Sun Yat-sen was born in Cui-heng Village, Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, China on November 12, 1866. He was brought up in a culture of a Guangdong peasant village where he acquired only a rudimentary education. Before the age of thirteen, he was taken to join his emigrant elder brother, Sun Mei, in Hawaii, where he attended missionary schools and developed interests in both government and medicine, and most importantly, his feeling for Christianity. Four years later, when he returned to his hometown, he shocked his family and the entire village by deliberately desecrating the wooden image of the local deity.

In 1883, when he was seventeen, he went to Hong Kong to continue his education in English, and his feeling for Christianity grew even stronger. In 1884 at the age of eighteen, he decided to formally embrace Christianity. He was baptized in Hong Kong by Dr Charles Hager, an American Congregationalist missionary.

In 1883, when he was seventeen, he went to Hong Kong to continue his education in English, and his feeling for Christianity grew even stronger. In 1884 at the age of eighteen, he decided to formally embrace Christianity. He was baptized in Hong Kong by Dr Charles Hager, an American Congregationalist missionary.

During 1894 to 1896, he organized the Hsing Chun Hui in Honolulu, attempted his first revolutionary uprising in Guangdong, and, as a consequence of these activities, became a fugitive on three continents. However, he gained international notoriety from the attempt by the Chinese legation in London to kidnap him.

In the dramatic kidnapping episode in London, Sun reported praying constantly for God's help. In his letter to Pastor Chu he wrote,

"I was saved by GodÉNow I believe in God more than everÉI am like the prodigal son and the lost sheep: I owe everything to the great favor of God. Through the Way of God I hope to enter into the Political Way. I hope you will not cease to write to me about the Way of God."

Most importantly, the kidnapping episode and the twelve-day imprisonment strengthened Sun Yat-sen's self-confidence and sense of dedication. It convinced him that God has forestalled his enemies to preserve him for some high purpose. He was thus transformed from a comparatively insignificant Cantonese rebel into a well publicized and extremely confident enemy of the Manchu regime.