Dr Paul Allen

During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, missionaries trapped in a home in T’ai Yüan Fu decided their only hope for survival rested on running through the crowd that was calling for their deaths. Aided by weapons they held, they escaped the immediate threat. However, Edith Coombs, noticing that two of her injured Chinese students had not escaped, raced back into danger. She rescued one, but stumbled on her return trip for the second student and was killed. Meanwhile, missionaries in Hsin Chou district had escaped and were hiding in the countryside, accompanied by their Chinese friend Ho Tsuen Kwei. But he was captured while scouting an escape route for his friends in hiding and was martyred for refusing to reveal their location. In the lives of Edith Coombs and Tsuen Kwei we see a love that rises above cultural or national character. Their sacrifice reminds us of the greater grace and love of our Savior. As Jesus awaited His arrest and subsequent execution, He praye...

US troops in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Our missionaries have remained with us; we will stand by them, and live or die together." Meng Ch'ang-ch'un and the other Chinese pastors at Pao- ting Fu were united in their determination. The Boxer Rebellion , an angry reaction against western interference in China , raged across China. The government encouraged lawless bands to kill all foreigners and those who had adopted their ways, especially Christians . Thousands of people died. Meng was a direct descendant of the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius . He was attending a conference in T'ung Chow when the news came that the Boxers had destroyed the railroad to Pao-ting Fu and cut communications. Meng could have fled to nearby Peking where foreign embassies offered some protection; many other Christians did. But he remembered the missionaries who remained behind. It seemed to him that his honor as a Chinese called him to Pa...

Image via Wikipedia What may be most interesting about Eric Liddell is that he is remembered for something he  didn’t do  far more than than something he did. And he did some great things! He was one of the best rugby players in the world, one of the fastest men in the world, a two-time Olympic medalist.  He was a profoundly godly guy, a pastor, a missionary. And yet he is known for what he did not do. His story begins in China in 1902 and ends in China in 1945, so he lived from the turn of the century, right near the end of the Victorian era , to almost the end of World War 2. He was born in January of that year in Tianjin, the second son of James and Mary Liddell.  His father was a missionary with the London Missionary Society , that great organization that sent so many missionaries around the world (perhaps the best known of them being David Livingstone who is best remembered for what someone else said to him!). His parents were Scottish Presbyteria...