Samuel Lamb

Lin Xiangao (known in the West as Samuel Lamb) was raised as a believer, born the son of a Baptist pastor in 1924, in the mountains overlooking Macau, China.  Following in his father’s footsteps, he preached his first sermon at age 19, shortly before Mao Zedong’s full-scale persecution of the Church.  Lamb was first arrested in 1955, accused of being a counter-revolutionary. 

He served 18 months before his release, and was arrested a second time in 1958, this time sentenced to twenty years of hard labor.  He served his sentence in a coal mine, where his task was to couple coal cars together.  He worked underground in low light and in very hazardous conditions, and continued to teach as he was able.  Working like this killed or severely injured many men, but Lamb emerged from his sentence in 1979 unharmed.  His wife died a year before his release, but Samuel was not allowed to attend her funeral.  He said later that her death “was like an arrow from the Almighty, until I understood that God allows the pain, the loss, the torture; but we must grow through it.”

Lamb was targeted mainly for his refusal to merge his house church with the Three Self Patriotic Church (TSPC), the state-controlled church.  The TSPC forbade the teaching of the Gospel to children under 18 years of age, denied many fundamentals of the Christian faith such as the Virgin Birth and Christ’s literal, physical resurrection.  China’s control of the state church led to their teaching principals geared more toward government support rather than Christian beliefs.

In 1979, Lamb resettled in Guangzhou, where he began to teach English and converted many of his students to Christ.  He soon restarted his house church, which quickly grew and had to move to a much larger building.  The church continued to grow, and began to occupy multiple buildings and had meetings several times per week.  According to the Open Doors organization, his church was a conduit for many thousands of Bibles and other Christian literature smuggled in from the West – Open Doors numbered the pieces of literature at over 200,000.  Even so, he adamantly taught his congregation that they should submit to the authorities in all things, except for when doing so directly opposed the teachings of the Scripture.

Suffering was a frequent topic of Rev Lamb’s sermons.  “I can understand Job’s victories and Job’s defeats,” he often said.  “It taught me that grumbling does not help.  Not against God and not against those who persecuted me.”  He taught what he called the “Holy principle of persecution”, which was that persecution has only one outcome: more growth for the church.

His church was raided again in 1990.  Lamb was arrested and his congregants were admonished not to attend services any longer, but Lamb was released the next day.  Though many in the church were intimidated into not coming the following week, Lamb and a few brave souls met the following Sunday without incident.  Soon the church was larger than ever, numbering over 5,000 regular attendees. 

Even though his congregation was still illegal, Samuel Lamb’s church was not bothered again, up to his death in August, 2013, at the age of 88.  Even so, he was prepared for more suffering.  He kept a bag packed with a change of clothes, shoes, and a toothbrush – prepared in the event of his arrest so he could just pick it up and go.  At his death, over 30,000 people spontaneously crammed the streets of Guangzhou to pay him homage.

His church was raided again just before Christmas, 2018, as part of the Communist Party’s new crackdown on Christian worship.  Since 2016, the Communists have sought an ever-increasing dominance over everyday life.  The government has banned online sales of the Bible, burned crosses, demolished churches, and forced many places of worship to close.  Many church members have been instructed by the authorities to sign letters stating they no longer believe in Christianity.  The church has, in many cases, again been forced to move underground and meet in secret.  If Samuel Lamb’s “Holy principle of persecution” is to be believed, we should be excited for the long-term spiritual growth of the church in China.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/death-of-pastor-samuel-lamb-leaves-hole-in-the-chinese-church-says-open-doors-usa.html

https://www.christianpost.com/news/chinese-police-raid-childrens-bible-class-shut-down-underground-megachurch.html

https://www2.cbn.com/news/news/china-strikes-again-shuts-down-third-underground-church-weeks

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/december/china-churches-early-rain-rongguili-wang-yi-samuel-lamb.html

Mitsuo Fuchida

Mitsuo Fuchida was a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy, who planned and led the initial wave of attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7^th, 1941.  His was the plane that sent the signal back to the Japanese fleet that the attack had been a complete surprise, “Tora! Tora! Tora!”  He remained over the target until the second wave had completed their mission.  Upon returning to his carrier, he found that his plane had 21 large flak holes and his main control wires were nearly severed.  The successful attack made him a national hero and he was granted a personal audience with Emperor Hirohito.

Later in the war, Fuchida led an air raid over Darwin, Australia, and led a carrier-based attack against the British Eastern Fleet Headquarters in Ceylon, a moment Prime Minister Churchill called “the most dangerous moment” of the war.

On June 4^th, 1942, Fuchida was on the bridge of the carrier Akagi, recovering from an emergency appendectomy, during the Battle of Midway.  He narrowly escaped death after American attacks, and during evacuation an explosion knocked him to the deck where he broke both ankles. 

He was assigned to the staff of Vice Admiral Kakuta, who was stationed in Guam.  Just prior to the American attack, he was recalled to Tokyo.  Had he remained there, he would have participated in the ritual suicide with Admiral Kakuta as defeat loomed.  Recalling this, he later mentioned to a reporter, “Again, the sword of death had missed me only by inches.”  He spent the rest of the war as a Staff Officer in Japan.

In early August, 1945, he was attending a military conference in Hiroshima when he was recalled to Tokyo for an intelligence briefing.  The day after he left, the world’s first nuclear weapon used in combat was dropped on Hiroshima.  Fuchida was assigned to lead a delegation to assess the damage.  All the members of his team died of radiation poisoning, but he showed no symptoms.  Decommissioned, and returning to his family farm after the war, he later recalled, “Life had no taste or meaning…I had missed death so many times and for what?  What did it all mean?”

Fuchida was compelled to testify at the war crimes trials, related to treatment of prisoners of war.  He felt the trials were a farce, and bitterly sought evidence to prove the Americans treated Japanese POWs just as badly.  It was in this quest that he was reunited with his former flight engineer, whom he had presumed to have died at Midway.  In speaking with his friend, he learned that rather than abuse and torture, he had been treated very humanely, and even with kindness.  His friend told him of a young American woman named Peggy Covell, who treated him and his fellow prisoners with kindness and dignity – even though Japanese soldiers had killed her missionary parents in the Philippines.  The code Fuchida knew not only permitted revenge, it demanded it.  This woman, however, instead offered compassion.  Fuchida became obsessed with finding out why anyone would treat their enemies with love and kindness.

In the fall of 1948, he was given a pamphlet which described the testimony of Jacob DeShazer, a Staff Sergeant participating in the Doolittle raid, who was captured and imprisoned by Japanese forces.  DeShazer, by this time a missionary to Japan, told of his imprisonment and torture by Japanese forces, and how this led to his own spiritual awakening while a POW.  This pamphlet led Fuchida, a practicing Buddhist, to acquire a Bible and read it.  In 1949, he became a Christian.  He wrote later, “Looking back, I can see now that the Lord had laid his hand on me so that I might serve him.”  DeShazer and Fuchida became close friends, even collaborating in some missions endeavors.

Fuchida wrote a book of his journey to faith, entitled “From Pearl Harbor to Calvary,” and spoke all over the United States and Asia as an evangelist, leading many to Christ.  He authored many books, some faith-based, some of his experiences in the war.  He was offered American citizenship, but declined.  He died in Japan in 1973.

 

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/mitsuo-fuchida-christian-evangelist/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuo_Fuchida#Postwar_activities

Betty Greene - Mission Pilot

Betty Greene – Missionary Pilot

Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Greene was born in Seattle in 1920 to a Christian family.  When she was seven years old, Charles Lindbergh made his solo flight across the Atlantic.  A year later, Amelia Earhart made her famous flight.  Flying fascinated her, and when she was sixteen was given a sum of money from an uncle, she spent most of it on flying lessons.

Flying became a passion, as did service for Christ.  When she voiced these two passions to an elderly lady in her church she advised to combine the passions.  "Of course, dear," the woman said, "think of all the time — and sometimes lives — that could be saved if missionaries didn't have to spend weeks hacking their way through jungles."

This lady’s advice gave her direction for her life.  Betty returned to school to study for missions work and continued working to get her pilot’s license.  Interrupting this was World War II.  She signed up as one of about 1,100 WASPs (Woman’s Air Force Service Pilots).  Since women were not allowed on the front lines of combat, these WASPs took on the jobs of testing and ferrying planes from factories as needed – with the attitude of freeing men for combat roles.  She learned to fly all kinds of planes, from fighters to bombers to cargo aircraft.  She also served as a high-altitude test pilot and towed drone aircraft for live-fire anti-aircraft gunnery drills.

During wartime, she wrote a couple of articles for a Christian publication suggesting the benefits of the use of aircraft for missions work.  A Navy pilot named Jim Truxton contacted her and suggested a collaboration to begin an organization to serve missionary families when the war ended.  Betty and Jim, along with two colleagues, began the organization that was eventually called Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).  Betty became the mission organization’s first paid employee.

Acquiring their first plane, a little red Waco biplane, Betty began flying in Mexico at age 25 to help Wycliffe Bible Translators with their remote jungle training camp.  Flying in to the dirt airstrip in that camp took her 1 hour and 45 minutes, while hacking through the jungle on foot took 10-14 days.

Bush flying was very hazardous.  Betty flew without a copilot or navigator, obviously without GPS or autopilot, and found her destination by tracing roads or natural landmarks below her.  Weather was unpredictable and weather forecasts unreliable.  Coupled with the unusual occurrence of a woman pilot in her early days – she was often mistaken for a stewardess on some flights – and the prejudice sometimes shown her, made her a true humble hero in her work.

Betty never married, despite having some romantic possibilities.  She felt her calling was incompatible with the burdens of marriage.  All told, she flew over 4,800 hours with a perfect safety record – and attributed that to God’s providence and gracious hand.  She knew many colleagues who were killed in the line of service.  She brought medical supplies and food to mission camps, ferried missionaries and their families to and from the field, and took the sick and injured to hospitals in critical times.  She served in 12 countries around the world, including Mexico, Peru, Africa, and Indonesia.  She was first woman to fly over the Andes Mountains in South America and was the first woman to land a plane in Sudan – the latter requiring a literal act of the (then-) Sudanese Parliament.

In 1962, Betty retired from field work and worked administrative duties for MAF – with occasional flying ventures.  She did this for many years, retiring to her hometown of Seattle in the latter years of her life.  She died there of Alzheimer’s disease in 1997. 

https://www.christianwoman.co/faith-heroes-betty-greene-the-pioneering-ministry-pilot/#:~:text=B%20etty%20Greene%20was%20a%20pioneer%20missionary%20pilot,and%20her%20brothers%20up%20in%20the%20Christian%20faith.

https://www.mnnonline.org/news/first-maf-pilot-honored-for-wartime-service/

George Morling - Beloved Principal

George Morling – “Beloved Principal”

1921 was a tough year for Australian Baptists.  There was much turmoil within the denomination – partly because of floundering leadership, partly because of the introduction of modernist ideas on the authority and interpretation of Scripture.  Many within Baptist leadership resigned or switched denominations, including Alexander Gordon – principal of New South Wales Baptist College.  Despite pleas, he refused to reconsider his resignation.

As interim head of the college, the Trustees tapped 29-year-old George Morling.  George was no stranger to difficulty – as a young man he faced a nearly uncontrollable stutter and great anxiety.  To overcome these fears, he spent many hours preaching to himself in front of a mirror.  His own struggles gave him both a great sense of God’s presence and a great empathy for those who had struggles of their own.  These experiences were the foundation for three very fruitful pastorates prior to being named the head of this New South Wales Baptist College at such a young age.

George came into his job facing a disheartened staff, a large budget shortfall, doubts from contributors over his own experience and education, and a Baptist denomination ready to tear itself apart over the “new” ideas of interpreting Scripture.  He dealt with his critics by studying at Sydney University while leading his own school.  He dealt with the budget shortfall by enthusiastically promoting the college and aggressively raising funds.  He dealt with the modernistic interpretations of Scripture both by insisting on the Bible being taught as truth, but also by stressing within the college the teaching of how to interpret the Bible so they would be very well-equipped to teach in their future work.  To help students afford their education, George and his wife boarded students in their own home.  George took extra care to ensure his students cultivated rich spiritual lives in addition to the academic training they received.  His biographer recorded that he feared most “truth on ice” – a cold and formal orthodoxy.  Instead, he advocated for “truth on fire.”

Impressed by the way the young man tackled the challenges facing the college, they made him the permanent Principal in 1923.  Though he had a few bouts of serious illness, he held this position until 1960.  Many of his students went on to fruitful pastoral and educational ministries in Australia and around the world.

George Morling held many positions in Australia in addition to Principal of New South Wales Baptist College.  He was highly in demand as a speaker in various churches and conventions.  He served in various leadership roles in the Baptist Union.  He was an honorary lecturer in church history at the University of Sydney and Chairman of InterVarsity Fellowship of Australia.  He wrote a book entitled “The Quest for Serenity” – a popular book to this day on living the Christian life.  Queen Elizabeth II honored him with the Order of the British Empire in 1963 for “Services to Religion.”

In 1974, George Morling passed into the eternity he long expected at age 83.  New South Wales Baptist College issued a statement, “With thanksgiving and praise this Council records the home going of Principal-Emeritus GH Morling in his 83rd year. For 40 years he moulded the traditions of the College. His Principalship was marked by high scholarship, careful biblical exegesis aglow with the evangelical emphasis, personal interest in all his students and his own deep experience of Christ.” 

Eleven years after his death, NSW Baptist College was renamed Morling College in his memory.  The school continues its evangelistic thrust and commitment to the truth of the Scriptures and practical training for the next generation of ministers.  Online, they offer courses for free to the public.

 

Christian History e-mail: 09 April 2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Morling

https://www.morling.edu.au/

 

 

 

 

The 100-Year Prayer Meeting

The one-hundred year prayer meeting

A hundred years before Martin Luther, a young Catholic priest named John Hus was burned at the stake for teaching against various Roman Catholic practices including Papal indulgences and the idea of Purgatory.  Hus’s followers remained underground, but faithful, and about fifty years after his death organized themselves into a church in Bohemia called “Unity of the Brethren.”  This group kept its identity separate, but closely aligned themselves with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.  In effect, they were the first Protestants.

Later, in the 18th Century, a young God-fearing Count named Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf allocated a part of his estate for the resettlement of about 300 refugees of this group from Moravia, establishing a village they named Herrnhut.  At age 27, the charismatic Zinzendorf was nominated leader of this group.  Zinzendorf put an end to the infighting currently plaguing the group by calling the growing community to prayer and corporate study of the Scriptures.

On August 12, 1727, the Moravians conducted an all-night prayer vigil.  They had groups of two or three people in a designated place in the village praying every hour throughout the night.  This evolved into a daily practice that consisted without interruption for over 110 years!  They took their inspiration from the passage in Leviticus 6:13, that the sacred fire was never permitted to go out on the altar.

During this season of prayer, their hearts began to burn for the lost in the world.  This little community sent out missionaries around the globe with the purpose of evangelizing the lost and planting like-minded communities based on the model at Herrnhut. Within the first fifteen years, this community of 300 people sent out seventy missionaries who went and lived among unreached people groups, learned their language and culture, and introduced them to Jesus Christ.  One small group of men voluntarily sold themselves into slavery so they could reach Natives in the West Indes who had been enslaved on sugar plantations.  In the American colonies, they established communities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  All were planted to be centers for the outreach of the Gospel among the Natives.  One group of Moravian families, en route to Georgia to plant another colony, was caught in a severe storm which made the experienced sailors on the ship panic.  As the families sat in the ship’s hold, rocking violently back and forth, they joined their hearts in calm prayer.  Watching them was a young Anglican minister, himself on a mission to evangelize the Natives, wrought with fear but amazed at the calm courage of the Moravians.  After the storm subsided the young minister, John Wesley, wrote in his diary, “I have come to America to convert the indians, but, Oh, who will convert me?”  This eventually led to his conversion on Aldersgate Street soon after.

During these 100+ years of prayer, the little church established many ‘daughter’ churches and over 30 successful communities around the world based on the Herrnhut model, sent hundreds of missionaries around the world, and formed hundreds of revival communities around Europe.  It is said that the Great Awakening of the 1800s in England and America, as well as the great Protestant missionary movements to follow, were lit by the fires in the Moravian prayer room.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-1/prayer-meeting-that-lasted-100-years.html

https://www.moravian.org/2018/07/a-brief-history-of-the-moravian-church/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Moravian_Church

https://revivalandreformation.org/resources/all/the-moravian-100-year-prayer-movement

Saint Nicholas of Myra

St. Nicholas of Myra is one of those legendary figures in the church for whom it is difficult to distinguish truth from legend.  While it’s hard to sort through the legend, even the mythical stories which have persisted can potentially tell us something about the person.

He was born to wealthy Christian parents around the year 270 AD in the city of Patara, in Lycia, on the Southern Mediterranean coast of modern-day Turkey.  His parents died when he was a young man, and he inherited the entire estate.  In one of the most famous stories of his life, he gave up a great deal of his wealth by dropping sacks of gold in the windows of three young women who were about to be forced into a life of prostitution because their devout father could not afford a marriage dowry for them.  Nicholas, by this point a professing Christian himself, was known for his generosity and ended up giving away his entire inherited fortune via secretive acts of charity like this.

He went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and returned to the nearby coastal city of Myra.  According to tradition, the Bishop of Myra had recently died and the church leaders had determined that the first pious man to enter the church the next morning would be made Bishop.  That person happened to be Nicholas, who had entered the church for his personal morning prayers.

Nicholas apparently proved an able bishop, on at least one occasion intervening in a travesty of justice, involving the bribing of a jury, to save three innocent men from execution.  Nicholas was later imprisoned under the Christian persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, but was released in 306 AD by Constantine the Great.

Nicholas was in attendance at the Church Council of Nicea, held in 325 AD, to debate the doctrine of Arianism – which held that the person of Jesus was a created being and of a lesser substance that God the Father.  Some accounts record Nicholas actually slapping the face of an Arian who had come to debate.  The council determined Arianism to be a heresy and denounced it in strong terms.

Nicholas died in the year 343, from unknown causes, and was buried in a sarcophagus in Myra.  A shrine was built over his burial site which became a very popular pilgrimage site.  In the year 1087, the inhabitants of Myra were facing being conquered by Muslims so a group of Italian merchants from the city of Bari, without authorization, removed his bones and brought them to a shrine in their hometown.  Later crusaders visited the site and found that a number of Nicholas’ smaller bones remained, so they were brought to the city of Venice.  Today, the Turkish government is negotiating with Italy for the return of the remains of Nicholas to its original burial site.

The story of Nicholas was very popular throughout Europe and was the basis for may legends.  During the Reformation most of these stories died out, except in Holland where the story of “Sinterklaas” remained popular for children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Nicholas

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/august/real-saint-nicholas.html

Mel Trotter

Mel Trotter was born in Orangeville, Illinois in 1870, one of seven children.  His bartender father was described as a man who, “drank as much as he served.”  In his teenage years, Mel became an alcoholic himself.

At 21 years of age he married Lottie Fisher, who was apparently unaware of his alcoholism when they wed.  Mel had training as a barber, but his addiction soon pushed the young family, including their young child, into poverty, even selling his family’s possessions to pay for his drink.  Again and again he promised his wife he would quit, again and again he failed.  

After one ten-day drinking spree, Mel came home to find his two-year-old child dead in his wife’s arms.  He later wrote, “I’ll never forget that day.  I was a slave, and I knew it.  It pretty nearly broke my heart.  I said, ‘I’m a murderer.  I’m anything but a man.  I can’t stand it, and I won’t stand it!’”  He embraced his wife and swore, literally on his child’s coffin, that he’d never drink again.  Two hours after the funeral he staggered home, falling-down drunk.

In his shame, he left his home and boarded a train for Chicago in January of 1897.  When he arrived, he sold his shoes for a drink.  Drunk, broke, and shoeless in the Chicago snow, he determined to throw himself in to freezing Lake Michigan and end his life.  On the way to kill himself, he was pulled inside the Pacific Garden Mission.  The Director of the Mission who was leading the singing stopped the song when he saw Mel come in and pleaded with God in prayer saying, “O God, save that poor, poor boy.”  The Director told those there of his own past addiction and how Christ had delivered him.  That night, Mel answered the invitation to receive Christ that evening.  Asked later how he knew he was saved, Mel replied, “I was there when it happened, January 19, 1897, ten minutes past nine, Central Time, Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago, Illinois, USA.”  He claimed 2 Corinthians 5:17 as his favorite verse, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”  The Mission helped Mel find a job as a barber and helped him reunite with his wife.  He became very active in the work of the Mission.

In 1900, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, some business leaders contributed seed money for a Gospel Rescue Mission in their city.  They reached out to Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago for assistance, and they nominated Mel Trotter as the new mission’s director.  Despite having never led a single meeting on his own, he accepted and found himself very adept at the work.  He became a well-sought preacher, an effective fundraiser, and able administrator, and mentor to many who followed him in the work.

He found he could both preach and deal with the hecklers.  On one occasion, while he was preaching a small group of young men came into the meeting, jeering and being generally disruptive.  Trotter stopped his sermon and began leading the song “More About Jesus.”  By the time the song was completed, he had physically thrown each of the ‘tough guys’ out of the building.  

Trotter won a man named Herb Sillaway, another drunken barber, to Christ.  Over the next four weeks, Herb got drunk six times.  In despair, he tried to drown himself.  Mel found him in jail, clothes still wet.  Saying nothing, Herb noticed Trotter standing in front of him, weeping.  Herb said, “My God, man, I believe you love me.”  “Yes, Herb,” Trotter replied, “I love you like I love my own soul.”  Sillaway eventually became Trotter’s trusted assistant.

Under Mel Trotter’s leadership, the Rescue Mission in Grand Rapids became the largest of its kind in the United States.  They purchased a nearby theater (which had hosted a burlesque show) to make space for all the ministries of the Mission.  The Mission Sunday School had 300-500 children in attendance, feeding them as well as evangelizing them.  There were prison ministries, Bible classes, and street evangelism.  His wife began the Martha Mission, teaching homeless women to sew.  In addition to all this, Trotter played a major role in establishing dozens of similar Rescue Missions across the United States, many of them led by people he had ministered to and mentored.

During World War I, he preached to soldiers in training camps preparing to be shipped to Europe.  The USO required him to “entertain” as well as evangelize, so to avoid being placed between prize fighters and movies, he enlisted a quartet to sign as part of his preaching.  He counted over 16,000 soldiers who came to faith under his preaching.

Mel had become a popular Bible conference speaker, and even preached in some of Billy Sunday’s campaigns.

Mel Trotter passed away in 1940.  Many spoke at his funeral.  One recounted that he would pray with an alcoholic then stand him up, slip him a dollar, and tell him to return that evening with his wife and children.  The individual recalled that the alcoholic said as he left, “I would rather die than spend this dollar on booze.”

The mission Mel Trotter founded is still in operation today in Grand Rapids.  It has since been renamed “Mel Trotter Ministries.”  The ministry’s web site shows that in the year 2020: 264 people found employment, 336 decisions for Christ were made, 92% of people they found housing for did not need to return, and that hundreds were served at the medical clinic they operate.  The Mission still has a strong evangelistic thrust, bringing the hope of Jesus to those in the worst of situations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Trotter

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/alcoholic-mel-trotter-delivered-from-drink-11630650.html

https://www.meltrotter.org/themission/history

https://www.meltrotter.org/themission