Fourteen-year old Attie Bostick sat in rapt attention, listening as her older brother, a missionary to China, preached on Mary anointing the feet of Christ with the most precious thing she had. “She hath done what she could.” Attie could not forget those words and years later would say, “That day God spoke to me, and said that I would not be doing all I could unless I was willing to go to China, too.”

Attie was born in 1875 (the sixteenth of seventeen children) on a rural farm in the foothills of North Carolina. Despite “the humbleness and crowded conditions of the home,” her parents “still found time to take in and entertain preachers and missionaries whenever they were in the vicinity.” This early contact influenced the hearts of three Bostick children toward missions.

Attie arrived in China in the summer of 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion was at its height. Hundreds of missionaries were killed during this time, and many fled the country. Attie stayed unharmed in Shanghai with a missionary family until the danger was over, then  joined her brother (G.P.) at Taian in Shandong Province. Later, she worked in Pochow with her brothers and then at Kweiteh. Attie served as a Baptist missionary with the Gospel Mission  and  the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board for a total of 43 years.

The church and school that was started in Pochow is still in existence today, and the number of souls who have come to Christ has multiplied greatly. She wrote of the work in Pochow: “The work for 1935 included holding revival meetings, instructing candidates for baptism, and teaching the Bible in several churches. Although muddy roads made travel difficult, many Chinese attended these meetings. Some women who still had bound feet walked as many as fifty miles to hear the gospel message.”

On December 8, 1941, at age 66, Japanese forces arrested Attie and  interned her for two years before releasing and repatriating her to the U.S. In a farewell letter to a Chinese Christain, she wrote, “God’s grace has abounded and He who watches over the sparrow has abundantly cared for me.” Truly, God abundantly cared for Attie through all 43 years she served Him in China.

Quotations from: Called To China: Attie Bostick’s Life & Missionary Letters From China

Ellie sat on the rough church bench clutching a small paperback book in her hands. Her brilliant white smile revealed her excitement as she spoke to me in Melanesian Pidgin, the trade language of Papua New Guinea. “This story strengthens my heart!” she exclaimed. The irony of her simple words silenced me for a few minutes. Ellie and I had just finished reading two chapters in a Pidgin biography of George Müller—a man who had been born two hundred years ago on the other side of her world but whose story was still living.

Most American believers know Müller only as the man who, through prayer, supported hundreds of orphans in England. But for many, his story dies there and is set on a shelf as admirable but impossible to replicate. As materialism engulfs our culture, believers increasingly look to their modern “stuff” to fulfill their needs. However, if we seriously look at Müller’s principles for living in complete dependence upon God, his stories of answered prayer will light a blazing fire of faith in our hearts, just like they did for Ellie.

George Müller grew up in Germany and was saved at the age of twenty; however, through the stories and encouragement of many missionary friends, he traveled to England at twenty-three to join the London Missionary Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. Müller learned English and Hebrew and planned to go to Israel, but God closed all doors leaving England and began to teach Müller to seek direction daily by faith.

Over the years, Müller refused to receive a salary from the churches that he pastored and determined to discuss his needs with God only. As the orphanage ministries began, Müller also refused to go into debt or use money that had been appropriated for other needs. Through unusual sources and uncommon circumstances, God always supplied the answer to his prayers. And whatever was bestowed upon Müller personally, he faithfully gave it to God’s work. For over sixty years of ministry, he was merely God’s steward.

The story of this man of prayer is really only one out of millions that could be told. George Müller responded to others’ testimonies of God’s faithful provision and thus encourages hearts around the world. We in turn can respond and leave a legacy, for that is the power of the story of one.

Solomon Ginsburg asked his father—a Jewish rabbi—this question when he was only thirteen. Despite being soundly slapped in the face, his interest in the prophesy of Isaiah 53 did not die. As a young man, Ginsburg left his native Poland for London, England. There, a fellow Jew found him on the street and explained Jesus as the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah. After reading the New Testament, Ginsburg trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior, but was promptly disowned and cursed by all his relatives. He bore it gladly, recalling that Christ had been made a curse for him. Even several assaults by orthodox Jews in London could not dissuade him from his new-found faith.

As Ginsburg considered what the Lord would have him do with his life, he remembered the Jews’ biggest stumbling block to accepting Christianity. They pointed to the Catholics who worshipped and prayed to idols, and proved to their children that no people who broke one of the Ten Commandments possessed the “true religion.” Now that Ginsburg knew the truth about the saving blood of Jesus, he decided to spread the glorious news in Brazil, a bastion of Roman Catholicism.

Ginsburg first spent several months in Portugal studying Portuguese until he was fluent in both the language and the beliefs of the Roman Catholics. He wrote two tracts and dispersed hundreds of copies before he departed for Brazil, literally fleeing from Portuguese Jesuits. To support himself in Brazil, Ginsburg printed and sold Bibles, tracts, and other material everywhere he could. Using his Jewish business skill of persuasion, he accosted Catholics along the road, on the train, in prisons, and even coming out of Mass. As Ginsburg simply preached Jesus and His cleansing blood, soon hundreds and then thousands trusted Christ. He traveled from town to town holding open-air meetings or playing hymns on his little organ in the middle of the marketplace. When one of Brazil’s most notorious murderers asked Ginsburg to come to his house to tell him more about Christ, Ginsburg gladly went, though many warned him of the great risk. Hearing the gospel, the man fell down weeping over the guilt of his sin and confessed Christ as his Savior.

In thirty years of ministry, Ginsburg helped to establish 820 self-sustaining Baptist churches with over 20,000 members. Although his family had forsaken him, and he faced persecution even in Brazil, the simple joy of knowing his Messiah carried him through it all.

For more information, visit wholesomewords.org/missions/iginsburg.html.

After Maude Cary heard of the heathen in Morocco, no physical or spiritual trial could deter her from joining the missionary work in North Africa. Just before her twenty-third birthday, Maude and four other co-workers embarked for Morocco with the promise to spend their life’s energies evangelizing the Muslims and Berbers. As they departed, they sang, Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go; Anywhere He leads me in this world below; Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade; Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. Surely there would be opposition and heartaches, but Maude thought only of exciting campaigns to bring the gospel to wild tribes!

Within the first few weeks in the city of Fez, the mud, physical labor, language study, and tedious household chores began to choke Maude’s spiritual fervency. She wrote that life no longer seemed “what it was on the way to Fez. The Saviour’s face does not seem so real.” In addition to her inner struggle, Maude’s co-workers chided her for pride, inattention, and idle talk. After two years, she felt that her work had been a complete waste even though she had fluently learned Arabic.

However, the Lord had already prepared many fiery trials to purify her faith. The wild Berbers, who had once seemed so enchanting, now repeatedly attacked the cities, sometimes protecting the missionaries and other times nearly killing them. Maude dreaded quitting and, instead, plunged into more work with a constant prayer for humility. She taught Bible classes for Jewish and Muslim children, translated hymns into Arabic to sing for willing ears, visited the rich and the lowly until her shoes fell apart, and tended to ill co-workers even through her own weakness.

Once the French had subdued the Berber tribes in 1910, Maude used her new fluency in Berber to set up new mission stations over the next several years. Co-workers came and went, but soon a steady trickle of converts were discipled and began ministering alongside their beloved missionary. Although an engagement to a fellow missionary fell through, Maude continued faithfully. She took only two furloughs in fifty years and was one of the four single women who continued the mission stations through World War II. The fantasy had long since passed, but Maude Cary found purpose and rest in Christ.

Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone; Other friends may fail me, His is still my own: Tho’ His hand may lead me over dreary ways, Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise.

“A missionary who truly wants to see the gospel flourish and spread on the foreign field will work toward the end of seeing nationals won to the Lord and trained for the ministry to reach their own people.”

That is exactly what Sonny and Beverly Fritz did. Theirs was the work of many hands—national hands—and most importantly, God’s hand. God had used a very short mission trip to Mexico to set a fire so great in Sonny’s heart that he would give his entire life to God’s work among the Mexican people. His wife followed with an identical zeal. In 1965, after only a year and a half of deputation, they took their few belongings and their daughters to a new life in Monterrey. Working closely with the Ashcraft family, Sonny eagerly began witnessing as soon as he could; Beverly and the girls threw themselves into the lives of the women and children around them. They were careful not to Americanize the people they won to the Lord. They immersed themselves in the language, the culture, and the lives of people with such fervor that one man remarked, “To us they are truly Mexican!”

Within only a few months of being in Monterrey, Calvary Baptist Church (Iglesia Bautista Calvario) was established. Soon it was put under the leadership of José Silva, their language helper and a faithful servant of the Lord. When José left to start a church in another area, Sonny asked Roberto Arellano, a man saved in his village through the work of another missionary, to take José’s place. The church has grown immensely over the years. By 2004, fourteen pastors and three missionaries had been called out of Calvary. It was often noted that the Fritzes “never [imposed] their own plans and methods on  the pastor or church, but rather [encouraged] and [gave] advice when asked.”

By 1984, the ministry had grown to the point that Sonny knew they needed a way to train more nationals to pastor the churches that were being planted. This would ensure the ministry’s continued life and growth. So, in their own home, they began New Life Baptist Seminary. This too, in time, was put under the oversight of a Mexican national, their son-in-law Ruben Murillo. By 2004, it had produced 111 graduates. Today, many of the men and women that the Lord has touched through the Fritzes’ ministry are taking the gospel to their own people.

Quotations from Hearts for Mexico, by Pam Leake

Born in 1941 in Duncan, Oklahoma, Thomas Laymon Sloan, M.D., grew up during the post-depression years. His unbelieving father permitted Tom’s mother to take him to church regularly. He was saved at age seventeen when a pastor led him to the Lord. Tom was a quiet but radical young man, criticized by some as an eccentric fanatic. He graduated as a pediatrician and planned to enter the medical field, until God changed his plans.

Billie Jean Ashcraft was born during WWII. Her mother was a believer. Her father was a drunkard until, when she was six months old, he was saved.  Eight years later, he became pastor of a church in Waxahachie, Texas, where Billie was saved at age eight. During her teen years, her family moved to Mexico as missionaries. The change was difficult, but in time she sensed God calling her to be a missionary in Mexico, and to that she gave her life.

Tom met Billie on a short-term missions trip in Mexico where their initial attraction began. Shortly after, Tom felt called to minister in Mexico and changed his plans accordingly. Tom and Billie married in 1969, and they arrived in Mexico in 1972. Their personalities were incredibly different: Tom was a quiet man and a poor speaker, while Billie was a fun-loving, almost reckless young woman.

Their story is one of strong commitment to God and to each other. The story of the five churches that were started, the nine men saved who became faithful pastors, the jail ministry, and the thirteen missions that came of their work in Mexico cannot be told apart from the story of their life together as the man who loved and served God with all his heart and the loyal woman who served by his side. Tom contracted Parkinson’s in 1981, and in the twenty-four year battle that followed, Billie remained his faithful lover and caregiver until Tom’s death in December 2005. During those years, they stayed on the field and stayed in love; suffering strengthened their love.

Tom and Billie had eight children who love the Lord, most of whom are missionaries around the world. The Sloans’ story reminds us that God uses ordinary people who answer the call to love God and one another with a pure heart fervently.

“..I can’t tell the story of Tom’s life without telling mine… He was who I was, and he made me who I am.”  Billie Sloan

“Should I tell you I do seriously think of leaving my native dwelling, my friends and companions for ever; would you upbraid me?” Harriet Atwood asked her sister in a letter. “[God] now offers me an opportunity of visiting the Heathen.” She then poured out the great conflict of her heart—the choice between living a normal life at home among friends or accepting the proposal of Samuel Newell, an aspiring missionary. Samuel was bound for India with Adoniram Judson; and in the year 1811, a life of missions was practically exile.

As Harriet struggled, friends accused her of wanting nothing more than adventure and a great name for herself. “But God commands me!” she rejoined. “I would not oppose it. . . lest I should be found fighting against God, discouraging missions, and preventing the Gospel being spread among the Heathen.”She accepted Samuel’s proposal, and they departed with the Judsons for India in February 1812. In June they reached Calcutta, but as the East India Company was “violently opposed to missions” they were ordered to leave. While awaiting passage, Harriet described what was then known as Bengal. She wept to see the people worshiping dumb idols. “Miserable wretches!” she wrote. “O that American Christians would form an adequate idea of the darkness which covers this people! Do Christians feel the value of the Gospel?”

The Newells left on a ship bound for the Isle of France, whose governor favored missions. Harriet gave birth to a girl who lived only five days and was buried at sea. They arrived at the Isle of France, but Harriet had already contracted tuberculosis, and her health rapidly declined. “I have never regretted leaving my native land for the cause of Christ,” she told Samuel. And on the evening of November 30^th, Harriet passed away, just nineteen years old.

Her many writings were later sent to America where they were published. Harriet was the first American to give her life in missions, and her memoirs were so full of truth and passion for God that many people were brought to Christ; and many went to the foreign field, having read Harriet’s dire entreaty:

“As we value the salvation which a Savior offers; as we value his tears, his labors, and his death, let us now seriously ask what we shall do for the salvation of the benighted heathen. If we are not permitted to visit them [ourselves]…yet we can ardently pray for them. And not only pray for them, but by our vigorous exertions we can awaken a missionary spirit in others.”

Quotations from Memoirs of Mrs. Harriet Newell

Jacob Bower was born to Christian parents who practiced regular morning and evening worship. His mother died when he was only six. The desire to see her in Heaven and the belief that only good people go there caused Jacob to live a virtuous life. But at age nineteen, he was influenced by Universalism which taught that God would save everyone. He later wrote, “I came to the conclusion that, if all the world are to be saved, I certainly would be included, therefore I was sure of salvation.” This false doctrine caused him to throw off his conviction of sin and spend five years in drunkenness and immorality.

God used Jacob’s father and the witness of a Baptist preacher to again bring conviction. It was “as if a book had been opened,” and Jacob now saw a “God who is so holy that he cannot allow sin, however small it may appear, in the sight of men.” The “crumbly foundation of Universalism gave way” and Jacob passed many anxious days in despair. His terror was heightened by what became known as the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811. There were three major shocks and over two thousand vibrations over a period of almost two years. The Mississippi River flowed backward. Widespread devastation caused people everywhere to seek God.

As Jacob thought upon Christ’s suffering and death on the cross for sinners, he suddenly realized that “If it was done for sinners, it was done for me.” As he believed this truth, peace entered his tortured heart. Jacob sought the company of other Christians and in March 1812, was baptized at Hazel Creek Baptist Church in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He felt an urgency to warn others of the danger he had lately escaped and soon realized the Lord was calling him to preach the gospel.

Jacob suffered many hardships as he preached throughout Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. He was ill, yet he pressed on. He was impoverished, and though those who “pretended to love him so well” would not help him, he continued to preach. He was dismissed by the churches that did not believe in his missionary endeavors, but he persisted in preaching the gospel where ever he found listeners.

Jacob Bower started fourteen Baptist churches. To cite just one year of his itinerate ministry (1834), he rode over three thousand miles, preached over two hundred sermons, baptized fourteen, ordained two ministers, and constituted two churches. This pioneering home missionary is little remembered today, but his faithfulness helped make America great and will be rewarded by God.

Quotations from The Autobiography of Jacob Bower

In 1887, Amy Carmichael heard the founder of China Inland Mission (Hudson Taylor) speak, and her life was never the same.  Born in 1867, the oldest of seven, she grew up in privilege.  Her father, a mill owner, provided a comfortable living, and she spent much of her childhood gleefully riding her pony along the shores of Northern Ireland.  Her family attended the Presbyterian church where she received Bible training, but it was an encounter with a poor elderly woman that caused Amy to consider her Christian walk. As she stopped after church to help the woman with a heavy bundle, the Holy Spirit reminded her, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest…it shall be revealed by fire…” (1 Corinthians 3:13). Gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble—was she building that which would last for all eternity? This question haunted her.  She spent the rest of the day alone with God, and when she emerged, her life had a new purpose.

In 1885, her father died, and their financial situation changed drastically.  Her family lost their mill, and she had to work to help support her younger siblings.  At her place of employment, she began ministering to “shawlies,” girls who wore shawls on their heads as they were too poor to afford the hats worn by women of the day.  She was ridiculed by her friends and her church for stooping to these “common people.”  But this is one of the characteristics that marked Amy Carmichael; people were classless in her eyes.  She only saw their needs, both the physical needs and the needs of their hearts.  She set up temporary buildings where she held fellowship meetings, aiding poor factory workers and teaching them the Word of God.  God was laying the groundwork for the future He had for her.

In 1892, Amy heard God’s call to carry her burden across the sea.  She initially applied to minister with China Inland Mission, but she was rejected due to her frailty.  Wealthy, powerful friends sponsored her, and after short-term trips to China and Japan, at the age of twenty-eight, she found herself in India.  Health problems resulted in severe migraines causing temporary blindness and weeks in bed.  “Am I too frail for this work?” she asked herself. But certain of God’s call on her life, she persevered and eventually established one of the most well-known Christian missionary works, the Dohnavur Fellowship.

Upon arrival in India, Amy initially participated in a women’s traveling evangelistic team, but as she became more familiar with India and its Hindu culture, she came to an alarming realization.  Very young girls were given or sold to the Hindu temples and made to serve and entertain male Hindu worshipers.  These temple prostitutes were mistreated and often thrown into the street once pregnant.  Amy took them in, clothed and fed them, and introduced them to the Bread of Life.  Influenced by her spiritual mentor, Hudson Taylor, one special distinctive of her ministry was that she wore Indian clothes and required the same of all who served with her.  They ate Indian food and used Indian furnishings.  It was important to her, just as it had been to Hudson Taylor, to live as the people and not impose her European culture on them.  Her missionary service to the people of India lasted over fifty-five years with no furlough ever taken. 

A spirit of service and a love for those who others considered “unlovable” always dominated Amy’s ministry.  In 1931, she suffered a severe fall that crippled her and kept her bedridden for twenty years.  During that time, she wrote and published over thirty-five books.  She remained bedridden until her death at the age of eighty-three.  When friends buried her in her beloved India, they honored her request that no marker be put on her grave. In her writings, she penned the poignant truth that above all, mission work offers one thing and one thing only—a chance to die.

“Dr. Becker, I recognize that fellow! He has a bad reputation. You shouldn’t trust him out of your sight!”

“Maybe so,” Dr. Becker replied, “but he’s one of our most trusted staff members now.” Then turning to the African in question he asked, “Why has your life changed since coming here?”

The man explained, “Many missionaries have preached Jesus Christ to me, and many missionaries have taught Jesus Christ to me, but in the munganga (healer) I have seen Jesus Christ.” Dr. Becker, the munganga, was known for caring for the poor and unloved as Jesus himself did.

Before he went to the Congo, Dr. Becker taught a boys’ Sunday school class where he influenced John B. Kuhn who later became a missionary to China. In 1929, Dr. Becker left his home and doctor’s salary to be a missionary in the Congo, 12,000 miles away. He became well known for his widespread medical work, his leprosy research, and his medical discoveries.

Dr. Becker understood that sharing the gospel required more than the right choice of Swahili words. The gospel needed to make sense in an African context. In the story of Lazarus, he depicted the rich man smoking his long pipe and sitting with his legs crossed in a chair in front of his hut. The Africans understood that only a very rich man would own a chair, and having his legs crossed indicated boorishness. When Dr. Becker taught Bible stories, he drew stick figures as visual aids. The Africans who could not read were thrilled and begged for copies so they could remember the stories. Dr. Becker saw them later using the stick figure pictures to accurately share the same stories.

Dr. Becker and his valued African staff often treated as many as 2,000 patients a day. But though very busy, Dr. Becker always took time to share the gospel. Once, a patient said, “This morning the evangelist talked so fast and my head went so slow. Do you have time to tell me more about Jesus?” Dr. Becker could hear the footsteps of a nurse in the hallway who doubtless had a question for him, and probably many other hospital staff needed him. There were other patients to see, an inspection of the leprosy camp to do, and letters to write; but he answered, “Yes, I have plenty of time to talk to you.”

The Bible tells us that we are to be Christ-like. Do we show Christ’s love as well as speak about it? Dr. Becker simply used his life to witness. It was evident to the people that Dr. Becker lived what he taught. He truly gave of himself to them. Are our hearts equally burdened for souls so that it is constantly on our minds to share the gospel?

“Finding his contact with civilization was hindering him in his strenuous efforts to master the Mongolian language, he resolved…to persuade some Mongolian to receive him as an inmate of his tent…Gilmour feared nothing, but strode cheerfully over the plain making for the first tent he saw on the horizon.”¹

For twenty-one years James Gilmour worked among the Mongols of Northern China. After centuries of Buddhism, they were very contented with their way of life and saw no reason to turn from it. It was therefore ten years before Gilmour saw his first convert. This man was saved at a roadside inn, then after a twenty mile walk, prayed with Gilmour and left him at the crossroads.

Over an eight month period, Gilmour recorded preaching to around 24,000 people, treating 6,000 for illnesses, selling 3,000 Christian books and distributing 4,500 tracts. The literature distribution among this nomadic people covered over 180,000 square miles and was a task too large for any one man. During that eight month period, two people openly professed Christ.

What could drive a man to continue under such unspeakable odds? What could compel him to continue when his followers were turned away by the bad testimonies of other missionaries? What kept him going when his beloved wife lay in the grave and his dear boys were in England? God gave him passion, He gave him purpose, and He gave him the strength to carry on.   God also gave tears to stoic Buddhist lamas when they heard of the death of “our Gilmour.”

Gilmour was able to start three small churches among the Mongols of China and was known among them all for his faithfulness in spreading the gospel. Near the end of his life he said, “Lately I am becoming more and more impressed with the idea that what is wanted in China is not new lightning methods so much as good, honest, quiet, earnest, persistent work in old lines and ways.” This was spoken by the man whom everyone admired for his courage and adventurous life. He was a servant of Christ, that’s all.

¹Lambert, John C., Missionary Heroism (San Antonio, TX:Vision Forum, Inc.,2005-06)8