Dora Yu Cidu
Dora Yu Cidu.
A humble female doctor named Yu Cidu was one of the instruments God used to bring revival to His children during the 1920s. 1
Known in the West as Dora Yu, she was born in Hangzhou in 1873 and was raised in a strong Christian home. She later said that she was unable to recall a time when she did not love Jesus.
At the age of 15, Yu left home and traveled north to study medicine in Jiangsu Province, where she remained for eight years. She was engaged at 19, but soon realized that God's call on her life made her union untenable. She called off the engagement and remained single for the rest of her life.
In 1895, after receiving news of the deaths of both of her parents, Yu plunged into a pit of depression, as she wrestled with feelings of guilt at not having seen them in their final days. During this pivotal time in her life, she wrote: "I feel in my soul this horrible feeling that I am standing at the edge of hell and may be pushed in at any time." Day and night she cried out for God's mercy, but the feeling of guilt lingered, nearly causing her to suffer a breakdown. Finally, after rededicating her life anew to Jesus Christ, Yu recalled:
"God suddenly opened the heavens to me and I was filled with the love of God Himself. I cried out to the Lord, saying, 'Oh Lord, is this your love? It's like nothing I've ever experienced!' .... Although I didn't hear God tell me that He had already forgiven all of my sins, I still felt His love fill my heart in that way. Those old feelings of conviction and fear suddenly disappeared without a trace." 2
After being one of the first women to graduate from the Suzhou Medical College in 1896, Yu Cidu became one of the first female Chinese cross-cultural missionaries when she traveled to Korea and worked with an American ministry. For five years she labored in Korea, but something was missing. She ultimately realized she had gone there in her own strength, and not in obedience to the Spirit of God. In 1903 she returned to China and once again experienced close communion with the Lord. She later described her time in Korea as her "wandering in the wilderness."
After returning to China, Yu felt the Holy Spirit calling her to abandon work as a doctor and to walk by faith, focusing on fulltime evangelism. She never again received support from missionaries, but God provided for her every need.
Female evangelists in China were rare in those days, and it was not culturally acceptable for a woman to travel around making religious proclamations. Nevertheless Yu pressed on, and soon filled an important role nurturing female converts who had been neglected by the organized churches.
In 1910 Yu held a summer Bible conference, at which the Spirit of God deeply touched those in attendance, transforming their lives. The conference grew in size and became an annual event, emerging as a popular date on the calendar for many Christians. The conferences continued until the late 1920s, by which time many hundreds of women had been trained and called to fulltime gospel service.
Another feature of Yu Cidu's ministry in Zhejiang was her effective outreach to women of high social standing. Females from wealthy families of that era were rarely seen in public, and as a result they became a secluded class cut off from society, and subsequently from the gospel. God helped Yu break into those closed circles, and many women in Ningbo and other cities found Jesus Christ.
The impact of Yu Cidu's ministry was felt deeply for many years. In 1920 she traveled to Fujian Province where she led Lin Heping, the mother of Ni Tuosheng (Watchman Nee), to faith in Christ. Nee, who was 17 at the time he received the Lord, studied the Bible with Yu and went on to establish the Little Flock, which ultimately bloomed into a movement comprising thousands of churches and hundreds of thousands of believers throughout China.
For many years Dora Yu Cidu had carried ailments in her body, and growing pain caused her to step back from ministry. In 1931 she was diagnosed with advanced cancer, and she soon went to her eternal home.
Footnotes:
1. For an excellent modern biography of Dora Yu, see Silas H. Wu, Dora Yu and Christian Revival in 20th Century China (Boston: Pishon River, 2002).
2. Dora Yu (Yu Cidu) in the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (www.bdcconline.net).
© This article is an extract from Paul Hattaway's book 'Zhejiang: The Jerusalem of China'. You can order this or any of The China Chronicles books and e-books from our online bookstore.