The early attempts to Evangelize China: Christian missionaries made four attempts to evangelize China. In 635 A.D. Nestorian Christians were invited by the Xi’an Emperor during the Tang Dynasty. After persecution forced the Nestorians out of China, Roman Catholics sent Friar John of Pian di Cartina to China in 1293. Friar Cartina found remnants of Nestorian Christian beliefs, but not unlike the Nestorians, persecution broke out and Christianity remained forgotten for the next century and a half, though there were 6,000 converts in China at the time. There were no further efforts to enter China until the 16th century when Jesuit Matteo Ricci arrived in Macao. Ricci learned the language well and adopted Chinese dress, which gave him greater acceptance among the people. This resulted in 300 Christian converts in Peking (Beijing) and 2,000 in neighboring cities. By 1670, there were 100,000 Christians in eleven Chinese provinces with only twenty foreign missionaries. In 1787 a new wave of persecution wiped out China’s last foreign priest. However, by God’s grace, Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China in 1807, translated the Bible into the Chinese language. By 1839 the Opium Wars with Europe caused further persecution against foreigners in China, including missionaries. In the midst of these wars, a rebellion started by a pseudo-Christian movement called the Taiping attempted to overthrow China’s imperial government. The Taiping Rebellion caused further persecution against foreign missionaries from 1847 to the early 1850s. It was during this time that the Chinese Evangelization Society (CES) sent Hudson Taylor to China.

Hudson Taylor Resigns CES (1857): Taylor served six years in China, during which time he married Maria Dyer, another missionary living in China. He encountered many problems facing foreign missions in China. When Taylor left China, God began burdening his heart for the millions yet to be evangelized inland.

Brighton Beach: The founding of the China Inland Mission (CIM), June 24-25, 1865: With a heavy heart, Taylor walked on Brighton Beach where God revealed that Taylor would be the one to lead a new foreign mission to China. The mission would be composed of men and women from different denominations who would give themselves to evangelism, church planting and the training of church leaders. On that day, Taylor, in faith, prayed for 24 willing and skillful workers for each of China’s eleven provinces and Mongolia.

The Lammermuir sets sail on May 26, 1866: Taylor left England for China with his family and 16 workers aboard the Lammermuir. The missionaries traveled in groups of two or three to China’s provinces, dressed in Chinese clothing, preaching the gospel and attempting to start churches. By the end of 1866, 24 workers were active in four stations across inland China.

First advances despite hardship (1870-1875): The years following 1870 were some of the darkest in the history of the mission due to low finances, political upheavals and poor health of the missionaries. Yet a call for 18 more workers was made. In response to the call, there were 60 offers for service; 10 people were accepted and sailed in 1875, with eight more the following year. A period of expansion followed as these new workers, two by two, took up residence in nine new provinces.

A second call for advance (1881): With the total number of missionaries barely 100, friends at home were challenged to pray for 70 new workers in three years. God answered, and within the allotted time 73 new workers had sailed to China. Right on their heels came the Cambridge Seven, a band of seven men from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England whose response and dedication to the task stirred the Christian world.

Burden increased; a call for 100 more workers (1886): As the burden for China’s unreached pressed further upon Hudson Taylor, he issued yet another call for 100 new workers. Within a year, 102 workers had been sent.

CIM vision enters the United States (1887): A man named Henry W. Frost from New York had a strong desire to assist in the evangelization of China. Frost invited Taylor to speak at Northfield, MA, Niagara Falls, New York, Chicago, and other cities in the United States and Canada. Several hundred dollars were donated to the mission and 42 missionary candidates volunteered. By fall 1888, 14 people were on their way to China with Taylor. By 1901 the CIM established a home office in Philadelphia to supervise the mission’s work in North America.

Boxer Rebellion (1900): In a reign of terror, the Boxers (a Chinese cult) set out to exterminate all foreigners in China. Hundreds of missionaries and Chinese Christians were put to death. The CIM alone lost 58 missionaries and 21 children as martyrs. During this period, the work force of the CIM increased to 933 people.

Hudson Taylor dies (1905): After 50 years of active service for China, Hudson Taylor died on June 3 in Changsha and was buried in Zhenjiang next to his first wife Maria.

Growth of the CIM (1915-1934): Early ministries of the CIM involved starting churches, supporting literature work, evangelism and running hospitals and schools. By 1915, 1,063 workers were located at 227 work stations throughout China. The mission’s peak was in 1934 with 1,368 missionaries serving 364 stations. The CIM staff consisted of hundreds of Chinese pastors, teachers, chapel keepers and Bible women.

In the midst of darkess, CIM calls for 200 more workers (1927): The political situation was so strained that consulate officials strongly recommended all Western personnel to withdraw to the coast. The situation for the Chinese Christians was as devastating as in 1900—Christians everywhere were persecuted, tortured and put to death, and mission and church property was ransacked and destroyed. Half of the overall missionary community went home, never to return to China. In the midst of darkness, the CIM issued a new call for advance—this time for 200 new missionaries over two years. By 1931 there were 203 new missionaries on the field.

Continued Growth (1939): The CIM had more than 1,300 missionaries and almost 200,000 Chinese and minority people had been baptized by 1939. During World War II and the years that followed, missionaries had various opportunities to share the gospel among university students and professionals, some of whom were government leaders. The effect of these years of war on the church is difficult to assess. It was a great time of harvest, and a preparation for the difficult days when communist armies with their atheistic emphasis would be in control.

Leaving China (1942-1950): Political and military crises only grew stronger throughout the 1930-40s. The CIM headquarters in Shanghai was forced to evacuate in 1942 in order to flee the Japanese army that was invading China. Between 1945 and 1949 the Nationalist and Communist forces brutally fought over China. Communism took over in 1949. The new Communist government was highly suspicious of foreign missionaries as well as any Chinese workers associated with them, and they began harassing them. Missionaries were often accused of being foreign intelligence agents. In 1950 the CIM general director deemed that further work in China was impossible and ordered all missionaries to leave. A temporary office in Hong Kong was established in 1951 to oversee the withdrawal of missionaries. The last CIM workers left China in 1953.

Should the CIM continue to exist (1951): During a conference held in Bournemouth, England in November 1951, it was decided that the mission would continue to exist despite the situation in China, and workers were sent to new fields: Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. A new headquarters was set up in Singapore and the name of the mission changed to Overseas Missionary Fellowship. The mission reorganized its structure so non-western Christians could become full members and have home offices in their own countries. Other countries that developed home offices were Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Philippines, and Singapore. Today more than 30 percent of OMF International’s membership is Asian.

Since leaving China (1951-present): Since the mission left China, 40 people groups of East Asia have been evangelized through the work of OMF International. God is still leading OMF International, and we are still breaking new ground in the most dramatically changing region of the world by reaching out to more than 100 people groups, working with street children in Bangkok, seeking new ways of evangelizing the unreached of Manila, teaching and influencing students in Taiwan and Indonesia, pioneering a witness among the Malay in South Thailand, translating the Bible and living as salt and light in countries closed to traditional missionary service, including China. OMF International missionaries are serving to build a strong church in the countries of East Asia. In 2005 OMF International celebrated 140 years of service among East Asia’s peoples.