A daughter of missionaries, Margaret Jaffray was born in the mission field in 1907. She received her early education at the Chefoo School in North China, a Christian British-style boarding school, and visited her parents during the winter months. Later, she attended high school in Toronto, completed a business course, and then returned to China to work as her father’s secretary, all while learning Chinese.
At the age of twenty-four, Margaret travelled with her mother to North America. During their two-year stay, she 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.
After a period apart, Margaret reunited with her mother in Hong Kong and together they travelled to her missionary post in Makassar in October 1934, spending time in the East Indies.
During WWII, Margaret and her mother were interned by the Japanese along with other missionaries.
Upon their release from prison camp at the end of the war, Margaret and her mother learned of her father Robert Jaffray's death in prison camp. His grave was later memorialised in Makassar.
Margaret Jaffray and her mother returned to North America, where Margaret continued to support her mother, who travelled despite poor health.
Margaret's mother passed away suddenly in November 1946.
After spending some time in Toronto, Margaret returned to Indonesia. By 1950, she was teaching Dyak believers in the Malay language at the Long Bia Bible School in East Kalimantan, Borneo. In May 1950, as violence erupted between pro-Dutch and nationalist Indonesians in Makassar, Margaret would describe how God protected them, with only a few shots being fired.
In 1951, due to ill health, Margaret left Indonesia by plane for the United States and then Canada. According to The Pioneer, her “command of the Indonesian language has made her ministry a great blessing among the students”.
Upon returning to Toronto, Margaret taught Sunday school at the Alliance Tabernacle. Sadly, in 1959, she passed away aged 52, following a car accident with friends in Orillia, Ontario.
Source:
Unwavering Faith: Robert, Minnie, and Margaret Jaffray by Louise Green