For the next two years, Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth traveled around China conducting evangelistic meetings and looking for a permanent base for their mission work. No matter how hard they tried, they could not seem to find a permanent home. Each time they thought they had finally found a place to settle, a door would close, and they would be forced to look for another location.
Finally, late in 1926, Jonathan received a letter from the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Newchwang, Manchuria, asking him to consider moving to that region to work. The letter said that because of the political uncertainty in China and the vast resources of the area, millions of Chinese people had poured north into Manchuria over the past year.
Manchuria lay at the extreme northeast tip of China and was flanked in the south by the Yellow Sea, Mongolia in the west, and Russia and Korea in the north and east. Russia and Japan had both tried to exert their influence over the region, with the Russians building a railroad across the area in an attempt to open up the remote and sparsely populated areas and spread their influence. By 1926, Russian influence had waned, leaving Japan alone in trying to exert her influence over the area. Much as had happened in the American West with the railroad, people followed the railway into Manchuria seeking land on which to live and farm. As they did so, villages and towns began to spring up along the route of the railroad. The railroad also allowed missionaries access to parts of Manchuria where they had never been before.
Jonathan was aware that many people back in Canada thought he was crazy for even considering moving into Manchuria, and they had written to tell him so. They reminded him that he was nearly seventy years old and his wife was weak from constant illness. It was not possible for one old man and a sick wife to make inroads in Manchuria with the gospel message. Jonathan did not listen to their concerns. He was convinced that Manchuria was where God wanted him to be.
Not everyone had concerns. Some people were inspired by the challenge before Jonathan. One young graduate of Knox College in Toronto, Allan Reoch, joined Jonathan and Rosalind, as did two young women, Annie Kok from Holland and Nancy Graham from New Zealand. Jonathan was encouraged having these young people with him. They were so willing to go into Manchuria, though he knew the bulk of the early work would fall to him, since none of the three was proficient at speaking Mandarin Chinese.
Finally, January 23, 1927, the day the band of five missionaries was to board the train for Manchuria, arrived. Jonathan had checked Rosalind out of the local hospital earlier in the morning. Rosalind sat quietly in a chair on the station platform waiting for the train to arrive. She was sixty-two years old and very frail and had lost over fifty pounds, yet she was as enthusiastic as the others about opening up a new mission field.
That winter proved to be one of the coldest on record, and when they arrived in South Manchuria, a blizzard hit. Jonathan had never experienced such cold weather anywhere, not even in his native Canada. Despite the freezing cold, everyone’s spirits remained high as the train pulled in to the station at Changchun. Jonathan, Rosalind, and the two young women were going to stay in Changchun while Allan Reoch went on alone to Szepingkai to look for a permanent home for them all.
As they waited, Jonathan read the newspapers each day and waited anxiously for letters from their old friends in China. Every scrap of news he received seemed to be worse than the last. By all accounts, China had once more fallen into a state of civil war, and again foreigners were an easy target. Most mission societies were pulling their missionaries out of the country, and those who stayed were warned that they were staying at their own peril.
While things were a little more politically stable in Manchuria, there was always the possibility that the unrest to the south could spill over into the region. And then there was the constant threat from the Japanese, who were always looking for some situation or another that they could use to help extend their influence in Manchuria. Eventually Jonathan received a letter from the British consul in Mukden (also known as Shenyang) ordering all British subjects to pack their bags and be ready to flee the area immediately if they received word to do so.
One by one letters arrived telling Jonathan that all of the other places where he had tried to settle and start a new work had been closed to foreigners. He was glad to be in Manchuria, where so far missionaries had been allowed to stay and work.
Eventually news came from Allan Reoch that he had found a perfect place to rent. It was located on one of the main streets of Szepingkai and was large enough to house the missionaries and provide space for a meeting hall. There was just one problem: The rent was high, and the owner insisted on being paid a year’s rent in advance.
Jonathan was unsure what to do. On the one hand, the British consul was telling them to be ready to evacuate the area at any moment, yet here was a building that sounded ideally suited to their needs. What should he do? Should he spend the money to secure it? And what if he did that and they were told to evacuate? The mission board would be out of pocket a large sum of money.
After a night of prayer, Jonathan decided to send a telegram to Allan Reoch telling him to go ahead and rent the place and the four of them would join him there. On April 28, 1927, Jonathan, Rosalind, Annie Kok, and Nancy Graham arrived in Szepingkai. Everyone went straight to work preparing the place. Jonathan also wrote to Su Chuangting, his old friend and helper, asking if he would come to Manchuria to help preach to the millions of people who had never heard the gospel.
At the beginning of May, the missionaries began services in their new meeting hall. By the end of May, everything was going better than Jonathan could have hoped. There had been no order from the British consul telling them to flee, and men and women were pouring into the meeting hall to hear him preach. On an average, twelve people a day were becoming Christians, and by June 1, two hundred new members had been added to the church.
Jonathan was glad when Su Chuangting finally arrived to help him. He knew, however, that a lot more could be done in reaching the people of Manchuria with the gospel if he just had more workers. He wrote to the Presbyterian Foreign Missions Board in Canada about the wonderful opportunities that existed. He hoped his words would stir them to send him more workers. In his letter he said, “You can imagine our joy at seeing about two hundred decisions during the month of May…. We haven’t the shadow of a doubt but that the results we have seen here during May might have been seen in dozens of other centers in our new field had it been possible for our little band to be in other centers at the same time.”
While Jonathan waited eagerly for a reply, he began to make preparations for the new missionaries he was certain would soon be sent to join him. After all, Manchuria was the perfect place to work for the many missionaries who had been ordered out of other parts of China.
Finally a reply came from Canada, but it was not the wonderful news Jonathan had been expecting. Yes, the Presbyterian Foreign Missions Board appreciated the opportunities in Manchuria, and yes, it did support the Goforths in their work. However, there was no plan or money to send any more missionaries to help with their work.
The entire group was stunned by the response. It was as if they were standing in a huge field of ripe grain and the farmer would not send anyone to help them harvest it before winter set in. Jonathan could think of nothing else to do but pray. He called the group of missionaries together in the little room overlooking the meeting hall. “Our home church has failed us,” he told them with tears in his eyes, “but the God of Hudson Taylor is ours. He will not fail us if we look to Him. This field must be evangelized, and it cannot be done with our present small force. If we cannot get Canadians as channels for the gospel message, we must get Chinese people instead.”
Even as Jonathan was speaking these words, a plan was coming to him. His old friend, Dr. Hayes, ran a Bible college in North China. Jonathan wondered whether Dr. Hayes could spare any workers. He wrote a letter immediately to inquire. Two days later a letter arrived from Dr. Hayes, obviously sent before he’d had time to receive and read Jonathan’s urgent request.
Jonathan tore the letter open. Dr. Hayes wrote that all openly Christian work in his area had to be stopped because of the political turmoil. He had an entire graduating class of sixty people who had nowhere to go, and he asked, “Could you use any of these men?”
“Rosalind, come and listen to this!” exclaimed Jonathan, chuckling out loud. “God has supplied our need.”
“How many of them will you ask for?” asked Rosalind, looking as pleased as Jonathan did at the swift answer to their prayers.
“I’m going to tell him to send them all,” replied Jonathan.
“But…” stammered his wife, turning pale, “Jonathan, where is the money going to come from for their food and lodging? We don’t have enough money to support more than five at the most.”
Jonathan shook his head. “Have faith,” he said. “If God sends us these men, don’t you think He will send the money to provide for them, too?”
Rosalind said no more, and Jonathan hurried off to reply to Dr. Hayes. Over the next few weeks, every time the Goforths received mail there were checks in it. Rosalind and the others were amazed at how the money kept pouring in, especially since they had told no one about their new plan. Jonathan was not surprised, however. He knew there would be enough money to cover the new workers’ expenses, and so there was. When the sixty new workers arrived a month later, there was enough money to pay their salary for two months. Jonathan saw this as God’s seal of approval on their work, and he immediately wrote to Dr. Hayes asking him to find more students who were willing to come to work with them in Manchuria.
Everyone was put to work as soon as he arrived, and there was always enough money to pay the workers their salaries on time.
Winter came, and with it a plague that killed a third of the people in the area. More than ever in the face of this tragedy, the people of Manchuria wanted to hear about God and His love for them. During winter, the location of the meeting hall proved to be more valuable than ever because Jonathan made a point of keeping a roaring fire going in the hall. Hundreds of near-freezing people would stop in on their way along the busy street to sit and rest and talk by the fire. As they warmed themselves, many hundreds of people heard the gospel for the first time.
By the next spring, everything in Szepingkai was going smoothly. Nancy Graham was a fiery preacher whose Salvation Army training had made her bold enough to preach to a room filled with men. Annie Kok, on the other hand, worked well preaching to the women, while the Chinese workers Dr. Hayes had sent worked tirelessly visiting people in their homes and taking turns preaching in the meeting hall.
Sixty-nine-year-old Jonathan Goforth was ready for a new challenge. It was time to move on! He set his sights on Taonan, the next large town farther on up the railway. Allan Reoch went with him, and in the spring of 1928, they started to develop another church in an area where the gospel had never been preached.
Once again they had to rent a building to serve as both a meeting hall and living quarters. This time, though, there was even more work to do before they could begin services. Jonathan and Allan were aghast when they discovered that the landlord had ripped out every wooden fixture from the interior of the building they had rented. The windows, frames, and sills were gone, along with all of the doors. When Jonathan asked the landlord why he had taken everything, he was told that this was the custom when renting a building in Taonan. Every new renter supplied his own doors and windows. It was one more thing to do before the meeting hall was ready.
