TO BE A MISSIONARY IN INDIA
My great-aunt Lucy, my paternal grandfather's half-sister, decided to become a missionary to India in 1918-1919, and apparently wrote her parents about her choice and (it would seem) asked their blessing. When my mother died, I brought home what correspondence remained of Aunt Lucy's service in India. I have not yet begun to sort through those papers. But my sister Joan had discovered the letters Lucy's parents wrote her just after she'd told them of her choice.
My great-grandfather John Cornelius Beach had been a Methodist pastor, serving in Michigan around the area where he had grown up. His first wife, Lucy Kellogg, the mother of my grandfather Floyd Kellogg Beach, had been the daughter of another pastor (the Rev. E.L. Kellogg). She had died in childbirth a few years after my grandfather had been born. John C. remarried a couple of years later, to a widow of yet another Methodist preacher, and they had four children, Aunt Lucy being one of them.
I hadn't realized that Lucy Kellogg had been a preacher's daughter until I went online today, hunting for a few more dates about my Aunt Lucy. Nor had I realized that John C.'s second wife had been a preacher's widow before marrying him. Given that my mother's father had also been a pastor, I'd known that I came from a "very churched" family. I just had not realized that it was even more so than I'd known.
Anyway, Aunt Lucy made her decision to be a missionary and served in India from 1920 through 1952.
I was typing in the text of the letters from Lucy's parents, and was struck by how thorougly they committed their lives to the Lord. I'd like to think that I make the choices in my life with an equal consideration of God's will. But the reality is that I (and very few people I know) use the word "consecrated" about out decisions. It gives one pause.
In any case, I thought it would be interesting to post my transcription of their letters here.
****
LETTERS OF LUCY’S PARENTS
[Kept in a envelope with a postal cancellation that says “Berrien Springs, Mich. Aug 30 6PM 1918” Addressed to: Miss Lucy W. Beach White Pigeon, Michigan Return address on back flap: From John C. Beach, Buchanan, Mich. In the texts, when I couldn't make out the handwriting, I've put it in square brackets.]
Monday p.m. 27th Jan. ’19 Beach Homestead.
Well Dearest, you think the Lord wants you over in India do you? Papa said “you aren’t surprised are you?” I said yes rather. The fact is I have always thot [sic] you were not strong enough to go where you would have such physical and mental strain as you would have to have in India, China, or any of those foreign countries. Now what do you expect us to say? What do you want us to say? Can I say thy will be done? Only this morning I asked God to help me to be or do anything he wants me to be. I long ago consecrated my all, my children, my husband myself to Him. This morning as I knelt alone in prayer I made a new consecration, little thinking before the day was over I would be asked to give my precious Lucy to go to India, or some other far away country. I cannot go back on my word. If He wants you to go I say yes so far as I am personally concerned. If that is his will concerning you, and you can say yes Lord, the ways, means & health will be provided. I can scarcely write for the tears. God knows our children are very precious to us. Each one was dedicated to him before birth. We have taught you all to be interested in Foreign Missions, can we wonder at it that you should feel as you do? After all it may only be God’s way of testing your love for Him. Sometimes after the surrender has been made the way has been closed. I have heard people say it concerning their call to preach. I do not say this to put any temptation in your way. My thot [sic] is that we must be ready to say, “I go where you want me to go.” I do what you want me to do. We will pray dear that if you are called it may be perfectly plain and then I am sure we will all say “Thy will be done.” These are great days. The Lord is doing great things all over the world. This is not so large a world as it used to be. Just think of Joseph in Russia and Floyd in France. Where will Agnes be another year? and so all of us. We can say My times are in Thy hands. O God I wish them there ‐ I don’t remember the rest.
I washed this AM. This pm I left my work and called on Mrs. Deets & Cora Parketon. Poor Mrs. Deets is so sad because of her boy. I tried to comfort her the best I could. She said she was glad I came. Cora gave me her name as extension member. It is time to get supper. Daddy is doing chores. I have to wash my breakfast & dinner dishes yet. Don’t tell any one this. I must iron a few pieces for fear I will not have time in the morning. I will have my skirt to clean & press. I wish now my blue silk waist was made. Suppose Alice would choose Emily for her room, would you want them both alike! I like Jessica quite well. I also like the 2 choices for hall had not that I would pay quite [Allias]. Perhaps Laxton [?] would be all right. I expect when Alice sends her choice I will be muddled & wont know which to choose. Don’t you think Valence pretty for Joseph’s room? You know it is to be the spare room & all the furniture is white.
Your loving Mother, Henrietta.
***
Monday Evening, 27th January 1919
Sitting Room, Beach Homestead
Precious Daughter, Lucy Wadhams:
Isn’t that affectionate & formal? We have great concerns to consider. Mother it seems to me has taken the subject well in hand from all points and I need but say Amen. Thy will O Lord not mine be done. If it is India there is where I would have you. For surely to do God’s will is the greatest as well as best thing for any life. Your work in Athens, White Pigeon, [Am...?], Buchanan, Ypsilanti, Harbor Point or elsewhere if by God’s appointment and with His blessing may have been the greatest thing for you, and some lowlier place yet may be your place of exaltation for the Master. You will be perfectly safe in saying Yes, Lord here I am for whatever, wherever, whenever you may say. One could not be so sure with anyone else, but from or to Him we need not hesitate to make the fullest surrender. If India is where He would have you go as mother says “the ways, means & health will be provided.” My daily prayer for each of you children is that you may be used of the Lord to be a blessing to others and glorify Him. The consecration of your lives to this end was long ago. That time was my time of soul struggle but in the victory He gave me, all of the severe tests that have come have been borne by His grace ready for the time of need. The time I refer to was at Eaton Rapids Camp meeting, the summer before Floyd’s mother Lucy died. ‐‐ The great thing for us is, as Bro. Bancroft said Sunday p.m. (Text Acts 15: 18) “lo, hear what God has to say to us.” “What I fear is that I may be so taken up with my concerns in the things of this life that I shall not hear what God says, for He surely is here directing the affairs of His Kingdom.” It was a great sermon. It seemed as tho’ the Master was dictating each word. ‐ As for Mother and me, maybe when you have served “your number of years” in India you may come back and care for us when we shall have more need of you than now. For all our days our loving Heavenly Father will provide. He is faithfull that has promised. His promises are more reliable than government bonds. Love you! Tongue or pen can not tell how much. We will love you none the less tho’ time and distance
are between. ‐‐ If this be God’s call you have no need to worry any more than about your present situation. He will direct your steps as you commit your way to Him.
8:20 A.M. Eastern time. ‐ Breakfast & chores over. Both of us very well. About learning the language ‐ the “new method in China” by [sound] signs, may have reached India by the time you reach there ‐ so u will be able to soon mater the rudiments and the rest will keep coming with use. Already I see you with a tiny organ gathering the children and their mothers (and an occasional man) about you to hear the “Sweet Story of old, When Jesus was here among men” ‐‐ You’ll soon forget all about their color and as they learn their grime and dress [they make] their skin do will change for [salvation] & Christianization. ... Had to stop and saw a soup bone for mother ‐‐ whatever or wherever, you must take first care of your throat & health. From what your M.D. said of your throat I wonder if u sh’d sing much. B sure to follow the directions he gives for care of throat & health. Yesterday’s verse Hab. 3:19 “The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places”. (Hind = red deer, swift ‐ sure footed). Today’s “Attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me”. Ps. 86: 6,7. My song ‐ “Guide me O thou Great Jehovah”
Lovingly, Daddy John Cornelius Beach
[Then a postscript written up the right side margin ‐‐ ]
Bro. Bancroft gave me “India’s Mass [movements]” [Warne?].. I was reading it again Sunday. ‐ No wonder India appeals to you. When I heard Miss Hoffman at [Conf.] I wanted to send all my children.
****
In doing my researching today, I discovered that John C. died December 10, 1921. So his wish of seeing Lucy come home from India to care for her parents was never fulfilled. But I think he would have been very proud to see her dedication in her long service.
My great-aunt Lucy, my paternal grandfather's half-sister, decided to become a missionary to India in 1918-1919, and apparently wrote her parents about her choice and (it would seem) asked their blessing. When my mother died, I brought home what correspondence remained of Aunt Lucy's service in India. I have not yet begun to sort through those papers. But my sister Joan had discovered the letters Lucy's parents wrote her just after she'd told them of her choice.
My great-grandfather John Cornelius Beach had been a Methodist pastor, serving in Michigan around the area where he had grown up. His first wife, Lucy Kellogg, the mother of my grandfather Floyd Kellogg Beach, had been the daughter of another pastor (the Rev. E.L. Kellogg). She had died in childbirth a few years after my grandfather had been born. John C. remarried a couple of years later, to a widow of yet another Methodist preacher, and they had four children, Aunt Lucy being one of them.
I hadn't realized that Lucy Kellogg had been a preacher's daughter until I went online today, hunting for a few more dates about my Aunt Lucy. Nor had I realized that John C.'s second wife had been a preacher's widow before marrying him. Given that my mother's father had also been a pastor, I'd known that I came from a "very churched" family. I just had not realized that it was even more so than I'd known.
Anyway, Aunt Lucy made her decision to be a missionary and served in India from 1920 through 1952.
I was typing in the text of the letters from Lucy's parents, and was struck by how thorougly they committed their lives to the Lord. I'd like to think that I make the choices in my life with an equal consideration of God's will. But the reality is that I (and very few people I know) use the word "consecrated" about out decisions. It gives one pause.
In any case, I thought it would be interesting to post my transcription of their letters here.
****
LETTERS OF LUCY’S PARENTS
[Kept in a envelope with a postal cancellation that says “Berrien Springs, Mich. Aug 30 6PM 1918” Addressed to: Miss Lucy W. Beach White Pigeon, Michigan Return address on back flap: From John C. Beach, Buchanan, Mich. In the texts, when I couldn't make out the handwriting, I've put it in square brackets.]
Monday p.m. 27th Jan. ’19 Beach Homestead.
Well Dearest, you think the Lord wants you over in India do you? Papa said “you aren’t surprised are you?” I said yes rather. The fact is I have always thot [sic] you were not strong enough to go where you would have such physical and mental strain as you would have to have in India, China, or any of those foreign countries. Now what do you expect us to say? What do you want us to say? Can I say thy will be done? Only this morning I asked God to help me to be or do anything he wants me to be. I long ago consecrated my all, my children, my husband myself to Him. This morning as I knelt alone in prayer I made a new consecration, little thinking before the day was over I would be asked to give my precious Lucy to go to India, or some other far away country. I cannot go back on my word. If He wants you to go I say yes so far as I am personally concerned. If that is his will concerning you, and you can say yes Lord, the ways, means & health will be provided. I can scarcely write for the tears. God knows our children are very precious to us. Each one was dedicated to him before birth. We have taught you all to be interested in Foreign Missions, can we wonder at it that you should feel as you do? After all it may only be God’s way of testing your love for Him. Sometimes after the surrender has been made the way has been closed. I have heard people say it concerning their call to preach. I do not say this to put any temptation in your way. My thot [sic] is that we must be ready to say, “I go where you want me to go.” I do what you want me to do. We will pray dear that if you are called it may be perfectly plain and then I am sure we will all say “Thy will be done.” These are great days. The Lord is doing great things all over the world. This is not so large a world as it used to be. Just think of Joseph in Russia and Floyd in France. Where will Agnes be another year? and so all of us. We can say My times are in Thy hands. O God I wish them there ‐ I don’t remember the rest.
I washed this AM. This pm I left my work and called on Mrs. Deets & Cora Parketon. Poor Mrs. Deets is so sad because of her boy. I tried to comfort her the best I could. She said she was glad I came. Cora gave me her name as extension member. It is time to get supper. Daddy is doing chores. I have to wash my breakfast & dinner dishes yet. Don’t tell any one this. I must iron a few pieces for fear I will not have time in the morning. I will have my skirt to clean & press. I wish now my blue silk waist was made. Suppose Alice would choose Emily for her room, would you want them both alike! I like Jessica quite well. I also like the 2 choices for hall had not that I would pay quite [Allias]. Perhaps Laxton [?] would be all right. I expect when Alice sends her choice I will be muddled & wont know which to choose. Don’t you think Valence pretty for Joseph’s room? You know it is to be the spare room & all the furniture is white.
Your loving Mother, Henrietta.
***
Monday Evening, 27th January 1919
Sitting Room, Beach Homestead
Precious Daughter, Lucy Wadhams:
Isn’t that affectionate & formal? We have great concerns to consider. Mother it seems to me has taken the subject well in hand from all points and I need but say Amen. Thy will O Lord not mine be done. If it is India there is where I would have you. For surely to do God’s will is the greatest as well as best thing for any life. Your work in Athens, White Pigeon, [Am...?], Buchanan, Ypsilanti, Harbor Point or elsewhere if by God’s appointment and with His blessing may have been the greatest thing for you, and some lowlier place yet may be your place of exaltation for the Master. You will be perfectly safe in saying Yes, Lord here I am for whatever, wherever, whenever you may say. One could not be so sure with anyone else, but from or to Him we need not hesitate to make the fullest surrender. If India is where He would have you go as mother says “the ways, means & health will be provided.” My daily prayer for each of you children is that you may be used of the Lord to be a blessing to others and glorify Him. The consecration of your lives to this end was long ago. That time was my time of soul struggle but in the victory He gave me, all of the severe tests that have come have been borne by His grace ready for the time of need. The time I refer to was at Eaton Rapids Camp meeting, the summer before Floyd’s mother Lucy died. ‐‐ The great thing for us is, as Bro. Bancroft said Sunday p.m. (Text Acts 15: 18) “lo, hear what God has to say to us.” “What I fear is that I may be so taken up with my concerns in the things of this life that I shall not hear what God says, for He surely is here directing the affairs of His Kingdom.” It was a great sermon. It seemed as tho’ the Master was dictating each word. ‐ As for Mother and me, maybe when you have served “your number of years” in India you may come back and care for us when we shall have more need of you than now. For all our days our loving Heavenly Father will provide. He is faithfull that has promised. His promises are more reliable than government bonds. Love you! Tongue or pen can not tell how much. We will love you none the less tho’ time and distance
are between. ‐‐ If this be God’s call you have no need to worry any more than about your present situation. He will direct your steps as you commit your way to Him.
8:20 A.M. Eastern time. ‐ Breakfast & chores over. Both of us very well. About learning the language ‐ the “new method in China” by [sound] signs, may have reached India by the time you reach there ‐ so u will be able to soon mater the rudiments and the rest will keep coming with use. Already I see you with a tiny organ gathering the children and their mothers (and an occasional man) about you to hear the “Sweet Story of old, When Jesus was here among men” ‐‐ You’ll soon forget all about their color and as they learn their grime and dress [they make] their skin do will change for [salvation] & Christianization. ... Had to stop and saw a soup bone for mother ‐‐ whatever or wherever, you must take first care of your throat & health. From what your M.D. said of your throat I wonder if u sh’d sing much. B sure to follow the directions he gives for care of throat & health. Yesterday’s verse Hab. 3:19 “The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places”. (Hind = red deer, swift ‐ sure footed). Today’s “Attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me”. Ps. 86: 6,7. My song ‐ “Guide me O thou Great Jehovah”
Lovingly, Daddy John Cornelius Beach
[Then a postscript written up the right side margin ‐‐ ]
Bro. Bancroft gave me “India’s Mass [movements]” [Warne?].. I was reading it again Sunday. ‐ No wonder India appeals to you. When I heard Miss Hoffman at [Conf.] I wanted to send all my children.
****
In doing my researching today, I discovered that John C. died December 10, 1921. So his wish of seeing Lucy come home from India to care for her parents was never fulfilled. But I think he would have been very proud to see her dedication in her long service.
posted by Sarah | 3:12 PM
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