Year: February 1864
Jonathan Goforth
Jonathan Goforth's Journal
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| Photo Courtesy- 1864 map |
We started our journey last week. May want to scroll down and read the last story. Yep. That tumble out of a moving cart taught me a lesson or two.
I was supposed to start school in October. I'd turned five-years-old back in February and was real excited to go. The school was quite a walk from our farm. Mom didn't trust me to go alone, and Dad couldn't spare my older brothers from harvesting work.
By the time November rolled around I finally had my first day of school. I'm really not boasting here, other than for my momma's training, but none of the other kids could read...at all. They didn't know their letters.
I felt like I would have to wait forever for the others in my class to read as well as I did....and reading was pretty much what we did in that first year of school.
There was a large paper hung on the wall next to the chalkboard that captured my attention, though. I spent many of the boring reading class minutes just gazing at this large map on the wall. The teacher said it showed all the places on the earth. Then she showed us where we lived. A tiny mark showed our place in Canada. Imagine, all those other places with so many more people.
At times farm life got pretty quiet, even with ten siblings, animals, and machines. My teacher said there were millions of other people who lived in our world.
Each day when teacher dismissed us for recess, and while the other kids ran out the door to play, I walked to the map. She'd hung it low enough for us to touch. I set my finger on the dot she'd made then found the closest big city. London, Ontario. I'd never seen London, Ontario. Dad said it'd take a long ride to get there.
Then I stepped back. The map was bigger than my eyes could see without moving. I wondered what it was like in the places so far away. Did the people eat the same food? Did they live on farms?
I wanted to know more about the places and people so far away from my home. When my classes became boring, I studied foreign places and people.
During the summers, I thought about what I'd learned in those studies while working on the farm. That's when a ton of questions filled my mind. I wrote them down and promised to answer each one when school started again in October...or November for us.
I have many stories to share. Come back each Monday to find out what happened next.
Resources Used for This Series
Being, Janet, and Geoff Benge. Jonathan Goforth: An Open Door in China. Seattle. WA: YWAM Pub., 2001.Print
Doyle, G. Wright. Builders of the Chinese Church: Pioneer Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Church Leaders. Eugene Oregon: Pickwick Pub, 2015. Print.
Goforth, Jonathan, and Rosaline Goforth, Miracle Lives of China, London" Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1931, Print.
Goforth, Jonathan. "By My Spirit" Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1942. Print
Goforth, Rosalind. Climbing; Memories of a Missionary's Wife. Chicago: Moody Pub, n.d. Print
Goforth, Rosalind, How I Know God Answers Prayers; The Personal Testimony of One Life-time, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1921. Print
Goforth, Rosalind. Jonathan Goforth. Minneapolis, MN: Bethan House, 1986. Print
Goforth, Rosalind, How God Answers Prayer: The Mighty Miracles of God from the Mission Field of Jonathan Goforth. USA: Revival, 2016. Print Original copyright not stated.
Jackson, Dave, and Neta Jackson. Mask of the Wolf Boy: Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1999. Print.
McCleary, Walter. An Hour with Jonathan Goforth: A Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1938. Print.
Meloche, Renee Taft., and Bryan Pollard. Jonathan Goforth: Never Give up. Seattle, WA: YWAM, 2004. Print.
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