Self-sacrifice Or Self-realization

American women missionaries were sent to China field by mission board in mid-19^th century. They were the most important component of American mission force in China at the turn of the century. For women missionaries, mission service thus offered both the opportunities for self-fulfillment and the ideology for self-sacrifice. From coastal areas to inland, American women missionaries established schools for girls, cured diseases of women and children, set up Christian home model for local Christian and travelled around to preach. They even fought for vile customs in the name of elevating status of Chinese women. What the American women missionaries did in China was only to spread the gospel to Chinese and change the heathen world into God's world, but it objectively affirmed the functions of the missionaries, who advanced the modernization of China.