By Robert J. Hawkins, Jr. General World Mission Coordinator of The Church of God
While students at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute in the early 1930s, Americans John Stam and Betty Scott individually sensed God’s call to serve as missionaries in China. The country was enslaved by idol worship and torn apart by a violent Communist uprising. After leading them separately to China, the Lord brought their lives together in marriage and a shared ministry. But just three months after the birth of their daughter, Helen Priscilla, John and Betty were captured by Communist rebels. Helen’s remarkable deliverance out of danger led to her being dubbed “The Miracle Baby.” This poem was written by Betty Stam, just before being martyred together with her husband in December 1934. They were paraded through the middle of town naked, led to the town square where the Communist regime forced everyone to watch. There they were decapitated for the whole world to see. The Stams’ powerful testimony was carried around the globe by secular newspapers that featured front-page stories about the young couple’s faith, dedication and martyrdom. As a result of their deaths, many unbelievers turned to Christ and numerous Christians were moved by the Stams’ sacrifice to become missionaries themselves. They found this in Sister Stam’s belongings after her death.
—by Betty Stam
Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Saviour’s face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid – of THAT?
Afraid? Of what?
A flash – a crash – a pierced heart!
Darkness – Light – O Heaven’s art!
A wound, of His a counterpart!
Afraid – of THAT?
Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not –
Baptize with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid – of THAT?
“And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25-33).
In other words, it’s not going to be easy. You will have to put your love for God above your most treasured things—your family—even your life. If you haven’t determined to do that, you will bend under the pressures that are increasing.
When Methodist minister James Calvert, who lived between 1813 and 1892, went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.” Because of this, James Calvert witnessed marvellous triumphs of Christianity during his time there, including the conversion of the Fijiain king. In his older age he returned to England, where he oversaw the printing of the entire Bible in the Fijian language.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T AFRAID?
Please pray—doors of utterance are opening in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, and also in Ramallah in the West Bank, Israel.