Jacob the 10th brother〉，於二〇二六年九月十二日上傳。一九六六年初指收到單車的時間；他沒有註明後來被沒收的日期，也未寫出那位舊同學的名字。以上是家拾的回憶，與大衛自己的回憶錄分別交代；亦未把這輛車認定為大衛騎經教堂時所用的一輛。
Paintings: artistic interpretations made for this memorial with an AI image-generation tool, in the style of the opening painting. They are not photographs or likenesses. Where a painting moves, only a small painted detail is animated. 畫作：以 AI 圖像生成工具為本紀念網站製作的藝術演繹，參照序幕畫作的風格；並非照片或肖像。有動態的畫作，只有一小處繪畫細節動起來。
The pattern-maker’s bench: David’s memoir recalls learning the trade after leaving teaching, before his resignation in 1966. His practice trained his eye to judge straight lines and right angles. The bench and tools are imagined.木模工的工作枱：大衛的回憶錄記下，他離開教職後學做木模，至一九六六年辭工。反覆練習，使他練就辨認直線與直角的眼力。工作枱與工具均屬藝術想像。
A promise at the church: David’s memoir and his English testimony describe a church occupied by Red Guards and covered in slogans. The Mao portrait was added at the user’s request using the supplied visual reference; that reference does not establish the appearance of the church David passed in 1966. The architecture, bicycle, chain, cross and sky remain artistic choices. The bicycle is not identified as the Red Cotton he gave Jacob.教堂前的承諾：大衛的回憶錄及英文見證記下，一間教堂被紅衞兵佔用，牆上滿是標語。毛澤東像按使用者要求、參照其提供的圖片加入；該參考圖並不能證明大衛在一九六六年經過的教堂當時的外貌。建築、單車、鐵鏈、十字架及天空仍屬藝術構思；這輛單車也未被確認為他送給 Jacob 的紅棉牌單車。
Handwriting: Psalm 67:1–2 in Chinese, in David’s hand, on the back of the photograph filed as Bachelor Years 09 in the Memory Forward scans. Angell identified the hand as David’s and the psalm as his favourite scripture on 15 September 2026. The English is the wording Angell supplied, which matches the New King James Version.手跡：Memory Forward 掃描檔中「Bachelor Years 09」照片背面，大衛親筆以中文寫下的詩篇六十七篇一至二節。Angell 於二〇二六年九月十五日確認為大衛的筆跡，並指這是他最愛的經文。英文經文由 Angell 提供，與《新英王欽定本》（NKJV）相同。
Chapter V第五章1966 — 1974Ages 23–3123–31歲
19661974
Swimming泅向forFreedom自由
The 1960s · Historical context一九六〇年代 · 時代背景
The Freedom Swimmers泅向自由的人
In the 1960s, young people looked across the water toward Hong Kong and imagined a life they could choose. Behind them were political persecution, families condemned for their background, and futures narrowed by the Cultural Revolution. Ahead lay a border they could not freely cross.
British Hong Kong offered the possibility of beginning again. For those with relatives there, it could also offer a first home. But land routes were guarded and boats difficult to obtain. Some turned to the sea. They became known as the Freedom Swimmers.
For hours, the body had to keep going. Cold, cramps and exhaustion could be fatal. Discovery could mean capture and imprisonment. Some survivors trained and tried again; surviving one attempt did not make the next safe.
Hong Kong, May 21, 1967. Police and spectators during the unrest. David reached this city in the same year; he is not shown here.香港，1967年5月21日。動亂中的警察與圍觀市民。大衛在同一年抵港；照片中並沒有他。
Demonstrators are outside the frame. Full composition; converted to WebP.示威者在畫面以外。保留完整構圖，轉為 WebP 格式。
FREEDOM · 自由自由 · FREEDOM
To reach the far shore, they first had to risk never reaching it at all.
為了抵達彼岸，他們得先冒著再也無法上岸的危險。
Historical sources & image notes歷史資料與圖像說明
The historical accounts describe other swimmers. David’s own route and time in the water remain unrecorded; his three-day account covers the whole journey over land and water.
歷史記述所述為其他泅水者。大衛的具體路線與泅水時數尚無記錄；他所說的三天，指整段水陸行程。
The background is an artistic interpretation of David’s crossing. The photograph documents unrest in Hong Kong in 1967; it does not show swimmers or establish the date he arrived.
Christmas 1966 · Age 23 · The first attempt一九六六年聖誕 · 23歲 · 第一次嘗試
A promise, then a prison許願之後，卻是牢獄
Hong Kong held his father and brothers, and the possibility of worshipping freely. David had asked permission to visit and been refused. Now he had promised to devote his life to the church if he could get there. The official route remained closed.
David set out from Canton (Guangzhou) alone, hoping to reach Hong Kong. At Christmas in 1966, he was caught and jailed. The year in which he had made his promise ended in prison. He would remain there for a month.
David tried to make himself seem like a simple country fellow, pretending not to understand the Cantonese dialect spoken to him. In January 1967, after a month in prison, he was released and sent back to his home village. The prison doors had opened, but he was restricted to the village. The life he had known in Canton was beyond his reach.
1967 · Age 24 · Preparing to try again一九六七年 · 24歲 · 預備再試一次
An artist draws a way back畫出一條歸路
After prison, he was reluctant to try again. The failed attempt had already cost him the privilege of living in Canton; another capture was a risk he did not want to take. But a friend from his home district, an artist who had lost his work amid the upheaval, kept asking David to go with him. David eventually agreed out of loyalty. In Angell’s account, the artist then drew false train tickets that got both men back to Canton.
For five years he had asked God to open a way. He came to believe that the friend who would not stop asking was the way: the messenger, as he put it, whom God had sent to take him to Hong Kong.
Agreeing to go was only the beginning. David knew that cold had killed other swimmers, so he practised in cold river water. He learned to recognize Orion’s Belt, three stars in a row that could help him keep his direction at night. Before he entrusted his life to the crossing, he worked at the things he could learn.
1967 · Age 24 · The way to the shore一九六七年 · 24歲 · 走向海岸
By night, he moved. By day, he hid.夜裏趕路，白天藏身。
Before he could enter the sea, he had to reach it unseen. In the account he gave Angell, he travelled at night. Daylight meant hiding in bushes while Communist guards passed close by. Sometimes he hid in ponds and rivers, drawing breath through reeds. Progress depended as much on keeping still as on moving forward.
Near the water, thorny scrub blocked their way. David and his friend took turns going first, easing the branches apart, moving slowly and quietly. The thorns scraped them as they pushed through. Before the swim had begun, the journey had already left its marks.
Night travel and hiding are recalled by Angell; the thorn scrub and the companion come from Esther’s recounting.夜行與藏身，據 Angell 的記憶；帶刺的灌木與同行的朋友，據 Esther 的憶述。
Beneath the stars · an artistic interpretation guided by Esther’s correction and Angell’s account.星空下的泅渡 · 依 Esther 的更正與 Angell 的憶述而作的藝術想像。
1967 · Age 24 · The crossing · Family recollections一九六七年 · 24歲 · 泅水渡海 · 家人的憶述
Upright in the water. Quietly toward freedom.直身在水中， 靜靜游向自由。
David held himself upright in the water, his belongings on his head to keep them dry. He paddled below the surface without splashing. Each movement had to carry him forward without giving him away.
Esther recalls the danger plainly: guards could shoot if they spotted someone escaping.
Esther 記得，那份危險很直接：一旦發現有人逃走，守衞可能開槍。
Across the water lay rural Hong Kong—farmland, with few lights. David used the stars to keep his direction. Capture had stopped him once. This time, he kept going.
Swimming posture, belongings and the rural shore follow Esther’s correction; navigation by stars follows Angell’s recollection of David’s account.泅水姿勢、隨身物品與鄉郊海岸，據 Esther 的更正；藉星辰辨方向，據 Angell 記憶中大衛的口述。
1967 · Age 24 · Landfall一九六七年 · 24歲 · 上岸
A sign in English一塊英文招牌
Barbed wire ran along the shore where he came in, fencing off the waterline. He found a hole in it and went through. Even standing on land, he did not know where he was. Then he saw a sign written in English, and knew that he had reached Hong Kong.
He knocked on a door and asked to use the telephone. The man who answered wanted to know who he was and where he had come from; he was not about to let a stranger in off the street. David asked whether he knew Dr. Tsang Kong Kow. The man did — the two of them had grown up in the same hometown. The door opened.
The telephone call reached his father, and a taxi journey was arranged. But landfall was not yet safety. In Esther’s account, police were checking the area for people who had crossed from China; if David was found, he could be sent back. The people helping him gave him Hong Kong-style clothes, and a relative’s mother went with him in the taxi.
After the prison, the hiding places and the water, this last part of the journey was made in ordinary clothes, with someone beside him, on the way to his father.
經過牢獄、藏身之處與海水，最後這段路，他終於穿著尋常衣服，有人陪在身旁，去見自己的父親。
The landing, the door and the taxi come from Esther’s recounting, recorded with the family in September 2026.上岸、敲門與那程計程車，據 Esther 的憶述，二〇二六年九月與家人一同錄下。
Of all of this, his memoir records only that he and his companion arrived safely after three days of travel over land and water. The crossing was over. Keeping the promise he had made beside his occupied church would take the rest of his life.
“A year later, the Lord enabled me to swim to Hong Kong.”
「一年後，主使我能泅水到香港。」
David’s own English, “My Testimony,” describing 1967, the year after his vow.英文〈My Testimony〉原句的中譯，所述為許願翌年：一九六七年。
From his own papers他的文稿
He wrote it down.他把見證， 寫了下來。
His later testimony carries the journey in his own words: the closed church, his promise, the swim, and the life of service that followed.在後來寫成的見證中，他親自記下了被佔的教堂、向神的許願、泅水抵港，以及此後獻身服事的道路。
A faithful rendering of “My Testimony” from David’s original Word document. Writing date unknown.〈My Testimony〉由大衛原始 Word 文件忠實呈現，寫作日期未詳。英文原件記述：文革時，他許願若能到香港，願意終身事奉；翌年泅水抵港，後在播道神學院求學，並於1971年赴美深造。
1967–1971 · Ages 24–28 · A new beginning一九六七至七一年 · 24–28歲 · 重新開始
The promise becomes a life以一生履行承諾
For a month after his arrival, David was ill with fever. He remembered it lifting on the day he went to enroll at seminary. To him, this was an answer to the prayer he had carried for five years, and confirmation that he should give his life to ministry.
Hong Kong was itself living through riots and curfews. Within that unsettled city, he began four years at Evangel Theological College. Reaching safety had given him the chance to study; his promise gave him a reason to use it.
Open the original scan ↗放大原件影像 ↗Age 24 · Hong Kong seminary. The family’s filename supplies the age and setting; no date is printed on the photographs.二十四歲 · 香港神學院。年齡與地點據家人原檔名；照片本身未印日期。
Soon after enrolling, he was sent to help at a Sunday school in Diamond Hill. One boy was so disruptive that another teacher had passed him to David. On a Saturday morning, David went to the boy’s home. His mother was out working; the child had not eaten. David took him for breakfast and left money for the following morning too. In time, the boy became willing to listen. Later, when David was already studying in America, he heard that the child had gone to the seminary looking for him.
That same day, back at his father’s shop, a relative unexpectedly handed him an offering envelope. The sum inside was exactly one hundred times what he had left for the boy’s breakfast. He recorded the arithmetic, and the thought that followed it: had he known, he should have left more.
As the work grew, he wanted more training. He prayed for admission to an American seminary, the money to go, and the English needed to pass the entrance requirements. In China he had been allowed to study only Russian. He began with two remedial English courses, carried a dictionary with him, studied TOEFL vocabulary and attended English worship after his Sunday duties. Then came the results: the highest mark in one English final, a Greek course completed in English, and a passing TOEFL score. The boy once refused a local school place was preparing to study across an ocean.
By 1971 he had earned his Bachelor of Theology at Evangel and had been accepted by Trinity in America. The missing piece was funding. At chapel, a line from Ruth about a man who would not rest until a matter was settled brought him peace. Then a minister at his father’s Hong Kong church brought news: an elderly member, neither a relative nor a friend, wanted to help fund his studies. Another member provided a letter of financial guarantee. The minister also arranged for people to help him change planes in Los Angeles. He would make the journey with the help of a church community reaching ahead of him.
Hong Kong, 1967–1971. Beyond the classroom, the family photographs preserve classmates, an outing and the work of his hands.一九六七至七一年，香港。課室以外，家庭照片留下了同窗、郊遊，也留下了他親手做美術的身影。
David on a seminary outing in Hong Kong, 20 November 1969. Esther identifies him on the boat roof beside Dr. Pao.一九六九年十一月二十日，香港神學院郊遊。Esther 指出大衛坐在船頂、Dr. Pao 身旁。David with his classmates at Evangel Theological College in Hong Kong, 1970. Esther recalls that he was a third-year student.一九七〇年，大衛與香港播道神學院同學合影。Esther 記得他當時正讀三年級。David with an artist in Hong Kong during his seminary years, about 1967–1971. Esther recalls that he was asked to prepare artwork for an event.約一九六七至七一年，在香港讀神學期間，大衛與一位畫家在一起。Esther 記得，他曾受邀為一次活動準備美術作品。
America opened the classroom door, but there was no money secured for his second year. His English still rested on two years of study in Hong Kong. At Trinity he studied by day and, for a period, worked every evening cleaning at an electric company. He increased what he earned and cut what he spent, making room in a student’s budget for his mother and brothers back in China.
He remembered the difference vividly: the other Chinese students received money from home or from Christian organizations each month. He was sending it home, and sometimes sending help to a theology student in Hong Kong as well. Leaving his family had not ended his responsibility to them.
Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗David writing at his desk. The print is marked “OCT 72”; the family archive files it under 1973.大衛在書桌前寫字。照片邊緣印有「OCT 72」，家藏檔案則歸入一九七三年。
Reading, 30 September 1973, in his Chicago years. Identified by Angell.一九七三年九月三十日，芝加哥求學時期，正在讀書。由 Angell 辨認。David with the scooter he used for transportation during his Trinity study years in Chicago, 1971–1975.一九七一至七五年，在芝加哥三一神學院求學時，大衛以這輛機車代步。Chicago, 1973–1975. “Someone gave Dad a car,” Esther recalls.一九七三至七五年，芝加哥。Esther 說：「有人送了爸爸一輛車。」
“I believed that in the Lord I could overcome every difficulty.”
「我相信靠主可以勝過一切的困難。」
Him, You and Me · “In the Lord I can do all things.” English translation.《衪你我》〈靠著主凡事都能作〉。
His first years at Trinity · Chicago三一神學院的頭幾年 · 芝加哥
A stranger in the pulpit無名小卒站上講台
His first test was to speak. A course in personal evangelism took him with four classmates to Northwestern University, where he had to share his faith with American students in English. He knew how to do this in Hong Kong; here the language and cultural setting were unfamiliar. That day, he led a non-Chinese student to faith. When the class reported back, he learned that none of the others had done so. He took encouragement from it: imperfect English did not prevent him from reaching another person.
Then Trinity invited him to preach at its morning chapel. The seminary had learned his story; his testimony had appeared in the Evangelical Free Church of America’s Sunday-school materials. He was astonished to be asked to stand where prominent pastors and scholars usually spoke. He accepted because he believed the story had been entrusted to him to tell. To make himself understood, he wrote the sermon in advance, asked a bilingual friend to translate it, and memorized the English text.
The response reached beyond the chapel. One classmate, deeply moved, offered to help with anything David needed. David had an immediate request: he needed a driver that evening to collect a young woman from Moody Bible Institute. The classmate spent more than two hours driving with him to pick her up, then helped take her back later. David remembered the sermon and the practical kindness together. His words had moved someone to help.
David in Switzerland, July 1974, as Esther recalls; she places the photograph in Geneva during the month of the congress. The print is stamped JUL 74.一九七四年七月，大衛在瑞士。Esther 記得這是大會那個月在日內瓦拍的；相紙上印着 JUL 74。
In 1974, at thirty-one, David attended the world congress on evangelization convened by Billy Graham in Switzerland. In his memoir, he records that the organizers appointed him as the sole representative of the church in China. He was careful to say how he had come: by their appointment, not by an election held by the church in China.
In 1966 he had walked away from his carpentry job because he would not sing before a leader’s portrait. That Christmas he had been in prison. Now he was meeting Christian leaders from around the world and the heads of major seminaries. He also accepted a quieter task. When the congress adopted a declaration on simple living, the translation team asked him to make the Chinese fair copy. The student once praised for his writing put his hand to work again.
Among the Chinese delegates, a discussion of future evangelism brought disagreement over the choice of seven senior leaders for a committee. Two delegates objected to their age. David stood to prevent the dispute from growing: for the sake of the gospel, he said, whoever was best suited to the work should do it. According to his account, the objections ended. He later traced the worldwide association for Chinese evangelism to that committee. At the congress he also met leaders from Fuller who welcomed him to pursue further study — another door opening through the work he had come to do.
One other memory of Switzerland stayed with him. A fellow student in his dormitory lay ill with a high fever. On the way to the congress, David thought of what he would want if he were the one left in bed: someone to bring medicine. He went to get it. The walk there and back took more than an hour. The world had grown larger around him; the person who needed help was still close enough to reach.
Further passages of Him, You and Me now carried in this chapter: his own reading of the fellow townsman as the messenger God sent; the offering envelope that came to exactly one hundred times the boy’s breakfast money; the prayer he made about America; the two remedial English courses, the top mark, Greek taken in English and the TOEFL; the line from Ruth heard at chapel; the elderly church member who was no relation and contributed to his American studies, the guarantor and the arrangements at Los Angeles; sending money home while other Chinese students received it; the Northwestern campus visit and its result; the invitation to preach at the seminary chapel, the written and memorized English sermon, and the classmate who drove him to Moody and back; and his account of the 1974 congress in Switzerland — his appointment as the sole representative of the church in China, the declaration on simple living, the Chinese fair copy, the dispute among the Chinese delegates and what he said, and the committee that followed. The congress is identified as David describes it; the Chinese text keeps his own naming of the association that grew out of that committee. He does not record the congress dates, the campus student’s name, or the chapel date; none is assigned here. Chapter 8 supplies his account of walking for more than an hour to obtain medicine for a fellow student at the congress. Chapter 10 connects the congress to his meeting with Fuller’s president and Dr. Glasser and their invitation to continue his studies. His lack of second-year funding is stated in Chapter 7; the remittances to his family are described in Chapter 21.
Angell’s further family account, shared in September 2026, dates David’s first capture to Christmas 1966 and his release, after one month in prison, to January 1967. It supplies his pretended inability to understand Cantonese, return to his home village and restrictions there, the value he placed on living in Canton, his artist friend’s persuasion and drawn false train tickets, cold-river practice and learning Orion’s Belt. These details come from his father’s stories as Angell recalls them, not from a prison record or the reviewed memoir. The prison’s location, exact release day, practice river and successful crossing’s date remain unspecified.
Esther’s recounting of the escape and arrival, updated with the family on 9 September 2026, supplies the thorny scrub along the mainland shore and the friend escaping with him; upright swimming with his belongings on his head, quiet paddling beneath the surface, and a sparsely lit rural shore; the barbed wire at the waterline and the hole he found in it; the English sign that told him he had reached Hong Kong; the knock at a stranger’s door and the shared hometown with Dr. Tsang Kong Kow; and the Hong Kong clothes and the relative’s mother who rode with him in the taxi to his father. His name follows Esther’s handwritten correction supplied by Angell on 10 September 2026: Dr. Tsang Kong Kow (曾廣求醫生). His relationship to David is not recorded. The thorny plant was not identified. The landing place, the household, the taxi’s destination and the date of the crossing remain unrecorded.
Esther 對逃亡與抵港的憶述，於二〇二六年九月九日由家人補充更正，補上了以下細節：大陸岸邊帶刺的灌木與同行的朋友；身體直立、頭上放著隨身物品，在水面下靜靜划動，以及燈火稀疏的鄉郊海岸；水邊的鐵絲網與他找到的缺口；使他確認身在香港的英文招牌；敲開陌生人的門，以及與曾廣求醫生同鄉的巧合；還有那身香港衣服，與陪他坐計程車去見父親的、一位親戚的母親。姓名據 Angell 於二〇二六年九月十日提供的 Esther 手寫更正，作「曾廣求醫生」（Dr. Tsang Kong Kow）；他與大衛的關係尚無記載。帶刺的植物未能辨明。上岸地點、那戶人家、計程車的目的地與渡海的確實日期，同樣沒有記錄。
Jacob (曾家拾) adds the fourth brother collecting David, his thinness on returning home, their mother’s only hen and the evening roasting sweet potatoes together. His family-message screenshot, uploaded on 12 September 2026, gives no date for this homecoming; the January 1967 placement follows Angell’s account above. The meal and the remembered reply are retold from Jacob’s Chinese, not quoted from David’s memoir. The original correspondence remains in the private family archive.
Esther’s correction of 9 September 2026 supersedes the earlier backstroke and chest-bundle description. The danger of gunfire is her recollection, not a claim that shots were fired at David. She also describes bodies drifting downriver into Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution; she does not say David encountered them on his crossing.
The seminary photograph scan is family archive DT-0636. Its original filename identifies David at age 24 in Hong Kong seminary; the age and setting are family-supplied, and the scan has no printed date.
David’s memoir, Him, You and Me, “God acts for those who wait on Him,” records five years of waiting, the fellow townsman’s appeal and David’s agreement out of loyalty, the three-day whole journey, fever and seminary enrollment. His own English “My Testimony” explicitly records the swim; Angell also confirmed 1967. Religious meaning and the account of recovery follow David’s testimony. The night travel, daytime hiding, guards passing, concealment in ponds and rivers, breathing through reeds and navigation by stars come from Angell’s recollections of his father’s spoken stories. These details are not quoted from the memoir, whose afterword says he omitted much of the journey. The three days cover the whole journey; David’s exact route, distance, swimming duration and weather remain unrecorded.
The historical opening draws on archival scholarship about the wider era and another swimmer’s first-person account; these do not establish conditions on David’s particular crossing. Hong Kong study, the hungry child and American study follow the memoir and résumé.
Two family photographs identified by Esther were added in September 2026: David in Switzerland in July 1974 (she places it in Geneva during the congress; the print is stamped JUL 74), and David with a car in Chicago, 1973–1975, of which she says only that someone gave it to him. The congress met in Lausanne; the photograph is not identified as the congress venue.二〇二六年九月新增兩張由 Esther 辨認的家庭照片：一九七四年七月大衛在瑞士（她記得是大會期間在日內瓦拍的，相紙印有 JUL 74），以及一九七三至七五年大衛在芝加哥與一輛汽車合照，她只說那是別人送的。大會在洛桑舉行；照片並未確認為會場。
The reading photograph (Bachelor Years 08, stamped 9-30-73 on the back) was identified by Angell as David in his Chicago years on 16 September 2026; the house is not identified.閱讀照片（Bachelor Years 08，背面印有 9-30-73）於二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認為芝加哥求學時期的大衛；地點未有辨認。
Chapter VI第六章1975 — 1983 · Ages 32–40 · 32–40歲
19751983
A promise.A family.一個約定，一個家。
The United States and China, 1979美國與中國，一九七九年
On 1 January 1979 the United States and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations, thirty years after the revolution had separated them.一九七九年一月一日，美國與中華人民共和國建交。革命把兩個國家隔開，已經三十年。
Four weeks later Deng Xiaoping stood beside President Jimmy Carter at the White House. In China, his reforms had begun.
四個星期後，鄧小平站在白宮，身旁是卡特總統。在中國，他的改革已經起步。
More Chinese were arriving in America. In his memoir David noted that the wave of immigration from mainland China had already begun in the 1980s. The people who would fill his pews were on their way.
Photograph: Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter at the arrival ceremony for the Vice Premier of China, 29 January 1979, by the White House Staff Photographers; National Archives and Records Administration, NAID 183157, a U.S. federal government work in the public domain; the restored copy was obtained from 照片：一九七九年一月二十九日，白宮攝影師拍攝的鄧小平與卡特出席歡迎儀式；美國國家檔案館 NAID 183157，屬美國聯邦政府作品，公有領域；修復版取自Wikimedia Commons維基共享資源. It shows a state ceremony, not David; it marks the year. Displayed in grayscale.。照片記錄的是國事儀式，並非大衛；用以標記那一年。以灰階顯示。
David’s remark that the wave of immigration from mainland China to the United States had already begun in the 1980s is in Him, You and Me, “Guard the good teaching through the Holy Spirit.” His ordination, the Pomona church and Angell’s birth are told below with their sources.大衛所說「美國的大陸移民潮早在八十年代便已經開始」，見《衪你我》〈靠聖靈守住善道〉。他的按立、葡園教會與 Angell 的出生，在下文另有出處。
During his Trinity years · Texas三一神學院期間 · 德州
What he would not trade他不肯拿來交換的
Before the snowstorm, the letters and the wedding, David had faced a different question: could he share his life with someone who wanted him to give up his calling? During his Trinity years, he travelled to Texas to see a woman with whom he had begun corresponding in Hong Kong. By the time he reached America they were, in his words, special friends. She invited him to a student retreat; he prayed for the fare. A week later a hundred-dollar check arrived from Hong Kong, exactly the cost of a return ticket between Chicago and Dallas. He went full of hope.
Their conversations exposed how differently they understood the life ahead. She asked whether he could stop studying theology. His answer reached beyond school: everyone would die one day, he said, and he believed that serving God had an eternal purpose. If he were never going to die, he could give up seminary. Knowing that he would, he could not abandon the road he had chosen.
At the airport he thanked her for receiving him and said goodbye, telling her he did not expect them to meet again. By the time he wrote his memoir, they had not. He recorded no regret over the choice. In this world he was still a Hakka, a sojourner; his lasting hope lay beyond it. But the desire for a companion remained. After several disappointments, he began to wait quietly on God about marriage.
Before he finished at Trinity · A prayer about marriage三一神學院畢業之前 · 為婚姻的禱告
He asked for a nurse他求的，是一位護士
Near the end of his time at Trinity, he asked Mrs. Walker, his “prayer mother,” to pray for a wife who would walk the road of service with him. The question was no longer simply whom he might marry. It was whether they could give themselves to the same work.
Mrs. Walker asked what kind of partner he hoped for. A Chinese Christian who loved the Lord, he said, preferably a nurse. He expected his ministry to take him from place to place, and thought nursing would fit that unsettled life. Before he knew who she was, he was already thinking about the life they would have to build together.
At about the same time, Esther’s pastor in Canada, Pastor Lee, introduced her to David. She was a nurse.
差不多同一時候，Esther 在加拿大的牧師 Lee 牧師，介紹她認識大衛。她正是一位護士。
c. 1974 · Calgary and Chicago約一九七四年 · 卡城與芝加哥
A year of letters寫了一年的信
Esther was in Calgary and David in Chicago. For about a year, they got to know one another through letters.
Esther 在卡城，大衛在芝加哥。兩人通信約一年，慢慢認識對方。
The visit · An aunt in Chicago那次探訪 · 芝加哥的姨母
She was the one who travelled動身的是她
She had invited him to Calgary, and he could not go; between studying and working he had neither the time nor the money. He prayed about it instead. If this was the woman God had chosen for him, let her come to him — and if she did not come, he would know she was not the one.
Esther could afford the trip he could not. She decided to go to Chicago, where her aunt lived, and visit him.
Esther 負擔得起旅費，便決定動身，到芝加哥探望姨母，也去見他。
Their first meeting · Eight inches of snow初次見面 · 八寸大雪
He had promised to visit her他答應了去見她
She telephoned from Chicago and asked to meet. It was exam week, so he arranged to come once his papers were done. On the day he was to drive, the radio forecast eight inches of snow, and friends told him not to take the risk.
He had two reasons to go. She had travelled a long way to see him; he could not bear to answer that effort with indifference. And he had promised. In his account, affection and duty pointed in the same direction, even as his friends urged him to stay. He drove into the storm.
The journey normally took an hour. That day he drove for more than eight. Near the end, the car broke down. He got out and walked through the snow for another hour and more.
When he finally stepped into her aunt’s house, he looked, he wrote, like an ice pop and a snowman. Esther was startled. What moved him was the anxiety on her face, the tears almost falling. He believed that seeing what he had come through made her look at him differently too. The long journey ended with each discovering how much the meeting meant to the other.
Him, You and Me · his own account of the visit. English translation.《衪你我》記述這次探訪。
One week in Chicago芝加哥的一個星期
Seven days七天
During her visit, David and Esther quickly grew close. He proposed on the seventh day, and they became engaged that week.
相處的幾天裏，大衛與 Esther 很快便熟悉起來。第七天，他向她求婚；同一個星期，兩人便訂了婚。
In four years at Trinity he had never once been late with his fees. He was late that term. He had spent the tuition money on the ring, and paid the school back by instalments.
They married on August 16, 1975, in a Chinese church in Canada — the other end of the red carpet, as he put it.
一九七五年八月十六日，兩人在加拿大的一間華人教堂裏結婚——用他的話說，走到了紅地毯的另一端。
The first pages of a shared life兩個人的第一頁
From the visit in St. Louis to their honeymoon in Banff, 1975. Turn to the back of the last photograph: David addressed it to his parents.一九七五年，從聖路易的相聚，到班夫的蜜月。翻到最後一張照片的背面，是大衛寫給父母的字。
Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗David and Esther in St. Louis during her first visit, 1975. Back inscription: “Mar25 St Louis.”一九七五年，Esther 初次探訪大衛期間，兩人在聖路易合照。背面註記：「Mar25 St Louis」。Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗David and Esther show her engagement ring, 1975.一九七五年，大衛與 Esther 展示訂婚戒指。David and Esther on their honeymoon in Banff. On the reverse, David wrote “To dear Dad and Mom” and dated it August 1975.大衛與 Esther 在班夫度蜜月。大衛在照片背後題給父母留念，並寫下一九七五年八月。“To dear Dad and Mom.” David’s handwriting on the back of the Banff photograph, signed with 慶兒 and 家衛, August 1975.「給親愛的爸媽」——班夫照片背後的大衛手跡，署名「慶兒」「家衛」，一九七五年八月。
Before the August wedding, another long effort reached its end. In June 1975, after four years at Trinity Divinity School, David received his Master of Divinity. The next opening had begun at the world congress in Switzerland, where Fuller’s leaders had invited him to continue his studies. Princeton offered full tuition and living expenses, but he chose Fuller because he wanted to prepare for mission. There was one condition: he had to find $3,000 for room and board before Fuller would waive his tuition.
His father wrote from Hong Kong with an offer from their home church: a loan, to be repaid through service there after graduation. David thanked them and declined. He did not want a debt to determine where he served. He told his fiancée that, if God wanted him at Fuller, a way would open; if not, he would not go. Esther replied that she had exactly three thousand dollars in the bank and sent a check. Before their wedding, the future they had talked about already required something tangible from them both.
David at Trinity. The original photograph from the upper right of page 16B, The Evangelical Beacon, August 5, 1975.大衛在三一神學院。原照裁自一九七五年八月五日《The Evangelical Beacon》第16B頁右上方。
View full photograph ↗查看完整照片 ↗Graduation day, 13 June 1975. Left to right: his brother Gabriel; Mr. Walker; his father, Shau Man Tsang; David; and Mrs. Walker, the “prayer mother” he asked to pray for a wife who would walk the road of service with him.一九七五年六月十三日，畢業當天。左起：哥哥 Gabriel；Walker 先生；父親曾壽民；大衛；以及 Walker 太太——他稱她為「祈禱媽媽」，曾請她為自己求一位願意同走事奉之路的妻子。
Family photograph, digitised from the family scans. The five people were identified by Angell on 15 September 2026.家庭照片，掃描自家人收藏。相中五人由 Angell 於二〇二六年九月十五日確認。
Enlarge certificate ↗放大證書 ↗Master of Divinity · Trinity道學碩士 · 三一神學院 June 13, 1975 · Age 32. His original certificate, preserved by the family.一九七五年六月十三日 · 32歲。家人保存的學位證書原件影像。
1976 · Age 33一九七六年 · 33歲
Learning, with Esther beside him求學路上，有她同行
At Fuller, David described faith as having two legs: entrusting the work to God, and making every effort himself. After earning his Master of Theology in 1976, he read widely for the doctoral entrance examination, determined to know what the examiners knew and more. In his account, only ten percent of the candidates were admitted. He was one of them.
That summer, he and Esther travelled through the United States and Canada to gather material for his dissertation. Library followed library, among them Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the Library of Congress. He wanted the work to make his professor take notice. The road to that achievement was one they travelled together.
Enlarge certificate ↗放大證書 ↗Master of Theology · Fuller神學碩士 · 富勒神學院 June 7, 1976 · Age 33. School of World Mission.一九七六年六月七日 · 33歲。世界宣教學院。Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗David and Esther together at the desk, his arm around her. Family archive, 1975.大衛與 Esther 同坐桌前，他的手臂環著她的肩膀。家藏照片，一九七五年。June 1976: David in his gown for the Master of Theology, with his father, Shau Man Tsang, and Esther. Identified by Angell.一九七六年六月，大衛身穿神學碩士畢業袍，與父親曾壽民及 Esther 合影。由 Angell 辨認。
1977 · Age 34一九七七年 · 34歲
Doctor of Missiology宣教學博士
On June 6, 1977, Fuller awarded him the Doctor of Missiology. Ten years after reaching Hong Kong, the carpenter who had once been shut out of higher education had completed a doctorate. His subject joined two enduring parts of his life: Chinese thought and the Christian faith he wanted to share with Chinese people.
Enlarge certificate ↗放大證書 ↗Doctor of Missiology · Fuller宣教學博士 · 富勒神學院 June 6, 1977 · Age 34. School of World Mission.一九七七年六月六日 · 34歲。世界宣教學院。
1977 · Age 34 · A scholar’s distinction一九七七年 · 34歲 · 治學的肯定
The Dean’s Annual Award院長年度獎
His dissertation, A New Missiological Approach to the Chinese Ju-Chia, examined Chinese Confucian thought through the study of mission. The research made Dr. Arthur Glasser take notice, just as David had hoped. At commencement he walked onstage to receive the 1976–77 Dean’s Annual Award. The plaque preserves the precise distinction: the best dissertation produced in a language other than English.
他的論文 A New Missiological Approach to the Chinese Ju-Chia，從宣教學的角度探討中國儒家思想。豐富的研究資料，果然使葛拉舍（Arthur Glasser）博士刮目相看。畢業禮上，他走上台，領取一九七六至七七年度院長獎。獎牌把這份肯定寫得清楚：以英語以外語言撰寫的最佳博士論文。
Enlarge award ↗放大獎牌 ↗The original award plaque, marked 1976–77 and signed by Dean Arthur F. Glasser.原獎牌註明一九七六至七七年度，由院長 Arthur F. Glasser 簽署。1977: Esther and David with his father, Shau Man Tsang, and Dr. Arthur Glasser, the dean whose signature is on the award. Identified by Angell.一九七七年：Esther、大衛與父親曾壽民及葛拉舍博士（Arthur Glasser）合影；獎牌上有這位院長的簽名。由 Angell 辨認。
1977 · Age 34 · The record of his studies一九七七年 · 34歲 · 求學的記錄
The work behind the degrees學位背後的努力
The report card records the work behind the degrees: theology, anthropology, church growth, research and his dissertation, studied at Fuller between 1975 and 1977. Its final cumulative GPA is 3.79—a record of the preparation he carried into ministry.
The reverse explains Fuller’s 4.0 grading scale for 1976–77. The original course grades remain visible.背面的評分說明列出一九七六至七七學年的四分制換算。影像保留各科原有成績。
Enlarge report card ↗放大成績單 ↗Fuller student record, 1975–1977. The full page is retained; student identifiers are covered.富勒成績單，一九七五至七七年。保留完整頁面，學號已遮蔽。
The Holy Land, 1977聖地，一九七七年
In the year of his doctorate, David and Esther travelled to Israel. Esther identifies him in the family’s photographs at Nazareth, in the Dead Sea and in Jerusalem. Ten years after he swam out of China, he floated.取得博士學位那一年，大衛與 Esther 到了以色列。家藏照片中，Esther 認出他在拿撒勒、死海與耶路撒冷。泅水離開中國十年之後，他浮在水上。
David below a road sign for Nazareth, 1977.一九七七年，大衛在往拿撒勒的路牌下。David in the Dead Sea, 1977.一九七七年，大衛在死海中。David above a bay in Israel, 1977.一九七七年，大衛在以色列一處海灣之上。David beside an old olive tree, Israel, 1977.一九七七年，以色列，大衛在一棵老橄欖樹旁。David in a lane of an old town, Israel, 1977.一九七七年，以色列，大衛在一條老街上。
David and Esther at home in Vancouver, 1978, the year he turned to writing. Identified by Angell.一九七八年，大衛與 Esther 在溫哥華家中——他轉而專心寫作的那一年。由 Angell 辨認。
A course in church growth at Fuller had made him want to establish a congregation himself. Before graduation, the pastor 戴紹曾, a descendant of Hudson Taylor, invited him to teach at a seminary in Taiwan. David declined: without experience of building a church, he did not want to teach the subject only from books. Then a pastor from Vancouver offered him a newly begun mission. He knew the city had many Chinese families. Unable to return to China to preach, and already an immigrant to Canada, he believed this was where his preparation should first become service.
Only after arriving did he discover that the mission was caught between denominations. The pastor who invited him had changed affiliations and taken the work with him. David withdrew from the dispute and proposed a fresh start in another Chinese neighbourhood. In David’s account, that pastor opposed him, fearing competition.
A Baptist church then offered him meeting space. He mailed invitations to Chinese families nearby and signed them “Doctor”: he had earned the degree but had not yet been ordained a pastor. Hostile calls followed, accusing him of pride. Critics told the Baptist district superintendent that the area needed no Chinese ministry; the superintendent withdrew support for lending the space. Even his effort to find an uncontested place to begin had ended with another closed door.
He had crossed the continent, completed his training and come ready to serve. For the moment, he had no place to gather the people he hoped to reach. He turned to writing. The Blazing Torch was completed during those hard days. More than a year later, an invitation from California gave him a place to try again.
A Western church in Pomona, California, wanted to reach Chinese families in its community and invited David from Canada to begin the work. In 1978 he was ordained. He had already preached and led people to faith as a student; now he was taking responsibility for helping a new congregation take root.
With Esther beside him, the promise he had made beside an occupied church in Guangzhou was becoming a household.
Esther 與他同行；當年在被佔教堂旁許下的承諾，如今成了一個家共同承擔的生活。
1979 · Age 36 · Pomona Valley, California一九七九年 · 36歲 · 加州葡園
A hundred people in six months半年，一百人
This time, people came. David recalled Sunday attendance rising past a hundred in less than six months. Growth brought a difficult choice. Most participants wanted a congregation of their own; he wrote that they felt treated as second-class members within the Western church. He supported their wish, believing that belonging to a church should be willing. His résumé records him as founder of the Pomona Valley Chinese Christian Church from 1979.
The disagreement reached back into the place that had trained him. According to David, the host church’s leader threatened to throw his office books into the street, then complained to Dr. Glasser at Fuller. When his teacher encountered him and moved to rebuke him, David answered gently that his conscience was clear and that the matter could wait until they stood before Christ’s judgment seat. He would neither give up his principle nor turn against his teacher. Some time later, Glasser apologized. David never claimed to know exactly what had changed his teacher’s mind.
The church had begun, and the work had survived its first conflict. His long preparation was now sustaining a living congregation. Soon the household that sustained that work would grow too.
David, Esther and baby Angell beside the sign for the Chinese gathering in Pomona, 21 December 1980. Identified by Angell; the date is printed on the photograph.一九八〇年十二月二十一日，大衛、Esther 與襁褓中的 Angell 站在葡園「華人聚會」的牌子旁。由 Angell 辨認；日期印在照片上。
1979 · Age 36 · Waiting for a first child一九七九年 · 36歲 · 等候頭一個孩子
He told them it would be a boy他說，會是個兒子
In his second year of starting church work in California, Esther was expecting, and David caught himself wondering which it would be. That morning’s reading handed him a line from Isaiah: for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. He was not sure that counted as an answer. Then at the prayer meeting that evening he heard Sister Irene Lee praying in Cantonese for Mrs. Tsang’s 細滿子 — her little boy — to grow well and be safely born. After that he believed it, and began telling people.
One of the people he told was an elderly Western woman evangelist, who informed him with some authority that she predicted a girl, and that her predictions had never yet been wrong. He told her that this time she would be wrong, and that she was welcome to wait and see. Their son was born that December.
He was glad, he wrote, not because a son was better than a daughter, but because God had kept faith with him — and, he admitted in the same breath, because now he would not have to worry about which the next one would be. He was, after all, a man shaped by Chinese custom.
Their son, Angell, is born. The pastor becomes a father.
兒子 Angell 誕生。牧者也成了父親。
Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗David with baby Angell, 1980. Identified by Angell.一九八〇年，大衛與嬰兒時期的 Angell。由 Angell 辨認。Bath time: David and Angell, 1980. Identified by Angell.一九八〇年，父子倆一起洗澡：大衛與 Angell。由 Angell 辨認。
David with Sunny, 1983. Identified by Angell.一九八三年，大衛抱着 Sunny。由 Angell 辨認。Baby Sunny with her older brother, Angell.嬰兒時期的 Sunny 與哥哥 Angell。
Story & historical sources故事與歷史資料
This chapter draws on Him, You and Me, chapters 8–11, 13 and 21: the Texas friendship and his choice of calling; courtship and the snowstorm; the ring bought with tuition money; his decision to study at Fuller, Esther’s check, his account of the ten-percent doctoral admissions rate and their 1976 library journey; the invitation to teach in Taiwan, Vancouver’s denominational conflict and The Blazing Torch; the Pomona work, attendance growth and conflict with the host church, followed by Glasser’s apology; and the first pregnancy, his reading of Isaiah and Irene Lee’s prayer. The Texas episode is an explicitly retrospective opening and has no assigned age or year. The exact Vancouver tenure and book-completion year are not supplied. The résumé records him as Pomona Valley Chinese Christian Church’s founder for 1979–1985; the memoir supplies no founding month. The source describes 戴紹曾 as 戴德生的第四代孫子; the narrative uses “a descendant of Hudson Taylor” without imposing an English generational count. Allegations about church disputes remain David’s recollections. His original academic records give the documented degree dates, award scope and GPA below.
Courtship, summer 1975 marriage and 1976 research trip: Him, You and Me, which supplies the prayer to Mrs. Walker, the request for a nurse and his reason for it, the prayer that she should come to him, the eight-inch forecast, the eight-hour drive, the breakdown and walk, the “ice pop and snowman” arrival, and the declined church loan and his fiancée’s check. Esther’s own account of the same months was recorded by Angell on 8 September 2026 and supplies: Pastor Lee’s visit to her house; the year of letters between Calgary and Chicago and the nine-dollar phone call of 1974; what David wrote about; his drawings; the exchanged photographs and the stack lost in a move; her reason for making the journey herself; her aunt in Chicago, who already knew David because he preached at her church; the warning that he was a very quiet man; the drive to St. Louis; the proposal on the seventh day; his call to her father; the engagement that week; and the wedding date of August 16, 1975. Mrs. Walker and Pastor Lee did not know each other, and Pastor Lee is named only as Esther remembers him. Where the two accounts meet they agree: he prayed that she would come to him, and she came — for reasons of her own. Degrees: the original Trinity and Fuller certificates, dated June 13, 1975 (Master of Divinity), June 7, 1976 (Master of Theology), and June 6, 1977 (Doctor of Missiology). The graduation photograph is the upper-right picture on printed page 16B (PDF page 2) of The Evangelical Beacon, August 5, 1975; the printed caption and Angell identify David. It is cropped directly from the scan, without reconstruction. The newsletter also lists his 1971 Th.B. from Evangel Theological College. The Dean’s Annual Award plaque specifies the best dissertation produced in a language other than English, 1976–77. His Fuller student record covers 1975–77 and gives a final cumulative GPA of 3.79; student identifiers are covered in the displayed copy. Ordination: résumé and certificate. Angell supplied both birth dates, his mother’s name Esther and her maiden name Fung. He identified the infant photograph as baby Sunny with her older brother Angell; its exact date is unrecorded. The family portrait has its own April 1981 handwritten caption. The wedding photograph is illustrative; its date is unrecorded. The children’s Chinese names follow Dad’s note, “Sunny’s Chinese name.”
The 1979 history page cites the Office of the Historian and the National Archives photograph above. The Holy Land photographs are the family’s 1977 prints; Esther identifies David and the places (Israel, the Dead Sea) in the family recollection records of September 2026. Nazareth is read from the road sign in the print. No photograph is identified as the memoir’s 1976 research journey through American and Canadian libraries.一九七九年的歷史頁引用上述美國國務院歷史文獻辦公室及國家檔案館照片。聖地照片為家藏一九七七年沖印本；二〇二六年九月的家人憶述記錄中，Esther 辨認出大衛及地點（以色列、死海）。「拿撒勒」讀自照片中的路牌。沒有任何照片被指為回憶錄所記一九七六年走訪美加圖書館的旅程。
Identified by Angell on 16 September 2026, one photograph at a time: David at home in Vancouver in 1978 (1978 02); David, Esther and Angell at the Pomona Chinese gathering on 21 December 1980 (1980 13, the date printed on the print); David holding Angell on the sofa (1980 07, the photograph already published here, whose adult was previously unnamed) and in the bath (1980 02, published with Angell’s consent); and David with Sunny in 1983 (1983 03). His answers are kept in the private round-3 ledger.以下照片於二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 逐張辨認：一九七八年溫哥華家中的大衛（1978 02）；一九八〇年十二月二十一日葡園華人聚會前的大衛、Esther 與 Angell（1980 13，日期印於照片）；沙發上抱着 Angell 的大衛（1980 07，即本頁原已刊出、當時未註明成人身分的照片）及浴缸中的父子（1980 02，經 Angell 同意刊出）；以及一九八三年抱着 Sunny 的大衛（1983 03）。他的答覆存於私人第三輪紀錄。
Identified by Angell on 16 September 2026: the June 1976 photograph of David in his gown with his father and Esther (1976 03), and the 1977 photograph of Esther and David with his father and Dr. Glasser (1977 04). He did not say which of the two older men is which, so neither caption gives a left-to-right order.二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認：一九七六年六月大衛身穿畢業袍與父親及 Esther 的合照（1976 03），以及一九七七年 Esther、大衛與父親及葛拉舍博士的合照（1977 04）。他沒有說明兩位長者的左右位置，故兩則說明均不標示次序。
Chapter VII第七章1984 — 2003 · Ages 41–60 · 41–60歲
19842003
A carpenter.A church.木匠的手，建起教會。
Reform and opening, 1978–1982改革開放，一九七八至八二年
In December 1978 the Party turned from class struggle to economic reform. Within a few years the communes were gone, and churches closed for a decade were allowed to open their doors.一九七八年十二月，黨從階級鬥爭轉向經濟改革。幾年之間，人民公社消失了；關閉了十年的教堂，獲准重開。
At the Third Plenum of December 1978, the Central Committee under Deng Xiaoping announced its departure from Mao’s class struggle for “reform and opening.” The household took the place of the commune; most people’s communes disappeared in the early 1980s.
In 1982 a Party directive known as Document 19 acknowledged freedom of religious belief, and the constitution adopted that year affirmed it. Temples, mosques and churches closed or confiscated during the Cultural Revolution were allowed to reopen.
The village David had left in 1966 became a place he could visit. His mother was still there, and the church whose building the district had turned into a canteen was waiting to get it back.
The slogans are the era’s own phrases: 改革開放, “reform and opening,” and 宗教信仰自由, “freedom of religious belief,” the wording of the 1982 constitution as summarized by Pew. No photograph on this page shows David’s village.標語取自那個年代的用語：「改革開放」及一九八二年憲法所載、皮尤研究中心引述的「宗教信仰自由」。本頁沒有任何照片是大衛的家鄉。
The mid-1980s · Around age 41八〇年代中期 · 約41歲
A home, a congregation一個家，也是一所教會
When a move threatened to end the Chinese ministry at Cornerstone United Methodist Church in Orange, California, David refused to let it disappear. The few Chinese families were unwilling to follow the congregation to its new location. Three years of denominational support had already gone into the work. To David, accepting that help meant a responsibility to continue.
After preaching to the English congregation each Sunday morning, he started again in Chinese in the afternoon. None of the former Chinese members remained. There was no suitable room, so he opened his own living room. There was no pulpit, so he made one. The carpenter’s hands that had once earned his living in China now made a place for the work he had promised to do.
The extra work brought criticism as well as fatigue. Some said he was starting the Chinese ministry because he was failing in the English one. The district superintendent objected that opening a new field belonged to the bishop and superintendent, not to him. David persisted. Eventually the congregation moved from his home to another meeting place. By the time he handed it to another pastor, more than fifty people were attending. What might have ended in a move had become a church he could entrust to someone else.
His own records name a second church founded in southern California in these years: the Blessed UM Church. The English naming varies between his papers, and the memoir does not say which gathering became which congregation.
他自己的記錄另記下這些年間在南加州創立的第二間教會：衛理公會恩雨堂（Blessed UM Church）。各份記錄的英文名稱寫法不一，回憶錄也沒有說明哪一群聚會的人，後來成了哪一間教會。
David’s pastoral work and Esther’s nursing shifts also had to leave room for their children. One evening, he needed to leave a visit and get home before her night shift.
“My wife is about to go on the night shift; I need to go home to look after the children.”
「師母快要去上夜班的時候了，我須回去照顧孩子。」
Him, You and Me · an undated recollection of balancing pastoral work and fatherhood. English translation.《衪你我》記述牧養與父職的日常；這段回憶未註日期。
In those years · California那些年 · 加州
Two things he would not do他不肯做的兩件事
The cost of keeping a church alive was familiar from Pomona. At the beginning, it could give him only four hundred dollars a month for travel. Esther chose a modestly paid clinic job so that she could help at church on weekends. A man attending the services offered what he called a solution: supply names for a sham-marriage immigration scheme, and David would receive fifteen hundred U.S. dollars for each successful case. There would be money for the pastor, profit for the arranger and new people for the church.
David refused. The arrangement would deceive both God and the government, he told the man. Other people’s willingness to do it could not settle his conscience. The man eventually left the church. David had been offered both money and growth; he accepted losing an attendee instead.
In another recollection, a former attendee who had moved east telephoned one January. Her husband earned twelve times David’s salary. She wanted to make a large donation, dated to the previous year so that it would reduce the tax she owed. He said he could not accept it. She stressed how large the check would be. He answered that its size made no difference if he could not clear his conscience. He hoped he had not offended her, but the answer remained no.
1985: David with his certificate of United States naturalization. The man who called himself a Hakka sojourner became a citizen of the country where he served. Identified by Angell.一九八五年，大衛手持美國入籍證書。這位自稱「客旅」的客家人，成了他所事奉之地的公民。由 Angell 辨認。
1985 · Age 42 · A handwritten hymn一九八五年 · 42歲 · 一首手寫詩歌
A song for parents把親恩寫進歌裏
The father who hurried home to care for his children also wrote about the care children owe their parents. In a handwritten score dated 1985, David supplied both words and music for Parents’ Kindness Is as Deep as the Sea. Its third verse brings gratitude down to daily acts: ask after their comfort; serve them morning and evening.
David, at right, with his mother, Choy Chuen Chan, and his tenth brother, Jacob, in their home village in 1985. Identified by Esther.一九八五年，大衛（右）與母親陳賽珍及十弟 Jacob 在家鄉合影。人物與年份由 Esther 確認。Parents’ Kindness Is as Deep as the Sea. Words and music by David Tsang, 1985. His manuscript.《親恩深似海》，曾大衛詞曲，一九八五年。原稿手跡。
That same year, a photograph places him beside his mother in the village. The song and the photograph preserve two ways of being her son: words written across a distance, and the journeys that brought him back.
On a rooftop, 1985: David, his tenth brother Jacob, his ninth brother, and a young relative the family believes is a nephew. Identified by Angell.一九八五年，天台上：大衛、十弟 Jacob、九弟，以及一位家人相信是姪兒的年輕人。由 Angell 辨認。May 1985: Angell beside his grandmother Choy Chuen Chan in the village. The Polaroid is labelled “with grandma.” Identified by Angell.一九八五年五月，Angell 在家鄉陪伴祖母陳賽珍。拍立得上寫着 “with grandma”。由 Angell 辨認。
His first visit home · Undated第一次回鄉探親 · 未註年份
The man who had persecuted them came to tea逼害過他們的人，來喝茶
His own care for his mother carried him back across the Pacific. On his first visit to his home village, neighbours came to see the visitor from America. Among them was old Mr. Pang, the former village militia captain. When the family had carried the landlord label, this man had persecuted them repeatedly. Now he had come to their house as a guest.
A relative moved to drive him out. David thought the relative might still be carrying the hurt of those years. He stopped him at once. He remembered what the captain had done, but had decided not to hold it against him. They stayed, drank tea and talked together in peace.
Later David led that relative to faith in Christ. The man who had once helped make his family afraid was allowed to remain at their table.
後來，大衛帶那位親戚接受了主。那個曾使家人受逼害的人，這次被容許留下來，一同喝茶。
While his mother was alive · The journeys home母親在世時 · 回家的路
What he could bring home他能帶回家的
When his mother lay ill, David remembered a fellow student who had abandoned his studies to care for a bedridden father. He had not done the same. His ministry kept him overseas, and he admitted feeling ashamed of what he could not give her. What he could do, he wrote, was travel thousands of miles each year to see her. A life spent answering a calling still held that distance between a son and his mother.
On one visit he found the village church struggling too. The district government had used its building as a canteen for years and would leave only if it received money for another. The pastor had gone a long time without his stipend. David asked the monthly amount and handed him enough for a year. The money had come from his brothers’ company in Hong Kong, which he had earlier suggested establishing to help his third brother. Help given within the family was now helping the village pastor. Back in America, David raised more money among fellow believers and sent it home. The congregation recovered its meeting place.
The family’s 1982 photographs, identified by Angell, follow one of those journeys: the village fields, and his mother.Angell 辨認的一九八二年家藏照片，記下其中一次回鄉：家鄉的田野，還有他的母親。
David in the home village, 1982.一九八二年，大衛在家鄉。David with his mother, Choy Chuen Chan, beside the village pond, 1982.一九八二年，大衛與母親陳賽珍在家鄉的池塘邊。David with his mother, 1982.一九八二年，大衛與母親。David, right, with his mother and one of his brothers, 1982.一九八二年，大衛（右）與母親及一位兄弟。
In 1987, the journey home was different. After thirty-six hours of travel from California, David entered the hall where his mother’s body lay. Relatives and friends began to wail. He stood before her without tears and knew that, by local custom, he too was expected to weep.
He explained his stillness carefully. His mother had believed in Christ and lived past seventy; for several years she had been bedridden and in pain. He believed she was now released from that suffering and had gone home to God. He did not deny the sorrow of parting. But he would not pretend to feel what he did not feel. At the end of her long ordeal, what he felt was hope.
More than a thousand people came because of his mother’s relationships and the family’s standing in the village. County, district and village officials were among them. It was Easter. The child who had once pleaded with God to bring his mother home now stood at her funeral and preached the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection he preached was the hope by which he understood this parting. In front of his relatives and the officials, he said so; afterwards, he thanked God for the courage.
At his mother’s funeral, David also saw his second brother for the first time in thirty-five years. They prayed together, and his brother accepted Christ.
在母親的喪禮上，大衛也與闊別三十五年的二哥重逢。他們一同禱告，二哥接受了基督。
The brothers in their home village, 1988. From left: Gabriel, the sixth; the second brother; Jacob, the tenth; David; the fifth; and the ninth. Esther remembers this as their last reunion, on David’s final visit to the village.一九八八年，兄弟們在家鄉。左起：六哥 Gabriel、二哥、十弟 Jacob（曾家拾）、大衛、五哥、九弟。Esther 記得，這是大衛最後一次回鄉，也是兄弟們最後一次團聚。
The gatherings they kept相冊留下的相聚
Orange County, 1987–1988. The album his friends at the Chinese United Methodist Church of Orange County made for him keeps their gatherings, a wedding he conducted, and page after page of horses. They knew what he loved. The Cornerstone farewell album follows.一九八七至八八年，橙縣。橙縣華人衛理公會的朋友為他做的這本相冊，留下了聚會、他主持的一場婚禮，還有一頁又一頁的馬。他們知道他喜歡甚麼。往下另有房角石的惜別相冊。
A page dedicated to Pastor David Tsang by friends at the Chinese United Methodist Church of Orange County, 1987–1988. The photograph is captioned “CUMC place of worship—Aldersgate UMC.”橙縣華人衛理公會的朋友獻給曾大衛牧師的相冊頁，一九八七至八八年。照片註明聚會地點為 Aldersgate UMC。Two gatherings preserved in the album: Thanksgiving, 22 November 1987, and Gospel Night, 23 April 1988.相冊保留了兩次聚會：一九八七年十一月二十二日的感恩節聚會，以及一九八八年四月二十三日的福音晚會。The Christmas concert of 18 December 1988, and the children’s Rainbow Choir. The album’s own caption lists Angell among the singers.一九八八年十二月十八日的聖誕音樂會，以及兒童彩虹詩班。相冊原有的說明，把 Angell 列在小歌者之中。A wedding he conducted on 21 May 1988: “What Reverend Tsang hath joined together let no man put asunder!”一九八八年五月二十一日，他主持的一場婚禮。頁上寫着：「曾牧師所配合的，人不可分開！」Horses cut from magazines, pasted around a letter of thanks.從雜誌剪下的馬，貼在一封感謝信四周。A horse drawn for him in pastel, with a note of thanks.為他畫的粉彩馬，附一張感謝的字條。A horse in ink, beside Ephesians 2:20 and the word Cornerstone.一匹水墨馬，旁邊寫着以弗所書二章二十節和 Cornerstone（房角石）。A horse in a single red line.一筆紅線畫成的馬。
Continue the story ↓繼續讀下去 ↓Drawn for him by a member of the fellowship; a detail from page 19 of the album, 1988.團契一位成員為他畫的馬；相冊第十九頁局部，一九八八年。
Early 1990s · His forties · Farewell九〇年代初 · 四十多歲 · 道別
The people behind the ministry牧養，留在人心裏
Open the original scan ↗放大原件影像 ↗“Thank you for leading me to Christ and baptizing me.” — Carrie, page 18.「謝謝您帶領我認識基督，並為我施洗。」——Carrie，第18頁；中文為翻譯。Open the original scan ↗放大原件影像 ↗“You are the quiet strength and support of Rev. Tsang’s ministry.” — a message to Esther, page 19.「您是曾牧師事工背後安靜的力量與支持。」——致 Esther 的留言，第19頁；中文為翻譯。
Family archive · PDF pages 18–19. The original filename says 1991; the album itself is undated. Full scanned pages are preserved, including their mixed photograph orientations.家族檔案 · PDF第18至19頁。原檔名註一九九一年，相冊內未見日期。保留完整掃描頁及照片原有的不同方向。
As the family prepared to move east, people at Cornerstone wrote down what David and Esther had meant to them. Between the photographs were memories of a baptism, Wednesday prayer meetings, nursery care and friendship. Their ministry had entered people’s daily lives; these were the voices saying goodbye.
The 1990s → early 2000s · His late forties and fifties九〇年代至二〇〇〇年代初 · 四十多至五十多歲
Across Chinese communities走進華人群體
A call east回應東岸的呼聲
The next invitation came through a Cornerstone member: a Chinese church near Washington, D.C., had spent years without a pastor. David prayed for ten months. Its leaders came to see him, and he agreed to serve at the Chinese Christian Church in DC, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Once again, a need he believed he could answer would mean moving his family.
One friend asked why he was going against the traffic — everyone on the east coast was trying to move west. Another, a pastor, gave him a farewell dinner and then gave him a warning: he had preached at that church; it had driven out faithful servants of God more than once; he would be wise not to go. David answered that it was too late — he had already said yes, and he was not going to take it back. He put himself in God’s hands and went.
In his account, those four years were painful. Washington broke an assumption he had held: that his training, hard work, love and the growth of churches he had founded should make a congregation glad to have him. People had wept when he left Pomona and Cornerstone. Why should this be different?
He came to see that the question itself had been too simple. Jesus, he wrote, had been better than he was and had still been rejected. After four years he left. The experience did not erase the good he had done; it changed what he expected that good to protect him from. He understood the suffering as part of following his Master.
Even in those difficult years, he found work that could bring churches together. A local newspaper offered space for Christian articles and announcements. As chair of the Washington area’s Chinese ministers’ association, David gathered believers from different congregations to take it on. That effort grew into the Agape Missions, which he later handed to a coworker when he left for New York. After leaving the Washington church, he served Columbia Chinese Baptist Church in MD, in Ellicott City. Another congregation’s need had kept him in Maryland.
David baptizing his daughter Sunny, Columbia, Maryland, 1997. Identified by Angell.一九九七年，馬里蘭州哥倫比亞，大衛為女兒 Sunny 施洗。由 Angell 辨認。The family in 1997: Esther, her mother and David seated; Sunny and Angell standing behind. Identified by Angell.一九九七年的一家：Esther、她的母親與大衛坐着，Sunny 與 Angell 站在後面。由 Angell 辨認。
A shared calling in New York在紐約，同心服事
To be nearer that next church, he agreed to buy a house from an elderly couple who were preparing to move into a retirement home. He paid a deposit, with completion due in two months. Then a church in New York invited him to serve. Walking through the crowds in its Chinese neighbourhoods, he felt drawn to go. But he had already made a promise on which two other people had arranged their lives.
Esther calculated that cancelling would save about twenty thousand dollars in the taxes and fees of buying a house they would then have to sell again. David chose to complete the purchase, keeping the elderly couple’s move on schedule and accepting the cost of a further sale. The twenty thousand dollars was the transaction cost he associated with keeping his word. In Flushing, he became senior pastor of OCM Boon Church, bringing his preaching in Mandarin, Cantonese, Swatowese, Hakka and English to another Chinese community.
In his Fuller doctoral robe at OCM Boon Church, 2000. Identified by Angell; the back of the print is marked 2000.二〇〇〇年，大衛穿着富樂博士袍，在中宣會播恩堂。由 Angell 辨認；照片背面寫着 2000。A desk at OCM Boon Church in Flushing; the back of the print reads “Boon church of OCM, 2000.”法拉盛中宣會播恩堂的一張辦公桌；照片背面寫着 “Boon church of OCM, 2000”。
He approached leadership as work to share: pray first, make the goal clear, then invite people to serve through their own gifts. Equipping coworkers meant helping them see why their part mattered spiritually. As he wrote: “Team work is the way to get the job done.”
Wherever he went, people put him in charge of things. In China, with a bad family background, his classmates made him deputy monitor. In Hong Kong, a junior student, he was elected head of the student association. In California he was chosen vice-chair of a valley-wide Chinese association by people outside his own church, and head of the Chinese Methodist caucus although he had not come up through that denomination. In New York, newly arrived, he was made vice-chair of one association of churches and chairman of another for the whole metropolitan area. He put it down to being willing to commit himself, and went on committing himself.
For David, the fullest measure of the work was the people who came to faith. He wrote of several thousand across his decades of ministry; his résumé gives the same testimony, crediting God with bringing thousands to Christ through him. Behind that number were the encounters he kept telling: the student he spoke with at Northwestern, the congregation beginning from nothing, the brother praying at their mother’s funeral. His books would give those encounters a life beyond the telling.
Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗Rev. David Tsang’s installation ceremony. Family archive, 1998.曾大衛牧師就職典禮。家藏照片，一九九八年。Angell’s high-school graduation, 1998: Esther, David, Angell and Sunny. Identified by Angell.一九九八年，Angell 高中畢業：Esther、大衛、Angell 與 Sunny。由 Angell 辨認。
“Trust God and do my utmost.”
「信靠神加盡己力」
His guiding principle, Him, You and Me. English translation.他在《衪你我》中寫下的做人宗旨。
1957–1958 → 2003 · Xiamen一九五七至五八年 → 二〇〇三年 · 廈門
The same stone lion. A different life.同一座石獅，已走過半生。
He had first come to Xiamen because a school nearer home would not take him. Decades later he stood beside the same stone lion again. Esther remembers this return during a mission trip to China. Between the two photographs lay the water, the classrooms, the marriage and the congregations. The place was familiar; the life he brought back to it had changed.
Two more photographs from the family’s 2003 folder show him on the steps of a gate lettered 集美僑校, the Jimei Overseas Chinese School, and by the water at Jimei. His memoir says only that he attended an overseas-Chinese school in Xiamen; the family has not named the school.
David and his brother Gabriel, preparing to go to China on mission, 2003. Sixty years earlier they were the two babies in the baskets. Identified by Angell.二〇〇三年，大衛與哥哥 Gabriel 預備到中國宣教。六十年前，他們是竹籮裏的那兩個嬰孩。由 Angell 辨認。
Then and now, in the same city同一座城，兩個時候
Xiamen, 1957–1958 and 2003. Esther identified the lion photographs; the 2003 folder is the family’s.廈門，一九五七至五八年與二〇〇三年。獅子的兩張照片由 Esther 辨認；二〇〇三年的相簿為家人所整理。
David beside a stone lion in Xiamen during his school years, 1957–1958. Identified and dated by Esther.一九五七至五八年，大衛在廈門求學時與石獅合影。人物與年份由 Esther 確認。David back at the same stone lion in Xiamen, about 2000–2003. Esther recalls that he returned during a mission trip to China.約二〇〇〇至〇三年，大衛重訪廈門同一座石獅。Esther 記得，這是他回中國宣教期間拍的照片。On the steps of a gate lettered 集美僑校, the Jimei Overseas Chinese School, Xiamen. From the family’s “2003 Mission to China” photographs.站在題着「集美僑校」的校門台階上，廈門。選自家藏「2003 Mission to China」照片。Beside the water at Jimei, Xiamen, from the same 2003 photographs.集美水邊，廈門，選自同一組二〇〇三年照片。
The handwritten hymn Parents’ Kindness Is as Deep as the Sea (DT-0627) credits David with words and music and bears the handwritten year 1985. It is not identified as a song written specifically for his children. The Cornerstone farewell album (DT-0615), pages 18–19, supplies the fellowship memories and quotations. English excerpts preserve the handwriting; Chinese is translated. The filename supplies 1991, while the album pages mention the coming Washington, D.C. ministry without an internal date. It therefore illustrates the transition east without resolving the different appointment dates in his records. No unnamed person in an album photograph is identified.
The chapter’s autobiographical sources are Him, You and Me, chapters 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25 and 26: the living-room congregation, handmade pulpit and handoff with more than fifty attending; three hours of listening before returning for childcare; the Pomona travel allowance and Esther’s clinic work; the two financial proposals he refused; his return to the village and encounter with the former militia captain; annual visits to his mother, his regret that he could not remain with her, the pastor’s year of wages and the recovery of the church building; the Easter 1987 funeral and reunion with his second brother; the Washington invitation and his account of four difficult years; the newspaper ministry and its handoff; the house purchase before New York; and elected leadership roles. The childhood savings disappeared when his brother left; the memoir does not explicitly say that he stole them. The earlier gift to that brother is not assigned a year because the memoir’s dating conflicts with its account of his student years. The captain’s apology or conversion is not recorded. Exact dates of the homecoming, gifts, proposals, childcare visit and leadership elections are unrecorded. The visits and gift to the village pastor are placed before the mother’s funeral, as the memoir specifies; the eventual recovery of the building has no separate date. The twenty-thousand-dollar figure concerns the cost David accepted in buying and reselling, not a separate payment to the sellers. His conversion count and résumé are the same author’s testimony, not independent corroboration.
Him, You and Me: Cornerstone’s English and Chinese gatherings, the living-room congregation and pulpit, childcare, his mother’s Easter 1987 funeral, ten months of prayer before moving east, newspaper ministry, the call to New York and his guiding principle. Church names, locations, roles and preaching languages: résumé, personal testimony and Record of serving. The teamwork quotation and leadership approach come from “My leadership style” in Record of serving; the English quotation is verbatim and the Chinese is a translation. These are historical appointments; some dates differ across his records, so their sequence is retained without assigning exact tenures. The childcare episode and lectern photograph are undated. Historical context below.
《衪你我》記述房角石教會的中英文聚會、客廳聚會與手製講台、照顧孩子、一九八七年復活節母親喪禮、赴東岸前十個月的禱告、報紙事工、到紐約服事的心願，以及做人宗旨。教會名稱、地點、職務與講道語言，據履歷、個人見證及英文〈Record of serving〉（服事記錄）。同工合作的引文與帶領理念，出自該記錄的「我的領導方式」；英文照錄，中文為翻譯。以上均為歷年的服事經歷；個別任期在記錄中不一，故保留先後次序，不另配定確切年份。照顧孩子的那次經歷與講台照片，日期均未詳。時代背景參考下列資料。
The 1978–1982 history page cites Klaus Mühlhahn (LARB China Channel, 2019) and Pew Research Center (2023) above. The 1988 photograph of the six brothers is identified, ordered and dated by Esther, who remembers it as David’s final visit to the village and the brothers’ last reunion; the fourth, seventh and other brothers are not in it. The Reverend Tsang Album pages 7, 10, 11, 19, 20 and 48 are shown as scanned; page 40 names the Chinese United Methodist Church of Orange County, 1987–1988, and page 48 prints the Rainbow Choir’s names, including Angell Tsang. The messages and drawings are by members of the congregation; only a first name appears on some pages, and the horse from page 19 is reproduced as a detail with its ink separated from the paper, its signature left out. The photograph at the desk is filed among David’s own photographs; its back is inscribed “Boon church of OCM, 2000” in a hand not identified.一九七八至八二年的歷史頁引用上述 Klaus Mühlhahn（二〇一九）及皮尤研究中心（二〇二三）。一九八八年六兄弟合照由 Esther 辨認、排序並定年，她記得那是大衛最後一次回鄉、兄弟們最後一次團聚；四哥、七弟本人以外的其他兄弟並不在其中。曾牧師相冊第七、十、十一、十九、二十及四十八頁按原掃描顯示；第四十頁題名為橙縣華人衛理公會（一九八七至八八年），第四十八頁印有彩虹詩班的名字，包括 Angell Tsang。留言與畫作出自會眾之手，部分頁面只有名字；第十九頁的馬以局部呈現，墨跡與紙張分離，署名不錄。書桌前的照片存於大衛本人的照片之中，背面寫有 “Boon church of OCM, 2000”，筆跡未經辨認。
The two 2003 photographs come from the family’s “2003 Mission to China” folder, which also supplies the church gathering in Chapter 8; the gate reads 集美僑校. The Jimei Overseas Chinese School in Xiamen is the school the memoir would fit, but the family has not identified David’s school, and the page does not assert it.兩張二〇〇三年照片選自家藏「2003 Mission to China」相簿（第八章的教會合照亦出自同一相簿）；校門題字為「集美僑校」。廈門的集美僑校與回憶錄所述相符，但家人並未指認大衛就讀的學校，本頁亦不作此斷言。
Identified by Angell on 16 September 2026: the 1982 village photographs (1982 02, 1982 06, 1982 07 and Family 06, whose back is marked 82) showing David, his mother Choy Chuen Chan and, in one, an unnamed brother; the 1985 rooftop (1985 08) with the tenth brother Jacob, the ninth brother and a young relative he believes is a nephew; David baptizing Sunny in Columbia, Maryland, in 1997 (1997 15; the church he served there is named on this page in his own English as Columbia Chinese Baptist Church in MD, but Angell named only the town); and David in his Fuller doctoral robe at OCM Boon Church in 2000 (Bachelor Years 16). Two others he identified are not David and are not shown: 1979 04 is Gabriel with their mother and his wife, and 2014 05 is Angell with Esther’s cousin and his wife.以下照片於二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認：一九八二年家鄉照片（1982 02、1982 06、1982 07 及背面寫有 82 的 Family 06），可見大衛、母親陳賽珍，其中一張另有一位未具名的兄弟；一九八五年天台合照（1985 08），同框的是十弟 Jacob、九弟及一位他相信是姪兒的年輕人；一九九七年大衛在馬里蘭州哥倫比亞為 Sunny 施洗（1997 15；他在當地牧養的教會，本頁按他自己的英文寫法稱 Columbia Chinese Baptist Church in MD，但 Angell 只說了城鎮名）；以及二〇〇〇年在中宣會播恩堂穿着富樂博士袍的大衛（Bachelor Years 16）。另有兩張他辨認出並非大衛的照片不作展示：1979 04 是 Gabriel 與母親及其妻子，2014 05 是 Angell 與 Esther 的表親夫婦。
Identified by Angell on 16 September 2026: Angell with his grandmother in May 1985 (1985 03, labelled “with grandma”); David with his naturalization certificate in 1985 (1985 10; the certificate’s text is not legible in the print); the family with Esther’s mother in 1997 (1997 13); Angell’s high-school graduation in 1998 (1998 05); and David with Gabriel preparing for the 2003 mission to China (2003 01). Gabriel and David are the two brothers of the basket story in Chapter 1.二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認：一九八五年五月 Angell 與祖母（1985 03，寫有 “with grandma”）；一九八五年大衛手持入籍證書（1985 10；照片中證書文字無法辨讀）；一九九七年一家與 Esther 母親的合照（1997 13）；一九九八年 Angell 高中畢業（1998 05）；以及二〇〇三年大衛與 Gabriel 預備前往中國宣教（2003 01）。Gabriel 與大衛，就是第一章竹籮故事中的兩兄弟。
Chapter VIII第八章2004 — 2014 · Ages 61–71 · 61–71歲
20042014
Not a peony.A plum blossom.不是牡丹，是梅花。
More than thirty years earlier · Vancouver三十多年前 · 溫哥華
A book she had already named一本早已取好名字的書
The book began with a question asked in the middle of the night. They were living in Vancouver when Esther woke from a dream and woke David too. “Honey,” she said, “have you finished that book of yours, Me, You and Him?” He had no idea what she meant. There was no such book. The title belonged to her dream, and he did not think to ask about the rest of it. But he remembered the question.
More than thirty years passed before he took up the question. He asked God whether the time had come to write the book, and understood the answer to be yes. Once he began, he finished it in a little over two months: thirty short chapters drawn from a lifetime. He changed the order of the title. This was, he explained, an account of what God had done, beginning with his grandfather; each chapter grew from Scripture, and each remembered incident had been weighed in prayer. He would put God first, even in the name of the book: Him, You and Me.
“You,” he wrote, is everyone who has anything to do with me: believers and unbelievers, the good and the not so good, the spiritual and the unspiritual, the ancients and those not yet ancient. “I” is the author.
He had a particular reader in mind: someone considering a life in ministry, unsure what that life would ask of them. He offered his own experience as a guide. The pages that remembered people coming to faith also remembered rejection, humiliation and the painful discovery that his achievements could not make everyone love him. This was the life behind the promise.
David knew what it meant to want an education and find the way barred. Years later, in The Secrets of True Words, he turned the question outward: how could believers gain spiritual depth if they could not attend seminary? The book, dated 2004 in the family catalogue, was meant for an individual at home, a study group or a Sunday class. What he had laboured to learn could now reach people he would never stand before in a pulpit.
2008 · Age 65 · Words of thanks二〇〇八年 · 65歲 · 一封感謝信
What his teaching left behind他的教導，留在人心裏
A handwritten letter shows what his teaching meant to two of his listeners. As David prepared for retirement, Jerry and Anny thanked him for two years of pastoral care: he made faith easier to understand and reminded them how to live it. They joked that his vivid storytelling deserved an Oscar. Their gratitude embraced Esther too—her laughter, warmth and quiet strength were part of what they would miss.
一封手寫信，留下兩位聽道者的回應。大衛預備退休時，Jerry 與 Anny 感謝他兩年來的牧養：他把信仰講得容易明白，也提醒他們怎樣活出來。他的故事如此生動，兩人笑說，足以拿奧斯卡獎。這份感謝也包括 Esther；她的笑聲、溫暖與安靜的力量，同樣令他們不捨。
“We love your teaching because you make it so easy for us to understand.”
「我們喜愛您的教導，因為您講得淺白易懂。」
Jerry and Anny · their handwritten letter to David and Esther.Jerry 與 Anny 致大衛及 Esther 的手寫信；中文為翻譯。
Enlarge letter ↗放大信件 ↗Date as written: 11/1/2008. Signed “Jerry and Anny @ MCCC.” Family-preserved original.原信日期：11/1/2008。署名「Jerry and Anny @ MCCC」。家人保存的原件影像。Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗MCCC, October 2008, as recorded on the photograph’s back.MCCC，二〇〇八年十月；據照片背面的手寫註記。Read the letter閱讀信件中文全文
Transcribed from the handwriting, with original wording retained.
11/1/2008
Dear Pastor Tsang,
Jerry and I are very grateful to have you as our Pastor for the past two years. You are a truly honest and obedient servant of God. You are also humorous, wise and practical. We love your teaching because you make it so easy for us to understand. The stories and analogies you tell are so vividly delivered that you could have won an Oscar for your delivery. We are so glad you are here to remind us how to be good Christians and to serve our Lord wholeheartedly. Your strength and perseverance in following Christ has been very fruitful. May God continue to bless you, your family, and your well-deserved retirement in Canada!
Dear Mrs. Tsang,
We've come to love your smile and your happiness you convey with each laugh! You are so meticulously organized and we are amazed with how you packed everything together. Your love for God and your husband sets such a good example and your quiet strength displays both warm and gentleness. You'll be missed! May God continue to bless your health and family!
Love,
Jerry and Anny @ MCCC.
以下為原信的中文翻譯。
11/1/2008
親愛的曾牧師：
Jerry 和我非常感恩，過去兩年有您作我們的牧師。您是神真誠、順服的僕人，也幽默、睿智、務實。我們喜愛您的教導，因為您講得淺白易懂。您把故事與比喻講得如此生動，簡直值得獲頒一座奧斯卡獎。我們很欣慰，有您在這裏提醒我們怎樣作好基督徒，全心服事主。您跟隨基督的堅定與恆毅，已結出豐盛的果子。願神繼續賜福給您、您的家人，也祝福您在加拿大享受辛勞之後的退休生活！
David with two winter melons he grew in New York, 2008. Identified by Angell.二〇〇八年，大衛與他在紐約親手種的兩個冬瓜。由 Angell 辨認。
Undated · in his later years of ministry未註年份 · 晚年的事奉
One more person還有一個人
Writing was one way to carry the message farther. Travel was another, though he did not believe a journey was necessary to find someone who needed it. A pastor in China had repeatedly invited him to preach; David was already busy with evangelism in America and saw no boundary of region or race around that work. When his deacons supported the visit and a woman in the church offered the fare, he took it as God’s direction. He went for three weeks.
One Sunday, before he faced a congregation of more than a thousand, the pastor apologized: under state policy, the programme could introduce him only as Doctor. David did not mind. He delighted in the reversal. Years earlier in Vancouver, he had been attacked for using the title he had earned; in America he had avoided printing it in church programmes to keep the peace. Here in China, that same title let him preach. By his account, more than twenty people stood to profess faith. The response brought a request for another service; that day, he preached four times.
Yet one of the people he singled out in his account was the elderly accompanist. Blind, she knew the entire music book by heart and came to play in every kind of weather. Her faithful work stayed in the story alongside the crowds.
At another church, more than eight hundred people crowded into a space too small for them. About three quarters stood when he invited them to faith. He stopped to make sure they understood: he meant those choosing to believe that day. More than six hundred remained standing, he recorded. The journey also exacted a physical cost. Poor amplification at his last church in China forced him to project his voice over several days; by the time he reached Taipei to visit his brother and preach again, he was hoarse and struggling to speak. He gave the same sermon. Eight people responded.
Enlarge photograph ↗放大照片 ↗A church gathering from the family’s “2003 Mission to China” photographs.教堂內的合照，選自家藏「2003 Mission to China」（二〇〇三年中國宣教）照片。
On a separate visit to Toronto, he preached at a Chinese church with more than three thousand worshippers. On the last day of its missions convention he delivered four messages, shaking hands at the door after each. As he got into the car, his legs began to cramp. Only then, he wrote, did he feel how different his strength was now that he was past seventy. A member asked him to visit his mother-in-law, who had attended church with him for ten years without choosing to believe. David’s schedule was full. He agreed to go.
The visit was the next day. Just before he left, Esther telephoned: she had arrived in Toronto and wanted to know when they could meet. He told her he would come after the visit, and prayed that there would be time for both. At the house, he asked after the older woman’s health, prayed with her and explained the gospel. Within half an hour, she prayed to receive Christ. A day after speaking four times to a large congregation, he had still made room for one person.
The family catalogue records Discard the False, Keep the True and What Pilgrims Must Know in 2014. Across devotionals, pastoral handbooks and memoir, his question persisted: how should belief change the way a person lives?
In Spiritual Spring and Autumn, his Chinese learning and Christian faith meet. He invoked Confucius’s Annals as a model of moral discernment, then explained his purpose: clear understanding of Scripture. He hoped the readings would nourish believers, support Bible-study groups and give pastors insight for sermons.
Esther and a fellow believer, Yuan-zhi, helped proofread the memoir. David approached his prose as carefully as a poem: he cut words he thought unnecessary until each subject fitted on a single manuscript page. A life scattered across countries and decades had become something another person could hold and read, one short chapter at a time.
“A preacher’s life is like tasting bitter melon. Although it combines sweetness and bitterness, it remains a refined enjoyment.”
「傳道者的生涯有如品味苦瓜，雖是甘苦參半，卻仍不失為一種高級的享受。」
Him, You and Me · “Rely on the Lord in humble circumstances and in abundance.” English translation.《衪你我》·〈靠主處卑賤和豐富〉。David and Esther sailing from New York, 18 September 2000, on the cruise a sister in the church gave them. Identified by Angell; the date is printed on the photograph.二〇〇〇年九月十八日，大衛與 Esther 從紐約啟航，坐的是教會一位姊妹送的遊輪。由 Angell 辨認；日期印在照片上。
Plum and pine · an artistic response to his own words.松柏與寒梅 · 依他的文字寄意。
“I am not a peony, but a plum blossom.”
「我不是牡丹而是梅花。」
His own image of endurance, Him, You and Me. English translation.《衪你我》後語：他以寒梅寫自己。
He explained the choice plainly: the peony seeks wealth and splendour; the plum blossom endures the cold, keeping company with winter’s hardy trees. He knew what the cold could mean: childhood hunger and fear, an education repeatedly obstructed, the danger of escape, and wounds received in the work he had promised to do. These were the years out of which his books had grown.
His memoir closes with a ring-shaped poem. In Chinese, part of each line’s final character becomes the next line’s first. His own English rendering is preserved below.
回憶錄以一首迴型詩作結：由中心起讀，每句末字的一部分，成為下句的首字。以下保留他的原文。
心 無 偽 主 勞
片 卻 不 休 碌
一 退 雖 楓 甘
紅 職 是 之 作
秋 深 鎖 林 牛
Even though I have left my position, and yet I am not retired. My life is like the forest of maple trees locked into the autumn. Glowing with an autumn tint, my heart remains truly to God. I am willing to labour for the Lord like a cow.
His own English renderings, preserved in the manuscript.Story & historical sources故事與歷史資料
Him, You and Me: the preface records Esther’s question after a dream in Vancouver, his keeping it in mind, his eventual decision to write and the proofreading by Esther and Yuan-zhi (元芝). The afterword supplies the thirty-year interval, completion in a little over two months, the title’s order and meanings, his intended reader considering ministry, his method of shortening each topic to one manuscript page, and the plum-blossom image. Chapters 24 and 26 supply the separate China/Taipei and Toronto preaching visits; neither is assigned an invented year here. Chapter 26 places the home visit the day after the four sermons, not immediately after them. The people responding and congregation sizes are David’s own figures. The present narrative does not reproduce all his theological interpretations of these encounters; the complete memoir remains available in the Library.
The introduction to The Secrets of True Words supplies its question about spiritual depth without seminary and its intended uses for personal study, groups and Sunday teaching.
The horse-and-foal painting is DT-0616, labeled as David’s original painting by the family and signed 曾牧; its caption is Psalm 103:13. The calligraphy is DT-0620, signed by David and bearing four English renderings on the original. Both works are undated and are presented as related artwork, not as events or publications dated to this chapter. Their full-page scans retain their original composition.
Dates come from the preserved book catalogue. The original thank-you letter is signed Jerry and Anny @ MCCC and dated 11/1/2008; it thanks David for two years of pastoral care and wishes him retirement in Canada. Its date is retained as written, and MCCC is not expanded. The English reading text is transcribed from the handwriting; Chinese is a translation. The letter does not establish that all his ministry ended in 2008. Spiritual Spring and Autumn: author introduction and preface. Him, You and Me: afterword, his wife’s proofreading, plum-blossom image and closing poem. Undated works are presented as related readings, not newly assigned publication years.
年份據家人保存的書目。感謝信原件署名Jerry and Anny @ MCCC，日期寫作11/1/2008；信中感謝大衛兩年的牧養，並祝福他在加拿大的退休生活。日期照原件保留，MCCC不另加推定全名。英文閱讀版按手寫原文謄錄，中文為翻譯；這封信並不表示他所有的服事都在二〇〇八年結束。《屬靈春秋》參考作者簡介與序言；《衪你我》參考後語、師母校對、寒梅自喻與迴型詩。未註日期的作品作延伸閱讀，不另行配定出版年份。
The China group photograph is filed by the family under “2003 Mission to China”; its connection to the memoir’s undated three-week visit is not established.
中國教堂合照由家人歸入「2003 Mission to China」；尚未確定是否攝於回憶錄中未註年份的三星期旅程。
English book and ministry names in the life story follow David’s own renderings where preserved in his bilingual author notes, including The Secrets of True Words, Agape Missions and Blessed UM Church. Original documents retain their own wording.
The bitter-melon sentence closes the memoir’s chapter 28, which recounts being treated both as “refuse” and as an “angel” in his later ministry; the English is the reviewed translation.「苦瓜」一句出自回憶錄第二十八章末，該章記述他晚年事奉中既被當作「渣滓」、也被當作「天使」的經歷；英文為經審閱的譯文。
The cruise photograph (2000 07, dated 18 September 2000 on the print) was identified by Angell on 16 September 2026 as David and Esther on the cruise a church member gave them; the memoir’s chapter 28 records a sister treating them to a cruise to Canada’s east coast without a date.遊輪照片（2000 07，照片印有二〇〇〇年九月十八日）於二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認為大衛與 Esther 乘坐會友所贈的遊輪；回憶錄第二十八章記有一位姊妹招待他們乘遊輪往加拿大東岸，未註日期。
The winter melons (2008 01) were identified by Angell on 16 September 2026: David grew them himself in New York.冬瓜照片（2008 01）於二〇二六年九月十六日由 Angell 辨認：那是大衛在紐約親手種的。
Chapter IX第九章2015 — 2026 · Ages 72–83 · 72–83歲
20152026
His words.Remain.生命有盡，愛與文字長存。
After years of moving among cities and congregations, David and Esther made their retirement home in Vancouver. It was the city where she had once woken him with a question about an unwritten book. In the memoir’s closing poem he set down the resolve he brought to life beyond a regular pulpit: leaving a position need not mean ceasing to serve.
He offered the poem to those still sharing the work. Writing in later life, he called this the season of the old horse resting in its stable, yet his poem still promised labour. The words were his own, set down before the family’s account of the years that followed.
Words had been the instrument of his working life. He preached in Mandarin, Cantonese, Swatowese, Hakka and English; he wrote books in Chinese and continued writing after leaving a regular pulpit. Once, still struggling with English, he had memorized an entire sermon so that he could stand before his seminary and speak. Across languages and countries, he had worked to make himself understood.
In 2020, David was formally diagnosed with dementia.
二〇二〇年，大衛正式確診失智症。
2022 · Age 79 · Austin, Texas二〇二二年 · 79歲 · 德州奧斯汀
Closer to family搬到家人身邊
In 2022, David and Esther moved to Austin, Texas, to be closer to Angell and his family. After so many moves made for ministry, this one was made for family.
David was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2022. Looking back on their years together, Esther recalls signs she now associates with Parkinson’s as early as his forties—her retrospective recollection, long before the formal diagnosis.
A later assessment connected the two diagnoses: his dementia was considered likely to be Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD).
後來的判斷，將兩種病況聯繫起來：他的失智症被認為很可能屬於柏金遜症失智症（PDD）。
From the family album家人相冊選頁
The people beside him一路相伴的人
Turn the pages with the arrows, or scroll through the family album.可用箭頭翻頁，或捲動瀏覽家人相冊。
Together in a later family photograph; exact date unrecorded.多年後的家人合照；確切日期未詳。From the family album. Photograph date unconfirmed.選自家人相冊。拍攝日期待確認。
11 September 2026 · 5:51 a.m.二〇二六年九月十一日 · 清晨五時五十一分
His voice stays with us讓他的話繼續相伴
David died on 11 September 2026, at 5:51 a.m. His family keeps the record of his work, and the smaller things through which they can share the person: the laughter Jerry and Anny remembered in Esther, the turns of phrase in his books, his handwriting on the back of a photograph. A reader can meet him in those particulars—a husband, a father and a pastor, whose life was lived among other people.
二〇二六年九月十一日清晨五時五十一分，大衛離世。家人保存了他工作的記錄，也保存了那些能把一個人帶到眼前的小事：Jerry 和 Anny 記得的 Esther 的笑聲，他書裏的語氣，照片背後親手寫下的字。讀者可以循著這些細節認識他——一位丈夫、父親與牧師，在家人和許多人的生命中走過一生。
Horses were his favourite animals. He had been born in a Water Horse year; the Fire Horse of 2026 gives his family a companion image. They think of Elijah, taken up in a whirlwind with a chariot of fire and horses of fire. It is a family reflection, joining the water he crossed to the hope of his faith.
His family is gathering these photographs and writings so others can hear his voice for themselves. Twelve physical books—about 1,500 pages—are still awaiting scans. As they arrive, they will join his library: pages to return to, a conversation family and friends can continue.
In 1966, a carpenter without a job or permission to leave cycled past a church occupied by Red Guards, its walls covered in slogans. If God opened a way to Hong Kong, he promised, he would give his life to rebuilding the church. The years that followed took him across the sea, through classrooms and congregations, into fatherhood and old age. He founded two churches, wrote books, and, by his own account, brought several thousand people to faith. There were times he was welcomed with tears, and times his commitment cost him dearly. The promise endured through both.
The dedication of his closing poem and the old-horse image come from the afterword of Him, You and Me; the Vancouver dream is in its preface. The five preaching languages come from his résumé; the memorized English sermon is recorded in the memoir. No account of David’s particular symptoms or inner experience of illness has been supplied, and none is inferred here. The two churches founded, coasts served and several thousand people brought to faith follow his résumé and memoir; the résumé names the Pomona Valley Chinese Christian Church and the Chinese Methodist Blessed Church in southern California. The Water Horse, Fire Horse and Elijah passage is the family’s reflection. It is not an account of the circumstances of his death.
Angell supplied the retirement in Vancouver, the formal dementia diagnosis in 2020, the Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2022, the purpose of moving to Austin, and the later assessment of likely Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD). Esther’s recollection of possible signs in his forties is reported through Angell; it is not dated as a diagnosis or established disease onset. A family message dated July 21, 2022 says they had recently moved to Texas, supporting the move’s year. The exact retirement year and date of the later PDD assessment are not supplied. Angell confirmed David’s official date and time of passing as 11 September 2026, at 5:51 a.m. The pending scan count also comes from the family. The later portraits are undated and are not used to infer health details or events. The scans have not yet arrived.
Enlarge map ↗放大地圖 ↗
