Lillian Dickson

Lillian Dickson (29 January 1901 – 14 January 1983) was an independent missionary, author, and public speaker. She used her maternal identity to develop her vocation in the middle of the twentieth century. Originally, she and her husband, James Dickson (1900-1967), were sent by the Presbyterian Church of Canada, to Taiwan in 1927. and The Mustard Seed Mission (based in Taiwan).

Early life Dickson was born Lillian Ruth LeVesconte on January 29, 1901, in Prior Lake, Minnesota, to John, "a flour-and-feed-mill operator", and Lillie Belle LeVesconte. She met her husband, James Ira Dickson, during her time at Macalester College. On May 16, 1927, Dickson and James married. As both were members of the Canadian Presbyterian Church (CPC) and were interested in doing missionary work, the newly-wed Dicksons answered CPC's urgent call to provide pastoral and medical care to a CPC base in northern Taiwan.

Education At 23, Dickson received her Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. A year after, Dickson attended a Biblical Seminary in New York City, New York for two years to prepare for pending missionary work. For her trip to Taiwan, Dickson planned to take medical courses in preparation to become the family doctor in the village they intended to live in Taiwan, as there was a lack of good medical care for lepers. However, Dickson reflected in her letters to her husband later during her missionary work in Taiwan, "Nothing I studied in college is of any use here...All the things I should know I learn by painful mistakes! Who would have ever guessed our life would be like this?" (1997-5006-2-1; circular letter dated May 15, 1959).

Missionary work

Work in Formosa before World War II Dickson arrived in Taiwan in 1927 as a missionary under the Canadian Presbyterian Church. Lillian Dickson arrived as a participant in the Legacy of the American missionary movement. During the Dicksons' first thirteen years in Formosa, now known as Taiwan, Dickson lived and worked as a missionary's wife. Her husband, James, served as deputy principal of Tamsui Middle School and then as president of Taipei Theological School. Dickson would host guests in their house and maintained the hospitable character of a missionary's wife. Due to rising tensions in World War II between Japan and the United States, the Dicksons left Taiwan and were reassigned to what is now British Guiana in South America.

Work in Taiwan after World War II At the end of World War II, the Dicksons returned to Formosa. Lillian's husband continued his role as head administrator of the Taiwan Theological College. After repeated encouragement from her friends, Lillian Dickson established the non-profit Mustard Seed, Inc. organization in order for her donors to apply for tax deductions to continue her work in Taiwan in 1962.

Medical missionary work Upon Dickson's return to Taiwan, her intent was to evangelize the Taiwanese children. However, it was her medical missions that attracted her American donors. While she was not herself a licensed medical professional, Dickson's organization provided medical care and promoted hygiene through several missions executed over her lifetime. Some examples of missions included: developing mountain clinics, building a church in a leper colony, and establishing a clinic. She would treat medical sores, infections, cases of pneumonia and bronchitis, scabies, along with other ailments. Dickson would also teach the nurses at the clinics how to provide the specific treatments needed. Beyond that, as Dickson treated patients, she would recount biblical stories and sing loving gospels to the patients, which she claimed the indigenous people of the mountain would, "answer with warm, impetuous friendship." She is quoted in Angel at Her Shoulder saying "a wealthy America should rescue a poverty-stricken free China to combat their shared enemy of Communism" along with efforts against burdens of disease. Her autobiography These My People states that "sometimes we forget our threatening enemy, forget that the fiery dart of communism is aimed at our hearts." Throughout her personal writings, she expressed anxiety over the system of government in relation to her missionary work. In fact, she proposed friendly relationships between the United States and Japan to defeat communism as a common enemy.

Legacy Dickson founded the interdenominational Mustard Seed International (MSI) and The Mustard Seed Mission (MSM) to support her missionary work, which included caring for orphans in Formosa. She founded several orphanages and children's homes, Furthermore, her work has led to Bible college and seminary training for pastors, lay leaders and church planting teams, and medical care in clinics and hospitals. Dickson continued to return to the U.S. for speaking tours until 1978, and consistently recruited support by discussing the tremendous needs of Taiwan through interviews on television and through other media.

Children

She had a total of 4 children, two of whom lived. She adopted a fifth.

Unnamed son - Sep 1928 (stillbirth ) Jeanna Naome - (Jul - Aug 1929) Ronald James Dickson (1930 - 1982) Marilyn Ruth (Dickson) Tank (1932 - )