George W. Hunter (missionary)
George W. Hunter
Early life
Hunter was born in Kincardineshire, and spent his childhood on Deeside. Hunter's mother died when he was still very small. When he was young he was in love with a woman named Jessie, but she died young (at age 22), and was buried at Aberdeen. Hunter wanted to serve God in missions. The first time he applied for service abroad, he was refused, and focused his attention on serving God at home in places like the YMCA. The second time he applied with the China Inland Mission he was finally accepted.
China
Hunter arrived in China 1889. After studying the Chinese language for two years at
When the Boxer Rebellion broke out the governor of Gansu helped his missionaries to get safely out of China, and then Hunter took his one and only visit back to Scotland. Here he visited the grave of Jessie, and put a granite heart over it, as her family would not allow him to erect a tombstone. He had made a resolution during language school not to marry, so that he could be more fully devoted to God.
He departed for China a second time on 24 February 1902 on the S.S. König Albert and on arriving in China was reappointed to Lanzhou. Again he made many long journeys in the countryside.
Xinjiang and Gansu
On 27 March 1906 he moved to
George W. Hunter noted that while Tungan Muslims (
Under
He died in Ganzhou, Gansu, on 20 December 1946.
Translations
Hunter translated Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Genesis into Kazakh. He also translated The Pilgrim's Progress, Mark, Acts, 1 Samuel, and twenty-five chapters of Genesis into Uyghur, and Mark into Nogai language.
He also published a small book of collected Qazaq, Tatar, Uzbek, Uyghur, Azerbaijani, Kirghiz, Turkish and Astrakhan Turkic literature with English translations by himself. He also translated into English a section from "Narratives of the Prophets" and published it side by side with the original Uighur.
See also
- Christianity in Xinjiang
- Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission
- Percy C. Mather
- Emil Fischbacher
References
- ISBN 9780802846808.
- ISBN 3-87997-235-4. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
- ISBN 978-90-04-16675-2.
Bibliography
- Mildred Cable and Francesca French, George Hunter: Apostle of Turkestan (1948)
- B. V. Henry, Fakkelbæreren til de ukjente: pionermisjonæren George Hunter i Sentral-Asia, Oslo: Lunde (2001)
- Hunter, George W., Examples of the Various Turki Dialects: Turki text with English translation, China Inland Mission(1918)