In a turbulent world spinning through rapid change, this fact-filled and heart- stirring account of God’s redemptive work in an earlier era marked by upheavals of unimaginable proportions is a timely read. Lyall, a veteran CIMer with a solid grasp of the historical and socio-political background of China and the West, tells a dramatic story against the backdrop of important contextual details. After a helpful overview of religious movements in China up to 1865, he recounts the founding of the China Inland Mission and its work until Hudson Taylor’s death in 1905.
Acknowledging predictions that the CIM would not survive its founder’s death, Lyall traces the story of the mission’s growth despite formidable barriers and near-impossible situations as a testimony that this was not one man’s dream but the work of the true Founder who calls the nations to himself. Lyall recalls that one of the greatest barriers—the reluctant exodus of all missionaries from China in 1952—prompted CIM leaders to seek God to discern whether the work was to close and how God responded with a resounding “No” and led them to new fields of ministry under the aptly renamed banner of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). The 1976 edition of the book adds four chapters to the 1965 centennial edition to tell the unfolding story of God’s leading OMF into wider contexts.
Condition: unread shelfwear – sunned cover and pages
