Helga Jensine Waabenø (; 22 April 1908 – 25 June 1994) was a Norwegian nurse and

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

affiliated with the

Norwegian Missionary Society The Norwegian Missionary Society or the Norwegian Mission Society (, NMS) is the first and oldest missionary organization in Norway. It was started by a group of approximately 180 Stavanger residents in August 1842, to spread Christianity to oth ...

in China. She worked as a missionary in

Yiyang Yiyang ( zh, s=益阳 , t=益陽 , p=Yìyáng) is a prefecture-level city on the Zi River in Hunan province, China, straddling Lake Dongting and bordering Hubei to the north. According to the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Repub ...

in the province of

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

from 1946 to 1949, and fled to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

where she continued her missionary work. She arrived in

on 23 December 1949, becoming the first missionary from the Norwegian Missionary Society on the island. She worked there until Christmas 1951 and returned to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

via the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

after the new year of 1952. She was born in Skjørn Municipality. After

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

forces under

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

won in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

, Among these was Waabenø who in 1949 was evacuated from

, to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Later in the autumn of the same year she was contacted by physician working for the Norwegian Mission Alliance in Taiwan (then called

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

). She believed that there was a great need for missionaries to work among the large group of Mandarin-speaking refugees from mainland China. Waabenø was interested in this, and on 17 November 1949 consulted with the Norwegian Missionary Society committee of her plan. She obtained permission to work at a large Mission

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, which is now known as the

Mackay Memorial Hospital Mackay Memorial Hospital (), established on 26 December 1912, is one of the largest medical centers in Taiwan. It is a private Christian hospital in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan, mostly associated with George Leslie Mackay, the first mode ...

. Helga Waabenø arrived in Taiwan 23 December 1949 and began work at the hospital in late January 1950. Her first report from Taiwan was printed in the Norwegian Missionary Journal in early 1950, in which she said the following: Besides working at the Mackay Memorial Hospital she also worked among the Mandarin-speaking refugees from the mainland. These had mainly settled in areas that Chiang Kai-shek's government had outlined for them. She and other missionaries met Christians from the Chinese provinces, who had previously worked on the mainland, also working among these refugees. Waabenø started an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

class in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

in the summer of 1951. One of the students were Andrew Liang, and several friends of his started Bible study sessions there too. Liang was the son of one of the

priests. On 1 July 1994 Waabenø was buried in Western Cemetery in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

References

Sources

* Steensland, Gustav, "Taiwan" (p. 296-324) in Volume 2 of "In faith and service - the Norwegian Missionary Society 1842-1992 ', Torstein Jørgensen (ed.), Mission College, Stavanger, 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wabeno, Helga 1908 births 1994 deaths Norwegian expatriates in China Lutheran missionaries in China Lutheran missionaries in Taiwan Norwegian expatriates in Taiwan Norwegian Lutheran missionaries 20th-century Lutherans