John and Betty Stam by Kathleen White (1989)

Posted on 2021-08-16 by thelittleman
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For a Summer Reading Program I organized at my church this year, I’ve been encouraging folks to read biographies that I’ve pulled off our dusty and unused shelves. Thus far I’ve read a few that struck my fancy, like Tariri and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and others that I’ve just always wanted to read, like Peace Child and anything about John and Betty Stam.

I have my reasons for wanting to learn more about a missionary couple to China who lost their lives during the Communist uprisings of the 1930s. This story is one that’s been often shared from the pulpit as an illustration of commitment, courage, and sacrifice, yet in short snippets. Whenever I’ve heard it, it has lacked the details which would give it context. I wanted to know more, to dig deeper, to understand better the people behind the illustration.

Books like this by Kathleen White in the Women and Men of Faith series published by Bethany House are far from exhaustive. Prepared for young readers it seems, the writing is light and simple. It lacks the dramatic flair that a Don Richardson might put into his first-person accounts of mission work in the Dutch New Guinea, and it’s devoid of the depth of detail you’d find in a more professional biography by, say, a David McCullough or a William Manchester.

Still, for trade paperback weighing in at 128 pages and published by such a fluffy Christian publisher as Bethany House, this book never promised to be a major-league biography. It’s simply a quick account, “The story of the young American missionaries who gave their lives for Christ and China,” and that’s what I was looking for.

The author opens with an informative historical backdrop of China at the time when Communism began its rampage through northern China. The rest of the book follows John Stam and Betty Scott briefly through their childhoods and calls to ministry, their marriage and their early work together as missionaries. I was surprised to learn that they were a mere 28 years old at the time of their martyrdom, new parents to a baby girl, and relatively fresh on the scene in China. This gave me a new and better perspective on their story and impacts my morphing understanding of risk and sacrifice in missions.

In my various opportunities to speak on missions in the past, I have discussed such risk-taking by “undercover missionaries” in limited-access countries. I have argued for wisdom and judgment in such cases, contrasting long and effective ministries based on relationship-building and discipleship against short-lived ministries which actively break the host-nation’s laws. I share true accounts of blatant law-breaking by missionaries who pass out Gospel tracts in a Chinese market or who smuggle Bibles into Communist countries or who get arrowed to death by ignoring “No Tresspassing” signs. I fear being misunderstood when I say that foreign Christians who attempt such things are behaving foolishly, because such a statement lacks context.

Tracts are useful, but they are not the only method of sharing the Gospel; so if it’s illegal to share them, shouldn’t the Christian choose one of the other, less public methods of evangelism? Bibles are available for download in thousands of languages, even behind massive firewalls; so if a foreign Christian can provide Bibles to nationals in a way that’s not breaking smuggling laws, shouldn’t the Christian choose the other, legal method of sharing the Word? Shouldn’t wisdom and obedience to the governing authorities whenever possible be a hallmark of missionary behavior?

To risk expulsion or arrest by purposefully choosing the most dangerous method of ministry simply because it’s illegal is foolish. One missionary I know calls it “ministry suicide,” because it’s an excuse to leave a difficult situation while covering one’s own tail. “See!” they can tell their supporters back home, “Communists are evil, and I’m suffering for Jesus!”

To this day, I struggle when listening to stories of foreign workers in dangerous countries getting arrested, harmed, or expelled for disrespecting their host nation and breaking their laws while other options were available to them. This is the key. Despite what we too often discuss in our small-group Bible studies, few nations in the world (even the atheistic ones) actually command their people or visitors to sin. Do they close certain doors, like how often and where people can gather to worship? Yes. Do they try to limit access to the Truth by outlawing the import of Bibles or the sharing a religious literature in public settings? Yes. Do these nations outlaw relationships, Bible reading, or personal faith? At present, mostly no, and until they do, such methods are as effective in ministry as they were in Jesus’ day.

I’ve taken this massive rabbit trail to explain that, despite my strong feelings about risk and sacrifice in cross-culture work, I understand there do come times when risk is absolutely necessary. Although learning the language and dressing in the customary Chinese garb, the Stams could not hide their foreign-ness or their faith. Theirs wasn’t intentional subversion of Communist law, but merely faithfulness to Christ in going where He hadn’t yet been named and trying to reach the lost through their Gospel witness. It matters little that they were taken and murdered for their white faces rather than for their love of Jesus—they died as martyrs for cause of Christ, because they were faithfully living out and sharing the Gospel in their own, intentional, plodding way.

Though imperfect, they “did everything right” in the grand scheme of things. They obeyed the guards who arrested them. They tried to show respect. They didn’t fight. They allowed for secret messages to be passed, because there was no other choice. They committed no “ministry suicide” but were martyred in their faithfulness to the Lord. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” and I can’t think of a better illustration of this truth than the case of John and Betty Stam.

The Stam’s story is better than this book which tells it, but it certainly has got me thinking. Kathleen White did a bit of research for this account, which I did find fascinating, going back to articles from a missionary magazine from the time period to quote John as he related his situation to their supporters. Overall, however, the book itself feels like a report. I’m sure there are better biographies of this couple out there, but if you’ve got nothing else on hand, this book will do.

©2021 E.T.

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