His religion was real

I have a book, One Year in Christian History. Each day it showcases someone who has stood up for their faith. This one recently moved me, and I needed to share it with you.

December 28^th

The Japanese invaded Borneo in 1942. To escape capture, three Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) missionaries, John Willfinger and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lenham, fled into the jungle to live with Christians of the Murut tribe. Willfinger, a bachelor linguist, was anticipating his upcoming furlough and seeing his fiancée again. The Lenhams were working on a Murut translation of the Bible.

In July the three missionaries learned that a group of Europeans had been captured by the Japanese. In response, they moved to another Murut village in the northern part of Borneo. There they learned that three C&MA missionaries serving in eastern Borneo had been imprisoned by the Japanese.

Willfinger and the Lenhams assumed that the Japanese would find them. On September 19 a messenger brought a list of persons for whom the Japanese were searching. The names of all three were on the list. The messenger warned that anyone harboring fugitives would be severely punished.

“Stay,” the Murut Christians pleaded. “We will take you where you cannot be found.”

The three missionaries discussed what they should do and finally came to a decision. They told their Murut hosts, “You would have to lie to the Japanese. We would rather surrender than cause you to be disobedient to God’s Word.”

Willfinger explained in a “Whosoever Receives This” letter: “We feel that we could have successfully hidden, but at the risk of involving those Muruts who have been kind to us, and are desirous of hiding us. . . .Therefore we have decided to go to the enemy, trusting God as to the ultimate results.”

He attached a list of the names and addresses of his loved ones to the letter, asking its receiver to “kindly send my love to my family and sweetheart.”

The missionaries decided to separate. Willfinger desired to visit several tribal churches in eastern Borneo before turning himself in. The Lenhams, taking their precious Bible translations with them, set out for a Japanese post to the north. Several days later they walked into a Japanese prison camp and were immediately imprisoned. Mrs. Lenham miraculously was able to conceal the Gospel of Mark manuscript under wet clothing on the clothesline when the guards searched the women’s quarters. A guard discovered the Gospel of Matthew in Mr. Lenham’s possession, but after the war Mr. Lenham found it intact in a rubbish heap. Both Gospels were published for the Muruts by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Willfinger completed his missionary tour and surrendered to the Japanese. On December 28, 1942, he was executed.

After the war, John Willfinger’s Bible was discovered and inside the cover he had inscribed a poem:

No mere man is the Christ I know,

But greater far than all below.

Day by day His love enfolds me,

Day by day His power upholds me;

All that God could ever be,

That Man of Nazareth is to me.

No mere man can my strength sustain

And drive away all my pain,

Holding me close in His embrace.

When death and I stand face-to-face;

Then all that God could ever be

The unseen Christ will be to me.

Below the poem he had written, “Hallelujah! This is real!”

May it be real to you as well.

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