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James Hudson Taylor was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England on May 21, 1832. His father was a chemist and a Methodist preacher and prayed that his son would one day become a missionary to China.
At the age of 15 James accepted Christ through the reading of a tract and not long after dedicated himself to God to do any service required of him. At 19 while walking at night with his last half crown in his pocket he met a man in desperate need. Here he learned to trust God for his own needs and began to pray for his daily needs. God never let him down.
At the age of 20 he made his first trip to China and stayed there till 1861 when he became ill and needed to go back to England to recuperate. At this time he completed his medical training and completed the revision of a version of the New Testament in the Ningpo colloquial language.
Hudson, as he was called, began the China Inland Mission on faith, trusting God to give him 24 missionaries, two for each province of China and two for Tibet.
After praying he went to the bank and opened an account with 10 pounds under the name of China Inland Mission. He received invitations to speak at many different places but never allowed them to take a collection at these meetings because he was trusting God to supply the money needed for all his expenses. In 1866 when it was time for him to leave for China there were 16 young men and women who went with him and God provided all the money they needed to get there. He continued praying for more missionaries and God kept sending them.
He married Maria Dyer, the adopted daughter of Rev. Samuel Dyer of the London Missionary Society, after a brief courtship in China. She was a missionary in China at the time. Their story is told by Phyllis Thompson in a book entitled ‘God’s Adventurer’. It is published by Overseas Missionary Fellowship Inc.
- Anna Kroeker
Note: You can find this book at your Christian bookstore, or order it online, at several different sources like ChristianBook.com
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