Hudson Taylor-Praying For Guidance

By Mary Vee

Year:  1873 

Hudson Taylor: age 41

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes

Photo Courtesy

With the child emperor now in charge, he has used his powers to embarrass foreigners. Without his support, our missions will suffer greatly.

I had an idea to have our missionaries travel through Burma to get to the western lands of China. But, this would cause a huge delay by adding many miles to the journey. So many Chinese will die before someone can bring news of God's love to them.

I wrote to our people in England, requesting them to pray for God to give us the guidance we needed. Emily, the woman who watched over our children sent word back. Her illness had become worse and she struggled to take care of my children. Their behavior had become much worse.

I wrote back to her:
Kiss the dear children for me. How I wish I could save you the trouble! A little rough discipline might...make them strike their roots deeper, give you more hold of their affections, make them men....Expensive schools brings expensive habits, cheap ones often lead to terrible habits, so it is very difficult to know...what to do.

I had to leave the care of the children in the Lord's hands. Right now I needed to help restore the work here.

I spent long hours helping each missionary to formulate plans and get back on track with their work. We chose to combine several missionaries along the coast together to add strength to their churches. We assigned the less experienced men and women to these places and assigned the most experienced missionaries to new areas in deeper China.

Having a plan in motion really helped. 

I received a letter from England reporting funds had been received to start a training school  to train new missionaries. This will be a great help! Praise God. The training school had the students work in the slums of London for experience.

Unfortunately, during this time of getting settled back into China, Jennie gave birth to still-born twins. The poor sweet woman.

Between reports from England and missionaries here in China, the work suffered very low days when many things seem to go wrong, and few up days when things seem to go well. 

I know God is here and that He wants the people of China to learn about His love for them. And for this reason, I refuse to quit. It is not my job to cause sunshine and happiness. I am simply to obey God's commands. This I shall do until I breathe my last breath.

Please pray for us to make wise and right decisions. Praise God for His blessings.

J. Hudson Taylor

Missionary to China--Inland China!

So Very Blessed by God 

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.and Mrs. Howard Taylor