Shih Yu Shou

1882 - 1963
Longest serving pastor in Sitiawan, Perak
Methodist
Malaya

To spend more than 40 years in active service in the Methodist Mission was quite a record with few equals, and to pastor three or four churches at the same time was even more remarkable. Reverend Shih Yu Shou had to be persuaded to retire by his family when he reached 70 in 1952, but he still offered himself as a “supply pastor” and served another year at Tangkak, Malacca. He retired the second time in 1953. 

Shih Yu Shou came to Sitiawan in 1912 as a local preacher. He was ordained as a deacon by Bishop J. W. Robinson and as an elder by Bishop Titus Lowe. As a preacher, his stations included Simpang Ampat, Sungei Wangi, Kampung Bahru, Lumut, Bruas, Beting Luas and Ayer Tawar. He assisted Reverend Huong Pau Seng in the Foochow church at Kampung Koh in the early years, but is best remembered for his services in the churches in Simpang Ampat, Sungei Wangi, Kampung Bahru and Ayer Tawar. In 1921, Bishop G. H. Bickley assigned him the pastorate of Simpang Ampat, Sungei Wangi and Ayer Tawar at the same time. He commuted between the churches on a bicycle.

In his early ministry, he was appointed by Dr. W. G. Shellabear as the Methodist Mission vernacular schools superintendent and examiner of Sitiawan. He was a keen collector of photographs (most of the photographs in the book The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective are from his collections). 

Born in Luntiang, Fujian, in 1882 into a wealthy and influential Buddhist family, young Shih was tutored at home by the best Mandarin scholars in his hometown. After completing his Chinese education locally, he enrolled in the Anglo-Chinese College and it was here that his connections with the Methodist Mission began. He also studied at the Poi Gnog College, Luntiang, from where he graduated in 1904. He was a teacher at Ing Mee Middle School for four years before he became a local preacher in 1908. His family, notwithstanding their Buddhist steadfastness, raised no objection to his decision.

In 1911, he landed in Solo, Java, and worked as a teacher. In 1912, he came to Sitiawan and began his ministry under the tutelage of Reverend Dr. Huong Pau Seng.

Reverend Shih Yu Shou was blessed with a daughter and a son. His wife, Ho Muoi Hung, died on January 1, 1945. His daughter, Shuan Ching @ Hua Nan, first attended the famous Eveland Seminary in Singapore and later became a teacher at Anglo-Chinese School, Sitiawan, where she taught until she retired in 1971. She married Khew Khoon Thong on August 27, 1949. They had two children.

His son, Shuan Tao, was an old boy of ACS Sitiawan. Shuan Tao, after completing his secondary education in Sitiawan, left on August 28, 1941 for the University of Hong Kong to study medicine. After his graduation, he worked at Union Hospital, Foochow (Fuzhou). His marriage to Tai Lu Nik at the Methodist Church, Mamoi, on January 2, 1950, was officiated by Reverend D. P. Coole, who had been transferred to Foochow in 1948. When the Chinese civil war broke out, Dr. Shih Shuan Tao and his family were trapped in China, where they remained (in Luntiang) to this day. They had three daughters and two sons.

Reverend Shih Yu Shou’s over 40 years of “crusade” almost mirrored the development of Methodism in Sitiawan. He had no regrets giving up a life of luxury in China for the burden of the cross in Sitiawan. His death on March 13, 1963 closed a chapter in the development of Methodism in Sitiawan. The “knight of the cross” was laid to rest at the Pioneer Church cemetery, Kampung Koh. He was 81 years old.

Reproduced by permission from Shih Toong Siong, The Foochows of Sitiawan: A Historical Perspective (Perak: Persatuan Kutien Daerah Manjung, 2004), 253-259.