Hsueh Yu Kwong

1919 - 2004
Translator, evangelist, seminary principal, missionary
Methodist
East Asia and Southeast Asia

Rev Hsueh Yu Kwong was born in Sitiawan, Perak in 1919. He was deeply influenced by his mother's nurturing and trust in God since childhood.

In 1939, Rev Hsueh went to mainland China for his secondary education and later studied at the National Central University, Nanjing, where he became a Christian. He was in the same class as Pastor Bian Yun Bo, author of For the Unknown Preacher, and served in the same church. 

When he graduated in 1949, he gave his clothes to his poor classmates and raised money for his needy professors. He was a no-nonsense, conscientious and caring person who won the respect of his classmates and other students. He then enrolled in the Shanghai Jiang Wan Chinese Theological Seminary and later taught at the Guangzhou Bible College (now Hong Kong Evangel Seminary). He then left China due to the political situation in the mainland and went to Hong Kong.

In the 1950s, the Hong Kong Word Press had plans to publish the Chinese version of The New Interpretation of the Bible and Rev Hsueh was invited to be one of the translators. He was also involved in the translation of Halley's Bible Handbook and Tao Shu's Desire for God and several books by Dr Alan Redpath.   

In 1952, Rev Hsueh married Dr Shi Shou Shan, the daughter of a professor in Hong Kong. He returned to Malaya the following year as an itinerant preacher. In 1958, Rev Hsueh was invited to preach at the Sarawak Evangelistic Conference. He preached for more than 80 days and many young people were inspired to enter the Bible seminary.

In 1959, he was invited to serve as the first principal of the Biblical Seminary of the Philippines, where he remained until 1970. In 1966, his wife, Dr Shi, passed away due to illness.

Rev Hsueh then joined the Campus Evangelistic Fellowship in Taiwan from 1970-1973 to take charge of the training for full-time evangelistic co-workers. He also wrote the spiritual revival column, The Slow Flow of Siloam, in the campus magazine. The column was very popular and was later published as a booklet. 

In 1971, Rev Hsueh married Rev Lily Ho Swee Hoo, a Myanmarese, in Taiwan and they served together in the Campus Evangelistic Fellowship. Rev Hsueh continued his evangelism training and was also involved in student evangelism, while Mrs Hsueh served as a counsellor in the Sisters Fellowship.

As Rev and Mrs Hsueh were both from Southeast Asia, they were especially concerned about the diaspora Chinese students who came to Taiwan to study. They began their ministry of caring for them, often taking several bus trips at noon on Saturdays to go to the pre-university course of diaspora Chinese students in Luzhou District. They held their meetings at a nearby church. Although the number of participants was small, Rev Hsueh persisted in this pioneering ministry. They opened their homes to host the students, especially during the Lunar New Year, for those who did not return home. They then started to hold the "winter gathering for overseas Chinese students" in 1972. Since then, many foreign students participated in this gathering during the winter break, and joined the gospel team during the summer. Rev Hsueh established the Overseas Chinese Students Fellowship to encourage inter-school contact between students. Many of these students later became pastors.

Rev Hsueh was gifted in and had a burden for the literature ministry. During his time in Taiwan, he also organised translation training courses for university students and nurtured a number of good translators.

Rev and Mrs Hsueh returned to Malaysia in 1974 where he was involved in Bible teaching at the Christian Training Centre of the CIM (China Inland Mission), while Mrs Hsueh served in the Banting Chinese Methodist Church.

In 1976, they went to the All Nations Christian College in the UK to study cross-cultural missions. In 1977, he went to Africa for a month and visited four countries where he saw the excellent response of the local people to the Gospel.

In the early 1970s, some church leaders in Malaysia were concerned about the need to nurture local pastors in the country and they invited Rev Hsueh to assist in the establishment of the Malaysia Bible Seminary (MBS) in 1978. Rev and Mrs Hsueh became two of the four full-time faculty members in the early days and he also served as dean of academic affairs. During this time, God opened the door to Africa twice, allowing them to see the need for evangelism and discipleship in Africa. They got to know SIM (Serving In Mission), which had many ministries in Africa.

In 1981, Rev and Mrs Hsueh resigned from MBS to join SIM. At the age of 62 and 48 respectively, they went to Nigeria to serve as Bible college teachers for a year.

In 1983, they went to Singapore as SIM's East Asia representative to mobilise missions and raise funds, and helped set up SIM local councils in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. In 1984, Rev Hsueh founded and became editor-in-chief of SIM's East Asia Chinese magazine called Mission Vision. In 1993, he published a collection of evangelistic events in Africa entitled African Missions, which quickly sold out.

In 1997, after 14 years of ministry in SIM, they returned to Malaysia to settle in Klang. On July 14, 2004, at the age of 85, Rev Hsueh was called home by the Lord. Mrs Lily Hsueh continued to volunteer in the SIM ministry and rested in eternal peace on July 15, 2021. 

A world-renowned preacher, evangelist and missionary, Rev Hsueh Yu Kwong not only preached the gospel in Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Singapore, but as far away as Africa and North America. A humble man and a valued servant of God, he inspired and mobilised many people for cross-cultural missions. 

SIM East Asia Office 

Edited by Shirley Chin,  Executive of SIM Chinese Diaspora Ministry