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| The John and Betty Stam Story In January, Filipino troops cornered Abu Sulaiman and some other rebel leaders in a jungle hide-out on Jolo Island. There was a $5 million price tag on his head. The soldiers entered the camp which was fortified with 17 bunkers and a three-hour gun fight ensued that resulted in Sulaiman’s death. Abu Sulaiman was one of the top leaders of the Abu Sayyaf military organization and was responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities including the 2004 bombing of a ferry in the Philippines. He was also the so-called mastermind behind the kidnapping of American and Filipino tourists in 2001. Among those taken and held for ransom were American missionaries Gracia Burnham and her husband Martin. The Burnhams were held for more than a year, until a rescue operation freed her but resulted in her husband’s death. When Gracia heard the news of Sulaiman’s death, she said her heart “was filled with sadness,” because her husband and the Abu Sayyaf leader had had long talks about their faith, and now he had to answer to God for his actions. She said Sulaiman was one of the most dangerous leaders, because “he was filled with hate.” The Burnhams’ story is one of a number of stories involving missionaries who have literally put their lives on the line for the sake of the gospel. Yes, the deaths of any innocent person caught in the cross-fire of war and political uprisings is tragic, but this essay is about those who, for the sake of their Christian faith are compelled to share the news that Christ Jesus came to “seek and to save those who are lost,” lose their own lives in the effort. They are ones who believe “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). I had just read about this latest development, when I happened to be rummaging through my mother’s old papers. Mom is 89 years old, and my sister and I have been de-cluttering her affairs. I found in a box of clippings a yellowed, ragged page from The San Francisco Chronicle, dated “Sunday Morning, April 26, 1936.” The headline reads: “Untold Tragedy of the Missionary Bride and Groom Beheaded by Chinese Bandits — The Young American Couple Bravely Faced Their Awful Martyrdom — and a Miracle Saved Their Child.” Beside this headline is a photograph about seven column inches high of John and Betty Stam at their wedding. Across the page is a photo of a baby. John and Betty Stam were missionaries with the China Inland Mission founded by famed missionary J. Hudson Taylor (in the 60s, the name was changed to Overseas Missionary Fellowship). Elizabeth Alden Stam was the daughter of Dr. Charles Ernst Scott who himself had served in China with the Presbyterian Board and had written a number of books on China. She attended Wilson College in Pennsylvania, and then later went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago where she struck up a friendship with John Stam. They both had their sights set on missionary service. Betty left for China without John in 1931 and he followed a year later. They were married in October of 1933. A year later, their daughter Helen was born. Within weeks, her parents were dead. China at the time was experiencing civil strife between the government and what would become the Red Army. Insurgent activity was increasing. One of the hot spots was the region around the city of Tsingteh. After spending a year traveling from mission to mission, teaching and encouraging local Christians, the Stams, now with a baby, decided to settle in Tsingteh. Shortly thereafter a contingent of about 2,000 insurgents attacked the city. The government forces could not hold them back. As soon as the city was taken, the Chronicle reports that the Stams “bolted their doors.” The rebel soldiers didn’t wait long. They wanted money and when John refused to cooperate he was taken to the “revolutionists’ headquarters.” Later, they returned for Betty. She bundled up Helen and was reunited with John where they both were told to surrender $20,000 or at least arrange for the money from CIM. Again, they refused. They were taken “over rough roads” to Miaosheo, a nearby town also in the hands of the rebels. The townspeople were invited to witness the deaths of “foreign devils.” They were taken to the top of “Eagle Hill.” A local medicine seller, familiar with the Stams, attempted to intervene. He was cut down. The bandits were then going to execute the baby, but, according to the Chronicle, “a beggar appeared — from nowhere in particular — and offered to give his life if they would spare the child. Cynically, the bandits agreed — and shot the beggar on the spot.” Later, a letter from John Stam to CIM was discovered in the baby’s clothing which read in part: “My wife, baby and myself are today in the hands of communist bandits. Whether we will be released or not no one knows. May God be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:20.” The two missionaries, married less than 18 months, knelt side by side. An executioner “slashed his throat with a curved blade.” Betty “paled, swayed, but she did not faint. A second executioner severed her slim neck with a single, whistling stroke of the axe.” Government forces that very night retook the town. Local Chinese searched for their bodies, and finding them, put them in two coffins and the bodies were taken back to Anhwei Province under military escort and buried in a “foreign cemetery” at Wuhu. On their tombstones is written: John Cornelius Stam, “That Christ may be glorified whether by life or by death.” Philippians 1:20; Elizabeth Scott Stam, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21. December 8, 1934 Miaosheo, Anhui, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.” Revelation 2:10. Their story didn’t leak out of China for another year. Shortly thereafter a small book, The Triumph of John and Betty Stam was published, written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, the daughter-in-law of J. Hudson Taylor. The book influenced thousands of future missionaries, including my mother who in the late ’30s was attending BIOLA which was then located in downtown Los Angeles. She never got to the mission field, but she’s actively supported missions and prayed for missionaries all her life, and she often told the story of John and Betty Stam to us kids. And that’s why, when I found this yellowed clipping from the Chronicle, I wanted to share it with you.
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