Martha Anne Graf was born on June 28, 1896 in Thal in the canton of St Gallen, northeastern Switzerland. Since young, she had the thought of becoming a missionary. Her mother passed away after she completed high school. Her home church was unable to support her in realising her dream. So at 18, she left for America to equip herself for mission work and arrived not knowing anyone there.

The following year, 1915, she entered Cincinnati Missionary Training School as a night student for two years before enrolling herself as a regular student and graduating in 1919. She also studied at Cincinnati University for a year and enrolled at the Ohio Wesleyan University from 1920 to 1922. 

Teaching and evangelising in Kutian, China

Graf was sponsored by the Cincinnati Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the American Methodist Episcopal Church and commissioned at a meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 29, 1922 to serve as a missionary with the Methodist Episcopal Church Foochow Annual Conference. After taking a two-year course, she started her work with the Gutian District Methodist Church in the education and women's ministry until 1928. She was the principal of Gutian Yu Xin Girls’ High School. Gutian, in earlier English documents, was also known as Kutian or Kucheng.^[1]

Graf served as a missionary in China for 20 years and apparently adopted the Chinese name Ga-Siew-ing (嘉秀英). 

From 1928 to 1929, she returned to the US for furlough and joined Drew Theological Seminary for an extension course. After returning to China, she carried out evangelistic work among schools and villages from 1929 till 1936. When she returned to the US for another furlough from 1936 to 1937, she joined the Union Theological Seminary, New York, for an intensive course. In 1937, she attended lectures at the universities of Basel and Zurich, Switzerland, and later went to Denmark to study for a term at the International Folk School at Helsingore.

From February 1938 till June 1944, she was the evangelist in Gutian. During this time, the Japanese invasion of China made life very difficult. She had to flee China like a refugee. She recollected that once, there were Japanese soldiers guarding all the roads. She took her accordion in her hands and marched over the mountain, singing gospel hymns and playing the instrument, and nobody stopped her.^[2]

When she returned to the US for her third furlough in 1945, she enrolled in Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, for a semester and spent her second semester at the Merrill-Palmer School, Detroit. From February 1947 till January 1951, she continued to serve in Gutian as an evangelist. By then, the Communists had taken over China and they later expelled all foreign missionaries. She returned to America and from September 1951 till January 1952, she continued her studies at a seminary in New York. 

Sibu, the 'paradise in the south'

In September 1952, Graf left her home again, heading towards Sibu in Sarawak. She arrived in November that year and was happy and surprised to find some of her Gutian friends in Sibu, the little town nicknamed "New Foochow”.

She recalled: “Before coming to Sarawak I thought I would never forget the pain I endured while serving in China. At that time there were so many fellow missionaries forced to leave China, I thought we would be posted to different places and would not meet again. However, coming to Sibu, Sarawak, is like going to paradise in the south; here I met so many colleagues, friends and church members and it was such a joy to meet them again.”^[3]

Graf, Ellen Atkinson and Katherine Wingert were the pioneer women missionaries sent to Sarawak by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Graf was assigned to serve with the Women's Society of Christian Service of the Sarawak Provisional Annual Conference. Her work included evangelism, home visitations, giving literacy classes, helping in the Women's Society, and also teaching at the seminary.

'Lady with the gospel boat'

Graf was the first to use the “gospel boat” (a motor launch) donated by the US Methodist Church Woman's Division of Christian Service. She travelled by boat to visit the 52 Methodist churches along the Rejang River, conducting training and ministry for the Women's Society. The boat was of great help in her ministry and enabled the spread of the gospel in Sarawak.

Along the Rejang River, Graf was known far and wide as “The lady with the gospel boat”. People would hail her as she sped up and down the river, wanting a ride to the hospital, church, school, meetings, or even just to ride in it.

The boat, named Louise R, had a length of 27 feet, a small cabin, sleeping space for three, and a stove for cooking. In 1952, Graf was ordained as a reverend.^[4] Unfortunately, in 1953, the boat broke down for no known reason and could not be used again.

Graf served in Sarawak for 10 years. In her report to the Annual Conference in 1953, she said, “Travelling by road in the Rejang Basin is dangerous. Most of the roads are not solidly paved, the wooden plank roads may shake, the earthen roads are often muddy and slippery, lodging at night is infested with louse and gnat. I can only sleep on the long bench of the church sanctuary, the table in the school or on the floor, often woken up by babies crying at midnight.

“Despite such hardship, I have to thank staffs of the Women's Society as well as the Principal for their kind treatment, often giving me eggs, chickens, Ovaltine drink and other delicacies."

In 1953, she evangelised in 38 different places and delivered over 220 sermons. Wherever she went, she encouraged the congregation to learn to sing hymns, to use new methods to teach the children and to pray at home and in public and to witness for Christ. As she could speak Gutian Foochow fluently, many people were curious and were attracted to the evening gatherings.^[5]

To help members of the Women's Society to understand the Bible better and to get closer to God, she printed 1,000 copies of devotional handbooks on the Gospel of Luke in 1953. At each gathering, she would ask the congregation to memorise one verse per week, to learn to sing one hymn from the Hymns of Universal Praise (普天颂赞) per month, making up 12 hymns a year. Every year, she would lead Bible study on one book of the Bible. She said she could not forget an old lady of 70 who had only a tooth left, but she could recite Bible verses thoroughly.^[6]    

In her report to the Annual Conference in 1955, she stated that she was worried that the congregation of the churches would be like the Laodicean church, engrossed in money-making, self-sufficiency and neglecting their spiritual life. They preferred working in the pepper farms or tapping rubber on Sunday rather than going to church. Many were Christian in name only. They were not born again and did not have high aims in life or the heart to serve in church. This "lukewarm" scenario was dangerous, she said.

Graf returned to the US for furlough again in 1957. She studied in the Scarritt Seminary from October to December and later went to Switzerland and other places to share and give talks. In 1958, she returned to Sibu and was appointed as the person-in-charge of the Mission Board. In her report, she also said she had  ministered at the Sarikei Methodist Town Church for nine months. As the pastor, she tried to set up a centre for family worship so as to “make a Christian family and bring the whole family to the church” instead of them sending a "representative" to church every Sunday. She also wanted to train true Christians who lived a devoted Christ-centred life. Graf also suggested setting up a lay training centre. In 1958, Dr Ivy Chou from the Methodist Theology School introduced the lay training course which was successfully conducted in five churches, and later conducted from time to time. Graf was one of the lecturers for the course.

Graf retired in 1962 and returned home. Lau Tiong Kii, a member of Doh Ang Methodist Church, Sibu, said that Graf used to supervise the women's ministry in Doh Ang Methodist Church and that if she missed her boat, she would stay in his home. She once asked his family if there was anything they wanted and his father, Lau Tiew Chuong, said he would love to buy a bell for the church. So when Graf returned to Switzerland, she bought a bell for them. It was wrongly sent to Sungai Bidut's Ching Ing Methodist Church but was later returned to Doh Ang Methodist Church. The bell is still working today.

Rev Ling Tiing Hui, former president of the SCAC, and his wife recalled that Graf also served in MangKuong Ming Kuong Methodist Church, Binatang (now called Bintangor). She once used a traditional latrine and fell into a big wooden pail full of human waste as the wooden planks could not support her weight. There were a few more small pails under the man-hole. Soiled, she laughingly said she could not understand why there were so many buckets there and that she had ruined these small pails because of her body build. 

Graf served as a missionary in the Rejang Basin in Sarawak for 10 years. She worked among the women and was most concerned about the cultivation of spiritual life in the family. She believed that weak spiritual life came from a lack of teaching. Thus, in collaboration with the theological school, she initiated the lay training courses to foster the spiritual life of the laity, enhanced spiritual knowledge and improved the fellowship of God and the people.