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Our First Home

Our First Home

SPRING/SUMMER 2020    |    2.5 MINUTE READ
KATELAND VERNON, STAFF WRITER


World Gospel Mission began with a teacher and a cashier on their knees in the middle of the night, crying out to God in full surrender. They asked for guidance, and He led them to China. After serving with another organization for a few years, they sought a new organization and became the first appointed missionaries with the Missionary Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness. The National Association for the Promotion of Holiness was the entity that created WGM as their missionary arm, which quickly grew beyond its original members.

Now, 110 years later, WGM has over 250 global workers in 28 locations. Since the organization’s founding, we have changed our name, moved locations, and had different presidents and ministries. What hasn’t changed, though, is the way we’ve witnessed God moving in miraculous ways across the globe in response to the prayers of His people.

In this issue of The Call, to celebrate our 110-year history of seeing God answer prayers, we have collected stories from past publications as testaments to those answers. In fact, we see God’s provision in the very first property WGM purchased. The following excerpt, which has been adapted from Reaching the Unreached Now: A Brief History of World Gospel Mission by Burnis H. Bushong contains a record of the events.

A photo of Cecil and Ellen Troxel (left) and Woodford and Harriet Taylor with their children (right)

On November 1, 1910, the first appointees, the Troxels and the Taylors, sailed for China. Once there, the new WGM missionaries initiated their ministry in rented quarters in the interior city of Lintsing. Our missionaries were assigned to the Shantung province of the east coast, an area the size of Illinois. This was the most thickly populated area of China, with millions of inhabitants.

Not wanting to rent indefinitely, the mission staff purchased a building that was called the “haunted house” at Nankwantao. This structure had scared away buyers for more than fifty years and was obtained for $1,500. This property, occupied September 29, 1911, was the first land owned by WGM anywhere in the world. Containing five two-story brick buildings with 140 rooms on one and one-half acres of land, the new mission acquisition was more than adequate.

a photo of the "haunted" pawnshop that became the hub of WGM's early ministry in China

As He so frequently does, God chose something that had been rejected by the majority and redeemed it for His glory (Matthew 21:42). He took the “haunted house” and transformed it into a bustling hub for ministry. WGM sent four more missionaries to China in 1911, and by 1914, three short years later, the mission was ready to expand to a second property in a nearby town. By 1939, our China missionaries reported that we had 125 recognized Chinese workers and about 250 volunteer workers, with 235 meeting places established. God was moving in China in powerful ways.

WHAT NOW?

PRAY: What has the culture around you rejected that God could use? Have you rejected any of your own skills or talents, or those of someone else, as “not good enough” to use for ministry? Pray that God would change your perspective and that you would be able to see the potential for transformation in anything and anyone. If a “haunted house” can be transformed for His glory, so can anything else we deem unworthy.

GIVE: Do you have a desire to be part of God’s redemptive work around the world? You never know how the financial support you contribute will play a part in transforming lives. Find a ministry to partner with today at www.wgm.org/projects.

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