Remembering Two Missionary Martyrs

I just got an email from my friend Chip Stam, who teaches at Southern Seminary. He says: "December 8 is the day on which Roman Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Immanculate Conception (the notion that Mary was born without sin. I am searching my Bible for any evidence of that---nothing yet!) Yes, every generation should call her "blessed" (Luke 1)."

 

Chip goes on to say: "In the Stam family and certain parts of the missions-minded evangelical church, we remember December 8 as the day in 1934 when my great aunt and uncle John and Betty Stam were martyred in China. Here is a short picture/essay about the life and death of John and Betty Stam. http://www.carlstam.org/familyheritage/jbstam.html  This site has some very interesting letters from John and Betty, written in the months and years before their martyrdom. http://www.carlstam.org/familyheritage/china_correspondence.html "

This material will prove well worth your devotional attention. By the way, the Stams have connections with us at First Presbyterian Church Jackson, where we have a number of folk who grew up on the mission field in China, pre-Mao. Indeed, some of the Stam relatives lived right down the street from us.

 

There's is a story that I often reflect upon. We who live and minister in an easy and affluent culture, where there is little risk of death or persecution for following Christ or proclaiming the Gospel ought frequently to meditate on the cost of discipleship, and pray for the Spirit to give us the spirit of courage which inhabited (and inhabits) so many of our selfless brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.