Evergreen

A few days ago, I stood at the foot of a graven marble slab in the city of Hequ, in the province of Shanxi, where the Yellow River meets the Great Wall of China. The stone is a monument to the life and service of one Peter Torjesen, a Norwegian Christian missionary who died near the site in 1939.^[1] His Chinese name was “Evergreen Leaf” (Ye Yong-qing, ???). He is remembered until today as a hero.

The monument was commissioned by provincial officials in 1988 and dedicated publically in 1990. Torjesen is remembered as a “people’s martyr”: the stone was proposed in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of his sacrifice. It is a simple, impressive stone, engraved in Mandarin with Torjesen’s impressive story.

Peter Torjesen was born and raised in Norway. As a young man, he heard presentation of the pressing spiritual need of faraway China. It was a need that immediately commanded his heart, and presented young Torjesen with the unmistakable calling of God. Torjesen emptied his pockets into an offering plate, as it passed through the congregation following the presentation. Unsatisfied with the amount, he dropped a note of paper into the plate as well – a kind of IOU. “And my life,” it said simply. “Og mit liv.” The young man pledged to give his life for the people of China. And he would.

The monument reports that Torjesen arrived in Hequ in 1921. He was soon joined by Valborg, his Norwegian fiancée. Peter and Valborg married in the community. They built their family in the community. They lived out their faith in the community. And when the World War came and the Japanese invaded, they stood in solidarity with the people of Hequ, providing encouragement, medicines – and a bomb shelter just beneath the church near the Torjesen home. Scores and hundreds were sheltered there. Yet on one day in 1939, as another bombardment began, the monument reports that the Torjesens themselves didn’t make it into the shelter. Valborg was injured, but survived. On December 14, 1939, Peter was killed.

In 1990, at the dedication of the memorial stone, the descendants of Peter and Valborg Torjesen were invited to resume the work begun by their ancestors long before. Finn and Sandy Torjesen became the center of this effort. The result was Evergreen, founded in 1993, now a respected service agency in the tradition of Peter and Valborg Torjesen.^[2] The organization celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, and invited its friends and partners to participate in related events. That is why I found myself in Hequ.

Evergreen is comprised today of some 30 expatriate and 40 Chinese national staff. It proposes “to assist Shanxi and China in developing public benefit services for the people, continuing the good works of Ye Yong-qing, acknowledging God’s gracious calling in our lives and reflecting the credibility of Christ.” The organization is unabashedly Christian. It serves the people of Shanxi in a transparent, open-hearted, holistically Christian way. And it is respected for its service. The gospel message is respected, too, as it is incarnated in gospel-centered lives.

“Evergreen” is a good name for this ministry. And not only because this was the name given to Peter Torjesen by the community of Hequ. The name calls to mind a deep spiritual dynamic. “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord… They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8). These words, in fact, are written in stone on the marble slab in Hequ. Those who trust in the Lord are “ever green.”

The story of Ye Yong-qing – “Evergreen Leaf” – provides a good challenge and reminder. It is a reminder, on the one hand, of the unexpected adventures that sometimes come our way, in this life of faith and service. Sometimes they will mean unexpected sacrifice. And the story is a challenge, as well. It challenges us to get planted by the streams of God’s Word, to trust deeply, to sink our roots deep into God’s faithful character and his wonderful gospel message. This is the way the spiritual life works: we are called to “take root downward, and bear fruit upward” (2 Kings 19:30, Isaiah 37:31). It is the only way to remain “green.”