Nora Lam was a Chinese Protestant Christian minister to China, and founder of Nora Lam Ministries International (NLMI).
Background
Nora Lam was born on September 4, 1932 in Beijing, China. Abandoned at birth, she was adopted six months later by Dr. and Mrs. H.T. Sung, a prominent couple in Shanghai. Her adoptive mother was a member of one of Shanghai's wealthiest families. Her adoptive father was born September 11, 1900 and was educated in France, where he received some Catholic instruction. He, however, was not religious.
Education
Nora Lam was given the name Neng Yee Sung, and she described her childhood as being spoiled and pampered. In 1937, the conflict on the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing led to the start of war with Japan. When Japanese forces reached Shanghai in 1939, Sung, then age 7, and her family fled their home to go live at her step-grandmother's home in Shanghai's French Concession.
In 1941, she attended the McTyeire Home and School for Girls, where she first heard of Christianity. During her time there, Sung had a vision of a guardian angel, appearing in the form of an old man. She felt this guardian angel advised her throughout her life.
In 1942, at age ten, her family fled the Japanese again, this time to her grandfather's home in Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek's war time capital in southwest China. The family traveled most of the 1,500 miles on foot.
After the war ended in 1945, the Sung family returned to Shanghai. Her father began practicing medicine again at the Huantou Textile Hospital, and Sung was enrolled in the academically prestigious Mary Farnham School, a boarding school for girls run by Presbyterian missionaries. Influenced by many of her classmates, Sung professed to be a Christian on the eve of her middle school entrance exam. By age 16, however, she had stopped professing to be a Christian.
Following the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, she enrolled at Huatung Political Science & Law College (now Soochow University) in Suzhou with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. She graduated third in her class in 1953 and became an assistant professor teaching law and history. She met and fell in love with Cheng Shen Lam, another law student at the university. In 1955, realizing that she was pregnant, she and Lam were married. Their son was born later that year.
Career
Due to her parents' wealth and western training and to her own experiences with foreign missionaries, Nora Lam was interrogated by Communist party officials, who wanted to break her of any bourgeois tendencies. As she was questioned, she began to question herself, realizing that she still believed in Christianity.
In 1957, her husband, whose parents lived in Hong Kong, was also interrogated by officials as part of the first Anti-Rightist Movement. During this time, Nora Lam gave birth to her second child, Ruth Lam Kendrick.
In 1958, just as Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward was beginning, Cheng Shen was able to obtain an exit visa to Hong Kong to visit his ailing father. He took daughter Ruth with him. Nora Lam, acting as a guarantor for his return, was forced to undergo hard labor despite being pregnant with their third child. After petitioning Beijing, she was granted an exit visa to visit Hong Kong during her maternity leave.
After reaching Hong Kong in 1958, the couple's third child was born. The Rev. Paul Kauffman served as their pastor in Hong Kong, but the couple soon had marital difficulties. Nora Lam claimed spousal abuse, divorced her husband, and was remarried to S. K. Sung, an elder at the church.
The US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 significantly reduced immigration quotas and gave Nora the chance to immigrate to the United States. With a sponsorship from Kathryn Kuhlman, Nora was able to immigrate to the US with her children, mother, and first husband Cheng Shen, in 1966. She became a naturalized US citizen.
In 1974, she founded Nora Lam Ministries International in San Jose, California and began making annual missionary crusades to Asia. Crowds as large as 100,000 were in attendance at her evening crusades in Taiwan. She also had a daily radio program broadcast in Taiwan and accessible in Mainland China. Other ministries include orphanages and Chinese language Bible distribution.
Nora Lam died in California on February 2, 2004. She was survived by two sons, three daughters and seven grandchildren.
Nora Lam and her second husband adopted two children from Taiwan.
Father:
H.T. Sung
Mother:
Evelyn Tak-Bun (Yip) Sung
Spouse:
S.K. Sung
Spouse:
Cheng Shen Lam
child:
Paul Lam
Daughter:
Gloria Lam
Daughter:
Ruth Lam
Daughter:
Florence Lam
Son:
Joseph Lam
References
China Cry: A True Story
This is the true story of Sung Neng Yee, now known as Nora Lam, who fled from Communist China to Hong Kong for her palpably real Christian faith.
Recipient award Korean Association Social Work, 1977, Key to City Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 1977, Philanthropic award Sung Ro Won Babies Home Orphange, 1978, medal Pacific Cultural Foundation, 1978, award Overseas Chinese Affair's Commission, 1979, Key to City Oklahoma City, 1981, International award National Religious Broadcasters Association, 1989, Key to City Shelby, North Carolina, 1990.
Recipient award Korean Association Social Work, 1977, Key to City Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 1977, Philanthropic award Sung Ro Won Babies Home Orphange, 1978, medal Pacific Cultural Foundation, 1978, award Overseas Chinese Affair's Commission, 1979, Key to City Oklahoma City, 1981, International award National Religious Broadcasters Association, 1989, Key to City Shelby, North Carolina, 1990.