August 17, 2006
Mrs. Florence B. Holton, retired international worker to Vietnam, Cambodia and China/Hong Kong, went to be with the Lord on August 9, 2006, in DeLand, Florida. She was 94 years old. Mrs. Holton, along with her late husband William Henry, served as a missionary with The Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1936 to 1976.
Florence and her husband W. Henry met and were married before attending Nyack Missionary College in 1935. They were appointed to China and left in 1937. They studied Cantonese while stationed in the Kwangsi province. During their first term, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the cause of frequent air raids, bombings, and captures. In 1944 after being refugees for six months and many close calls with capture, they returned to the United States. They went back to China in 1946 and resumed ministry in the Wuchow Alliance Bible School.
In October 1949, the Communists came into Kwangsi, and the Holtons were evacuated to Hong Kong and reappointment to Indo-China (Vietnam and Cambodia). During their third term, the Holtons helped establish Alliance Chinese churches in Cholon (Saigon) and western Cambodia. They saw many young Chinese ordained but also saw the influence of communism affect their ministry among these people.
In 1958, the Holtons transferred to now independent Cambodia to continue the Chinese work. Cambodia had grown hostile toward neighboring countries, making ministry difficult at times. Nevertheless, the Holtons continued serving there until 1963, even seeing the Phnom Penh church rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1954. After a year of furlough, they transferred to Hong Kong to work in the Alliance Bible Seminary and continued there until their retirement in 1976.
Mrs. Holton’s memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 24, at the Alliance Chapel on the campus of the Alliance Community for Retirement Living in DeLand, Florida. Rev. Donald E. Anderson, pastor of the Alliance Chapel, will lead the service, assisted by Rev. Gerald E. McGarvey and Rev. David H. Moore. Rev. Paul L. King, Mrs. Holton’s son-in-law, will speak on behalf of the family.