On September 30th 1866, a badly damaged London clipper ship the Lammermuir stumbled its way into the Shanghai harbour with Hudson and Maria Taylor, their 4 children and 16 new missionaries for China. Its arrival was the remarkable answer to many prayers.
Prayer Card in English and Chinese for the Lammermuir Party
#1. Two typhoons nearly destroyed the clipper at sea. A vessel that passed through a same typhoon shortly after the Lammermuir reported 16 of 22 passengers drowned at sea but “not one life was lost, nor were any limbs broken” of the Lammermuir Party, thanks to God’s “great deliverance”!
#2. The previous year, Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission (CIM), praying for 24 ‘willing and skilful’ mission workers. This prayer for 24 was realized with the arrival of the 16 missionaries onboard the Lammermuir who joined the ranks of the 8 CIM workers sent to China a little earlier. God had answered Taylor’s prayer in an unexpected way though. None of the Lammermuir Party missionaries were ordained ministers but there were blacksmiths, a stone mason, carpenter and even several unmarried women— scandalizing the foreign community in Shanghai. God was certainly on the move.
Source: A. J. Broomhall, The Shaping of Modern China: Hudson Taylor’s Life and Legacy Volume One.
