Hudson Taylor-Total Makeover

By Mary Vee

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes

My first five missionary journeys inspired me to new goals. I wanted to find a place, far inland China, that could be used as a base. Time for a sixth missionary journey.

photo courtesy of visualbiblealive.com

On May 8th I set out for my next journey, one that would last twenty four days. The small junk I bought wouldn't handle a long journey. I hired a junk and a Chinese crew designed for shallow and deep water and set sail up the river.

All the time I spent studying and practicing Mandarin paid off. I was able to not only speak with the crew but understand them. 

We sailed about two hundred miles deeper into China to a city called Zhenjiang. Along the way God gave me opportunity to give two thousand seven hundred Scriptures and other Christian literature to cities and villages along the way.

In one city, I met a friendly, elderly man who liked to visit. He gave me his book, and I gave him a Bible. During our conversation he shared why he believed the earth moved around the sun. He felt doing good would result in happiness. When he said those words, I wanted to tell him about the God who loved him and had sent His Son to pay for all our sins. We can do nothing to save ourselves. I waited until he finished speaking before sharing this good news.

In some of the places I visited, drunks and angry people threw mud at me. They called me a foreign devil. And some people ran away from me, frighten by my skin and hair color, my clothes and the shape of my eyes.

I brought my medical bag with me wherever I went and learned people would listen to the Gospel when someone took care of their health. I also learned how to eat with chopsticks. Those rascal skinny pieces of wood make eating difficult, but in time I mastered the art.

One day, a boatman saw me eating with chopsticks. He said, "You should wear Chinese clothes and shave your head like the Chinese men." 

What a fantastic idea! Why didn't I think of that before.

As we sailed back to Shanghai, I remembered the terrible problem I had sleeping. Rats and mice scurried around the house, even on my bed. After we docked I saw a cat with two kittens at a house. "May I buy your kittens?"

The owner agreed. I took the two kittens with me, and solved the rat and mice problem.

Can you see me? I look different. I wear Chinese clothes, shaved my head, eat with chopsticks and have two kittens who eat quite well in my house. I feel at home.

J. Hudson Taylor

Do you have any questions?


Photo courtesy of visualbiblealive.com

Research resources: J. Hudson Taylor, An Autobiography by J. Hudson Taylor; It is Not Death to Die, a new biography of Hudson Taylor by Jim Cromarty; Hudson Taylor Founder, China Inland Mission by Vance Christie; J. Hudson Taylor, A Man in Christ, by Roger Steer, and Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor.