By Tony and Pat Schmidt
Tony and Pat Schmidt served as OMF missionaries in Japan and Canada for forty years, planting churches and supervising missionaries. After retiring in 2011, they continued their ministry as Associate Pastors of the Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church in BC, Canada till 2025. They carry a deep affection for the believers in Japan and they miss the Japanese hot baths. For many years, Tony and Pat regularly join our monthly prayer meetings. They were deeply inspired by the life of Hudson Taylor and were delighted to hear the possibility of a movie on his life for the big screen.
“1865 – Hudson Taylor.”1 That was all we managed to jot down in our notebooks as we spent a day in hurried preparation to leave on a short-term mission to Japan. We were urged to go as soon as possible to relieve a missionary in the Japan headquarters who was nearing burnout.
That was 1971. Since that day, we have been inspired, again and again, by the life of Hudson Taylor as we read more about him.
Most missionaries applying to CIM — or later, to OMF– had either known Hudson Taylor personally or had learned about him. For many, his life story ranked right below the Bible itself, because their lives had been so deeply shaped by his. Over the years, we too were challenged by the life of Hudson Taylor. His genuine love for people and his passion to bring the Gospel to the Chinese– counting no sacrifice too great–have exemplified for us the life of a true Jesus-follower.
Hudson Taylor famously emphasized the importance of missionaries adapting to the culture of the people they were trying to reach – to dress like them and to live as much as possible on the level of those who they were trying to reach for Christ. We used to joke that, in Japan, it meant the director should have a black car driven by a chauffeur wearing white gloves! That was the norm for all company directors!
In spite of being a great man of faith, Hudson was also fully human. Like many of us, he wrestled with a desire for greater holiness. He wanted to be more like Jesus and to see Jesus more.
At a particularly low point in his life, when he was feeling spiritually dry and longing for holiness, he was helped by John McCarthy, a fellow worker who wrote to him:
“The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun;
The Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing;
The Lord Jesus counted on as never absent would be holiness complete.
(Faith) is the chain which binds the soul to Christ…
The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem.”
Hudson said, “I looked to Jesus and saw…. And when I saw, oh, how the joy flowed!”
We daily feel the impact of these words as they hang on the wall in our bathroom. Daily they point us towards a deeper relationship with the Lord through cherishing the Lord Jesus and counting on Him as never absent.
Hudson Taylor was well-known for being a man of great faith, yet he said, “It is not great faith you need, but faith in a great God.”
Amen. We can do that too because indeed we have a great God!
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1Editor’s note: Hudson Taylor founded The China Inland Mission (CIM) in 1865. Thousands of missionaries have been called to serve in China and Asia since then.
