Year: summer 1934
Jonathan Goforth 75 years old
Jonathan Goforth's Journal
In all the years I have been in Asia, I have never wanted to do anything else with my life than to tell the people in China and, as it turns out, Manchuria, about the living God who loves them.
I'm not a young person any more. My desires to continue the work are young and spry, but my body is getting old.
It wasn't my place to complain about being blind. The apostle Paul had asked God to remove his physical problem and God said no and he didn't complain. Blindness has forced me into listening to everything more. Sitting down and sharing with these people more.
This year though, I had a terrible case of flu that turned into pneumonia. Being sick forced me to rest. Pray. Think. The word of my illness traveled back to Canada. Two pastors wrote, urging me to come home.
In my heart I just couldn't see doing that. This was my home. These are the people I have longed to be with. The pastors asked me to come back and kindle the desire to be missionaries among the college students. That was a work anyone there could do. God called me to work here.
But, when my wife, Rosalind became very ill, and the doctor said she would need special treatments and would die without them, I finally agreed to return to Canada.
The farewell was packed with tears and hugs. The Manchurians and Chinese didn't want us to leave, and we didn't want to leave them. I felt torn from their arms and wept with them. Thousands of people showed from the now forty-eight churches we've started.
Rosalind described the sight to me since I couldn't see the people. She told me about their gifts and placed them in my hands to feel. How my heart ached. We boarded the train in Manchuria. Rosalind described a sea of Christians waving and bowing.
I wanted some way to let them hear a response of gratitude from me. The window was closed, though. I bowed my head and touched my heart then I looked to the heavens to let them know we would see each other again one day in heaven. Then the most touching thing happened to show they saw me. The huge crowd erupted in weeping so loud I could heard them through the window and the noise of the train.
Goodbye Manchuria. Until we meet again.
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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