Hudson Taylor

I'm currently in a class entitled Missionary Biographies. There's really not much to the classwork, allowing it to just be an excuse to read and digest 10 biographies in 16 weeks. It's been a great experience overall..

So far I have found myself experiencing all kinds of emotions as I identify or totally don't identify at all with the development and formation of these usually young men who set sail to live in a totally foreign culture, seeking to bring the gospel to those whose lives were in need of a future and a hope. I really have no concept of the realistic picture of this life that I'm soon to be living- one that is truly laid on the line day after day. Without fail each of the missionaries I've read about so far have encountered persecution, heart ache, death of wives, children, co-workers, etc... yet they've all also experienced God's power revealed in front of their eyes in ways so incredible. At the end of each one's life there is such a tenderness before the Lord, a yearning and longing to be with home with their Father- I wonder what it must be like to know our heavenly father in that way.

This week we finished the biography of Hudson Taylor. Taylor was a British missionary to China in the years of 1830s-1900. His strategies were incredible for his day... although criticized by most as extreme, Taylor truly desired that the Chinese people would have Chinese Christianity, not a Western Christianity. I can only imagine this man as he walked around in Chinese dress, with a shaved head and Bianzi knot... so forward for his time. Taylor was first to say churches should look like Chinese buildlings, not gothic western ones... he was also first to say women ought to be missionaries to other women, not just wives to support their husbands.. so many firsts for Taylor. In this midst of his pioneering work, the book leaves you understanding the faith of this man- a life deeply rooted in prayer- without question or compromise, but total and utter dependence on the promises of God, thanking God for their coming until the day he saw it. This man committed to prayer and fasting for 5 years to see over 1,000 missionaries flood inland China at a time when everyone told him NONE would come... but Taylor prayed the will of God, and watched it pass before his eyes.

My week has been so challenged and encouraged by this man. I have no idea, really, what my life as a 22 year old american female offered to the service of God will begin to unfold and look like... I'm not the author of my story.. and yet I long to leave a legacy like Hudson Taylor did. One that would point others to acknowledge the greatness and grace of God as he gently leads me and allows territory for his kingdom to be won through this broken vessel, this jar of clay.

"When you pray, pray like thats all you do; When you work, work like thats all you do." ( Hudson Taylor)