Those first few months on the mission field were especially difficult [for Annie]. But when she saw “how great were the darkness and degradation” in China, she was glad she had left her seat at the [Metropolitan] Tabernacle and given her life to proclaim Christ to the perishing. As she lay dying, Arthur asked her, “Are you sorry you ever came to China?” “No, very glad,” was her answer, “it’s just as near to heaven.”

Annie Dunn loved her church. She was the daughter of J. T. Dunn, an elder at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Under Spurgeon’s preaching, it was in the church that she came to hear the gospel of grace and love her Savior. Eventually, she professed her faith in Christ through baptism and joined the church. Now, as a member of the church, she participated in the ministries of the church. She joined a women’s Bible class. She gave generously to the work of the orphanage. And it was in the church prayer meetings that she heard about the growing work of China Inland Mission, under Hudson Taylor. There, she grew in her passion to see Christ’s name glorified among the lost.

Now, as a young woman, she was engaged to be married to a graduate of the Pastors’ College, Arthur Huntley, and together they were accepted to join Hudson Taylor and the work at China Inland Mission. They were commissioned by the church on August 5, 1889. The Sword and the Trowel gives an account of their commissioning service at a Monday night prayer meeting:

China next occupied our thoughts and prayers. In introducing the subject, the Pastor reminded us of Brother Stubbs, of Patna, who asked that, whenever we had rice on the table, we would pray for him; and said that it would be a good thing if we prayed for China every time we drank a cup of tea. He then referred to a letter received that morning from Brother Macoun, who left some months ago for China, and who begged earnestly for many more labourers for that great harvest-field. Mr. George Clarke, who has been labouring there for fourteen years, and who is shortly going back to his loved work, gave us some striking statistics to illustrate the fewness of the missionaries and the vastness of the population amongst which they labour… There was much more said at the meeting, for which we have not space; and, truly, it was good to be there. Before closing, the Pastor shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, and their little boy, and Miss Dunn, the daughter of Elder J. T. Dunn, who is going out to labour in connection with the China Inland Mission, and to be married to our Brother Huntley; and after bidding them farewell, in the name of the whole assembly, commended them to the Lord in prayer.[1]

The engaged couple boarded a ship for Chin-kiang, China, with plans to be married after they were settled in China. On their arrival, they began the hard work of learning the language and culture. Arthur used his medical training to build relationships with locals. Annie began a Sunday school for children. In their short time with her, these five students grew to love their teacher.

But soon disaster struck. Annie came down with smallpox. Only eight months after her arrival, she was seriously ill, and there was little the doctors could do for her. Arthur records her last days in his diary.

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