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The Gospel Hall KL Heritage

 

Gospel Hall Kuala Lumpur grew out of the community it is located. It will continue to strive to be relevant to the community, in love and care for the needy, in education and, of course, in its very mission of reaching out to the community with The Gospel.

" While we look into the future, it is our origin and history which are invaluable. In particular, we treasure the manner in which missionaries immersed themselves into the community in their time. Our first missionary couple Mr. and Mrs. E. Eagger, who spoke Hakka, reached out tirelessly to Hakka dialect speaking mine workers around Kuala Lumpur "

In the 19th century, sizable numbers of workers came to the then primitive Kuala Lumpur from Guangdong Province, China, seeking to earn a living. In October, 1889, Gospel Missionary couple Mr. and Mrs. E. Eagger arrived in Kuala lumpur via Penang and immediately recognized the large mission field void of The Gospel.

 

Following some initial years of mission out-reach, by the application initiated by Mr. E. Eagger, in June 1893, the then Selangor Government approved the allocation and use of a piece of land at the foot of Petaling Hill as a Mission Station. This land is where the current Gospel Hall Kuala Lumpur stands. The first office cum meeting place was a wooden building with “attap” roofing and cost GBP200.

According to our records, at that time, Petaling Street was a mud road without drains. The early Christian Missionaries lived simply, motivated only by their love for God and men.

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This photograph on the left shows Kuala Lumpur of the 1880s. The condition then was very challenging for anybody trying to earn a living.

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Our beginning was one of earnest love and care for hardships of life of a labouring community and, at the same time, sharing The Gospel (“Good News”) to meet spiritual needs.

Chinese Girls School

 

In 1893, another missionary by the name of Miss Mary B. Langlands, who was an educationist, arrived.

 

Very quickly, she found that girls did not go to school. Without hesitation, she started teaching reading and writing to the girls at street corners in Brickfields. As a result, housed in the “attap” roof wooden building at the Petaling Hill Mission Station, The “Chinese Girls School” was born.

Betty Langlands, 1893 – 1895

1928: First batch Cambridge School Certificate students from The Chinese Girls School

This is a photograph of 1938 of the church congregation at that time. It was taken in-front of the attap roof wooden building of the Chinese Girls School. This building was also the Gospel Hall where Christians gathered to hold worship services.

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The Chinese Girls School was relocated to Bukit Bintang in the 1930s and its name was changed to Bukit Bintang Girls' School (BBGS)

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Subsequent to the establishment of the Chinese Girls Schools, other “Mission Schools” (established by Christian Missionaries) also started. They were Methodist Girls' School Kuala Lumpur (1896), Methodist Boys' School Kuala Lumpur (1897), Convent Bukit Nanas (1899), St. John's Institution Kuala Lumpur (1904), St Mary's (1912) and Maxwell School (1917).

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