2 of 3

"The Trio," as they became known, began their work in China around the turn of the century. After more than 20 years of doing routine missionary work in China, Mildred Cable and Eva and Francesca French were convinced God was calling them to China's great Northwest—to the Gobi Desert and beyond. Many of their colleagues were shocked. In the words of Cable, "Some wrote, saying in more or less parliamentary language, that there were no fools like old fools."

The Trio would not be deterred. They traveled for months by ox cart before arriving at the City of the Prodigals—the last city inside the Great Wall, named for its reputation for attracting criminals. Here they set up a base where they spent winters. The remaining eight months of the year they evangelized, traveling the vast trade routes of the Gobi Desert. They stopped at every settlement, timing their visits with festivals and fairs, where they preached the gospel and passed out tracts.

More than once, they were assailed by bandits and caught up in local wars, but their most persistent enemy was the weather. Once they were on the Gobi Desert during Easter week when the warm spring breezes suddenly turned into a blinding blizzard. They struggled to set up their tent and start a dung fire amidst the blowing snow and sand. That accomplished, they boiled water for the hot-water bottle, but as it was handed to Eva, it burst open, scalding her shivering body. The other two tended her burns, but the incident was ever a reminder of the cost of frontier evangelism.

Using single women in ministry, however, was not without its complications. Early on Hudson Taylor was publicly criticized for his close relationship with two single missionaries, Jennie Faulding and Emily Blatchley, after which he kept his distance—to Blatchley's regret:

"I am so lonely, so utterly alone," she wrote in her journal. "But why should I cling so? Oh, Christ, take hold of my hands . …I find such joy in being with the Taylors, but I must not let it intoxicate me."

Not long after she penned these lines, Blatchley volunteered to accompany the Taylor children who were returning to England for schooling. Soon after they left, Maria, Taylor's first wife, died in child birth. The next year, Taylor set sail for England to visit his children—and, Blatchley hoped, to marry her. But it was not to be. Jennie accompanied Taylor on the voyage, and when they arrived in England, they were engaged.

Blatchley was devastated. "I feel sure from what I know of my own nature that I should, if I had had the chance, have been Mrs.," she painfully wrote in her journal. "And so it is in love and mercy my God cut off my flowing stream at which He perhaps saw I should drink too deeply. Such a sweet, sweet stream, such a painful weaning! Therefore such a great blessing must await me for Jesus to bear to see me have so much pain." She died of tuberculosis not long after the wedding.

Hudson Taylor did not make a distinction between married and single women. He expected married women to focus primarily on ministry, even as their single sisters did. To a male recruit he wrote, "Unless you intend your wife to be a true missionary, not merely a wife, homemaker, and friend, do not join us."

Maria set the pace for other married women in the mission. Despite caring for five children, she was active in the ministry—reaching out to Chinese women and serving as first lady of the China Inland Mission. Souls were dying without the gospel, and no one in the mission was exempt from active duty.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

FREE E-Newsletter Sign up for the ChristianHistory.net e-mail newsletter. Discover more about your Christian heritage with this weekly e-newsletter that features key people, topics, and events from the history of Christianity.      RSS Feed   RSS Help