a Junk is a type of ancient Chinese sailing ship that is still in use today. Junks were used as seagoing vessels as early as the 2nd century AD and developed rapidly during the Song dynasty (960–1279). They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages.

also known as Jenshow-Hsien, is a county center near the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan Province located in Western China. It was the headquarters of many missionaries during the early part of the twentieth-century.

on July 11, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed William J. Donovan to head a new civilian office attached to the White House, the Coordinator of Information (COI) and on June 13, 1942, the COI became the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS gathered intelligence information about practically every country in existence, but was not allowed to conduct operations in the Pacific Theater,the records of OSS covert operations are almost entirely confined to Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Donald Willmott describes his in depth role in a OSS regiment during their intervention into China during the second World War.

the National Revolutionary Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928.

a political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek and his successors for most of the time since then. Originally a revolutionary league working for the overthrow of the Chinese monarchy, the Nationalists became a political party in the first year of the Chinese republic (1912). This group was in charge during the Japanese Invasion on China in 1937.

also known as the Xinhai Revolution, ended the Qing Dynasty and imperial rule in China. The government thereafter created The Republic of China.

the Canadian School of West China, built in Chengdu, Sichuan in the early years of the 20th century. It is sponsored by the Executive of the Canadian School Association. When Canadians of the Canadian Methodist Mission first arrived in West China in 1891, their focus, initially, was evangelization, teaching and medicine. This is where Donald Willmott attended when he grew up in China.

a private university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It was the product of the collective efforts of four Protestant, denominational, missionary boards and eventually became a division of the West China Educational Union (WCEU), which was created in 1906. Donald Willmott spent most of his early life on the campus.

the United Church was inaugurated on June 10, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, when the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and 70 per cent of the Presbyterian Church of Canada entered into a union. Also joining was the small General Council of Union Churches, centred largely in Western Canada. It later became part of the mission of the West China Union Unviersity missionary cause.

are a resource of Evangelists and Teachers throughout our fellowship of Canadian congregations and beyond, dedicated to equipping those who desire to go into the ministry, lead a satellite church planting, or train to become a Deacon, Elder or Teacher in a Canadian congregation. This group established a missionary school on the campus of West China Union University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Donald Willmott's parents were educational missionaries sent to China in 1921 by this group.