My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. Psalm 42:10-11
Missionaries to China (1900)
Hunted Down
During the Boxer Rebellion in China, a group of missionaries took shelter from a bloodthirsty crowd in the house of a Chinese magistrate who had offered them protection. They were there under armed guard for 18 days, during which time Stewart McKee’s wife gave birth. There were two couples and two single women in the group, and the newborn brought the total number of children to five.
On 12 June a local official arrived at the house and took a list of all those present. A short time later, a troop of 300 soldiers arrived, and Stewart went out to see what they wanted. He was stabbed to death by the angry soldiers, who proceeded to torch the house. Only one child, Alice, escaped, but even she was hunted down and killed by the rebels, who wanted to kill all the Christians that they could find.
I asked the Lord for a bunch of fresh flowers but instead he gave me an ugly cactus with many thorns.
I asked the Lord for some beautiful butterflies but instead he gave me many ugly and dreadful worms.
I was threatened, I was disappointed, I mourned.
But after many days, suddenly, I saw the cactus bloom with many beautiful flowers and those worms became beautiful butterflies flying in the spring wind.
God’s way is the best way.
Kao Chun-Ming, written from a Taiwanese prison where he was jailed from 1980 to 1984