Unsung Missionaries

PM or e-mail me with details about possible date, length of stay, what you would like to accomplish, etc. We'll then pray and see how God will lead! :thumbs:

 

A Japanese Doctor in an Islamic Land

A Japanese Doctor in an Islamic Land
By John R. Himes​

Dr. Tanaka (not his real name) had a wonderful life. He was a physician at a top drawer hospital, and so was at the top of the social and financial strata in Japan. Thus it was that his fellow doctors were amazed that he decided to become a medical missionary to a poor Islamic country, the location of which I will withhold for this story. What was he thinking of? How could he take his wife and three lovely kids to a place like that? ​

The good doctor began preparing by studying the medical problems of that poor nation. In the process he researched parasitology and was amazed to find the high levels of infection by worms in those who ate raw fish, especially since that was one of his own favorite meals! Dr. Tanaka sadly stopped eating sashimi (raw fish) and sushi (a rice ball which often has raw fish on it). ​

Because the tiny Japanese Baptist mission board he was going to the field under was limited in its capabilities, they put him under the umbrella of the affiliated American board, and he began traveling on deputation to the churches of Japan. In no time he had the required support, and he and his wife and three little children headed for one of the poorest countries in the world to serve God. It is a true blessing that he had the wife that he did, since she turned out to be just the help he needed for the task ahead of him.​

The task turned out to be very difficult, more difficult than he had dreamed. There were only two modern hospitals in the whole country, both run by missionary doctors, and the load was overwhelming. He found himself doing medical procedures and surgeries for which he had never been trained! “Who would have dreamed,” he thought, “that I would ever be delivering babies! I was not trained for this!”​

Through it all, Dr. Tanaka’s main concern was for the lost souls of those poor folk deceived by the religion of Mohammed. In addition to his work at the hospital, he founded a church and a Bible institute, thus unknowingly putting himself in a class beyond that of the usual medical missionary, and becoming a church planter. ​

This was probably the most difficult task he had ever faced. Fierce opposition arose from the local Muslims after they bought property for their church. The deacons were threatened with death, and though several did deny Christ, others were entirely willing to face death for their Savior. The security guard hired to watch the property was beaten and decided to quit in order to preserve his life, but the Christians persisted until their building was completed. Though often rocks were thrown at the building, most of the Christians remained faithful, and the church prospered. In fact, the church he planted and pastors now holds regular meetings in ten villages, so there is little doubt that more churches will be planted through his ministry.​

It has been many years since Dr. Tanaka first arrived on the mission field. How have things gone? Let him tell you in his own words in his latest prayer letter.​

“In October, we had a revival meeting in remembrance of 13th anniversary of N. Baptist Church. Rev. F. from (the mission) home office preached clearly about repentance from the Bible. Rev. A. also came from Japan. People came to the church from eleven villages. On the last day of the revival meeting 559 people attended morning service even though our goal is 470. On that day twenty Christians who were saved in villages were baptized. Brother M. who was converted from Muslim was baptized. Many unbelievers heard the Gospel.”​

Concerning the hospital, Dr. Tanaka wrote: “We held mobile clinic in two villages. I saw 200 patients in K. district and 132 patients in T. district. We shared the Gospel two times in K. and one time in T. The village we held mobile clinic in K. is isolated by rivers. No bridges. So we went by boat and walked on mud road and arrived. There is no electricity, so it was so hot. We took care of patients, sweating much.
In the Christian book house, during Aug. and Sep, there were 286 visitors. 936 Bibles and 2318 tracts were distributed. 118 people watched the Jesus film. Presently 594 people have taken Bible correspondence course. Brother M. was saved through Bible correspondence and was baptized. Now he has been persecuted by village people.”​

If you have a moment, stop and pray for this good doctor and his family. The kids are grown now, with the youngest in college, but his task in a country far from his beloved Japan has not grown easier.

 

I'm glad you like it. I've been praying for folk to be blessed.:thumbs:

I hope you find time to post about Stearns and Marshall. Marshall I don't know, but I've wondered occasionally about Stearns and would like to read more about him.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Doc Moritz, and thanks for taking the time to read it. I'm thinking of a book along these lines, including a previous thread I did on "Unsung Soul Winners" and maybe another section on "Unsung Pastors."

 

Thanks for the great post on Stearns and Marshall, Pastor MHG. :thumbs:

 

Dr. Moritz, I'll certainly be looking forward to Dr. Cummins' next book.

For anyone reading , if you like this thread you will absolutely love Dr. Cummins' 3 books with the title given by Dr. Moritz. We read through #1 & 2 in family devotions and were tremendously blessed.

Gotta get #3. That should be easier now that the BWM website has a bookstore, right? You can get #1 and #2 at the BWM bookstore, as well as other excellent books by Dr. Moritz, Dr. Ernest Pickering and the fascinating autobiography of Dr. Monroe Parker. Find the link at www.baptistworldmission.org

This thread is being brought to you by Baptist World Mission. :thumbs:

 

The Love of the Covells

The Love of the Covells

By John R. Himes

​

Margaret “Peggy” Covell was an MK (missionary kid), and she loved her parents with all of her heart, as she loved her Lord Jesus. James and Charma Covell were her heroes for the work they did to reach Japan for Christ by teaching at the Kanto Gakuin School near Tokyo. There were also her heroes for the bold way they opposed the aggressive war the Japanese were waging against their fellow Asians—so bold in fact, that the Northern Baptist mission board transferred them to the Philippines to protect them.

We know that in those days there were modernist missionaries with the Northern Baptists in Japan, such as William Axling, a missionary who refused to condemn the false religions of Buddhism and Shinto, even praising them (The Case Against Modernism in Foreign Missions, by Chester Tulga, 1950, p. 17). However, by what we know of the love of the Covells, we can be sure their faith was genuine!

It was not long after the Covells moved to the Philippines when the Japanese invaded, seeking to add the island nation to the domain of Emperor Hirohito along with Korea, Taiwan and most of China. The invasion was so sudden and successful that many of the missionaries in the Philippines were arrested by the Japanese army and put into prison camps. Peggy’s parents, however, fled to the hills and settled in a grove with nine other missionaries. There they were hidden and protected by the Filipinos of Katipunan. The missionaries named their little settlement “Hopeville,” and put together a makeshift chapel which they called the “Church in the Glen.” And so it was for two years of quiet.

Alas, the day came when they were discovered. An American pilot had been shot down, but found a place of refuge in Hopeville for awhile. Unfortunately, he was captured and tortured until he revealed the location of Hopeville. Then came the Japanese, and all eleven missionaries were arrested.

The order came down for all of the missionaries to be executed. The Covells, with their fluent Japanese, persuaded the local commander that they were only missionaries, having nothing to do with the propagation of the war, and he did his best to persuade headquarters that they should not be killed, but to no avail.

The day came for the Covells to die. The sympathetic commander gave them time to compose themselves, and they knelt in prayer for a full hour. The commander was amazed when they came to him holding hands and singing a hymn! He was also amazed when they met their death with tremendous peace on their faces. What was it that would help a person die like that?

Also watching was one of the executioners whose name is lost to history, a young Japanese soldier who was a member of the platoon that beheaded the Americans. He was so moved that he never forgot their prayers and their peace. After the war, this young man sought out a Bible, read it and learned of the Savior of the Covells, and believed in Him for salvation!

Another who was deeply affected by the death of the Covells was their daughter Peggy, who was living safely in the United States when her parents were killed. At first, Peggy could not forgive the Japanese, and fought daily with hatred in her heart for the evil country that had taken away her beloved parents while she was still a young teenager. “Then she began to meditate on her parents’ selfless service to them. Slowly she became convinced that her parents had forgiven their executioners before death. Could she do less? So she volunteered to work with Japanese prisoners of war. Her example of charity and gentleness greatly impressed the men, and they loved her with a pure tenderness” (God’s Samurai, Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor, by Gordon W. Prange, pp. 202-203).

One day a prisoner asked her, “Why are you so kind to us?” She answered, “Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents!” (Ibid, p. 202). This was an astonishing concept to the Japanese, who believe that revenge is a duty and a virtue. Many who experienced her sacrificial service became interested in the Man Who taught that we should love our enemies.

One who heard the amazing story of Peggy Covell and her parents was Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese navy pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, the very man who gave the famous code to attack, crying “Tora, tora, tora” (“Tiger, tiger, tiger!”) The more he learned of the Covells, the more he wondered what they prayed as they were about to be beheaded. Thus it was that when he received a tract written by Jacob DeShazer, an American bombardier captured after the famous Doolittle raid, he was open to the Gospel. DeShazer, too, had learned to love his Japanese enemies after being captured and tortured by them, and had returned to Japan as a Baptist missionary. Since knowing about the love of the Covells and DeShazer for their enemies, Mitsuo was ready to hear the Gospel and trust Christ as Savior, though it took some months as he pondered God’s love and read through a New Testament he had bought from a colporteur. But trust Christ he did! Not long after his salvation, Fuchida became an evangelist, winning many of his countrymen to Jesus Christ.

Where will the chain of blessing end which was started by the peaceful beheading of the Covells? Only God knows right now. But will it not be fascinating in Heaven to learn more about the love of the Covells?

 

Hi, J. D.

Reading back through, I just noticed this post by you. Sorry I didn't respond when you posted.

Have you been able to remember the names of these missionaries?

God bless.

 

Almost a Missionary

ALMOST A FOREIGN MISSIONARY!​

By John R. Himes​

Chuck’s mother was miserable again, but then she often was. Not only was she a miserable person, sometimes she seemed to be happiest when she was making those around her miserable. She had good reason for her misery, though. Her husband was an alcoholic, and was often physically abusive to her and her three sons where they lived in the little town of DuBois, Pennsylvania.

Chuck tried somehow to live with the misery, but it was so hard for a quiet, introspective boy like him. It seemed like no one in his family loved him: not his violent-when-drunk father, not his misery-loving mother, not even his two older brothers. They, too, became alcoholics, and when his father died they took over the physical abuse. Then Chuck met Jesus.

At the Church of God, a local Holiness church, they showed the boy love, and at age 13 he trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. He found the meaning of God’s unlimited love, and it changed his life and broke his cycle of misery. It wasn’t long until the boy began to dream of doing great things for God, and was called to preach. He made the most of every opportunity to preach even while he was still in high school.

When it came time to head off to Bible college to train for the ministry, Chuck saw some seemingly huge obstacles that could, humanly speaking, prevent him from doing God’s will. The first obstacle was the fact that Word War Two was underway, and he was expected to do his patriotic duty. He dutifully went down to the local recruiting office to join the U. S. Army and fight for democracy in a foreign land. Fortunately for the work of the Lord, they turned him down for his poor eyesight. Far from taking it badly, he wrote in his journal on January 14, 1943, “Was rejected by the Army today because of my poor eyes. A new world opens before me with my rejection!”

His next task was to save for Bible college while working for his country in defense plants. He worked for awhile in one plant on the machine that turned out the lever that released the bombs for a B-17 bomber. He was proudest, though, of the welding he did on a mine-sweeper over in the shipyards of the city of Erie on Lake Erie.

He finally made it in the fall of 1943 to Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, the premier fundamental Bible college of those days. It wasn’t long until he was smitten deeply by the eyes of a young dark-haired girl named Mary Lloys. How in the world could a small town nobody like him get such a splendid girl to date him, he wondered. But as they used to say, where there is a will there is a way, and he found his.

As the young people kidded with each other at the Wheaton Bible Church youth meeting, someone nabbed Mary’s wallet, and an impromptu and fun game of keep-away began. Chuck made sure he was the last one to have it, and then he made a deal with the dark-haired beauty: he would give her wallet back if she would let him walk her back to the girls’ dormitory. She glanced at the handsome, usually serious young man with the deep dimple in his chin, and demurely agreed to the deal, thus beginning a sweet courtship.

So it was that the boy without a loving family finally found one. As it happened, Mary’s father was evangelist John R. Rice, known world wide for his great evangelistic campaigns and his best-selling books and tracts. John R. had moved his home to Wheaton so that all six of his daughters could get a quality Christian education. He and his wife Lloys became the loving parents Chuck had never had, and he spent many a happy hour over at the Rice home with Mary, her parents, her five sisters and whichever young men were pursuing which ever Rice daughter at the time.

The courtship did not proceed at nearly the breakneck speed that Charles wished for. It took him many months to win her love, but finally on June 4, 1944, she told him that she loved him. He wrote in his journal on the 28th of that month, “Told Dr. Rice this morning I was in love with Mary Lloys. Everything is alright there. Saw Mary at noon.” It wasn’t until December 9 of that year, though, that he was able to give her a diamond and announce their engagement. Then, as the campus custom was, together they rang the bell in the campus tower with the traditional three groups of seven chimes. He wrote, “How I praise the Lord for all of this. I know I don’t deserve such a wonderful girl.” On the 11th he wrote, “Got plenty of razzing today around the school, but who cares. It’s wonderful to know that I have her love for a dope like me.”

The happy couple were married on September 4, 1945, then graduated from Wheaton on June 9 of 1947, both with B. A. degrees in anthropology. Why such an unusual degree at a Bible college? That was the course pursued by missionary hopefuls at Wheaton in those days. Chuck would continue to study the Bible all of his life, eventually earning a master’s degree in theology at the age of 77!

The young couple was committed to serving God in a foreign country. They immediately applied to the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. Their burden was for what may have been the most forbidding land in the world in the 1940’s, the mountain kingdom of Tibet.

It was said in those days that there were more graves of missionaries along the borders of Tibet then there were Christians in the entire country. To say that Tibetans did not take kindly to foreigners would be putting it mildly, since they delighted in such tortures as making their foreign victims ride on horses with spikes sticking up through the saddle.

The China Inland Mission (CIM) candidate school, called “boot camp” by the participants, was extremely strict, and the young couple chafed at the need for such preparation. In particular, Mary Lloys was disgusted that “an old biddy” single lady missionary was given charge of the married candidates’ dorm, and would check to make sure the young couples were in bed on time and that Mary’s new little baby Lloys Jean was quiet.

Chuck and Mary longed to offer their lives on the altar of sacrifice to God in cruel Tibet, but it was not to be so. They were rejected by CIM because of Mary’s poor health, and were devastated. What should they do now? One thing led to another, and they applied to the Southern Baptist Convention to be home missionaries out West. They found themselves church-planting in southeast Kansas in the little towns of Treece and Chetopa.

Not only were their church people living in extreme poverty, Chuck and Mary were too. But God blessed the work and the people loved them. There is a family story about having nothing at home for Sunday dinner, but leaving church to take folk home, and receiving a full meal by the time they were done: chicken, potatoes and plenty of the “fixins” for the growing family. God eventually gave the happy couple five healthy children to rise up and call them blessed.

After a few years Chuck felt called into evangelism, and spent the rest of his life serving God in many different ways: evangelism, managing a Christian book store, pastoring in six more states, serving as the dean of a local church Bible institute, even teaching in a seminary. His “sugar stick” sermon through those years was entitled, “It Pays to Serve Jesus!” and he believed that with all of his heart.

Chuck was a witness for Christ until he died. One of his sons remembers going out on visitation with him and being rejected in a particularly harsh way. Chuck told his son, “Johnny, just remember, they haven’t rejected us, they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Chuck never built a large church, he never became famous, was never given an honorary doctorate for his achievements, but he was always faithful to his Lord. And that, after all, is what God wants in His stewards.

The years finally caught up with Chuck, and he came down with the dreaded disease of Alzheimer’s. This cruel enemy gradually stole his memories, but he never got over the thrill of serving Christ. As Mary Lloys filled out the form for his final stay in the hospital, she asked, “What shall I put down for religion, Chuck?” He answered, “I don’t have a religion, I have a Savior!”

Even while dying he longed to serve God, leading the other old folks in the hospital in singing hymns, and preaching to them from a magazine he thought was a Bible. He entered the gates of Heaven on March 2, 2002, at the age of 82 years old.

You may wonder how I know so much about the life of such an unknown, unsung Christian soldier. He was my father, and I’m very blessed to have been his son and known him.

 

MK's are very special kids, and anyone who teaches them has to be special! :saint:

 

Your welcome, and I'm glad to know you were blessed. :type:

 

God bless. :wavey: