Missionary Stories

The Karen tribe was the lowest class in Burma. Called the “wild men of the jungle,” they were oppressed and despised but were not without hope. They had a cultural legend that a messenger from across the sea would bring them the lost book written by the Creator-God.

George Dana Boardman was born in Livermore, Maine, in February 1801, and was the son of a Baptist pastor. Sarah Hall was born in November 1803, and converted as a teenager. Both George and Sarah were burdened for the lost, especially those in Burma; this common interest brought them together. They were married on July 3, 1825, and thirteen days later sailed to Calcutta, India, where they served for nearly two years. In March 1827, they moved to Amherst, Burma, to assist missionary Adoniram Judson. God was about to send them to the Karen.

Jacob DeShazer 1945

On April 18, 1942, Corp. Jacob DeShazer of Col. Doolittle’s raiders was the B-25 bombardier on the last plane to leave the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. They were on a bombing mission to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor. The plan was to hinder the advance of the Japanese army and show them that blind faith in the emperor-god Hirohito and his guarantee of success was unfounded.

Jacob grew up in a devout Christian home but didn’t think the Bible was for him. He had volunteered for this mission, but as they neared Japan he wondered about his possible death and eternal destiny.

Prior to take-off, his plane, the Bat Out of Hell, was damaged. A hole in the fusalage slowed the plane, causing increased fuel consumption. Their target was Nagoya, south of Tokyo. They successfully bombed an oil refinery, a gasoline storage facility, and a large factory. They then headed for the safety of Choo Chow Lishui, China, but ran out of fuel and were forced to parachute from the plane. (Incidentally, at the exact time Jacob was descending into a Japanese occupied area of China, his mother awoke and earnestly prayed for her son!) For the next forty months, he and his crew were prisoners of the Japanese. Nothing in this world could be worse than the horrors of Japanese prison life. Thirty-five percent of POWs died of disease, torture, starvation, or forced labor. Many were decapitated or killed by bayonet; some simply gave up and died.

Envision yourself living in a tiny room, furnished with one stool. The only heat you can obtain is by burning animal waste in an iron stove. You have ample funds in the bank to sustain your hungry family, but you can’t access the money. You are friendless and stuck in a foreign country with little hope of getting home. As a child of God, what would your attitude be?

Arthur and Wilda Matthews were serving in China with the China Inland Mission when the Communists began forcing Westerners to leave the country in 1950. However, a church in Northern China invited the Matthews to work with them. Believing it to be God’s will, Arthur and Wilda stayed. They soon discovered that the situation was not as it had seemed. The Chinese were afraid to associate with them, and the government forbade them to preach or go out among the people. Since their presence was only endangering the Chinese church, the Matthews requested exit permits.

“And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

I wonder if the two evangelists from North Ireland ever learned of the full effects of the meeting they held in Inverary, Scotland, in November of 1859. For in their audience sat a wild young man of eighteen who came to break up the meeting but found himself compelled to accept their offer of Living Water. Because of hearing the call to come, this young man, James Chalmers, was saved a few days later.

Born in a small fishing village in Scotland in 1841, young James loved adventure and welcomed danger. In this we see God preparing Chalmers for the pioneer missionary work awaiting him. After his salvation, he knew he must tell others of the Living Water that had quenched his thirst. James and his wife, Jane, set sail for the South Sea Island of Rarotonga on January 4, 1866. The Chalmers worked there for ten years, but James’ heart was set on preaching Christ in unreached regions. So, in September of 1877, James reached his permanent field of service—Papua New Guinea.

Watching a missionary’s slide presentation, eleven-year old Mary Baker knew she would be a missionary. The first person she told responded, “Oh, Mary, did those pictures of the Africans bother you? They almost bothered me, too. But you’ll forget about them. ” Though she needed years of preparation, Mary forgot neither the pictures, nor the burden God had placed on her heart. He had called her to Africa, and nothing would dissuade her.

Mary’s first year in Africa, 1948, was filled with teaching literacy, Bible stories, and, most importantly, the Gospel. After a year of teaching at various mission stations, the field council sent Mary to Chad, where she would spend the next three decades of her life.

Jesse Coley

Pastor Brent Coley took his sermon idea from Mark 14:8 speaking of Mary of Bethany, “She hath done what she could.” He applied those words to the life of his grandfather, Jesse Coley, as he preached his funeral. Jesse will probably not be mentioned in any church history book, but he did what he could. He was not a great preacher, but he did what he could, and he made a difference. Thousands of people around the world have read God’s Word because Jesse did what he could.

Jesse lived eighty-nine years. The first fifty-four, he lived without God. He was an Illinois farmer and truck driver. But when he climbed off the tractor and began serving God, he never looked back. He did what he could in his church. When he had opportunity to help smuggle Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, he went. He met Dr. Don Fraser, founder of the Bearing Precious Seed ministry, and Brother Fraser’s burden became Jesse’s. He spent the rest of his life doing what he could to get God’s Word to the mission field.

“ I have made my boast of God amongst the people, and told them that I had unshaken trust in God…”

At just forty-three years old he was financially ruined, ostracized by many of his fellow missionaries, and teetering on the brink of insanity; John Thomas was a failure. But that is only half the story.

Thomas’s work is virtually obscured by the dazzling ministry of his much more famous partner, William Carey, yet Thomas was the very agent that brought Carey to India. Not only did John Thomas play a pivotal role in the establishment of modern missions, but he was also the first European to preach in Bengali, the first to undertake a translation of the Scriptures into Bengali, and one of the earliest Europeans to actively evangelize the native population.

“And shall I now draw back? Shall I withhold anything from Jesus?” —Eliza Grew Jones, March 24, 1830

February 17, 1831: The brig Bucephalus unloaded its cargo on the banks at Moulmein, Burma. Among the disembarking passengers was newlywed couple John and Eliza Taylor Jones. In a land just beginning to experience Western influence, the Jones were part of a great influx of foreigners: merchants, diplomats, and teachers. The Jones, however, were not seeking to fulfill any personal interest.

John and Eliza Jones were among the earliest missionaries to respond to the cry of the Far East. The American Baptist Missionary Union originally sent the linguistically talented couple to Burma, where they studied Burmese and Taling simultaneously. Within a year, John preached his first Burmese sermon. Soon, however, the Jones were called to Siam (present day Thailand) by the request of another missionary, Karl Gutzloff. There they remained for the rest of their lives, the first permanent Protestant missionaries in Siam.

Most of us have at least heard the name of Hudson Taylor. Perhaps many of us know something about his life’s work, his beautiful relationship with Maria, and his establishment of the China Inland Mission. However, it seems that well known missionaries are often viewed as super-spiritual giants of faith who seldom, if ever, struggle with the “common” battles of “ordinary” Christians.

This is certainly far from the truth. Though the circumstances in which a missionary is engaged in battle may be more dramatic than those faced at home, victory is achieved in the same way in both locations – and it has little to do with the supposed spiritual invincibility of the missionary soldier. Hudson and Maria Taylor were people just like you and me, with the same flesh, the same weapons, and the same God.

The year was 1914. William Christie had called China and Tibet home for twenty-two years when the outlaw band led by Bai Lang (also known as “White Wolf”) swept through Central China, ruthlessly pillaging and slaughtering. Through God’s protection, the missionaries of Min Chow were spared the physical harm that ravished their city and many others.

After escaping through an unguarded city gate, Christie led his wife, young daughter, and two single lady missionaries 110 miles to refuge across the Tibetan border at the Lupa mission station. From there they could make plans for relieving and rebuilding Min Chow after the decimation White Wolf had left.

After twenty-two years of serving the Lisu, John and Isobel Kuhn came to a brick wall. It was 1950, and the communists recklessly took over China. With an uncertain future, Isobel (Belle) decided to take six-year-old Daniel to America for schooling. John agreed with their mission agency to survey Thailand before joining her. He assured Belle he would make no promises until they had discussed together the possibility of serving in Thailand.

Back home, Belle chose not to set her heart on retirement; instead, she sought the Lord. God spoke to her as she read Amy Carmichael’s book, Climb or Die. It spoke of the decline of those who suddenly refuse spiritual exertion and instead seek ease. A picture of snow-covered mountains reminded Belle of her climb out of China. Her legs had been numb from the knee down, but if she had stopped, she would have died!

John Hunt sailed for Fiji in the 1800’s and immediately began studying the language and spending quantity time with the natives. Knowing the people motivated him to preach and begin translating the Bible within six months. He would first read from the Greek and English New Testaments, research word definitions, and study Bible resources. He then consulted many natives to improve his use of the Fijian language.

Culture shock hit hard. Hunt’s firstborn died as natives mocked, an elderly woman was strangled at Hunt’s door, and eleven bodies were dissected by cannibals in front of his home. Worse yet, Hunt was asked by local chiefs to leave. However, God gave a supernatural love which grew in proportion to the mounting hate. He wrote, “I am determined to…be spent in trying to do them good, until God…shall remove me from them…” (The Life of John Hunt: Missionary to the Cannibals – George Stringer Rowe, pg. 106) He concluded, “We seem to labor in vain, but faith can never come to such a conclusion.” (pg. 111) Hunt pressed “onward,” as was his motto.