Total Transformation: From Healing the Body to Healing the Soul

By Kenneth Kwong Chee Siu

Starting with a genealogy that traces his family origins in China, Kenneth Siu relates his life work, first as a surgeon and then as a missionary and pastor, punctuated by the hardships of war and later communist unrest, in a friendly, sometimes humorous style that will be recognizable to those who have met him. Along the way he will draw you into his life as he relates how he met his wife, Betty, and raised a family in Jefferson City, Missouri while he healed people's bodies in his surgical practice. When he retired from his practice in 1990, he wasn't finished working. God called him back to a long put-aside call to mission work, and so Kenneth went off to seminary and entered service as a missionary to Macau, China, where he then became the pastor of a Southern Baptist church. Kenneth had been transformed from a healer of the body to a healer of the soul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973629672

Kenneth Kwong Chee Siu

From a childhood in colonial Hong Kong punctuated by the Japanese occupation, through a career in surgery that carried him to the United States because of Communist unrest, Kenneth Siu devoted himself to excellence at his chosen career. His work as a physician left a legacy as a healer of the body in Jefferson City, Missouri, but upon his retirement, God was not finished using him. An early call to mission work that had been put off was renewed, and Kenneth embarked on his second career by going to seminary and becoming a missionary to Macau, just 38 miles from his hometown. After completing his mission service, Kenneth was then called to pastor a Southern Baptist church in Macau, where he continued his work as a healer, a healer of souls.

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Copyright © 2018 Kenneth Kwong Chee Siu.

Interior image credit: Stephen Siu

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-2968-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2969-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2967-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018906388

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/5/2018

To

my children,

my grandchildren,

and

their children and grandchildren

CONTENTS

Contents

Prelude

A Note Concerning The Use Of Romanization In This Book

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Genealogies In Ancient Israel

Chinese Genealogies: Jukh Pou (Zu Pu)

Seeing The Realities Of A Transformed Life

PRELUDE

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

Before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Jeremiah 1:5 NIV¹

A prophet is a person called by God to serve as a conduit for the Word of God in two ways:

First: as a Foreteller of God’s predictive prophecy, and,

Second: as a Forthteller of God’s prescriptive prophecy.

In turn, the prophet may serve as an intermediary between God’s people and their God in two similar ways:

First: to bring the praises of the people and offer them to God, and;

Second: to bring the prayers of the people and offer them to God.

"13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.¹⁵ ²fThe LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb ³gon the day of the assembly, when you said, ⁴h’Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the LORD said to me, ⁵i’They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ ⁶fI will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ⁷jAnd I will put my words in his mouth, and ⁸khe shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ ⁹lAnd whoever will ¹⁰mnot listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ²⁰ ¹¹nBut the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or¹²⁶ who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— ²² ¹³owhen a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; ¹⁴nthe prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.¹⁵

The role of the prophet could readily be applied to those of the pastors of our day.

Similarly, we can see a physician joining the Healing Arts profession as one who is answering a call from God and this calling is as sacred as the call of a pastor. He or she is to learn, first and foremost, to do no harm because the salient fact is that human beings are created by the hand of God in the imago Dei, that they come to life through the in-breathing of God, and hence we firmly subscribe and resolutely believe in the sanctity of life.

The following excerpt is a very appropriate reflection of what my life has been:

"If you found a cure for cancer,

Wouldn’t it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind?

How much more inconceivable

To keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of sin?"

Dave Davidson

I have often tried to visualize what motivated my grandfather to migrate from Surabaya, Java, where he was born and grew up, to the little village of Song Tihn (Sangtian) 桑田 (Mulberry tree plantation) in Chiuh Yeuhng (Chaoyang) 潮陽 near Swatow, in Kwong Tung (Guangdong) 廣東 Province. I was even more intrigued when a distant relative told me that my grandfather was the mayor of Song Tihn before he retired to live in Swatow where he was finally buried. I don’t have the answers to any of these questions and probably never will this side of eternity. And it is precisely for this reason that I want to write this book about my life so that my children and grandchildren will, at least, get a glimpse of what their father/grandfather was like and where he came from.

A NOTE CONCERNING THE USE OF ROMANIZATION IN THIS BOOK

Throughout this book, I have endeavored to use the Yale system in the romanization of all proper names and nouns. On a number of occasions, when the name or noun has a familiar romanization commonly used in Hong Kong, I have included these in [] brackets. Finally, I complete the romanization by using the Pinyin Romanization in () brackets, for the equivalent word in Putonghua or Mandarin, e.g., my name is Siu Gwong Ji [Siu Kwong Chee] (Xiao Guangzhi) 蕭光祉. I assert that my manuscript contains an accurate English/Chinese translation (accurate in tone, meaning and content) of any and all Chinese text that is included in my manuscript.

Have you ever wondered how, where, when and why the word Mandarin came to be used to address a Chinese court official and, at the same time, also ended up being used to represent the spoken official language in China? I have a pet theory about it but I’ve not been able to corroborate it nor have I read anything written about the subject.

My theory is that when the first British traveler arrived in China, he inquired of his interpreter who the minister was and how he was to address the man. The interpreter said in reply, Man, da ren. Da ren is the transliteration of the Chinese salutation for a minister, which is 大人.

I suppose, the Briton, therefore, coined the word Mandarin for a Chinese minister and also used it to represent the spoken language the minster spoke. Obviously, he noticed that the minister’s spoken language was quite different from the vernacular among the common population. Anyway, this is just an aside, so take it for what it’s worth.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my wife, Mary Elizabeth (Betty) for her love, care, support, and encouragement; for patiently putting up with me for over half a century; and for her encouragement in the completion of this book.

A very special and heartfelt thank you is offered here with my utmost and sincere gratitude to my cousin, Dr. Gloria M. Tang 蕭敏, Associate Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada. She is the second child of my uncle Henry Hon Lit Siu, my father’s youngest brother.

Gloria obtained her B.A. (hons) degree in English language and literature at the University of Hong Kong in 1960. She subsequently proceeded to attain a Master of Education degree in teaching and learning at HKU in 1981 and a Doctor of Education in second language acquisition at the University of British Columbia in Canada in 1989.

She held teaching positions in Hong Kong and Vancouver, culminating her career as Assistant Professor 1991-1996 and Associate Professor from 1996 until her retirement in 2006 at the University of British Columbia. During her professional career and her tenure as professor, she taught many classes and students on the art and science of teaching and writing, among other skills. She has published academic papers and authored four books.

You can imagine my pleasure and excitement when she agreed to write a Foreword for my book and also consented to edit it to make it more readable. As my angelic eight-year-old granddaughter Abigail would say, I am really ‘siked’ (psyched) that you are willing to do it for me. Thanks.

Thanks are also due Kay Dinolfo, our oldest daughter, Dr. Stephen Siu, our son, and Captain Bruce Brosch, USN, our son-in-law, for their kindness and expertise with their editing and suggestions for this book to make it readable. If any part of the book is far from enjoyable, the fault lies completely with me.

Kenneth Kwong Chee Siu

September 7, 2008

My Retreat in Mountain View

FOREWORD

When Kenneth approached me to edit his book and write a Foreword, I was flattered. However, I declined the invitation, knowing full well I was neither adequate to take up the challenge nor worthy of such an important task. What do I know about healing? Be it body or soul! I have now accepted the invitation not because I feel I am any less inadequate or more worthy of the honor but because he impresses on me that he needs to meet a deadline and my service is urgently needed. So here I am struggling to make the Foreword worthy of the book and summoning all the keen sense of a teacher to detect typos and errors while being fascinated by the manuscript.

Total Transformation is an autobiography. It is about the life of the author, Doctor/Reverend Kenneth Siu, who he is, where he comes from and the people whose lives he has touched. Dave Davidson’s quotable quote which Kenneth cited in his Prelude:

If you found a cure for cancer,

Wouldn’t it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind?

How much more inconceivable

To keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of sin?

sums up Kenneth’s mission in life – his compulsive commitment to heal and his obligation to communicate the cure he has found to all humankind.

Kenneth has always been looked upon as God’s chosen by his family. As a young man, he was good-looking. He was in medical school at the then exclusive University of Hong Kong. With this background plus a rich sense of humour and an abundance of charm which he bestowed generously on all especially on those who were the right age and the right gender, he was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Hong Kong by unmarried girls. He became a legend when he sailed to the United States of America to further his career and to better equip himself to serve the underprivileged. The legend of Kenneth continued when he married a lovely American woman, Betty. The marriage was not legendary but the fact that his parents learned about the marriage by mail in one of those romantic by-the-time-you-receive-this-I’ll-have-wedded letters was. We, i.e., his cousins looked upon him as a Hollywood star! And on his triumphant return to Hong Kong bringing with him wife, a beautiful blonde as tall as he (she is now a beautiful 70+-year-old) and daughter (a more intelligent toddler I had yet to encounter), the whole Siu clan and the whole Choy clan (plus a couple non-Siu/non-Choy) stormed the greeting area at Kai Tak Airport to meet him and his young family.

He was a dedicated surgeon having achieved a bundle of higher degrees and qualifications and served in various positions in both Hong Kong and USA. He enjoyed an illustrious career until he retired in 1990. And the legend continued.

Again he became God’s chosen, this time pursuing an education in theology. Having been healer of the body for close to 40 years, he thought he would become a healer of the soul. He earned a Master of Divinity and was offered a position as medical ministries administrator (a position which seemed to have been created exclusively for his benefit) in 1994. He later became pastor of Sha Lei Tau Baptist Church in Macau, a position he held until 2008 during which period he earned yet another degree, a Doctor of Ministry. He is at present Adjunct Faculty at Southwest Baptist University in Mountain View, Missouri waiting to take up an assignment as pastor in Sha Lei Tau Baptist Church, Macau in 2011 when he will again put to good use the bilingual and bi-literate skills (being preacher and interpreter simultaneously) which God has generously bestowed on him to serve Him.

He and his wife have raised five beautiful and successful children who (with their spouses) have given them ten grandchildren with two deceased. According to Kenneth, the purpose of writing this book is to allow his children and children’s children a glimpse of his life. He has even included a full length translation of the genealogy of the Siu clan for those who may wish to trace their roots. Admirable! Furthermore, he has told his stories and the stories of his forebears against the backdrop of world history and Chinese history.

True to his philosophy that to bring up children to know God’s existence is to travel that way himself, in Total Transformation, Kenneth testifies that he is always travelling in God’s way. True to his role as intermediary between human and God, in Total Transformation, Kenneth justifies the way of God to his children, to his readers and to all humankind.

As you turn the pages, you’ll meet Kenneth the father and grandfather, Kenneth the surgeon and, most of all, Kenneth the pastor. Follow where his stream of consciousness takes you. Laugh with him, be amused by his anecdotes, be touched by his testimony, and be inspired by his interpretation of the Word of God and…

Praise Him!

Gloria M. Tang

Vancouver, British Columbia

10-10-10

INTRODUCTION

Therefore, my brothers,

be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.

For if you do these things,

you will never fall,

and you will receive a rich welcome

into the eternal kingdom

of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ¹⁶

所以弟兄們，

應當更加殷勤，

使你們所蒙的恩召

和揀選堅定不移。

你們若行這幾樣，

就永不失腳；

這樣，

必叫你們豐豐富富地

得以進入我們主－救主耶穌基督永遠的國。17

2 Peter 1:10-11

And do not think you can say to yourselves,

‘We have Abraham as our father.’

I tell you that out of these stones

God can raise up children for Abraham.

The ax is already at the root of the trees

and every tree that does not produce good fruit

will be cut down and thrown into the fire

Mt 3:8-10. NIV¹⁸

GENEALOGIES IN ANCIENT ISRAEL

Genealogies feature prominently in both the early and later history of Israel. There are ten principal genealogical lists in Genesis alone. These records served to establish and protect identity in that they regulated a variety of social interactions, including marriage and land inheritance (Dt 25:5-20; Ezr 10:18-43). Thus, the registration of families who had returned from exile was a profound concern during the postexilic period (1Ch 1-9; Ezr 8:2-14; Ne 7:7-63). Genealogies were especially important in ancient Israel because the right to hold important offices was a hereditary privilege. The New Testament preserves two pertinent genealogical texts, both of which present the human ancestry of Jesus as the son of David (Mt 1:1-17; Lk 3:23-38).¹⁹

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Ps 90:1-2 NIV²⁰

CHINESE GENEALOGIES: JUKH POU (ZU PU)

What is Zu Pu? A comprehensive definition is found in an article by Kimberly Powell in genealogy.About.com, where she quoted the following article: Jia Pu (Chinese Genealogical Record): An Introduction, written by Danny Boey, Chinese Roots.com.²¹

"Zu Pu is a record of a clan’s history and lineage. It documents the origins of the surname, the migration patterns of the clan, the family lineage, the ancestral biography, the story of the locality, etc…Jia Pu or Zu Pu has been found as early as the Shang Dynasty (1523-1028 B.C.).

A ‘Jia Pu’ usually begins with the primogenitor that first settled or moved to a place and started his family there…usually does not have prominent records of the women in the family…Recent works in the field have dispelled the myth that Chinese genealogical research is only a mere pastime hobby for the amateur genealogist."

Another generation grew up,

who knew neither the LORD

nor what He had done for Israel"

Jdg. 2:10.

There is cause and effect in the spiritual as well as the physical universe. The cause of the failure of the next generation to know God was rooted in the incomplete obedience of its parents.²²

You and I can’t guarantee that our children will know the Lord or live for Him. But if we trust God enough to act on His Word, if we are obedient in our daily lives, our children will never be able to say of God, I didn’t know Him.

The reality of who God is, is displayed in the faith moms and dads put into practice, and in their obedience to His Word.

Personal Application

There’s nothing more important we can do for our children than love, trust, and obey the Lord.

Quotable

There is just one way to bring up a child in the way he should go and that is to travel that way yourself.—Abraham Lincoln

SEEING THE REALITIES OF A TRANSFORMED LIFE

Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

Acts 28:30–31

This verse shows that, while Paul was under house arrest in his own rented house, he continued to minister. In spite of the circumstances, Paul continued to do what he had been called to do.

You may find yourself thinking, I can’t go and preach the gospel. I can’t be an evangelist, or a Bible teacher. I’m stuck with my job. But it doesn’t matter whether you’re chained to a desk, an assembly line, a classroom, a car, or a sales position—they all provide opportunities for you to further the gospel. The less desirable your confinement, the greater the opportunity for a godly life to shine!

People often tell me how hard it is to witness where they work. My response is that it is generally harder to witness under ideal conditions than in a more difficult situation. That’s because in difficult situations the reality of a transformed life is more apparent, and that can’t help but be attractive to those who haven’t experienced it.²³

I

蕭氏族譜

THE GENEALOGY OF THE SIU (XIAO) FAMILY

蕭        Siu        (Xiao)

1. Chinese family name.

2. Quiet, lonely, desolate.

氏        sih        (shi)

1. Family, clan.

族        juhk    (zu)

1. A tribe, a clan, a family.

譜        pou        (pu)

1. A register, a record.

2. Policies of a clan.

3. Family tree, lineage, genealogy.

Origin of Xiao*, Siu*, Siew*, Seow*, Hsiao*

According to the website Yutopian.com (http://www.yutopian.com/names/16/16xiao30.html), the surname Siu (Xiao) ranks as the 30th most common last name in China. The Xiaos are the descendents of the ancient king Ku Di (2,435-2,365 B.C.). The direct forefather of the Xiaos was Da Xin who suppressed the Nangong Zhangwan rebellion, during the Chun Qiu period. (Nangong Zhangwan was a prisoner of war who went on a killing spree in the palace, evicting the duke of Song and appointed a new duke). Because of this Da Xin was made the duke of Xiao, and was given the kingdom of Xiao (Xiao of Jiang Su).

Hometown: 50 miles east of Feng in Shandong Province山東省

II

序

PREFACE

It has commonly been said that a dependent branch would seek its root; and, when we see a river, we would want to trace its origin. This is because a root that is firm will always have luxuriant and vibrant branches; and a river that is deep will meander over a long distance. A study of legal texts and documents shows the surname Siu (Xiao) actually began after Sung Meih Ji (Song Weizi) 宋微子settled in Cheuih Jau [Hsuchow] (Xuzhou) 徐州 a city in Gong Sou [Kiangsu] (Jiangsu) 江蘇Province, in the old Siu (Xiao) 蕭 kingdom and took the name. Presently, Hsuchow (Xuzhou) 徐州is in Kiangsu (Jiangsu) 江蘇Province located south of the river.

The descendents of the Siu (Xiao) 蕭family settled in Siu (Xiao) County 蕭縣in Hsuchow (Xuzhou) 徐州in Kiangsu (Jiangsu) 江蘇, then branched out and settled in Kiangsi (Jiangxi) 江西 Province. The descendents in Kiangsi (Jiangxi) Province moved on to live in Jyu Gei Hohng (Zhuji Xiang) 珠璣巷 (Baroque Pearl Alley), in Ngauh Tihn Fong (Niutian Fang) 牛田坊 (Ox Field Subdivision) in Chi Hing Yuhn (Shixing Xian) 始興縣 (Happy Beginning County) in Naahm Huhng Fu (Nanxiong Fu) 南雄府 (Southern Hero Prefecture) on the Eastern side of Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province廣東省. Not long after that, because of the Concubine Sou (Su) Incident 蘇妃之變it was not possible to live there any longer.

Therefore, Sing Yuht Gung (Shengyue Gong) 聖悅公 went with Luhng Gahn Tin (Long Jintian) 龍近天, Loh Gwai (Luo Gui) 羅貴, Mahk Sau (Mai Xiu) 麥秀 and the group, to avoid the catastrophe, escaped to Daaih Leuhng (Daliang) 大良 in Seuhn Dak (Shunde) 順德 in Canton (Guangzhou Prefecture) 廣州府. After a period when the situation had quieted down, he moved to a walled village in Si Daaih Tin (Sida Tian) 司大田in Mouh Dak Leih (Mude Li) 慕德里 (Admire Virtue Neighborhood) in Pun Yuh (Panyu) County番禺縣 to settle down.

Sing Yuht Gung (Shengyue Gong) 聖悅公 bore two sons. The older son was Syun Yee (Xuanyi) 宣儀 and the second son was Syun Muih (Xuanmei) 宣梅. The brothers went to settle in Sehk Taahm village (Shitan Xiang) 石潭鄉 (Rocky Pond Village) in Chung Fa County (Congfa Xian) 從化縣 (Follow Change County).

Figure1.jpg

Figure 1. Migration map.

Our Primogenitor Sing Yuet Gung et al migrated from Hsuchow (Xuzhou) (point A) to Seuhn Dak (Shunde) and Pun Yuh (Panyu) (point B), then finally to Song Tihn (Sang Tian).

Hence, each established their separate homes, some stayed put, others moved to Che Ging Chyun (Chejing Cun) (Che Ging Village) 車逕村, Leuhng Hau Tihn (Liangkou Tian) 良口田 and other places or to Sahn Gong (Shengang) 神岡or to other counties but there is no way to find out or verify the facts.

Our Patriarch Daan Chat (Danqi) 丹七 moved to Liuh Choi Chyun (Liaocai Cun) 蓼菜村 in Si Juk Liu Bou (Sizhuliao Bao) (Si Juk Liu Walled Village) 司竹料堡 in Mouh Dak Leih (Mudeli) 慕德里 in Pun Yuh Yuhn (Panyuxian) 番禺縣 (Pun Yuh County) to live.

The sons and grandsons in Liu Choi Chyun acknowledged him as the primogenitor. Each succeeding descendent then lived there one after the other.

Whether they became scholars (civil servants), farmers, businessmen or artisans, one can see slight improvements in their endeavors. But, if it were not for the skill of the founding father in establishing the family and their accumulation of virtues, how would it be possible for their obtaining these good results? This is what is meant when we say that a strong root will make the branches luxuriant, a river that is deep at its origin will flow a much longer distance. Isn’t this saying so true? Therefore, at the present time, with every spring and autumn, offerings and sacrifices are made, and planting is carried out successfully.

These are just the meager efforts that the sons and grandsons had endeavored to repay what their ancestors had done. However, if sons and grandsons were diligent in their studies and had success in passing the civil examinations and bringing honor to the family’s reputation, then the work and blessing of those ancestors who went before us and their aspirations would become our clan’s great fortune.

To know that this will be passed on not only for one to two generations but possibly to thousands and thousands of generations is the reason this preface is written.

III

FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE 7⁵TH YEAR OF THE SUNG DYNASTY

During the time of our Primogenitor Sing Yuet