China

Betty Stam held the baby in her arms, singing softly to this infantchild, all too aware that this was their last night together. Herhusband, John, tied to a bedpost, could not sleep either. Onlytwo weeks ago they had arrived at their mission station with three month-old Helen Priscilla, full of hope, eager for ministry. But on thiswinter night, their quiet lullabies were parting sorrows, for tomorrowthey would die. Betty Scott, daughter of Presbyterian missionaries to China, graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 1931. She had already accepted thecall of God to service with the China Inland Mission. The bond she feltwith John Stam, whom she had met at a prayer meeting for China, andtheir mutual decision to serve Christ in the middle of a dangerous civilwar, could not—did not—hold her back. When she was assigned to amission station in the interior, she left for China. She wrote, “When weconsecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice,and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some littlebitsy trinkets we have been grabbing; and when our hands are empty,He fills them with His treasures.” Stam, meanwhile, finished his training at Moody in 1932. He gavethe

In June 1900, a fierce nationalist reaction in China against Christianmissionaries and churches claimed more than thirty-two thousandlives. The worst massacres occurred in the northern province ofShanxi. The pregnant Lizzie Atwater wrote a memorable letter homebefore she and six others were martyred. Dear ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear weshall not meet on earth. I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He willnot fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemeda chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and nowI just pray for grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The painwill soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above!My little baby will go with me. I think God will give it to mein heaven and my dear mother will be so glad to see us. I cannot imagine the Savior’s welcome. Oh, that will compensatefor all these days of suspense. Dear ones, live near to God andcling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which wecan receive that peace from God which passeth understanding. I must keep calm and still these

Maurice Tornay was the seventh of eight children born to aCatholic family who lived high in the Swiss mountainsnear Valais. The family was united in the work required tolive and the faith they lived by. Tornay recalled his mother at the fireside telling the story of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr. “You are virgins,” she told her children, “but to be martyrs, that’s more difficult.You must love God more than anything else, and be ready to give yourlife, to shed the last drop of blood for Him.” Young Tornay never forgot his mother’s lesson. After secondary school, Tornay joined the Canons Regular ofGrand St. Bernard, best known for their rescue work in the Alps andthe famous Saint Bernard dogs they breed and train as “assistants.” AsTornay progressed, the Canons were asked by the church to send missionaries accustomed to living at higher elevations to begin evangelizing people in the Himalayas, or “the Asian Alps,” as they were called in Europe. Tornay volunteered, but he was kept back until surgery cured an ulcer. In 1936 he arrived in Weixi Province near the Tibetan border, where he finished theological studies, learned Chinese, and wasordained a priest. Tornay wrote: “And now I’ve almost