Not less than everything | Valerie Griffiths

China - a new world for women

Imagine what it must have been like for the women of China. Crippled, oppressed, unable to leave the house.

A mere 200 years ago women in China spent most of their lives confined to their homes - the result of the thousand-year custom of foot binding. It crippled millions of women, making walking painful, if not impossible.

The first female missionaries to China soon realised that unless they could visit the women in their homes, they would never hear of God's love.

Single women

In her new book, 'Not Less than Everything', Valerie Griffiths introduces us to these early pioneering missionaries; women who gave their lives to take the gospel far into the very heart of China's vast interior.

Since 1865, Hudson Taylor had known that the service of single women was vital for the evangelisation of Chinese women, but the way forward had not been clear. They had been moving inland to join the married couples in the major centres, but with such small numbers in such a vast country, they were widely scattered. Suddenly it looked simple: the women could fulfil a vital role in the growth of the churches by living and working alongside Chinese colleagues. Several of the 26 single women who had arrived in 1884 were ready to take on this responsibility. Their ages ranged from 20 to 26 and none had been in China more than two years, but they were gaining confidence in the language and adjusting to Chinese life.

It was an exciting step forward, and a radical development as far as women's ministry in the churches went.

Nellie Marchbank

Nellie Marchbank arrived in Shanghai in December 1887. She could not have been more different from the 'Cambridge Seven' who had blazed a trail of media glory from England to China two years earlier. Her Scottish mother was a widow, and their resources were very limited, so Nellie had only three years of education before she left school and started work, probably at the age of eight or nine. She 'continued to study a little' and read Christian biographies. She became a committed Christian at the age of 18. Later, the death of her mother left her alone in the world, but as she made her way home after the funeral, she suddenly realised she was now completely free to serve God in China.

She applied to the China Inland Mission when she was 26. There were misgivings about her ability to learn Chinese, but her application papers were satisfactory and the reports of her referees were glowing. Whatever she lacked in formal education, she seemed to make up in character and natural (or God-given) ability, and she had shown particular gifts in relating to people. She was accepted and reached Shanghai in December of that same year. She spent only three months in the training home, perhaps because of the growing numbers of women arriving. Then she was sent to the Guangxin River where she spent the next 37 years, and left a record of these years in her diary. In that period she rarely left the province, seldom went away on holiday, and only twice returned to Britain.

'The women's field'

The Guangxin River became known as 'the women's field' and it became one of the most successful areas of church planting in the CIM. If asked, Nellie would have said that she was only a willing instrument: what happened there was achieved not by human effort, but by the God who called them all and sent them. The workers, both Chinese and Western, tirelessly sowed the seed, and the one they served gave the harvest. In human terms the workers were nothing: few of them had much education, even the Western women. Some had been teachers or governesses; one had been a clerk; some had worked in factories; some were dressmakers; and a few, like Nellie, had been in domestic service. Their level of education reflected their social background but not their intelligence. Some were barely 20 years of age when they arrived, but they were totally committed in their Christian service, and most of them spent their whole lives in China.

One of the strengths of the work done by the CIM missionaries was their commitment to mobilising ordinary Chinese Christians. When Nellie died, there were only three pastors for the whole province of Jiangxi, and two of these were in the Guangxin area. The new Christians knew very well that if they wanted to share the Christian good news which they had found, they would have to do it themselves: they could not wait for the 'professionals' to do it. They took the initiative in offering the use of their homes in villages and towns; they were not dependent on official buildings, and if these were destroyed (and many were), the message was still passed on from mouth to mouth. The Christians did not realise it then, but roots were being put down which would feed a different system many years later, when the buildings were taken away but the churches refused to die.

Partnership

Another strength in the Guangxin valley was the partnership between the Chinese couples and the missionary women. In accordance with Chinese culture, the Chinese men reached out to the local men and led the emerging churches. The women, both Chinese and Western, concentrated on the huge task of taking the message to the local women in their homes. Each out-station could be surrounded by hundreds of villages, and one missionary might be responsible for three or four out-stations at a time. The Chinese were able to develop their leadership abilities rapidly because they did not assume that women missionaries would take charge - but the women were there to talk to, and they could give support and encouragement to the young, emerging church leaders.

'Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus' (1 Corinthians 1.26-30).

This extract is taken with permission from 'Not less than everything' by Valerie Griffiths (Monarch/OMF, £8.99).

Valerie Griffiths currently researches the role of women in mission. She spent 23 years serving Christ in East Asia with her husband Michael, General Director of OMF International, 1969-1980.