A year ago yesterday, I stood over the coffin containing the body of Brother Charles Wesco. Moments before his body was lowered into the ground, his wife, Stephanie, asked me to pray for Cameroon – not for her or for her children but for Cameroon. I don’t remember the words of my prayer, but I do remember crying and pleading with God. The challenge and prayer request for 100 new laborers for Cameroon was given during the memorial service earlier that day. For the past year, we have been praying that God would call and send forth 100 missionaries to Cameroon.
Now before I continue that story, let me take you back in time to a humble missionary more than a century ago in China. Hudson Taylor wrote a letter to his wife in December of 1887. Taylor had been burdened to pray that God would call and send forth 100 missionaries to China before the end of 1888. Some of his friends and coworkers thought he was asking for too much. In that letter to his wife, Taylor wrote, “We sing a little prayer at each meal:
Oh send the hundred workers, Lord,
Those of thy heart and mind and choice,
To tell Thy love both far and wide,
So we shall praise Thee and rejoice,
And above the rest this note shall swell,
My Jesus hath done all things well."
Those of thy heart and mind and choice,
To tell Thy love both far and wide,
So we shall praise Thee and rejoice,
And above the rest this note shall swell,
My Jesus hath done all things well."
By the end of 1888, a year after that letter and prayer were written to Mrs. Taylor, God called and provided for 102 new missionaries to China! To God be the glory! Many of those recruits ministered and died in China while telling the love of Christ both far and wide.
Today we serve the same Heavenly Father that Taylor served. The Lord Jesus is still able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and the same Holy Spirit is still indwelling and empowering His obedient servants to fulfill His Great Commission in the world.
A year ago we began asking others to join us in praying for 100 new missionaries to Cameroon. In the past 12 months, God has called 24 laborers to Cameroon! Will you join us in praying “Oh send the hundred workers, Lord”? Would you join us in singing this prayer - as the friends and missionaries of the China Inland Mission sang more than 130 years ago?
Though I searched diligently, the melody to Taylor’s prayer was not preserved. So, I asked Emma if she would write music for this prayer chorus. Tears come to my eyes when I consider the reality that God will answer this prayer in His time. I can already imagine those 100 missionaries leading precious Cameroonian souls to Christ across that needy country, and training them to be disciples of Christ. I can see, by faith, Cameroonian national missionaries going out across the Dark Continent with the saving light of the Gospel! My heart overflows with emotion when I imagine someone reading Taylor’s testimony and Wesco’s testimonies a century from now, for I already know what they will be thinking in that day:
“My Jesus hath done all things well.”
“My Jesus hath done all things well.”