SAMUEL POLLARD

On a warm summer evening in the Yunnan mountains of western China, a small hunting party of tribesman with ramrod muskets, powder horns and little bags of oatmeal on their backs showed up at the door of a Methodist missionary, Samuel Pollard. Pollard, then living in the west China town of Chaotung, recognized the hunters as Miao tribesman - a people group from the surrounding Yunnan mountains who worshipped gods of wood and stone.

The Miao wanted to learn to read and they had a burning desire to know the God of the Christians although the 40 year old missionary did not recognize it at first. But he soon began to understand, for the following Friday, five more Miao appeared at his gate, and within a month, nearly 100 tribesman had visited him.

Soon his little mission station in Chaotung was overrun by the Miao. "What was to be done?" wrote Pollard. "I have often wondered what would happen if the whole heathen world took the sensible plan of demanding a knowledge of Christianity … The Miao swarmed around us everywhere. In they trooped with their books, begging to be taught. They began at five o'clock in the morning, and at one o'clock the next morning some were still reading. Cramming Christianity!"? For the next 11 years, the English missionary would proclaim the gospel to the Miao and established a thriving church in their villages.

Pollard was born on April 20th, 1864 in Cornwall, England and was converted at an early age by his father - himself a zealous preacher and evangelist. In the early days of his ministry, Samuel Pollard would beat a Chinese gong as he marched up and down the streets. Known as "the little man with the gong"? he attracted large crowds of curious Chinese but for six long years, he knew of no converts from his efforts.

In 1891, many of his fellow missionaries fell to sickness and disease and during the winter of 1892 a severe famine hit the land. The Pollard home in Chaotung gave itself unreservedly to relieve the suffering of others and after witnessing such sacrificial love in action, the hearts of the Chinese opened and Pollard baptized his first two converts.

However, Pollard's main mission field was to be beyond the Chinese of Chaotung. The Meow leaders that appeared on his doorstep in 1904 represented tens of thousands of people scattered throughout the Yunnan mountains. Strangely, the Meow felt that Pollard held the key to a whole new life for them, and they began flooding into the mission center. Soon the young missionary began to travel by horseback to the remote villages in the mountains preaching the good news.

On one of these tours, Pollard would taste the Meow's lifestyle of constant persecution. After a night of preaching, he sat down to enjoy the warmth of a fire in a mud hut. Around midnight, angry shouts awakened him. "What's happening?" he asked his Meow friends. "Capture and murder," they replied.

Sixty men waving torches, swords and rifles surrounded the village, beat the Meow and then turned on the missionary. After clubbing him staves and carrying poles they thrust his almost lifeless body against a tree and preformed a mock trial. They demanded he leave the district and have no further dealing with the Meow. Although he carried the effects of the attack for the rest of his life, this beating actually advanced Pollard's ministry among the Meow.

During the last years of his life, Pollard raced to finish the translation of the New Testament into the Meow language. Not long after completing Revelation, Pollard contracted typhoid fever and died in September 15th, 1915 at Stone Gateway. When Pollard came to China, the Meow were considered "wild men" steeped in animism and ignorant of the God who created them. When he died, a Christian church of over 6,000 Meow thrived in the Yunnan mountains. It all started with an unexpected visit. "Little did I dream," Pollard later wrote, "what it meant for them and for me."?

1 John 1:17 says that, "The world and its lusts are passing away but the one who does the will of God remains forever."

In the technological environment of today, it is easy to feel like the everyday activities of our lives are insignificant in light of the global events that are constantly vying for our attention. And yet - the Scriptures boldly declare that it is not the earthly power systems or worldly pursuits that will have lasting impact. But it is those individuals who are involved in actualizing the will of God on earth.

All the worldly activities and pursuits of Pollard's day have passed away, yet his simple action of showing hospitality to four strangers opened the door for an entire people group to hear the gospel. A small act but one that has had an eternal impact because he was doing the will of God. As Christians today, we need to seek God and be about doing His will. God will transform the seemingly mundane activities of everyday life and turn them into actions that will last for eternity.

1 - Grist, W.A., "Samuel Pollard," p.180
2 - LaGue, D.A., "Simple & Pure Devotion," p.45
3 - Kendall, R.E., "Beyond the Clouds," p.72