Hudson Taylor- Yantai, A City of Rest

By Mary Vee

Year: April 1879 

Hudson Taylor: age 46

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes

How Yantai looks today Photo Courtesy

God doesn't expect us to work--work--work. The Bible tells us God rested after making all of creation.

God likes to teach us what is right. He didn't need to rest after making creation, but He did, to show us resting after work is good.

Last time I wrote to you, I said I would tell you about the wonderful city of Yantai.

Let's see, I had been really ill, so sick I couldn't eat or walk. Jennie, my wife insisted we find a place for me to rest and get well. We had heard about Yantai but hadn't been there before. 

Yantai is in northern China, right on the ocean and has sandy beaches. Many foreign traders, Chinese, and missionaries go there for vacations. 

Our friends helped me to board a ship to travel to Yantai. My sickness grew worse while we sailed, but thanks to Jennie's prayers and a special tea she made we arrived in Yantai--and I was still alive!

The fresh air, good friends, and healthy food soon had me feeling better. Each day I grew stronger and thought, this would be a good place for missionaries to come for a rest. Maybe more missionaries would stay in China if only they could rest from their work at times. 

I walked on the beach one day and thought, wouldn't it be nice to build a school for the missionary children here? And we could also build a hospital. This is the perfect place for sick missionaries and Chinese people to come and get well, too.

I rented a small building to start the idea. As always, God's time was perfect as always. No sooner had I paid the money to use the building when I received a letter from one of our best missionaries, Charles and Elizabeth Judd. They had sold all their belongings and planned to return to England. Elizabeth had become very sick. Charles thought she would die. They wanted to go back to England to help her get well.

I wrote him right away and told him about Chefoo in Yantai and asked if they would be willing to come here and let us help Elizabeth get well. It has helped me get well so it should help her. Soon the Judds moved to the small house I rented. 

I turned all my ideas over to Charles Judd: to start a missionary school, hospital, and resort for missionaries to rest. He loved the ideas and started work right away. 

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