Philipp Winnes was sent by the Basel German Evangelical Society to help Karl Gutzlaff in Hong Kong. Accompanied by his family, he assisted Rudolph Lechler in his work among the Hakka beyond treaty ports in the midst of social unrest. Their base and main church was located in Pukak. He had very good relations with the leading gentry of his region, but after the Brittish attacked Canton in 1856, Winnes was held for ransom by a mob of local townspeople. He was rescued by the British, but fulfilled his promise to pay the ransom price. After Lechler’s death, Winnes joined Theodore Hamberg in Guangdong (Kwangtung) in 1852. He played an important role in the opening of China to the Gospel.
Sources
- A.J. Broomhall, Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century: Barbarians at the Gates, 318, 372, 409.
- A.J. Broomhall, Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century: Over the Treaty Wall, 163-4, 350, 386-9.
- A.J. Broomhall, Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century: If I Had A Thousand Lives, 237.
- A.J. Broomhall, Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century: Survivor’s Pact, 220.