Chinese Communist soldiers barged into the cold room December 1934, where missionaries John and Betty Stam were held captive. They commanded, Take off your outer garments and shoes. Youre coming with us. The Stams prayed silently for strength and looked at each other. They knew what those orders meant. They were to be executed. Outer garments would interfere with the thrust of the executioners sword.
Betty Stam tried not to look at Helen Priscilla, their 3-month-old child, lest she would attract attention to her. She had hidden two five dollar bills under Priscillas blankets during the night. It was just enough to cover the cost of the journey for their child, now soon to be an orphan, over the Chinese mountains to reach her grandparents.
Then Communist troops had arrived before more than a handful of villagers could escape. The Stams were taken captive and John was told to write a ransom note demanding $20,000. He told the soldiers the ransom would not be paid, and stated in the note, My wife, baby, and myself are today in the hands of Communist bandits. Whether we will be released or not, no one knows. May God be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death (Philippians 1:20).
The Stams spent the first night in jail, and baby Helen Priscilla cried. The soldiers discussed whether or not to kill the baby, for as one soldier states, It is our way. A prisoner, just released, protested. And the Communists demanded, Your life for the babys. The man was hacked to death in front of the Stams.
As the Stams left their precious child in the cell, they had no way of knowing what would become of her. They left her in Gods hands and faced their executioners with courage. John Stams final act was to plead for the life of another protester who objected to the manner in which the Stams were dragged to the spot of execution. Johns pleas were silenced by the sword that severed his head. Betty trembled for a moment, and then fell beside her husband.
Miraculously, little Helen Priscilla was rescued many hours later by Rev. L Ke-Chou and his wife. They carried her over the mountains to Bettys parents, also missionaries in China. While John and Betty did not survive that day, the Lord used their deaths to raise up a new generation of missionaries. Their legacy continues today as the testimony of their courage lives on. The triumph of the Stams that day is perhaps best expressed in a poem Betty wrote at age 18:
Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, All my own desires and hopes, And accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all Utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt. And work out They whole will in my life, at any cost, Now and forever.[1]
John, in writing to his father some time before, and mentioning the prevailing dangers, had enclosed verses which, though written by another, he said expressed his own feelings.
Afraid?
Afraid? Of what? To feel the spirits glad release? To pass from pain to perfect peace, The strife and strain of life to cease? Afraidof that?
Afraid? Of what? Afraid to see the Saviors face, To hear His welcome, and to trace The glory gleam from wounds of grace? Afraidof that?
Afraid? Of what? A flasha crasha pierced heart; DarknessLightO Heavens art? A wound of His a counterpart! Afraid?of that?
Afraid? Of what? To do by death what life could not Baptize with blood a stony plot, Till souls shall blossom from the spot? Afraid?of that?[2]
Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Mt 19:24, 25) |