Wesley A. Milne

Wesley A. Milne (Chinese name Miao Xueli 缪学理; 7 August 1923 – 8 July 2016), from British Columbia, Canada, was a missionary of the China Inland Mission who served in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for 53 years. He founded “the Miao Home” (缪家), which took in teenagers who had left home to study and teenagers with behavioral problems. People called him “Uncle Miao” (缪叔叔, also “Uncle 缪”).

Life

Born again at 17, he was the first Christian in his family. His mother accepted Jesus because of the change in her son's behavior; she was the first person Milne led to salvation.

As a youth he wanted to be a painter or a film star. After a year at art school and two more years of work, the Second World War came, and he was called up into the air force as a navigator on heavy bombers. During his air force training he heard a missionary home from Africa describe the work and give a call, and he became willing to be a missionary. On the way home after leaving the service, he read the biography of Hudson Taylor (《戴德生传》) on the train, and resolved to go to China as a missionary. After leaving the service he studied at Bible school, then joined the China Inland Mission fellowship, and in 1948 arrived in Shanghai to begin missionary work.

At 31 he set foot in Taiwan and began 47 years of mission work, caring for and serving soldiers, students, laborers, street children and marginalized youth. Milne loved cats. Those he took in called his home “the Miao Home” (缪家, after his surname) or “the Wonderful Home” (妙家); because miao (妙) sounds like a cat's meow, people called Milne the “King of Cats” (猫王).

He never married, giving his life to preaching and to caring for and serving others. He said: “If he had married, they could not have raided his refrigerator for food, or jumped all over his bed.”

Many preachers and Christians were moved by Milne to accept the Christian faith and to work in mission and in ministry among street homeless people, in prisons and among teenagers with behavioral problems. They include Wu Kunyu (伍焜玉), Academician of Academia Sinica, Dr. Zhang Jianchang (张健昌), Rev. Wu Deli (吴得力), Rev. Wei Shide (魏世德) and Elder Liu Zhixiong (刘志雄).

Three books record Milne's character and work: Ta Shi Women de Shushu: Uncle Miao [He Is Our Uncle: Uncle Miao] (《他是我们的叔叔─ Uncle缪》), Gaoxiong Maowang: Miao Xueli Chuanqi [The King of Cats of Kaohsiung: The Story of Wesley Milne] (《高雄猫王──缪学理传奇》) and Miao Shushu de Gushi [The Story of Uncle Miao] (《缪叔叔的故事》).

Ministry

• 1948: Sent from Canada to Shanghai by the China Inland Mission; he led orphans in Bible study and led worship for adults.
• 1951: Forced to leave China, he came to Hong Kong and went to Diaojingling (吊颈岭, now renamed Tiu Keng Leng, 调景岭). Life was very hard, and after a year of work his health was damaged, so the mission would not let him go to northern Thailand and had him transfer to Taiwan.
• 1954: In January he sailed from Hong Kong to Keelung.
• 1955: Began student work in the south, at first as an English conversation teacher at Kaohsiung Senior High School, and also started an English gospel class at home to attract students.
• 1957: China Inland Mission missionaries in the north, centre and south, encouraged by Rev. Ai Deli (艾得理), began student fellowship work with Zha Dawei (查大卫), the first staff worker of Campus Evangelical Fellowship, and became its first volunteer staff.
• 1965: Joined Campus Evangelical Fellowship (校园团契); the following year he was transferred to Kaohsiung.
• 1970s: When Taiwan set up export processing zones, the China Inland Mission began gospel work among workers and sent him to the Xiaogang heavy industry zone. Two young men from the China Shipbuilding fellowship lived at the Miao Home, working at the shipyard by day and studying at night school in the evening. Gradually some junior and senior high school students from other places also came to live at the Miao Home.
• 1985: Moved to Taipei and took in two gang members, teenagers with behavioral problems, and then more such teenagers. Because he disciplined their behavior, a teenager even came at him with a knife for revenge; the youth could not bring himself to do it, and later said: “Uncle, if I didn't know that you love me, I would have killed you!” Later he moved to Wugu.
• 1991: Retired to Victoria, Canada; later he moved to Alberta to look after a 13-year-old boy who had gone there from Taiwan.
• 1994: Returned to Taiwan and joined the work of the Xin Wang Ai School (信望爱学园, Faith, Hope and Love School) of Prison Fellowship (更生团契).
• 2001: On 11 June he flew from Kaohsiung back to Victoria, Canada, retiring for the second time, and moved into a home for the elderly.