A MISSIONARY LIFE

A Missionary Life:
Rev. J. Wesley Day, 1910 - 2005
China, Malaysia, Indonesia

Wesley Day began his missionary career in China in the 1930's, returning to China after the war from 1947-1951. After several years in Malaysia, he completed his career in Sumatra, Indonesia. Though he retired in 1975, he found a way to return several more times, and even returned to the site of his last work in China, in Chengdu, Sichuan. He has written his Autobiography which appears on this site. To us, he is also our father, and we, Rev. Jackson H. Day and Vivia Day Tatum, now maintain this web site in his honor. In addition to the autobiography, we've added various "sidetrips" in his own words, and "scrapbooks" in ours. And we present, below, a photo essay covering his life span:

After a serious fall on April 5th, 2005, Wesley Day died in Lakewood, New Jersey, on June 5, 2005. A Service of Death and Resurrection was celebrated at 11 AM, Saturday June 11th, 2005, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Messages can be sent to his children. Wesley Day's son, Jackson Day, is pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Hampstead, Maryland. His own web site is entitled "Jack Day's Worlds". He also can be reached by email: jacksonday AT comcast.net. Wesley Day's daughter, Vivia Tatum, is a retired schoolteacher now living in North Carolina. Her email is vivia AT charter.net.

Please sign and view Wesley Day's on-line Guestbook.

This site, "A Missionary Life", is one of 651 Sites Blocked in China in September and October, 2002, as reported by Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society of the Harvard Law School. Their record shows that this site, then housed at wesleyday.freeyellow.com, was blocked in the following Chinese cities: Aug 26 (Jiangsu), Aug 27 (Jiangsu), Aug 29 (Jiangsu), Sep 1 (Jiangsu), Sep 7 (Jiangsu), Sep 21 (Jiangsu), Sep 30 (Shanghai), Sep 30 (Jiangsu), Sep 30 (Guangdong), Oct 12 (Shanghai), Oct 12 (Guangdong), Oct 12 (Yantian), Oct 12 (Beijing). 100% of the site was blocked.

Wesley Day loved the Chinese people, and perhaps he would have been both amused and saddened had he known that officials as recently as 2002 were devoting their time to keep his story from being read by those he gave his life to serve.