Year: August 1910
Jonathan Goforth-51 years old
Jonathan Goforth's Journal
Furlough is a time when missionaries are required to go back to their original country and renew their paperwork. Visas, licenses, all kinds of paperwork. The missionaries also visit churches who have supported them. Many churches. It's a lot of work.
I was really glad I could be with my family. When the year ended, we had approval to return to China, but the mission board asked us to first attend the conference in Great Britain. They wanted me to speak to the people and share God's work.
What surprised me about the conference was the great interest the people had. They really wanted to know a lot about the people of China. I only wished the people of Canada felt as strongly. Any way, I was happy to see their support and encouragement.
Rosalind, the children, and I boarded a ship and sailed to China. We settled back into our home and opened a letter that told us our new duties. Part involved me traveling around China and preaching.
This was a two man job. Over the years, fifteen Chinese men had learned how to be evangelists from our training program, and all were busy with their own assignments. There wasn't even one man who could travel with me. So I prayed, asking God to send me a helper.
Until that time, I got to work back in Changte. On the 30th day of preaching to large crowds, we set up the chairs and prepared for another day. That night as I preached, a drunk man in fancy clothes, staggered into the tent. He had taken a taxi, got out, and walked inside. The disturbance caught the eye of everyone sitting. They watched him walk to an open seat in the front row and sit.
I really didn't think he understood much, and mostly prayed as I spoke that God would keep him from disturbing the service like other drunks have done.
The drunk man mumbled a few times. He fidgeted in his seat and acted like he wanted to leave. At the end of my message I asked if anyone wanted to learn more about Jesus. The drunk man raised his hand along with several other people.
We sang a few songs and I spoke more. At the end of the service, the drunk man, came to me. I found out his name was Su Chuangting. He said, "How did you know so much about me?"
I didn't. I had preached to everyone listening about a living God who would forgive them for the bad things they had done.
Su Chuangting said, "I knew I had done bad things, but this was the first time that I'd heard God would forgive me."
We talked for a while. Then the man left. I didn't know if I would see him again.
That night I prayed again for God to send me a helper.
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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