Hudson Taylor-The Donkeys Ate Our Pillows

By Mary Vee

Year: April 1880 

Hudson Taylor: age 48

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes

Photo Courtesy

God has blessed the China Inland Mission more than I had ever dreamed. 

Because of His mercy, the mission had finally gained the respect of other missions. I sure remember the days when other missionaries had nothing but bad words to say about CIM. 

We were different and they didn't understand. The CIM missionaries and I agreed we should dress like the Chinese people. Our job was to show them God's love not to teach them the English way. 

So far, God has sent seventy Europeans and one hundred Chinese nationals to serve as missionaries and they serve in sixty-four locations, all working to share the love of God with the Chinese people. 

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is the importance of helping Chinese christians to become national pastors and teachers. While teaching English missionaries to dress, eat, speak, and live like Chinese, we still lacked a special quality to teach and witness to the people that only the national Christians had. Our new focus is to raise up Chinese pastors and teachers to become witnesses to their people.

With all the problems settled for the time being, I went on a journey with my assistant, Joe Coulthard, to visit all of our mission stations. In less than one month's time, we walked or rode our donkeys three hundred miles. Some of the missionaries lived in such poor areas we had to spend the night with our mules. 

We prayed for all our missionaries, thanking God for all He had done, then turned off the lanterns. Neither my assistant, nor I slept well that night because our mules kept eating the straw we had bunched together for pillows.

One of the missionary families I visited needed my medical help. The wife had dysentery, the oldest child had whooping cough, and the baby...unfortunately died in my arms. I did what I could for them then suggested they take time to rest at our new resort in Yantai. I remember how much the rest helped me.

The trip to visit all of our missionaries and help with what they needed took about three years and we traveled fifteen thousand miles. I really enjoyed seeing each station and the work being done there.

The mules and I also learned to get along with each other. I left them a big pile of straw before going to sleep each night.

Please pray for our missionaries, both nationals and those who have followed God's call to come to China and share the love of God with the Chinese people.

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