[1] He served as a pastor of his church until the winter 1828, when he went to St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda to recover his health.

He arrived in Canton, China in 1829, later evangelizing in Java, Malacca, Siam, and Singapore.

[1] In 1833, he relocated to Europe, where he visited England, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands through 1834.

In 1835, he returned to the United States to recruit additional missionaries from his church to work overseas.

In Xiamen, Abeel met with Chinese official and scholar Xu Jiyu, who helped obtain information on conditions in the West.