The True Jesus Church is a nontrinitarian seventh-day Sabbatarian Christian denomination begun in China, growing out of the Pentecostal movement. Since its foundation it has spread to other countries including the United States.
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A deaconess named Lee Ai-chen [1] after having become a TJC member at Shanghai, hoped to spread the gospel back to her friends in Hawaii, where she had previously lived. Hence she financed for the wholesale purchase of The Holy Spirit Newspaper publications [2] to distribute to friends and relatives back in Honolulu. Therefore it resulted in parts of her friends and family who were willing to be baptized in the water and the Holy Spirit. Amongst them was a certain old lady named Lee-hao Ho [3] who travelled for miles from Hawaii to Shanghai to receive water baptism. However Deaconess Lee prayed to the Lord tell Him that this elderly woman should not be the sole person who is ever chosen by God, but rather the souls of the whole island ought to be given the opportunity to receive salvation. Therefore she continued to pray very fervently for this issue and her prayer was eventually heard. The Holy Spirit once told her in a voice: "Go to Honolulu and preach there."
So Lee Ai-chen obeyed the Holy Spirit's instructions, abandoned the medical industry, sold her jewellery, and left on a seagoing vessel in mid-May 1930. She arrived safely ashore on May 29 and visited various friends relatives testifying the gospel. Several times she debated with members affiliated with the Church of Christ in China and the Presbyterian church. Initially they all half-believed and half-doubted, and were not inclined to immediately accept, hence she felt that she was in a difficult position. She pondered over this issue everyday and often did not have sufficient sleep because she concentrated her prayers on asking the Lord to open the doors of grace for her.
Not long afterwards, a certain old lady became seriously ill and when her family was unable to find any way out of it, they invited the deaconess Lee to come and intercede for them. The illness was cured and God's grace had been revealed from that time onwards. Mrs Pin-hao Du [4] enthusiastically accepted the gospel. The more they examined the Bible teachings, the clearer it became; hence the number of believers steadily increased. When they realized the importance of baptism with water and the Holy Spirit, they wished to quickly receive baptism. However because she was still in her menstruation period, it was inconvenient/inappropriate for her to baptize people. Due to this, an old lady named Foo-chen Yang [5] rushed back to China, and was baptized in Shanghai along with the other women there. When deaconess Lee was applying for a passport to travel overseas (from China) she stated on her visa that it was for travel purposes, which allowed her a six month stay - after that she had the option on whether or not to apply for an extension. However deaconess Lee hoped that a male evangelist could be sent from headquarters to administer baptism to the new converts - lest too many days pass by and the devil might seize the opportunity to wreak havoc on the church. In this way, she speedily left Hawaii to ask the General Assembly at Shanghai to send for preachers.
The TJC General Assembly sent Elder Thomas Kuo went on board a Japanese Empress Liner on May 26 1931, reaching Hawaii after eleven days. A few days later, Elder Kuo, accompanied by two other local believers [6] searched for a suitable place for performing baptisms and, after having identified the place, one of them told Elder Kuo, "Look, here is water, shall we get baptized?" [7]. Hence the three of them entered the water and after the two of them were baptized, they had a feeling of infinite joy. They held church services every night and performed baptisms on six separate occasions. In this way, the True Jesus Church was formally established in Hawaii on August 16 that same year. A chapel was purchased with a sum of U.S. $7,500 [8]. Amongst the new converts, there were also Americans, Portuguese, Spaniards, Japanese, French, including the indigenous Hawaiians. The sermons were spoken in English. The church was later established on Maui Island.
Churches were established in:
Churches were established in:
Churches were established in:
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