A Love Worth Dying For - The Story of John & Betty Stam

Who were John and Betty Stam, and why does their story continue to inspire Christians around the world nearly a century later? In this episode of LEV 3:16, we explore the remarkable lives, missionary calling, and ultimate martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, two young missionaries with the China Inland Mission who gave their lives for Christ during the rise of Communist forces in China in 1934. Discover their love story, their unwavering commitment to the Gospel, the miraculous survival of their infant daughter Helen Priscilla Stam, and the lasting impact their sacrifice had on the modern missionary movement. If you are interested in Christian missions, missionary biographies, church history, Chinese missions, Christian martyrs, the China Inland Mission, or inspiring stories of faith and surrender, this powerful account will challenge and encourage your walk with Christ.

00:00  Chapter 1 – Who Were John & Betty Stam

02:20  Chapter 2 – The Call to China

03:47  Chapter 3 – The Day Everything Changed

05:17  Chapter 4 – The Baby Who Survived

06:56  Chapter 5 – A Legacy That Lives On

08:31  Chapter 6 – What This Means for Us

10:55  Chapter 7 – Summary

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Leviticus 316, where we dig into the lives of those who took God as His word and gave everything to prove it. I'm so glad you're here today, because the story we're about to explore is one of the most heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant stories in modern American history. Today we're talking about John and Betty Scott Stan. Two Americans who went to China, gave their lives, and in doing so, lit a fire that spread across the entire world. If you've never heard their names before, you're in for something that will stay with you. And if you had heard of them, then I think you're going to walk away with something new today. Let's get into it. So let's start at the beginning. John Stam was born in 1907 in Patterson, New Jersey. From a young age, he was known for seriousness about his faith. He wasn't the kind who just went to church on Sunday because his parents told him to. He went to church because he actually felt the weight of the gospel pressing down on his chest, demanding a response. John attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. And it was there that he began to sense a clear calling to go to China. But before we get to China, let me introduce you to Elizabeth Alden Scott. Everybody called her Betty. Betty was born in 1906 in Albion, New York, to missionary parents who served in China. So you could say that Betty already had China in her blood. She was a gifted poet and a writer, and she had a deep, reflective faith, the kind that wrestles with God in the quiet places and comes out stronger for it. One of her most famous poems was written when she was just a young woman, and it contains these lines. Lord, I give up all my own purposes and plans, all my own desires and hopes, and accept thy will for my life. I give up myself, my life, my all, utterly to thee, to be thine forever. For years I kept those words written in the inside of my own Bible. I love them so much. John and Betty first crossed paths at Moody Bible Institute. They fell in love and they shared a willingness to go wherever God sent them, no matter the cost. After graduating, John applied to the China Inland Mission. He passed and he sailed for China in 1932. Betty was already in China as a new missionary, having gone to language school in China and she was preparing for her new missionary work. They stayed in contact through letters because there wasn't any email yet. In October of 1933, John and Betty were married in Shanghai, China. Life was hard for them. The work was slow, language learning is very humbling, cultural adjustment is exhausting, and they were young. They were both still in their mid-twenties, navigating marriage, ministry, and an increasingly dangerous political climate all at the same time. Because here is what was happening in China in the early 1930s. The communist Red Army was on the move. Chairman Mao's forces were sweeping through the countryside, and they were hostile to Christianity. Missionaries had been warned. Some had already evacuated. John and Betty chose to press on. In September of 1934, they welcomed their first child into the world, a little daughter they named Helen Priscilla. She was just a few months old when everything changed. December 6, 1934, the Red Army arrived in their town, and John and Betty had been warned soldiers were in the nearby area. They had time to evacuate, but they chose to stay. Now why would they stay? Because the local Chinese believers needed them, and because leaving would mean abandoning the flock that they had been called to serve. The soldiers came to their door and John and Betty were taken prisoner. Baby Helen was just three months old at the time. Over the next two days, John and Betty were marched through the countryside with their little infant daughter. On December 8, 1934, John and Betty were led to a hillside outside of the town. The baby was left behind in the room that they'd been held prisoner in. They were forced to kneel on the ground. Before they died, a local Chinese man named Chang stepped up and he pleaded for their lives. He was told to be quiet or to share in their fate. He refused to be silent, so Chong was executed first. John and Betty were beheaded, one at a time, John first. They were asked to renounce their faith in Christ, and then they'd be set free. They chose not to. John was twenty seven years old and Betty was twenty eight. They left behind a three-month-old baby girl alone in a room in rural China. Here's where the story takes a turn. When the soldiers took John and Betty, they didn't know what to do with that little baby, so they left her behind in that room, all alone, three months old, wrapped in a sleeping bag and tucked away in that room for nearly two days. Little Helen Priscilla lay there in that room while her parents were marched to their deaths. But then a Chinese evangelist named Lo found her. He crept into the house at great personal risk. He found that baby alive, still tucked inside her sleeping bag with a little note from her mother pinned to the bag, and some money for her care hidden inside her clothes. Betty had thought ahead. Even while she was still a prisoner, even while she was facing death, she had provided for her little child. Lo and his wife smuggled the baby through 100 miles of communist-controlled territory to reach safety, walking. They didn't have a car. It took them days. They moved only at night. They hid during the day. They risked their own lives at every step. Helen survived. She was eventually brought to her grandparents, Betty's parents, who were still serving as missionaries in China. She was raised, she was loved, she was told the story of her parents, and she went on to live a full life. Because the death of John and Betty Stam, hundreds of young people signed up for the mission field in the months that followed. Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. In the weeks following the martyrdoms of John and Betty Stam, a book was rushed into publication. It was called The Triumph of John and Betty Stam. It became an immediate bestseller. Missionary organizations reported unprecedented waves of applications. Young people read the story, and rather than being discouraged, they felt called to the mission field. The story spread to colleges and universities across America and Europe. Jim Elliott, who would himself become a martyr in Ecuador in 1956 at the hands of the Walrani Indians, read the story of the stams, and as a young man he was deeply moved by it. He wrote in his journal words that have become immortal. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. The thread of sacrifice runs from John and Betty Stam to Jim Elliott to countless others who have given their lives in service of the gospel. Each death, rather than ending the story, becomes a chapter that inspires the next generation. Betty's poetry continues to be read. Her prayer of surrender, the one I quoted earlier that was in the front of my Bible, it's been reprinted in countless devotionals and missionary training programs. Her words outlived her body by decades. And what about baby Helen? She grew up knowing exactly who her parents were and what they had given. Now, thankfully, most of us will never face what John and Betty Stam faced. Most of us are not going to be marched to a hillside by soldiers and commanded to be to deny our faith in Christ or die. Sometimes we hear stories like this, and mentally we file them under heroic but irrelevant to our life. What I want to push back on today is that whole idea. The question that John and Betty Stan's story asks each of us is very simple. Have we actually surrendered? Not our money necessarily, not our comfort, though it might be part of it. Have you surrendered your will? Have you prayed what Betty prayed? Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept thy will for my life. That's not a prayer only for missionaries. That's a prayer for every follower of Jesus. Here's the practical takeaway I want to leave you with today. Something you can actually do this week. Pray the prayer of surrender. Not once, not as a formula, but a genuine act of your will. Find a quiet place and get honest with God. Tell him the things you're holding on to. Maybe it's plans you haven't handed over to him, or fears you're carrying, or dreams you've been clutching too tightly. Lay them all down. John Stam wrote on his missionary application, henceforth, let no place be too small, no task too menial, no life too lost, if only I may serve him who gave his all for me. That's the statute. That's the attitude that changes the world. Not heroics, not strategy, not great talent or great resources, just a surrendered life. You don't have to go to China or Africa. You don't have to be a missionary, but you do have to answer the question every generation of believers has had to answer. Will you give God your whole life? Or are you just going to give the parts that you're comfortable with? John and Betty Stam gave everything they had. And because they did, here we are still talking about them almost a hundred years later. What would your life look like if you gave God everything? Sit with that question this week and let it change you. Before I let you go, I want to say thank you for spending this time with me on Leviticus 3.16. If this episode moved you, if the story of John and Betty Stam stirred something in your heart, share it with someone. Send it to a friend, post it, talk about it at your dinner table. These stories deserve to be told. They deserve to be remembered. If you would like to dig deeper, I encourage you to read that little book, The Triumph of John and Betty Stam by Mrs. Howard Taylor. It's a short book and it's absolutely worth your time. There's a link to it in the description. If you like stories like these, join me for another one right after this. The link will be in your s at your screen at the end. And don't forget to like and subscribe. Do all the things. I'll see you in the next episode next week. Until then, keep walking faithfully, whatever that wherever that walk leads you, and God bless you.