In August 1900 BMS was able to paint a cheerful, positive picture of its China missionaries to the readers of its magazine Missionary Herald. Readers were introduced to these much loved workers in Shanxi province, both in Taiyuan, the main city, and Xinzhou, a short distance away. With photos and interviews, the scene was set, and much was hoped for in this promising field.
While the article was fairly positive, one paragraph near the end begins to hint at a threatening danger. It reports:
To the readers of Missionary Herald, the shocking story of that storm slowly unfolded over a period of months – hope was mixed with anxiety and horror as, little by little, the longed-for yet feared news arrived…
In the summer and autumn months of 1900, letters and telegrams were received from the missionaries in other provinces in China describing their escape. BMS praised God for their safety – but there was still no communication from Shanxi and in Britain readers and relatives were left in a state of ‘grave anxiety’.
The months passed. Finally, in October 1900, the Herald could write with more certainty. The Baptist family read the hasty telegram from China:
" Reliable educated native has brought news from Shanxi. Mission houses in Taiyuan burned…. Missionaries fled there… promised safety, immediately massacred, altogether thirty-three Protestants. Probable total, fifty-one foreigners, besides many natives. Xinzhou, six persons escaped mountains horseback… fate unknown.
They still didn’t know how – or, of course, why – but readers learnt that the entire staff at Taiyuan had fallen victim to the mysterious and murderous rebels. Hope for the Xinzhou workers survived though – had they escaped successfully to the mountains? Were they still alive?
Again, though, another long month passed by.
November’s Herald was printed and the desperate BMS family eagerly read for more news. The opening words can only have been a desperate disappointment to them:
" We greatly regret to report that… we have received no further tidings relative to Shanxi, notwithstanding repeated and persistent inquiries by telegraph.
The situation of the workers in Xinzhou was still unknown and the wait was becoming agonising, something unimaginable for us in the days of e-mail and mobile phones.
And, again, another month passed.
It was in December 1900, five long months after the events, that Missionary Herald could finally confirm the news to its readers:
" The telegram… removes all ground for hope. It mentions them by name, and tells of their discovery in a cave, where for five days they had been without food, and how, after promise of escort to the coast, they were cast into prison and afterwards murdered inside the city gate… the entire mission staff in the Province of Shanxi has perished.
The BMS family mourned such a heavy loss while still craving more information.
In the months following, letters and reports did arrive. As the new year began, the Herald printed a longer account describing the fate of all the Shanxi missionaries. Even a year after the tragic murders, new reports were received, and the details were painfully pieced together.
So what exactly did happen to the mission workers?
This Boxer Rebellion, as it was dubbed, was an uprising from 1899 to 1901 against foreign influence in areas such as trade, politics, religion and technology. In Shanxi province this led to the governor, Yuxian, issuing a proclamation, saying:
" Foreign religions are reckless and oppressive, disrespectful to the gods and oppressive to the people. The righteous people will burn and kill.
Taiyuan
At the end of June 1900, the Boxers followed orders and set fire to houses and churches, killing Christians and foreigners. The missionaries from the town of Taiyuan fled from their burning buildings, and gathered together at a co-worker's house. Three days later, four deputies, sent by the Governor, arrived with a band of soldiers, promising to escort them in safety to the coast.
But when the deputies finished speaking, the soldiers seized the missionaries, and took them to a house near the Governor’s residence. Here they were kept until 9 July. On that day they were taken to the open space in front of the Governor’s residence, and stripped to the waist, as usual with those beheaded.
The group of eight missionaries, along with their other colleagues, died there for their faith.
Xinzhou
Meanwhile, in Xinzhou, the small group of missionaries, not knowing what was going on in Taiyuan, decided that they must leave the town immediately. The group set out, in carts and on horseback, for the hills to the west. In the night they reached a village, where there were a few Christian families. But it was soon clear that their presence in the village was endangering the people, and the missionaries fled to seek shelter in a mountain cave.
The cave they were hiding in turned out to be a dark, damp hovel, with no water easily accessible. The food had by this time run out, and they were entirely dependent on villagers bringing them supplies. The Boxers meantime sought to harass them by every means, and finally conspired to starve them out.
On 20 July they heard that the Boxers were drilling and plotting their attack. The situation grew worse every day but the missionaries still hoped that they might be rescued. But that rescue never reached them, although they had succeeded in eluding capture and evading death for over twenty days.
Imperial troops arrived and, promising them protection, lured them back to the city of Xinzhou. There they were put into prison and kept in a dungeon for two weeks.
Then on 9 August 1900, the eight missionaries were led out, like their colleagues a month earlier, and beheaded like criminals at the gate of the city.
Only a year later, the BMS Committee made the brave decision to allow missionaries back into Shanxi to restart the work there, which continued on until 1950.