SPOTLIGHT ON MEMBERSFIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Dr . Hang Bin Chen, also known as Helen Sebring

Dr. Hang Bin Chen Sebring, with husband John Sebring offering support, and occasional help with translations, recently spoke at length to Presbyterian Women and the men who chose to join them (more than 40 people attended).  At the end of her talk she ended her discourse with the proud announcement that last year she became an American citizen, and the words, “God Bless America!”

When Hang Bin was born her father was in North Korea fighting the “blue-eyed, high nosed ‘boss’ soldiers” (Americans).  Her mother, a doctor, was also serving in the Chinese Army.  Her unique experiences, as a woman growing up in China, a member of the Red Chinese military, and the daughter of high-ranking military leaders captured our imagination.  It also opened our eyes to the stark contrasts between the Chinese cultures now and in the past, and especially the contrast between the experiences most of us have enjoyed and that experienced in a totalitarian government.

The successive ‘revolutions’ carried out by Mao Ze Dong were designed to eradicate the former culture and habits of the Chinese people.  The entire country went through famine which caused millions of deaths, and in order to completely change the country countless others were tortured and killed, putting Hitler’s senseless elimination policies in the shade.  Intellectuals, people with property, leaders in the old system were tortured, killed, or uprooted to the far provinces to farm, and replaced by people who supported the Red government.  Children of Hang Bin’s school were led to attack and destroy property of the former upper class.  Her school principal was tortured, and died.  All ideas, customs, habits, and even dress of the past were outlawed. 

Torture, she says, has not ended, with the religious group known as Falun Gong now the chief object of discrimination. Falun Gong is a practice consisting of meditation and exercises, with teachings that emphasize living by three principles: Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. Originating in China, Falun Gong is now practiced in over 70 countries.  The Chinese government has sent tens of thousands to concentration camps, where many have their organs harvested for sale on the internet!

Hang Bin lost her mother at the early age of twelve, and  with the Cultural revolution that followed, was soon taken into the Chinese Army.  She and two of her sisters were trained in the medical field; she as a pediatrician.  After she left the military, in 1989, she came to the United States as a nursing aide in Massachusetts. Years later, in 2001, she met John Sebring on the internet, with whom she says, she “fell in love on the first date”.
 
John is a retired New York City officer, an elder at First Presbyterian, Kissimmee  now.  We are so fortunate that he and Hang Bin (Americanized to “Helen”) found our area, and our church.