Minnie Donner, born in Ohio, USA, in 1871, felt called to missions after coming to faith at seventeen. She attended one of the first Missionary Training School classes in New York.
She sailed to South China in 1894, where her married sister Maizie was. Known locally as “Sister Duna,” Minnie actively taught the Bible and before long, married Canadian missionary Robert Jaffray of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Hong Kong in 1900.
She actively worked against sex trafficking in brothels with Door of Hope Mission in Hong Kong and Shanghai, partnering with Chinese helpers from Wuchow. She visited women enslaved in the brothels.
The Jaffray’s daughter, Margaret Morrison, was born in 1907. Margaret studied at Chefoo School in North China, a Christian British-style boarding school, visiting her parents during winter months. Later, Margaret went to high school in Toronto, took a business course, returned to China, and worked as her father's secretary while learning Chinese.
During the 1920s, China’s political unrest and foreign influence prompted dangerous militia activity. In 1923, Kweilin was besieged; Alliance workers and Jaffray and his Wuchow team were captured when they attempted to release them. However, they were later released after a ransom was paid.
Some 5000 missionaries were expelled from China by 1927, but Alliance efforts continued through evangelism, billboards, and covert distribution of Bible Magazine.
In 1931, the Jaffrays left their home of thirty-four years in Wuchow, China. While Jaffray’s role as missionary statesman led him to travel throughout China, Vietnam, and later the East Indies, he always wrote frequent letters home to his wife Minnie and daughter Margaret.
Mrs Jaffray and her twenty-four-year-old daughter had moved to North America, where they remained for two years. During this period, Margaret attended the Missionary Training Institute in Nyack, New York, and later served in ministry in Kentucky before embarking on her own missionary journey to Asia.
Later Mrs Jaffray reunited with Margaret in Hong Kong and accompanied her to her missionary post in Makassar in October 1934, to spend some time in the East Indies.
During WWII she was interned by the Japanese along with the other missionaries.
After their release from prison camp at the end of the war, Mrs. Jaffray and Margaret learned of Robert Jaffray's death in prison camp. His grave was later memorialized in Makassar.
Minnie and Margaret Jaffray returned to North America, where Mrs. Jaffray travelled despite poor health.
She passed away suddenly in November 1946.
She is remembered for her dedication as a missionary in China and the Netherlands Indies.
Source: Unwavering Faith: Robert, Minnie, and Margaret Jaffray by Louise Green