This week in Christian history: Anne Bradstreet dies, missionary goes to China, Huguenot massacre in Florida
Hudson Taylor sails for China — Sept. 19, 1853
This week marks the anniversary of when James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the group China Inland Mission who commonly went by his middle name, set sail for China.
Aged 21 when he first set out from England, Taylor did not arrive in China until March 4, 1854. By that time, the region was engulfed in war. Nevertheless, he persisted.
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“Most days Hudson Taylor and Joseph Edkins, a fellow missionary, would travel in boats to evangelize and hand out tracts in villages. Hudson and Edkins were often not warmly welcomed by remote villages because of their foreign appearance,” wrote Chloe Joy of christian-history.org.
“For this reason, and out of respect for their culture, Hudson adopted a Chinese wardrobe. He even began to style his hair in a Chinese fashion, a practice he maintained for the rest of his life. Preaching then became much easier for the two missionaries.”
His organization, then called China Inland Mission, continues to exist in the present day under the name OMF International.
