p. 12 | Evangelism from the Home by Mrs. J. Goforth

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 20, 1916

Evangelism from the Home

By Mrs. J. Goforth

How Can Missionary Wives and Mothers Take Part in the Work of Evangelism, and Yet Not Neglect the Home?

We all know that very many missionary wives throughout China are giving valuable and faithful service to the cause of Christ in every branch of missionary work. This paper is not written for those who have entered into some work to which they felt called of God, but it is written especially, and I may say only, to help those wives and mothers who as yet have done little or nothing to reach the heathen multitudes at their doors—not from unwillingness to help, but often from a sense of helplessness, even hopelessness, as to how and where to begin without neglecting home and family. I may say right here that work for Christians is barely touched on in this paper, my plea being for the much-neglected aggressive evangelistic effort, the preaching of Jesus Christ to those who know him not.

As a missionary mother of a large family, and one who from the beginning of her life in China felt intensely that only as she could work without neglect or hurt to her children could she take part in mission work, I venture to offer some suggestions for work in which a wife or mother may engage, and yet be true to her home duties. Some of these suggestions have been thought “impracticable” or “too idealistic,” but they have without exception all been lived and worked out in the writer’s own experience and in the lives of several missionary mothers (noted for their devotion to their children) known to her. They have therefore been proved to be workable.

Pray First

First and foremost we would put the work of intercession,—a work surely every mother could and should engage in. Really to enter into this as a work, we must believe in prayer. Nor is it necessary always to go apart. Rather learn the habit of intercession. Some years ago a lady in Scotland told me that near her lived a poor, hard-working

woman with a large family, their home being one large room. The minister of the district often visited this woman for the good he received from such visits. One day he said to her, “How is it you can be so full of joy and peace, when it must be impossible for you to get a moment alone with your Lord?” The woman, setting her iron down, looked steadily at the minister as she answered, quietly, “Ah, that is where you make the mistake! I just sit me down, put my apron over my head, and I’m in my tabernacle with my Lord in a moment.”

Dear sisters, pursued it may be from morning till night with the care of your little ones, think of this woman, and seek from your Lord the power to form the habit of prayer, of intercession, so that—it may be even with your little ones in your arms—you can help by the use of this all-powerful weapon. Get from your husband the names of evangelists, Bible women, students, and others who need to be prayed for.

Win Your Servants to Christ

Then, secondly, comes the work of winning your servants to Christ. Ah, you will say this is the hardest of all; for does it not mean the daily testing and discipline of one’s own character in the home life?—Yes; words fail one to express the importance to a mother of her servants’ being truly converted and in sympathy and Christian fellowship with herself. I would suggest from personal experience that the quickest way to bring this union about is for the mother to take her servants into her confidence, telling them frankly of her desire to do something for their people, and showing them how impossible this would be unless through their cooperation. Pray for your servants; rule them with a rod of love, not of iron. If you realize that you have been unjust, go to them and tell them you are sorry. Let them know you sympathize with them. Find out about their home people, and when possible show them acts of human kindness. In the successful reaching of her servants’ hearts and souls lies the door to a mother’s wider sphere of work.

Open Your Own Home

Thirdly, I would earnestly plead for the opening of the missionary’s home to the Chinese women. By this I do not mean simply welcoming a comparatively few favored Christians or even heathen into the home; I mean for the wife or mother to welcome into her home the women, rich and poor alike. Alas! most missionary compounds are so built that even if the missionary’s wife were ever so willing, the walls and gateways between her home and the heathen world outside are so many that it would require much greater courage than she possesses to cause a heathen woman, especially a stranger, to venture past all the barriers. Is it not true that in many missionary homes months, even years, pass without many heathen women seeing the inside? What, then, are we to do? Wait for the women who may never come?—By no means. Get out of the compound, take your Bible woman with you (a missionary’s wife should always have a Bible woman or at least a Christian woman to help her). Never pass a Chinese woman without a smile, and, if possible, a word of greeting. If invited to enter a courtyard, do so—or even to sit down on a doorstep. Keep praying for an opportunity to reach their souls. Don’t be afraid to speak at once of Jesus; it is wonderful how quickly and eagerly they learn of him. Invite them to come to see you, and when they come, never, no matter how busy you may be, never turn one away from your door, or ask them to remain outside till you are ready; this is fatal to the winning of the women. Even if bathing the baby, let them in to see the whole process. It will do them lots of good, and will do you and the baby no harm.

“But,” you say, “they will bring dust into my home, and infection to my children.”

Never mind the dust. It may be you will have to dispense with carpets, even rugs, should many come, and have your floors washed frequently; but what is that compared with the possible good you may do by receiving them? As to infection to the children, I can only say that for twenty-seven years I have kept an open house in China, many hundreds of women being received and preached to in a single day during those early years, yet I cannot recall any harm having come to my children through this plan. O, it pays! I verily believe that if every missionary’s wife in China would keep open house for the Chinese women, it would do much to break down the regrettable barrier which so often exists between the missionaries and the people around them.

Your Safest Place

There are several other lines of work I should like to enlarge on had I space, such as holding cottage prayer meetings in Christian homes within easy reach of the main station, making these a means also of reaching the heathen, etc. But I wish specially to mention two exceedingly important lines of work from which most mothers shrink with the foregone conclusion that those at least must mean neglect of home. They are the visiting of permanent outstations and the opening up of new places, with husband and children. Would that I could see burned into the conscience of each missionary’s wife in China the lesson which only long years of rebellion and sorrow taught me; namely, the safest place for a mother, for both herself and her little ones, is the path of obedience to God’s known will. If he gives you a vision of the awful need of your heathen sisters around you, oh, do not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, but go forward, trusting yourself and your children to your Lord! He will not fail you. The need is unspeakably great for each mother to do her part in reaching the mothers of China.

Let me give you, as I have been asked to do, a word of personal testimony. For many years I have gone with my husband, sometimes with as many as four children, opening up new places and visiting old ones, staying from three to six weeks in a place, and revisiting these places once or twice a year. God kept our children. They were healthier outside than inside the main station. God blessed, and is blessing, this united work in a very marked way. Every place visited became a Christian center. Sometimes it was hard. Yes, but I had the joy of working in closest contact with the women, with my children around me. And God was always faithful. I do most earnestly hope many missionary wives and mothers may come to see this is their work—the living and working side by side with husband and children. It requires courage, faith, dependence upon God, a literal laying aside of every weight, a simpler life in clothes and diet. It means giving up for weeks at a time the luxuries of the main station home, but it does not mean in the truest sense the neglect of home; for “home is where mother is,” to children, and home to a woman is where husband and children are.

There are grand compensations! And one learns to value some things very lightly when weighing them in the balance with the things of eternity.

In closing, a word to those missionary wives who have no children, or whose children are away from home, and who have not a sense of personal responsibility toward the heathen. Let me ask you one or two questions: Is Jesus Christ your only hope for eternity? If so, is not Jesus Christ the only hope for the multitudes of Chinese sisters around you? God uses human instruments to reach human hearts. You are one of his human instruments. Are you willing to be his channel? Consider prayerfully these words: “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are needy to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?”