December 8, 2008
Miss Elizabeth (Betty) I. Arnold, retired missionary to China, Vietnam and Hong Kong, entered into the presence of the Lord on Saturday, November 22, 2008, in Oakland, California. She was 83.
When Betty was eight years old her parents joined The Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Rochester, New York. At age twelve she came into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. While attending a missionary convention she heard a clear call to the mission field. From her high school days Betty began to prepare for the Lord’s service. She attended Missionary Training Institute, in Nyack, New York from 1944 to 1947. During the candidate process for Alliance missions, her physical examination gave her medical clearance, but only for secretarial work. In 1947 she was appointed to South China. She worked in a secretarial and bookkeeping ministry in the field chairman’s office. When missionaries fled China in the wake of the oncoming “red” forces, she was evacuated to Hong Kong for a short time before being reassigned to Vietnam in 1950. Betty devoted herself to full-time work among children and women, along with the responsibility for a Chinese “book room”, a combined reading room and bookstore. After the fall of Vietnam in 1975, Betty transferred back to Hong Kong to minister to Chinese-speaking people. Here she ministered to youth groups and women’s fellowships through Bible studies, and also taught Bible classes in the Alliance high school. She also had opportunity to revive a fellowship for Chinese immigrants from Vietnam which included the “boat people” (Chinese refugees from Vietnam in Hong Kong). Because Hong Kong was a neutral port, Betty saw this as God’s appointed place for her to be part of this amazing ministry at such a crucial point in time. The Vietnam Fellowship in Hong Kong multiplied and later became connected with Vietnamese fellowships in Taiwan, Europe, Canada and the United States. Betty retired from Alliance International Ministries in 1989, but in no way retired from ministering to Chinese peoples within the United States and abroad.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, December 6, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. at East Bay Alliance Church in Oakland, California. Rev. Edmond Y. K. Yeung, pastor of Faith Chinese Alliance Church in Oakland, California, will help officiate the service, and Rev. Robert (O’B) O’Brien, church launching consultant for Intercultural Ministries, will represent The Christian and Missionary Alliance. Memorial gifts may be made payable to “The Orchard Foundation” in remembrance of Miss Arnold for an endowment set aside for Alliance retired missionaries. The mailing address is PO Box 35660, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935-3566.