Story number 2 for 27 Sep 2000

Meanwhile, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of 239 missionaries in China in the Boxer Rebellion. Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Bob Niklaus explains the effect the people’s revolt against westerners and particularly missionaries had on the church. “It was temporary, it was costly. The missionaries did return; the church was built up and today we find that the strongest churches, either house churches or a part of the official Chinese church are in those areas where the Alliance did work.” Niklaus adds that the old adage: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” was never more true. “What you have in China today is really the result of Christians who stood fast at the cost of their own lives at times like the Boxer Rebellion and other upheavals in China.”