My Chinese Heart

In 1931 Rev. Verent Mills gave up his promising career as a diesel engineer and went to China as a missionary. The following year, Alma Kenney joined him and they were married in China. Together they established nine churches and a Bible school, and trained many local Chinese Christians to be pastors and Bible teachers. During the Sino-Japanese war, there was severe famine in southern China. After sending his family to Australia, Rev. Mills risked his life and smuggled back into China to organize relief efforts. War and famine created countless numbers of orphans. He rescued 142 orphans under enemy fire. He then took in more than 700 orphans, housed them in abandoned temples, and provided for them until the war ended. After communists took over China, the Mills family was under house arrest for six months. In the final round of intense interrogation, Rev. Mills told the interrogator, "I know you have the power to determine my fate, even putting me to death. If you kill me, I want you to open my heart after the execution. Inside my heart you will find two words, 'Zhong Guo' (meaning China), and nothing more." After that the Mills family was released and they left China after 19 years of amazing adventure, incredible hardship, tedious labor and dedicated services to the country they had come to love so much.