November 23 Today in OPC History

Late in the summer of 1940 at the end of their furlough, OPC missionaries Henry and Betty Coray sailed for the Far East. When they arrived in Harbin, Manchuria, near the latter part of September, they received word that the United States Department of State had recommended the withdrawal of American missionaries. Henry and Betty considered staying on the field, but their children had been seriously ill and they were worried about their longterm health. After an exchange of cables with Robert Marsden and the Committee on Foreign Missions, they agreed to return to the United States. They sailed from Kobe, Japan, on November 23, 1940, and would never return to the mission field. Henry was asked by the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension to pursue promotional activities on the Pacific Coast under the direction of the Presbytery of California. Pursuant of this assignment, Mr. Coray organized an Orthodox Presbyterian Church at Long Beach, California. He would continue to serve in OPC pastoral ministry the next thirty-seven years until his retirement in 1978.

Picture: Betty Coray in 1999 holding up a picture of herself in Harbin in the late 1930s.