08/08/09 Weekend Grif.Net - Afraid, of What?

[Dr. Bob]

Afraid, of What?
 
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.  You’re 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 executioner’s 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 Priscilla’s 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 baby’s.”  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 God’s hands and faced
their executioners with courage.  John Stam’s 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.  John’s 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 Betty’s
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.
 
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 spirit’s glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid—of that?
 
Afraid?  Of what?
Afraid to see the Savior’s face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid—of that?
 
Afraid?  Of what?
A flash—a crash—a pierced heart;
Darkness—Light—O Heaven’s 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?

~~
Dr Bob Griffin
"Jesus knows me, this I love"