[Updated 10/Feb/2026]
American missionary Florence Meeker was born in Cook, Illinois in 1905.
She married Erwin Raetz and they had two children, Paul and Beth.
When Rev Erwin Raetz became director of the South China Boat Mission in Canton, China, Florence worked with the Door of Hope Mission, supporting 25-30 rescued women and former sex workers.
The Mission, located in a secure compound, provided protection and was staffed by a Chinese matron and amahs. Their daily routine included devotions, academic lessons in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography, followed by afternoon handicrafts such as embroidery, sewing, and weaving.
Their support came from the sale of goods, donations to the mission from back home, and also from friends who supported them and the work personally.
In 1936 the Raetzes were on furlough in Wheaton, USA, and Florence got talking to a young trainee Elizabeth Howard, who was interested in helping in the work. When they returned to Canton, she went with them.
In 1937 when in the Sino-Japanese War the Japanese started bombing Canton, the Raetzes moved the Door of Hope mission down to Hong Kong, onto ‘an island’ (Cheung Chau?) for a year, before moving into a bigger home in Taipo, as more girls from troubled backgrounds had attached themselves to the work, bringing the numbers to about 50.
When the Japanese invaded in 1941, they interned Florence Raetz in the Door of Hope Mission in Taipo, and Erwin in Canton as he was there at the time. Florence was joined by American missionary Lula Bell Hough, from Fanling, with her three Chinese companions, which with the two Raetz children and Chinese orphans made a total of 68 internees at the Mission in Taipo.
After several months, an agreement was reached for an exchange of American and Japanese POWs and Lula Bell and Florence both took advantage of this. They were transferred to Kowloon and boarded the Japanese ship, the Asama Maru, where they met other Assemblies of God missionaries who had been interned in the Stanley Camp.
Travelling from Hong Kong to Portuguese East Africa, now Mozambique, the party transferred to the Swedish ship, the Gripsholm, arriving back in New York on August 25, 1942. The Door of Hope work in Hong Kong came to an end.
After the war the Raetzes both went back to China with the charity World Vision.
Florence died in 2003 aged 98.
Sources:
Assemblies of God Heritage Magazine.
Comments
1942 Arrival on the Gripsholm
The arrival of the Raetz family in the United States is mentioned here in The Daily News Times, Neenah, Menasha, Wisconsin on 26 August 1942.
HK Sunday Herald December 1940 letter.
Part 3 of 3, The Hong Kong Sunday Herald ‘HK Orphans of the Storm’ piece, a letter to the editor. For part 1 see the Fanling Babies’ Home; for part 2 see the BCMS Foundling Home.
Door of Hope
The Colony affords shelter to yet another Home from China. This Home opened its doors to the destitute and despairing young Chinese women of Canton, and situated as it was on the banks of the river close to a favourite spot for attempted suicides, it was the means of converting the lives and hearts of many outcast girls.
Mrs E W Raetz and Miss Elizabeth Howard, who run the Home, decided, when the Japanese invasion of South China threatened Canton, that the flag of the United States was insufficient protection against the Japanese hordes and they moved to Hong Kong, finally finding a safe place in Taipo Market, not far from the police station. The work these two ladies have undertaken differs considerably from that of the two preceding Homes, for the training of undisciplined minds of mature girls is fraught with almost insuperable difficulties. These have been overcome and the young women are taught handicrafts, which are a means of helping towards expenses as well as providing the girls with a little pocket money. It might seem that in Hong Kong the scope of this work is limited. I can assure your readers that this is not so, for not only have older girls from the streets been sent to Taipo but also the call to care for young refugee children has been so loud and insistent that those in charge could not turn a deaf ear to it, and today the small building they occupy is crowded with some 30 children and young women. Surely this work among the unfortunates in the Colony is also deserving of the support of its more fortunate citizens.
I trust that the foregoing very scanty resumé of the work of these three comparatively unknown institutions will touch not only the hearts of many of your readers, but their pockets as well. At this time of goodwill let us remember those who are trying to bring cheer to the poor and unwanted.
An ounce of help is worth a ton of pity, and I shall be glad if you will kindly accept the accompanying cheque for $120 for equal distribution between the above institutions towards their running expenses in 1941.
Yours faithfully,
NEWCOMER