Billy Graham Center
Archives
Interview of Helen Nowack Frame - Collection 255
[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent. Some or all of this collection can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. ]
Brief Description
Two interviews with Frame in
which she discusses her childdhood growing up in China,
decision to become a missionary for Overseas Missionary
Fellowship, years in China, leaving China in 1951 with her
husband Raymond and their children and resettlement in the
Philippines, teaching at Faith Academy, development of the
Bible Institute, return and activities in Wheaton, Interviews
recorded on 9/9/83 and 9/13/83. For more information, please
see guide. Transcripts are available for the tapes in this
collection. Vol: 2 Reels of Audio Tape
[December 1, 2008]
Collection 255
Frame, Helen Nowack; 1908-1999
Interviews; 1983
Audio Tapes
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPTS TO THE INTERVIEWS IN THIS COLLECTION ARE
AVAILABLE
Biography
Helen Grace Nowack Frame was born on February 25, 1908, in Honan, China. Her father,
William Henry Nowack, and mother, Katherine Plantz Nowack, were independent missionaries to China. After her mother's death,
William Nowack married Alice Broughton. Helen studied at the American School, Kukung,
Honan, and the family's church background was interdenominational.
In 1926 Helen returned to the states to enroll in Wheaton College, where she graduated in 1930
as a math major. Following graduation she enrolled at Moody Bible Institute, where she made the
decision to become a missionary for China Inland Mission in the same year as Raymond Frame,
the man who was to become her husband. They met in China and were married in 1936.
After a furlough in 1946, the Frames returned to take charge of a language
school near Shanghai, later moved to Shanghai, but they were evacuated with
other CIM missionaries in 1950 from the mainland. They made the decision to
work with Chinese living in Manila and were stationed at the Bible Institute
of the Philippines, founded in 1957, later to become Bible Seminary of the Philippines
as the enrollment enlarged. The Frames remained in the Philippines until 1977,
during which time Raymond Frame also pastored a Chinese church in Manila. The
Frames had two children, born in 1941 and 1944 in Canada and Pennsylvania respectively.
They retired to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1983. Mrs. Frame died in Lancaster
on November 29, 1999.
Scope and Content
Helen Nowack Frame was interviewed by Paul A. Ericksen on September 9 and 13, 1983, at her
home in Chicago. Time elapsed in minutes and seconds is recorded to the left of the topics
discussed in the interview. The index is keyed to the cassette copy and not to the reel-to-reel
original.
T1 - side 1 (Click to
link to the transcript of this tape)
00:00 Beginning of tape
00:05 Introduction
00:30 Attendance at Wheaton College, 1926-1930
00:45 Application to Overseas Missionary Fellowship while at Moody Bible Institute
01:15 First term of nine years; language school; marriage in Honan
02:15 Ray Frame's work in out stations; teaching phonetic script; high motivation of those
instructed
03:30 Stay in U.S. of five years because of breakout of Japanese war during furlough; pastorate
in British Columbia; return to Shanghai and work in language school until December,
1950, and evacuation
05:00 Transfer to Philippines; work in Chinese-Christian school 6-7 years; starting Bible School
of the Philippines; stay until 1977
08:00 Growing up in China; illness from Mother's malaria; father's love of Chinese; being sent
to school; bandits; mother's death while Helen at boarding school; description of the
school
11:30 Summer resort where family stayed; cities where father worked
12:30 Stepmother and living in other cities
13:15 Lack of other children for play and confinement in compound
13:45 Games and activities; Charles Roberts family and children
14:45 Father's independent mission because of health problems made him unacceptable to
boards
15:30 Ebenezer Mission
15:45 Helen's baptism at 14 and slow knowledge of salvation, reliance on God
17:15 Decision while at Moody to join the 200 being sent by China Inland Mission; acceptance
for her and sister Esther
18:30 Influences of training at Lutheran School in China; memorization, classmates,
confirmation
20:15 Study in the Lutheran American School from age 11 to graduation from high school
20:45 Differences between sister Ruth and Helen's academic abilities; love of sports
21:15 Value of home study, furloughs in America for study in college
21:45 Similarity of course work in U.S. and China's school; stress on Reformation in Lutheran
school
22:15 Love of mathematics; math as major at Wheaton College
22:45 Good preparation for Wheaton; difficult adjustment to American culture and shyness;
working for expenses though tuition free for missionary children
23:45 Father's work in church planting; first contacts from street chapel after difficulty finding
property; man came in saying he was Christian and wanted to be delivered from opium
smoke; shut him up until he was cured; risky to do this; was delivered, in debt, had
property, wanted to sell; was able to get property in city from this man, impressed by
cure, and permission given
26:30 Chinese continuation of the work after Americans left because of Japanese war; leaving
1940 when Japanese pushed into province; episode of bayonet through the window on
Sunday morning while preparing to leave empty city except for those who had fled to
their compound; Ray's asking for protection for the compound because America not
fighting; placards promised to keep soldiers out; Japanese leaving
31:15 Father's difficulty leaving West China; hiding in tunnels, bombs and air raid shelters,
damage to church
33:15 Father's arriving in north China, 1905, under Mr. Holding; leaving the mission because of
personality problems; contact with Mr. Conway of OMF; transfer to Beyong? because
of nervous problems of father; sister Ruth's birth in the states
34:30 Ruth at Wheaton College; Helen's arrival as Ruth graduated, 1926
35:00 Limitations on activities at Wheaton; attendance at College Church; membership in
Wheaton's literary society; interest in athletics
36:15 Initial culture shock because of childhood in China; Ruth and Frances Elliott and sharing
fourth floor in cheapest dorm on campus; jobs paying 35 cents an hour; living with
President Buswell's sister-in-law and mother-in-law, Alice Spaulding and contacts
since then.
39:00 Buswell as president of Wheaton; his working on Campus Day; Helen's shyness as
handicap
40:00 Favorite teachers, Dr. Straw, Dr. Dow (English), German teacher (no name); difficulty in
English classes
40:45 Learning Chinese as children; few contacts with servants
41:15 Good spiritual atmosphere at Wheaton; chapels special speakers; testimony and singing
on Sunday nights in Pierce
42:15 No memory of mission groups except Student Volunteers
43:00 Wheaton's training of value on mission field except for her lack of scholarship
proficiency; profound impression of a Christian school, yet not as different for her
because of training in China
44:15 Attendance at Moody; lack of money to attend elsewhere and need of Bible training;
mission calling for 20 and acceptance; Edith Torrey's Bible class; Torrey's
remembrance of her name years later
46:00 End of side 1
T1 - side 2
00:00 Beginning of side 2
00:05 Overlap from side 1
01:00 Choice of Overseas Missionary Fellowship because of Ruth's decision to go; change of
view about faith mission in adulthood; stepmother's testimony about God's care for 90
years after being orphaned at four
02:30 Usefulness of Moody training; Mr. Page's CIM monthly prayer meetings; Betty Scott and
John Stam; good fellowship
03:45 Decision to answer call for 200 because of sister Esther; being dissuaded from secretarial
course by retired missionary
04:45 Moody students who responded, Faith Leeuwenberg, Betty Scott, John Stam, Esther and
Helen; no memory of where call issued
05:30 Procedures for application; going to Philadelphia for interviews by staff; classes in
orientation, mission policies, basic Chinese phonetics
06:30 Travel to Vancouver by train to sail from there; separate boats for men and women; strict
rules for women
07:15 Language training from Chinese teachers; distributing tracts and difficulties with dialect
different from Honan area
09:15 Desire to join sisters in Gansu, northwestern province; assignment in Honan and moving
during first years
10:00 Difficulty of evangelization work because of initial shyness; teaching phonetics and need
to learn to read Chinese without bilingual help; husband's language abilities
11:30 First visit to parents after her return to China; father's giving her away in marriage as rare
event for adult missionary kids
13:00 First station small church in eastern part, east of railroad
13:15 Short stay at first station; later return there after marriage; Nora Conway from New
Zealand, born during Boxer Rebellion; description of hiding in attic to save life when
she was a small child
14:45 End of tape
T1 - side 3 (side 2 of the original reel)
00:00 Beginning of tape
01:00 Work in Honan and the revival there under Norwegian missionary Maria Munson; work
of Pentecostal mission, the Jesus Family; changes in Chinese men's treatment of their
wives upon conversion; teaching women how to read the Bible
06:45 Meetings with future husband, engagement, marriage at summer resort while on
vacation; Chinese marriage customs
13:30 Work after marriage; husband traveling to outstations with Chinese teacher who helped
with language; first furlough; ready to go back when Pearl Harbor was bombed;
daughter and son born; returned to China after five years to take over the language
school
18:30 Changes in China upon return; expected difficulty to get food, but mission received tons
of surplus food when the troops left; clean up and building new buildings as result of
the war
24:30 End of tape
T2 - side 1 (Click to
link to the transcript of this tape)
00:00 Beginning of tape
00:05 Introduction
00:30 Impressions of China on return; living in Shanghai; husband's need to get back inland to
get buildings ruined by Japanese ready for language school; good quarters in OMF
compound; big stocks of army supplies of canned goods; eating mincemeat in every
form
03:15 Administration building and living quarters in compound; common dining room; quarters
for the Frame family in the compound; servants and the predominantly British staff;
Dr. Adolph in the hospital; Helen's miscarriage about 1950 and subsequent hospitalization for three months. OMF's administration of all of China from the compound;
sending stores and haggling over prices of delivery with coolies; excellence of business
manager; separate living quarters for resident staff
07:30 Playgrounds for children; lack of much work on compound itself for Chinese of the city;
meetings in the city for church work
08:15 Neighborhood description; differences when Communists took over; language school and
Gordon Dunn's leadership; watching planes be shot down from the hospital window;
Communists' taking advantage of problems following Japanese war
10:45 Description of Communist takeover; fleeing leaders and death of those who stayed; day
of prayer and instruction to stay in that day; Communists' orders to population; bedraggled condition of soldiers
13:00 Dealing with Communist leaders; living in Lutheran headquarters off compound when
Lutherans left; wonderful protection from God after mission decision to be evacuated.
14:00 Difficulty of American presence for the Chinese believers; difficult job of evacuating 600
missionaries; new headquarters in Hong Kong; inflation's damage to currency from
states
17:15 Rental of property to medical group which made funds available to return all missionaries
to other stations or to U.S.; rent of Quonset huts from British government to be used
for living quarters; help from Christian businessman in Hong Kong; help from British
government with cots and blankets
18:45 Permit to get to Hong Kong; street lined with Chinese demonstrating displaying Mao's
picture; need to have Chinese to stand behind and guarantee them; crossing bridge for
entrance and examination; wonderful feeling of getting to freedom. Mr. Carlburg
(Wheaton, IL) who knelt down and kissed ground on other side
20:45 Difficulties for mission leaders; Shanghai a showplace then and not as restricted; bad
treatment of some inland missionaries
21:45 Minimal contacts with Communists except when baggage examined; leaders and their
contacts
22:15 Complication over baggage; suspicions of all baggage being removed
22:45 Husband's answering of questions about why they were leaving; termination of
missionary work except for some who stayed for a year or two; Matthew family which
was housebound until allowed out; book called The Reluctant Exodus
24:00 Communist activity inn 1946 in north China; sense of approaching danger in that year;
Chiang Kai Shek's with his wife and MacArthur's visit to Kuling while Frames were
there; early uprisings in 1926; John and Betty Stam's murder in central China in
Anhwei; missions' effort to keep staff away from trouble
27:00 Earlier departure by some; unsuccessful relocation of language school in 1948 to West
China; safe evacuation of each missionary except for one man died there because he
wouldn't leave
28:30 Varying opinions of missionaries and leadership about remaining in China
29:30 Bishop Houghton's meeting them on arrival in Hong Kong; difficulties of the final
decision
30:45 Minimal cultural differences between Americans and British
31:30 General Directors, D.E. Hoste, Heighten, Gibbs; Mr. Sinton; Hoste leadership when she
went out; decision about location; Sinton as outstanding prayer warrior
32:45 Friendliness of leaders, even though contacts minimal; Hoste's attempt at humor after
their marriage
34:15 Poverty of Chinese in Honan; OMF schools for literacy had been there for a few years;
Ray would mix with men who had education; women worked hard to push forward
then, many wanted to learn
35:45 Effectiveness of evangelistic posters; use of posters to help illiterate; phonetic classes for
women
36:45 Resistance from the educated; post-Boxer Rebellion Chinese relationships with
missionaries (1900); treaties made and subsequent ease of missionary work much
easier; healing and exorcism of church members; lack of hospitals for these and
response of conversion from examples of God's power at work
38:45 Frames' visits to out-stations and demon-possessed brought to the mission station;
dramatic change of apparent fifty-year-old woman who was really a young girl after
healing; demon who went from one person to another; many manifestations and idol
worship; two boys refused to eat for days and diagnosis of demon-possession; Mennonites' prayers and healing of boys' appetites next day
41:45 Methods of exorcism; exorcism as one of God's contemporary works in China to help in
conversion; needs when Bible isn't available; counteracting influence of evil
43:45 Description of posters and symbolism; use of John 3:16
45:45 Winter climates and padded gown and shoes; enthusiasm of the women to learn; literate
helping illiterate; services with hymns and learning characters from pointing to hymn
words; no choirs inland
48:00 End of side 1
T2 - side 2
00:00 Beginning of side 2
00:05 Overlap from side 1
01:45 Numbers of singers
02:30 Communal praying and testimonies
02:45 Length of services
03:15 Description of the reasons for foot binding, physical problems, cultural asset
04:30 Martha Pohnert and the girls' school; refusal to accept any who bound feet with free
education as incentive; accepted only if girls didn't bind their feet; gradual change and
government's support of discarding the custom. Gladys Aylward speeches to assist in
informing about advantage to all not to bind feet; resistance in country areas
06:00 Martha Pohnert with Helen's parents' mission
07:30 Lack of formal theological education in Helen's area; father's Bible school for short-term
study; father's romanized characters and his notes available for Center if desired;
father's scholarship of the bible
08:45 Travel in wheel barrows, oxcarts, mule carts; three-day trip to railroad station by mule
cart, thirty miles a day, ninety miles; walking as choice rather than riding in; slower ox
carts
09:30 Differences between city and country Chinese
09:45 Availability of goods in city stores; types of merchandise; ordering from the states
11:15 Kitchen equipment; availability of clothes but lack of choices of colors in cloth
12:00 Chinese reserve in attitudes toward Americans; attitudes of Communists toward resident
Americans; evidence of more expressed hatred shown in inland areas
13:15 Little contact with Japanese before America's involvement; sanctuary in British area of
Shanghai; saying goodbye to her parents; Ray Frame's entertaining Japanese officers
and their quizzing; help of Korean boy in getting food; burning homes and "exploding"
bamboo
17:15 Buddhist ancestor worship and customs; idols and idol worship; Chinese New Year
writings
19:45 Removal of all traces of ancestor and idol worship after conversion, though not without
delay
20:15 Cooperation in arranging mission areas with other groups
20:45 Common worship with rotating leadership at summer resorts and large attendance
21:30 Pentecostal Chinese groups; step-mother's desire for gift of tongues
23:15 Father's attitude toward tongues; attempts at imitation
24:00 Contacts with Watchman Nee; problems at the end of his career; Jesus group;
ambivalence of family's attitude toward speaking in tongues
26:30 Transfer to Philippines for 1 ½ years after Hong Kong; reason for longer term of service
in China; Ray Frame's decision to work in Christian high school; move to Cezon City
for Grace Christian High School; plans for addition of college curriculum
29:30 Differences working with Chinese and Filipino children and missing China as childhood
home
30:45 Filipino resentment of Chinese business successes and reasons why Filipinos had
difficulty
31:30 Segregation of Chinese and Filipinos in social and educational situations; parallel in
American setting between Chinese from mainland and States
32:30 Ray Frame's inability to represent OMF in Philippines because of duties; Dr. Broomhall's
writings on China and relationship to the Taylor family
33:45 Surveys made of Far East countries to be used for decisions about re-location after
leaving China
34:45 Frames' children taught by Ruth Elliott; attending Grace Christian high school and length
of time there
36:15 Raising their children, education and problems with communal living and discipline;
young Raymond and need for special attention
37:15 Decision to remain on the field instead of returning to Canada
38:00 Prolonged furlough after 1953; returning to Wheaton in 1962 because of children's needs
38:30 Start of the Bible Institute; appointment of principals from Britain, Malaysia; Ray's term
as principal; expansion from high school to seminary program; Asian Theological
Seminary; unfilled hope to train Chinese to return to the mainland
42:15 End of tape
T2 - side 3 (side 2 of original reel)
00:00 Beginning of tape
00:05 Helen and Ian Anderson and their teaching, musical gifts; Helen's lack of confidence in
her ability as a teacher
01:30 Lack of learning to speak Tagalog; Wycliffe's Summer Institute of Linguistics
02:15 Communists and political conditions as she observed them
03:00 Before and after martial law in Manila
04:00 Political and professional strictures on Chinese in the Philippines; difficulties of practicing
professions as reason for coming to the U.S.
05:15 Philippine maids, their work and problems with husbands who need to be supported
06:15 Contrasts and description of Chinese in the Philippines and on the mainland
07:45 Situations of Christian Chinese at the Bible Institute; problems when converting to
Christianity and God's provision
09:00 Evangelists and evangelism in the Philippines; Billy Graham's visit on Chinese New Year
10:00 Graham's visit with Christian leaders; lost tape recordings of this
10:30 Reactions to Graham's speaking; attendance by many Protestant Christians in primarily
Catholic country; priest's refusal to allow attendance
12:00 [Break for telephone call]
12:15 Ray Frame's writing of prayer letters until recently
12:30 Irregularity of letters; broadcasting in Edmonton and Ray's preaching for support (50
Clubs); travel in Alberta
15:15 Frames' furlough visits to families who supported them; visit to woman with multiple
sclerosis and the reaction
17:45 Numbers of furloughs in the past; reasons for shorter period between furloughs now
18:30 Dismay over decline in behavior and spiritual matter in the states; pleasure at the
numbers of dedicated young people and OMF prayer meetings
19:45 Attendance at Northwest Baptist Church; pastor and training; changing congregation and
activities
21:45 Change from career missionaries to short term in contemporary mission work; advantage
for medical missionaries
24:45 Differences between sacrifices of living conditions in the past and in contemporary
settings
26:45 Education of children of missionaries and its development at Faith Academy; difficulties
of making friendships with Filipino nationals; British separation for schooling both
abroad and in England; problems of acceptance of credits in South Africa, other
schools in other countries
28:15 Choice of some families to leave field because of children; being away from China for
one year after young Raymond's graduation from high school (voice almost inaudible
on tape during this segment)
31:00 Seeing children only once in three years as the normal pattern in early years of the
mission; establishment of Chefoo school by Hudson Taylor; ease of flight for family
reunion times in contemporary mission service; financial arrangements and friends'
ticket for their children
32:30 Need to come home to be with son; financial problems and furlough arrangements with
the mission; provision of money to make trip across the ocean; notice of a home
available in Wheaton
35:15 Docking in San Diego and Los Angeles; letter with ticket to Wheaton waiting in Los
Angeles; Raymond's graduation, living in the house in Wheaton and school year job at
Wheaton's "Stupe," about 1962-63
38:30 Differences on Wheaton campus between her student days and the 1960s; Italian singer
who gave testimony; listing to chapel while working at the Stupe
38:45 Disputed origin of stone rubbing given to Frames; assistance of Mary Pearl Rinehart
Caley (?) to prepare rubbings for hanging; bringing them back from China
41:45 Display of the stone in China by the Communists even though it is a Gospel message
42:15 Closing comments and thanks
42:30 End of tape
Provenance
These tapes were received at the Billy Graham Center in September 1983.
Accession 83-97
August 13,1986
Frances L. Brocker
J. Nasgowitz
Revised, January 28, 1997
Janyce H. Nasgowitz
LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 83-97
Type of Material: Audio Tapes
The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE:
T1 - Reel-to-reel. Interview by Paul Ericksen of Helen Nowack Frame on September 9, 1983.
Recorded on two sides: Side 1: 3-3/4 ips, 60 minutes. Side 2: 7-1/2 ips, 30 minutes.
T2 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 ips, recorded on both sides. Interview by Paul Ericksen of Helen
Nowack Frame recorded on September 13, 1983. Side 1: approximately 90 minutes; side
2: approximately 45 minutes.
Return to BGC Archives Home Page
Last Revised: 9/4/03
Expiration: indefinite