Jonathan Goforth-No One Would Go? Really?

By Mary Vee
Year: summer 1881

Jonathan Goforth-seventeen years old

Jonathan Goforth's Journal

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My name is Jonathan Goforth. I will be a missionary to China some day. I feel it deep inside.

I'd turned seventeen years old and finished my political course. Every time I thought back to the day my teacher and classmates asked Jesus to be their savior I was convinced I should be a pastor. 

The next step was to study Latin and Greek at Knox College. I'd become quite excited about being a pastor, especially as I watched Mr. Cameron preach in his church. It was because of his teachings that I realized my need to ask Jesus into my heart.

I couldn't wait to get started. I ordered hundreds of tracts to share with everyone I knew and met. I taught a Sunday School class. These experiences helped me learn a lot about sharing God's love with others. 

One day a friend invited me to hear a guest speaker at the Knox church. The speaker was a missionary to Taiwan. How intriguing! I went with my friend to hear Dr. Mackay speak. He was an older man and his words captured my attention.

Dr. Mackay told us many ways God had provided for him in Taiwan, about the many people there who didn't know the Gospel, how there was a great need for more missionaries to go and help with the work. He said he had traveled all over Canada searching for one man to go back with him. To learn the ministry and to take over before Dr. Mackay died. It seemed there wasn't anyone.

I felt horrible. Not sick. Just incredibly sad inside. No one would go? His work would simply end? How would the people learn about the God who loved them?

And then I questioned my thinking of the past month. Why did I want to be a minister? There is a great need in the world. Who am I to stay home when I could be in some other place telling people who had never heard about Jesus and that there really was a God who loved them.

I sat in the pew and lowered my head. That's when a Bible verse came to mind, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?"

That was the answer. Clear as the sky above me. I needed to finish my training at Knox then prepare to go to a mission field. I didn't know for sure if God needed me in Taiwan, but I did know God wanted me to help somewhere in a foreign land.

Jonathan has 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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