Marriage of Huang Su’e and Francis Lister Hawks Pott (23 August 1888)

On August 23, 1888, Huang Su’e married missionary-educator Francis Lister Hawks Pott, joining two lives across culture, language, and expectation. In a time when foreign missions were often viewed with suspicion and when social boundaries ran deep, their marriage quietly affirmed the gospel’s power to form one household from many peoples. Scripture speaks to this new belonging: “Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.” (Ephesians 2:19)

Their union was not merely personal; it became a shared vocation. Together they labored for the strengthening of the church in China, showing that Christian marriage is a partnership in worship, witness, and endurance—marked by patience, humility, and steadfast service when misunderstandings and pressures would have been real.

Huang Su’e: Evangelist, Teacher, and Mother to the Vulnerable

Huang Su’e did not remain in the background. She evangelized among women and families, taught with practical wisdom, and carried the burdens of those easily overlooked. Her founding of an orphanage embodied the mercy of Christ in daily bread, shelter, discipline, and affection—an answer to suffering that did not stop at words.

Her work reflected a plain biblical priority: “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27) In this, her heroism was not loud, but steady—choosing costly compassion, day after day, for children who could not repay her.

Francis Lister Hawks Pott: Missionary-Educator and Bishop

Francis Lister Hawks Pott became known as a leading teacher and later a bishop within the Chinese Anglican Church, giving decades to education, pastoral formation, and orderly church life. Serving in key centers such as Shanghai and later in episcopal leadership, he emphasized training local believers for mature discipleship and public witness.

Together, the Potts modeled courage without spectacle: fidelity in marriage, integrity in service, and hope for a flourishing Chinese church rooted in Scripture, prayer, and sacrificial love.