Hudson Taylor: Deep in the Heart of China (Christian Heroes: Then & Now) by Janet Benge & Geoff Benge

Author:Janet Benge & Geoff Benge [Benge, Janet & Benge, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, History, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781576580165
Amazon: 1576580164
Goodreads: 215276
Publisher: YWAM Publishing
Published: 1998-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

One of the Crowd

The other missionaries watched Hudson closely. The Chinese Evangelization Society was a new organization, and they wanted to see how it cared for its only worker. And what they saw was not impressive. To them, the society had sent out an unqualified, unmarried man, without any instructions as to what they wanted him to do and, judging by his clothes and the food he ate, with very little income. What were they thinking?

After several months, Hudson was beginning to wonder the same thing. He became more and more lonely. He didn’t dare tell anyone how difficult things really were for him; doing so would only give the other missionaries more reason to criticize the Chinese Evangelization Society.

Finally, letters did begin to arrive from the society. Hudson received his letter of credit and was able to arrange to get some money to pay his expenses. But the money was never enough. The society paid him a salary of eighty pounds per year, from which he had to meet all his expenses. Single missionaries with the London Missionary Society were paid seven hundred pounds a year, as well as having their rent and other expenses paid. Hudson wrote to the Chinese Evangelization Society and explained to them how the war had driven up the price of everything in Shanghai. He asked if they could possibly increase the amount of money they paid him, in light of the increased costs. The letter he received back was not what he expected.

Instead of increasing Hudson’s salary, the society announced that it was sending another missionary to work in Shanghai, and not just a single person like Hudson, but a man with a wife and two children. In fact, Dr. Parker and his family were already on their way on a ship called the Swiftsure.

Hudson wanted to feel delighted at the thought of having another missionary from the Chinese Evangelization Society with him in Shanghai, but mostly he was filled with a sense of dread. As usual, the society had sent no instructions on how they wanted him to prepare for Dr. Parker’s arrival. He supposed they would want him to rent a house that they could all live in and set up as society headquarters in China. But he kept telling the society in his letters back to them in London that there was not a house to be rented in the whole International Settlement because of the siege. Hudson was twenty-one years old, barely able to survive on his meager income, and now he also had to be responsible for a whole family in a city where not a house or room was available for rent. He wondered how much the Chinese Evangelization Society had told the Parkers about conditions in Shanghai. When they arrived, would they be as surprised at the conditions as he’d been?

Hudson had eaten his first meal in China with the Burdons, a young couple with the London Missionary Society. The Burdons and Hudson had become good friends and spent much time together.

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