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GEORGE HUNTER
1861-1946
George Hunter is often referred to as the Apostle of
Turkistan. He was a very unusual man. Born in Scotland in Aberdeen-200% Scottish and 500% British-he
was a strong supporter of the British crown and a real Scotsman. He was perhaps one of the last great pioneers
of Christian missions. From the fly-leaf
of his biography, we read: "George
Hunter has become a legendary figure who so closely and for so long has been
associated with central Asia. He became part of it, and the central Asian picture would
be incomplete without him."
He reached China in 1889. He had applied to the China Inland Mission
and had been turned down. The reason is
not given. He worked with the YMCA
during the interim. Following a second application he was accepted and arrived
in China in 1889.
He had had a love-Jessie.
We know nothing about her except her name and time of death, but
apparently it was a very true love that he had for this lady. She died at the age of 22, and her dying
request was that all of her correspondence from George and the Bible that he
had given her be buried with her. So much that might have been interesting so
far as knowing more about this man is buried in a cemetery in Aberdeen, Scotland.
George left China only one time in his 57 years with
the China Inland Mission-during the Boxer Rebellion when all of the CIM
missionaries left the country. He had a burden
for real pioneer work but did not put much credence in women missionaries. He felt that the only ones who could do
pioneer work were single men. He rather
openly criticized men who professed to be pioneers but married, had a family,
and settled down on a station somewhere.
Oh, there might have been some itineration closeby, but they never
really were pioneers! He was a peculiar
fellow in many regards and obviously hadn't seen some of the great missionary
women of his day. It is interesting that
his biographers are two of the most outstanding women pioneer missionaries (Mildred
Cable and Francesca French, who crossed and crisscrossed the Gobi desert many times). If ever there were pioneer women missionaries,
these two ladies were they. It was left
to them to write this man's biography.
George loved Jessie with an undying love. While on his one
furlough, he wanted to put a tombstone on her grave since it had none at that
time. The family denied him that privilege, but he made a stone heart with her
name on it, and they permitted him to put that on her grave.
His work was primarily with Muslim people and mainly through
itineration. He trekked back and forth
across Turkistan like no other European person had
done and knew that most westerly/northerly province of China like no other man. His ministry was largely through literature, preaching,
and translation work. He was a linguist who spent many hours
translating the Word of God into the tribal languages of that part of the
world. He did not actually reach that
part until 1906 and seldom left after that time. He was not a model church planter by any
matter of means. He did not found or plant a church. In fact, he was afraid to
do so. Although he would lead Muslim men
to Christ, he would not baptize them because he was always afraid that someone
he baptized would fail and fall back into sin.
He said Paul declared that he was not sent to baptize but to preach the
Gospel. George felt that was his role as well. He is not a model of church
planting, but he is certainly the model of a man who preached Jesus Christ far and
wide.
Quite a few years after his one furlough, George was joined
by Percy Mather, a gentleman who was in many regards likeminded. He worked alongside George for many years. He had a much more current approach to church
planting-he baptized and planted churches-but as far as a burden for the Muslim
people of Chinese Turkistan was concerned, he was one with George Hunter. They
had a very widespread ministry of preaching the Gospel all across that very
rugged part of the world. (Chinese Turkistan is bounded on the north by Mongolia, on the northwest by Siberia, Russia, and on the east by Tibet.) It was a very remote area, and no one knew it
better than George Hunter.
Another peculiarity of George's was that he did not believe
in celebrating religious holidays. He never celebrated Easter, Christmas, or the
other religious holidays that most of us celebrate.
He also had very strong feelings against Catholics. On one occasion he was invited by the
governor of the province to a State dinner. He was inclined to go because it
was more of a demand than an invitation.
He didn't dress up for the occasion but wore what he always wore-simple
Chinese clothing. When he learned that the Catholic priest was also invited, he
refused to participate. He said he would
not sit down at the same table with a Catholic priest. I take my hat off to
him. He was one who was single-minded in
his desire to serve the Lord faithfully.
The two men lived a simple life. They had a three-room house-an adobe-mud brick
building. Their fare was porridge in the morning, a broth made from mutton at noon, and the mutton and whatever else
was available at night-the same diet year in and year out. Apparently they thrived on that.
He felt that there was no place for women in pioneer
missionary work, but he never met my wife!
Bless her, she joyed in the privilege of working in the heart of the Sahara, which I don't think was any more
pleasant climatically than Turkistan. He was peculiar in
that regard, but he was a great man of God and was widely used in extending the
kingdom even though he had some peculiar ideas about church-planting and the
like. We need men who are willing and ready to live and die in Christ's
service.
Toward the end of his life, he was accused of being a British
spy. He was not silent about his pride in
being an Englishman and was very quick to let people know that he was a
Britisher. He was taken as a spy and imprisoned for an extended period of time
and very severely persecuted. Yet he was
always courageous to proclaim Jesus Christ.
George Hunter died in 1946, the year I graduated from medical
school. He had served the Lord
faithfully for 57 years. I'm in my 57th
year of missionary service also.
I'm proud of the women that we have in GFA. They're the top.
In that regard, who is Miss GFA? I want
to give credit to Kathy Dewey. She is
GFA in many regards. She has served all four
of the directors of the mission. She is the first one there in the morning, and
I think most nights she locks the door. There is not a more faithful servant
than our dear Miss Dewey. If there is
any information you need to know, it is on the tip of her tongue; and if it
isn't, she can find it right quick! So I
want to give credit where credit is due. What a tremendous lady!
JAD
GFA Family Conference June 3, 2005
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