Year: August 1900
Jonathan Goforth-41 years old
Jonathan Goforth's Journal
At least we have been.
I am healing slowly from my wounds here in Canada where I use to live.
When we arrived home from that frightening escape, hundreds of Canadians welcomed us. So many hugged us. "We didn't think you'd make it out of China alive. They wept and begged us to tell the story of what happened.
We must have told the story of how God protected us a thousand times. We had no clue there were so many who cared about us.
Rosalind, the children, and I needed time to heal. Time to rest. Time to learn what God wanted us to do next. We prayed asking God to show us the way. In our hearts we all knew the answer. As soon as foreigners were allowed back in China, we would go back to help the people and tell them about the God who loves them.
The Chinese were not able to solve the problem on their own. Their country was ripped apart with the violence and destruction. Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and the United States came together and sent soldiers to stop the war. They directed their efforts in Peking where the dowager Tz'u-hsi lived.
Dowager Tz'u-hsi encouraged the Chinese people to kill foreigners, burn factories, and churches including ones owned by Chinese who were Christians.
The foreign soldiers fought the Imperial Chinese soldiers and the Boxer Rebellion. They forced the dowager to run away to the north. The war finally ended. Violence and destruction stopped. Thousands had died during the uprising.
It took over a year to negotiate a peace agreement.
During that time I spent my days traveling and telling everyone I knew about the problems in China. How they would need help healing. How missionaries were needed.
The signed government agreement was not good, in my opinion. The Chinese lost mostly everything. The government has to pay large amounts of money for the destruction of foreign businesses, they had to take down their coastal defenses, and they had to allow trade that wasn't allowed before.
This wasn't an agreement. This was a take over. How could those foreign negotiators think they solved anything by bullying the Chinese? No one listens to a bully. The Chinese people may do what the bully says on the outside but on the inside they will still be angry. What was done will only turn the Chinese men and women more against foreigners.
Even those who want to help.
Even those who want to show they care.
I know missionaries will be able to return soon. When they do, the time to help and share the love of the living God will be short.
The job will be difficult.
I listened to the news throughout the day and learned the Chinese boarders would open in the middle of October, a little more than a year from when we left. I planned to be among the first to go in and help. I'll leave my family here in Canada, until I know it is safe for them to join me in China.
Healed from my physical wounds as best as could be, I boarded the ship for China then turned and waved good bye to my family standing on the shore. My insides were tangled with excitement about returning to China, sadness for leaving my family behind, love for the Chinese people, curiosity if my Changte home was still there. I could hardly focus on anything.
May God save us all. War and destruction is such an ugly thing.
There is more to this story. Come back next time.
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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