Dr Paul Allen

China Inland Mission. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor & Wife, with Group of Christians (Photo credit: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library ) Hudson Taylor almost killed (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) From The Story of The China Inland Mission; Mary Geraldine Guinness; 1893 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) From the Jubilee Story of the China Inland Mission; Marshall Broomhall 1915 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Hudson Taylor circa 1865 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The missionary spirit is utterly contagious. Even just one life burning brightly for the gospel can ignite the hearts of hundreds of others for generations to come. What a powerful thing it is to contemplate that reality in the history of missionary work! Consider, for example, the following chain of gospel influence: 1. John Elliott (1604–1690) was a Puritan settler in New England who began evangelizing the native Americans. Known as the “apostle to the Indians,” he translated the Bible into their native language, helped to establish churches, ...

Image via Wikipedia [William] Carey started out as a British cobbler, a shoemaker, who felt a deep burden for the nations of the world.  He made a globe map of the world out of leather, tacked it up on his wall, and then, while he worked on shoes, he prayed for the various nations.   Eventually, the Lord made it possible for William Carey to go to India as one of the first missionaries to that land.   God gifted Carey with tremendous abilities.  In fact, he translated the Bible into 37 different Indian dialects.  But William Carey didn’t do all of these things through his own power.  While he labored in the distant land of India, back in England , William Carey had a sister whom he affectionately called Polly - Polly was bedridden and almost completely paralyzed for 52 years.   William wrote to Polly all about the details of his struggle to create primers and dictionaries in the various Indian dialects, as well as the difficulty of...