Politics with it’s peaks and values leaves me feeling motion sickness but can you imagine living in China during the rise of the Communist red wave?
I was acquainted recently with a family who had a huge impact on my life, even though I never met them. Almost exactly one hundred years ago, In August of 1921, Russell and Gertrude Morse set off on a six-month journey with their four-month-old baby to share the gospel in Batang, China. They later moved to the area now called Myanmar (still often referred to as Burma). They were the missionaries who influenced the Skiles to come and establish a congregation in Taiwan. I have previously talked about the Skiles, who ran the orphanage in Taiwan where I grew up after my parents moved to help with that work.
Gertrude Morse wrote “The Dogs May Bark, but the Caravan Moves On”. Some adventures I can relate to, raising my own children in another culture and how much she grew to love the Tibetan people as she lived among them. I was struck by how literally they took their lives into their hands on a daily basis for the sake of Christ. They were robbed, slept in the mud, trekked through territory above ravines over raging rivers that modern day daredevils could only marvel and Gertrude did it with three (and later, a little girl) little boys in tow. Some members of their traveling party were even killed. The story is so amazing it is hard to read and realize you aren’t reading fiction.
Gertrude was the first white woman many Tibetan people ever laid eyes on. She told stories of sitting down to tea with the Tibetan abbot as he drank from a human skull. These were rough people, but they were thirsty for the gospel. The Buddhist Lamas testified that they heard the true gospel would come from the west. Over the course of fifty years the Morses labored in Tibet, Southwest China, Burma, and India. They raised their three boys there, who, raised their own families there.
The gospel spread like wildfire through the villages of Putao valley. The Lisu, Rawang, and later Naga tribes begged them to come and teach their people. They estimate that by the 1960’s there were 30,000 Christians. In addition, locals in turn brought the gospel to many more of their own homes and families.
The ripple effects of their movement even reached the Chinese leader of the Republic of China, Chang Kai Shek, who converted to Christianity. He was baptized by a Methodist bishop and later even assisted in translating the New Testament.
October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared China to be Communist, and drove Chang Kai Shek and his followers to Taiwan. The Morses were able to continue to work in mainland China until they were asked to leave in 1949. They moved to Burma and continued there peacefully for 15 years, until in the early 1960’s it became increasingly difficult to work there, and eventually ended up in Thailand where they continue to this day.
God Works Behind the Scenes
While the world was focused on what was happening politically, God was busy doing more important things. He knew Communism was going to take over in China and Christianity was going to be suppressed. God alone knows the ripple effects of the Morse’s teaching in China. God was establishing a firm foothold for the gospel when Mao Zedong was still a librarian at the Peking University.
Currently, Communism is an underground political party in Burma. Much of the crimes against humanity rumored in China are committed against the descendants of the converts of the Morses in Tibet.
God’s Word Still Spreads Today
They have just this past summer gotten the construction for the Danai Bible School Campus underway. With local Burmese Christians providing all the labor for the construction. PK Youth Home and other youth homes provide housing for the kids during the school year, allowing children to thrive in a Christian environment while attending government schools. During severe hardship food aid is delivered to families in Naga land. Natives said it was like when God sent manna to the Israelites in the wilderness.A deaf ministry was started in Chang Mai. The half-million deaf in Thailand are a poorly represented and yet important part of society. The idea has caught on, and many other ministries specifically for the deaf have spread throughout Thailand. In this way, they see multiple ministries and community help efforts taking place for the betterment of society in Asia due to the dedicated labors of these missionaries.
Over the years, more than 500 churches were established across four countries, and thousands of national believers train to continue the work. Though only eternity will reveal the full impact, it is estimated that by God’s grace, over a million Asian people are reached through the extended work of the NBCM efforts since 1921.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled politics in the U.S.
We see political and social turmoil in our culture, and we think our world is falling apart. The same God who foresaw the Communist Revolution in China knows our future and will keep his promise that the gates of hell shall never prevail against His church. He will always be several moves ahead of Satan. From our perspective, our surroundings can look grim, but God still works in us, around us, and through us if we make ourselves available to him.