Page 15 - HCC Vol 25 Issue 11 - 2024

SERVING the Yorke Peninsula for over 20 years
15
Year 9
English
At some point during his time in ministry Mr Short returned to
Australia and spoke at the Norman street church in Adelaide.
There he met my Grandfather (a relatively new christian at
the time) and his family (including my father). This is how
I know him and have come to hear and be intrigued by his
story and why I think that it really needed to be shared.
During his time in China Mr Short witnessed many important
events that shaped the way that China is now, not all of them
good. He was there at the Tiananmen Square massacre in
1989, where thousands of protesting anti-communist Chinese
citizens were slaughtered when Chinese soldiers drove
armoured tanks into the square in an attempt to bring an end to the protest, an event which the Chinese
communist party now claims to have never happened. He took several photos of this event and has collected
others from newspaper articles of the time, all of which he keeps in a
small album of the event.
During his time in China, he inherited the Christian book room,
an organisation that supplies free Christian literature for use in
evangelism, from fellow coworking missionaries who had been working
there for the past 40 years. He spent years spreading this literature
around China and in his later years he began distributing to other
countries which are, like China, in a restrictive communist environment,
which affects everyday life. He believes that
the gospel is needed in places such as this as
it provides hope and salvation for those who
are struggling or oppressed. Countries he
visited in his time on the field include: Burma, Vietnam, North Korea and, of course,
China.
There were several times when Mr Short found himself in a lot of trouble and
suffering for his evangelising, one of the most notable was when in 2014 he
was arrested for spreading gospel literature in North Korea, a country which is
suffering under an oppressive dictatorship which restricts the way people live,
work and what they can believe. Due to the strict disdain for any religion, religious
idea or piece of literature that is not approved by the government (the dictator) Mr
Short was arrested and held under harsh conditions. He was sentenced to fifteen
years imprisonment for what he had done, however considering his age and that he had admitted his “crime”
when arrested, he was set free on the third of March, just two weeks after his initial arrest on February 18th.
In 2023 Mr Short returned to Australia after serving in the mission field overseas for 60 years. After searching
for a few months for a place to live, he and his wife found their new home in Angle Vale, just on the outskirts
of Adelaide.
Despite his return to a free country, Mr Short still is evangelising in his
everyday life. Every week he goes to Chinatown to do some evangelical
work or “fishing” as he calls it (when he calls it this he is referring to
Matthew 4:19, where the disciples are told to become “fishers of men”).
There he has the opportunity to talk to the Chinese who visit the area.
When I interviewed him he told me of a man who he had met recently, who
was extremely downcast and upset with life, who he met in Chinatown and
was able to share the good news of the gospel with. He invited this man to
the church he attends in Unley and the man is still growing in his faith and
attending to this day.
Mr Short has made an impact on so many people’s lives by his outreach,
and many have been assisted on their walk with Christ because of his
missionary work and outreach. The Christian Book Room is still printing
literature today, with its two main locations somewhere in Hong Kong and
Inland China. Every year they ship literature, such as the Bushman’s Guide
(which was first used in Australia as a means of evangelism in the 1950s
and is still being printed today) all over the world. He is a truly inspiring man whose story definitely deserved,
and in my opinion, needed to be shared.