Joan served with China Inland Mission (CIM) as an evangelist from September 1945 until her expulsion from China in April 1951.
She continued as a missionary, working in Thailand with OMF International, until her ‘retirement’ in 1983. In her 70s and 80s she was able to return to China on short-term teams, teaching English. Her biography, Point Me to the Skies (Monarch Publications), was published in 2007.
Joan Margaret Wales was born 29 November 1916 in Seven Kings, Essex. At 8 years old she committed her life to Jesus at a Children’s Special Service Mission summer camp. Later, when given books about Mary Slessor and Wilfred Grenfell, missionaries to West Africa and the Arctic, their stories awakened a ‘curious joy’ in her. Having become a children’s nurse, Joan approached the CIM, but her application was rejected. Persevering, she retrained as a hospital nurse and was accepted. WWII delayed her commissioning, but she then joined the first CIM group to sail for China at the end of the war.
