July 5

She Opens Her Arms To The Poor

She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

Proverbs 31:17-20      

For Rosalind Goforth and her husband Jonathan, Presbyterian missionaries to China during the early decades of the twentieth century, reaching out to the poor was an everyday matter. Much of their time was spent in itinerant evangelistic work, and everywhere they went they saw poverty. But during the famine of 1920-1921, they suddenly confronted poverty on a massive scale like they had never seen before. Rosalind later described the situation.

“I was unable, because of illness, to accompany my husband as he left our home on Kikungshan Mountain in the late summer of 1920. The news of the great famine reached me there in a letter from a coworker in Changte. The letter described vividly some of the awful conditions prevailing throughout our whole field, which was in the center of a vast area affecting, it was said, from thirty to forty millions of people . . .

“Crushed at the thought of what hundreds of those who looked upon us as mother and father were passing through, I cried aloud in agony of soul, ‘O God, is there not something I can do? Oh, show me!’” The answer to her plea was direct and simple: “Use your pen!”

She hastened to her desk and began to write, praying as she wrote, “Lord use my pen!” In a letter describing the anguish of these famine-stricken people, she poured out her heart. Then she went around the compound to other missionaries from various countries, and had her letter translated into their languages. “Within twenty-four hours of the writing of the appeal it was translated into several languages and on its way throughout the world!”

Her next step was to obtain permission from authorities to collect famine relief, and in the months that followed she collected more than one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and distributed it where it was most needed. “I kept close touch with several relief centers, and to these I sent checks as needed. Many were the thrills that came that winter as appeals reached me, and I was able to write checks off the Famine Relief Fund for amounts of $5,000 or even $10,000.”

The following year Rosalind was able to leave the compound and accompany her husband on his revival tour to the famine-stricken area. “The experience was wonderful,” she later recalled. “Everywhere hearts were opened to the Gospel message as a result of the splendidly organized famine relief carried on all through the previous winter by the hand of faithful missionaries in Changte, often at the risk of their lives.” ⁵